{"id":1843,"date":"2010-04-20T09:14:40","date_gmt":"2010-04-20T14:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/?p=1843"},"modified":"2010-04-20T09:14:40","modified_gmt":"2010-04-20T14:14:40","slug":"a-low-carbon-economy-the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2010\/04\/20\/a-low-carbon-economy-the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving\/","title":{"rendered":"A low carbon economy: the gift that keeps on giving"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.roadmap2050.eu\/\">A Practical Guide To A Prosperous, Low Carbon Europe<\/a><\/em> is the latest McKinsey study to show how it is eminently affordable to achieve the transition to a low-carbon world. The headline on a post by<em> Financial Times<\/em> climate \u00fcber-scribe Fiona Harvey puts it best: \u201c<a title=\"http:\/\/blogs.ft.com\/energy-source\/2010\/04\/13\/european-energy-in-2050\/\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.ft.com\/energy-source\/2010\/04\/13\/european-energy-in-2050\/\">Europe\u2019s energy in 2050: Cutting CO2 by 80% no more expensive than business as usual<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>How is that possible?<\/p>\n<p>Initial capital expenditures are higher for renewable energy but operational cost savings along the way make up the difference. It\u2019s the gift that keeps on giving.<\/p>\n<p>To be sure, there are some very clear obstacles. The old economists\u2019 mantra applies here as well: if it\u2019s so cheap, why aren\u2019t we doing it already? Well, we ought to be. The obstacles are largely political, driven by vested interests. If you are just now building a new coal plant and haven\u2019t put much thought into carbon capture and storage technology, you may be less inclined to cheer than your neighbor investing in wind and solar.<\/p>\n<p>McKinsey isn\u2019t saying that everyone wins in this new world. The ones who see the future and act accordingly do. Most importantly, society and the planet win as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Practical Guide To A Prosperous, Low Carbon Europe is the latest McKinsey study to show how it is eminently affordable to achieve the transition to a low-carbon world. The headline on a post by Financial Times climate \u00fcber-scribe Fiona Harvey puts it best: \u201cEurope\u2019s energy in 2050: Cutting CO2 by 80% no more expensive &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":850,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,20,44],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-news","category-policy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A low carbon economy: the gift that keeps on giving  - Climate 411<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2010\/04\/20\/a-low-carbon-economy-the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A low carbon economy: the gift that keeps on giving  - Climate 411\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Practical Guide To A Prosperous, Low Carbon Europe is the latest McKinsey study to show how it is eminently affordable to achieve the transition to a low-carbon world. The headline on a post by Financial Times climate \u00fcber-scribe Fiona Harvey puts it best: \u201cEurope\u2019s energy in 2050: Cutting CO2 by 80% no more expensive ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2010\/04\/20\/a-low-carbon-economy-the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Climate 411\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-04-20T14:14:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gernot Wagner\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gernot Wagner\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2010\\\/04\\\/20\\\/a-low-carbon-economy-the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2010\\\/04\\\/20\\\/a-low-carbon-economy-the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Gernot Wagner\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/848fa9daa71b0c5e7795b5938249145a\"},\"headline\":\"A low carbon economy: the gift that keeps on giving\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-04-20T14:14:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2010\\\/04\\\/20\\\/a-low-carbon-economy-the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":209,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Economics\",\"News\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2010\\\/04\\\/20\\\/a-low-carbon-economy-the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2010\\\/04\\\/20\\\/a-low-carbon-economy-the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2010\\\/04\\\/20\\\/a-low-carbon-economy-the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving\\\/\",\"name\":\"A low carbon economy: the gift that keeps on giving - 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