Après Paris: Breakthrough innovation as the primary moral obligation of rich countries. Issue 63 (September 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Karlsson, Rasmus
• Is Part Of: Environmental science & policy. Issue 63(2016:Sep.)
• Page Start: 170
• Page End: 176
• Publication Date: 2016-09
• Subjects: Climate policy -- Renewable energy -- Nuclear energy -- Innovation; Environmental policy -- Periodicals; Environmental sciences -- Periodicals; Environnement -- Politique gouvernementale -- Périodiques; Sciences de l'environnement -- Périodiques; Environmental policy; Environmental sciences; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 363.70561
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2016.05.023
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1462-9011

Abstract

Highlights: Existing low-carbon technologies appear insufficient to quickly displace fossil fuels globally. Avoiding dangerous climate change now depends on speculative negative emissions. Political economic constraints make carbon taxation difficult. Renewable energy sources have severe limitations in terms of global scalability. The urgency of climate change makes breakthrough supply-side innovation necessary. Abstract: While the notion of differentiated responsibility has always included an element of technological transfer, the growing disparity between the deployment of non-scalable renewable energy sources in the rich countries and the massive expansion of fossil infrastructure elsewhere has brought new urgency to issues of climate leadership. Breakthrough innovation into technologies capable of providing an abundance of clean energy now appears necessary not only to broaden energy access but also to ensure that fossil fuels are quickly displaced globally (including in those countries that have failed to take climate change seriously). Moreover, it is reasonable to expect that a climatechanged world in itself will demand abundant energy to facilitate everything from carbon dioxide removal to mass desalination for agriculture and other adaptation measures. Considering the moral and political impossibility of treating sustained poverty as the "solution" to the climate crisis, this paper suggests that rich countries have a moral obligation to invest in breakthrough innovation into technologies that are compatible with a future global economic convergence around OECD-levels.