Notices by Gernot Wagner (gwagner@fediscience.org)

Nature Climate Change Perspective just out: Key questions and some answers from social science research on how to turn the three major US climate & energy laws into the kind of transformative success stories the world so badly needs.

"The stakes are high. The success of these new laws could catalyse virtuous cycles in the energy transition; their failure could breed cynicism about major government spending on climate change."

Full free paper: https://rdcu.be/dv7hM
#climate #IRA

The gavel just came down on #COP28, surely one of the most surreal climate summits to date. The main COP agreement is anything but "historic," as a few of today's headlines seem to suggest.

But there was something bigger happening in Dubai: a clear move toward delivering on clean energy.

My latest column just out, on "How to Assess the Outcome of COP28": https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/cop28-pledges-methane-still-matters-even-if-oil-gas-industry-focusing-on-own-interests-by-gernot-wagner-2023-12
#climate

My latest just out today in @sciencemagazine: "The costs of “costless” climate mitigation," joint with Matt Kotchen & James Rising.

IPCC, McKinsey, energy-systems models & climate-economic ones have quite a bit of disagreement around what it costs to cut emissions.

The biggest disagreement: how much of it is free, and what does "free" mean.

Or more to the point, what does it take to get the free stuff actually done. (Hint: It takes policy.)

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adj2453
#climate #economics

When you think you know 20th-century #energy history fairly well, and then @sugandhasri digs up the story of Canadian inventor George Cove, who invented 'modern' solar panels in 1905: "Then, on 19 October 1909, Cove was kidnapped. The condition for his release required forgoing his solar patent and shutting down the company."

A story with a twist:
https://theconversation.com/if-the-first-solar-entrepreneur-hadnt-been-kidnapped-would-fossil-fuels-have-dominated-the-20th-century-the-way-they-did-215300
#climate #solar

#UNGA week aka #ClimateWeekNYC aka gridlock galore, with one too many world leaders clogging up midtown traffic.

Meanwhile, the Austrian President
#climate #AutoKorrektur #NYC