The ‘Climate Crisis’ Is Fading As Unachievable Goals Collide With Exploding Costs
by Steven E. Koonin 2 hours ago
The 2015 Paris Agreement aspired to “reduce the risks and impacts of climate change” by eliminating greenhouse gas emissions in the latter half of this century. The centerpiece of the strategy was a global transition to low-emission energy systems. [emphasis, links added]
After nearly a decade, it’s timely to ask how that energy transition is progressing and how it might fare in the future.
A useful framework for that assessment is the “issue attention cycle” described in 1972 by Brookings Institution economist Anthony Downs.
The five phases of that cycle mark the rise, peak, and decline in public salience of major environmental (and other) problems. It’s spooky to see how closely the energy transition has so far followed Downs’s description.
https://climatechangedispatch.com/the-climate-crisis-is-fading-as-unachievable-goals-collide-with-exploding-costs/