Special Interests Are Last Barrier to Fixing Climate Change
New technologies mean governments don't have to worry about economic trade-offs, but fossil-fuel industries are still slowing progress.
Coal still has a powerful grip on China, as does oil and gas on the U.S.
Source: Bloomberg
The world has failed to halt climate change and is starting to feel the consequences. But for the first time, there's also hope on the horizon. Technology has made climate change a solvable problem by expanding the universe of the possible. Before advancements made renewable energy a cost-effective solution, nation's faced a hellish tradeoff between climate disaster or material impoverishment. Now, thanks to the efforts of scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs, that tradeoff no longer exists.
But there’s a powerful force acting to stop governments from making full use of these technologies — especially in the U.S. and China, the world’s top two carbon emitters. That force is the political power of the fossil fuel industry, in particular, oil and natural gas companies in America and coal companies in China.