Transforming Energy

Climate change will be an ecological and humanitarian catastrophe unless we move quickly to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. Policy experts advise us that we need to make major changes to our lifestyles, and our governments need to agree globally binding treaties and implement market instruments like carbon taxes. This advice is a mistake: it treats technological innovation as being at the periphery of the climate policy challenge, whereas it needs to be at its core; we will phase out emissions when and only when the technologies to replace fossil fuels are good enough, and policies need - quickly - to support these new technologies directly. Anyone with an interest in climate change and energy policy will find this book forward-thinking and invaluable. Professional policy-makers, climate and energy policy researchers, and students of energy and public policy, economics, political science, environmental studies, and geography will find this book especially stimulating. 'Anthony Patt challenges the received wisdom of climate policy head on ... his book serves as wake up call for climate policy decision-makers: in the end, the actual performance of greenhouse gas mitigation policy instruments counts, not their theoretical beauty.' Axel Michaelowa, University of ZurichPart I. Setting the Stage: 1. From optimism to pessimism and back again; 2. The natural and social science of climate change; 3. The solution space and its distractions; Part II. Failed Strategies to Reduce Emissions: 4. Getting the prices right; 5. Striking a global bargain; 6. Changing the way we live; Part III. Successful Strategies to Move Us Away from Fossil Fuels: 7. Theories of transition; 8. Strategic technologies; 9. Energiewende in the German power sector; 10. Policies beyond power; 11. Pulling it all together; Index.