Fixing the Climate

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Can the world stop climate change? The prognosis is bleak, as efforts have largely focused on treaties requiring global consensus, which has proven elusive due to the high costs of emissions cuts and resistance from organized interests. This has led to a cycle of gridlock and superficial agreements, with emissions rising by one third over three decades. To effectively combat climate warming, emissions must be reduced to nearly zero. Sabel and Victor propose a more optimistic approach by addressing climate change through local challenges rather than seeking a grand global bargain. They introduce "experimentalist governance," which emphasizes simultaneous searches for local solutions that can be scaled globally. This strategy focuses on imposing penalties for repeated failures rather than just incentivizing success. The authors illustrate how regulators, businesses, farms, and NGOs are learning to tackle complex environmental issues under penalty defaults. They also suggest mechanisms for monitoring progress and identifying successful experiments. Amid the polarized climate policy debate, Sabel and Victor provide a guide for institutional design that could achieve the significant emissions reductions that decades of diplomacy have failed to accomplish.