Solving the global climate crisis through local partnerships and
experimentation
Global climate diplomacy--from the Kyoto Protocol to the Paris
Agreement--is not working. Despite decades of sustained negotiations by
world leaders, the climate crisis continues to worsen. The solution is
within our grasp--but we will not achieve it through top-down global
treaties or grand bargains among nations.
Charles Sabel and David Victor explain why the profound transformations
needed for deep cuts in emissions must arise locally, with government
and business working together to experiment with new technologies,
quickly learn the best solutions, and spread that information globally.
Sabel and Victor show how some of the most iconic successes in
environmental policy were products of this experimentalist approach to
problem solving, such as the Montreal Protocol on the ozone layer, the
rise of electric vehicles, and Europe's success in controlling water
pollution. They argue that the Paris Agreement is at best an umbrella
under which local experimentation can push the technological frontier
and help societies around the world learn how to deploy the technologies
and policies needed to tackle this daunting global problem.
A visionary book that fundamentally reorients our thinking about the
climate crisis, Fixing the Climate is a road map to institutional
design that can finally lead to self-sustaining reductions in emissions
that years of global diplomacy have failed to deliver.
