{"id":680,"date":"2015-02-18T21:39:42","date_gmt":"2015-02-19T02:39:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/markets\/?p=680"},"modified":"2015-02-18T21:39:42","modified_gmt":"2015-02-19T02:39:42","slug":"we-need-a-climate-insurance-policy-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/markets\/2015\/02\/18\/we-need-a-climate-insurance-policy-now\/","title":{"rendered":"We need a climate insurance policy – now"},"content":{"rendered":"

Q&A with Karin Rives first\u00a0published on EDF Voices<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Climate<\/a><\/p>\n

Before climate change gets so bad that we may be forced to \u201cgeoengineer\u201d ourselves out of catastrophe, a new book\u2014Climate Shock<\/em><\/a>\u2014suggests that we reframe the problem altogether.<\/p>\n

Gernot Wagner, a lead senior economist at Environmental Defense Fund and co-author of the book, says we ought to look at climate change as a risk management problem<\/a> and treat it as such. I had a chat with Gernot about the book he will release next week together with Martin L. Weitzman<\/a>, a professor of economics at Harvard University.<\/p>\n

Karin Rives: Many books have already been published on climate change. What\u2019s new or different about Climate Shock<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most everyone focuses on what we know about climate change. Our book is about what we don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

Call it Nassim Nicholas Taleb\u2019s \u201cBlack Swan,\u201d or the Rumsfeldian \u201cunknown unknowns\u201d\u2014a state of complete and dangerous uncertainty and unpredictability. Call it what you want, but it\u2019s that tail that may yet wag us in the end.<\/p>\n

What we know is bad. What we don\u2019t know is potentially much worse. Climate, in the end, is a risk management issue. Just like homeowners take out insurance against fires and flooding, society needs insurance against climate change.<\/p>\n

KR: So what do we know?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last time the planet experienced as much carbon in its atmosphere as there is now, sea levels where up to 66 feet higher than they are today. Camels lived in Canada. That was more than 3 million years ago. The geological clock read \u201cPliocene.\u201d<\/p>\n

We certainly know enough<\/a> to take reasoned action today. And almost everything we don\u2019t know points in one and only one direction: that action is all the more urgent.<\/p>\n

KR: Why do we need to read this book now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The time to buy our insurance policy is now\u2014while we still can. And I\u2019m speaking both metaphorically and literally.<\/p>\n

Insurance here, of course, is to avoid dumping carbon into the atmosphere. We pay to have our trash picked up instead of just dumping it for free onto our streets. We similarly need to pay to avoid dumping carbon into our atmosphere.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not free, but it\u2019s still relatively cheap to do<\/a>\u2014and much cheaper than experiencing the consequences of unchecked global warming.<\/p>\n

KR: What should be my three most important takeaways from your book?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scream, cope, and profit.<\/p>\n

We need to get the right policies in place, and soon. That\u2019s \u201cscream.\u201d Then there\u2019s some global warming we can no longer avoid\u2014and that we are already experiencing. Let\u2019s prepare ourselves better for that.<\/p>\n

\u201cProfit\u201d is, of course, what you would expect two economists to say, dollar signs in their eyes and all. All that starts with smart investment decisions. Green, clean, and lean isn\u2019t just got for the planet. It\u2019s also the right financial choice and we need to ensure that it is much more so going forward.<\/p>\n

The main takeaway, in the end, is that this isn\u2019t some artificial battle between capitalism and the climate. It\u2019s not about sticking it to the man. It\u2019s about sticking it to carbon<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q&A with Karin Rives first\u00a0published on EDF Voices. Before climate change gets so bad that we may be forced to \u201cgeoengineer\u201d ourselves out of catastrophe, a new book\u2014Climate Shock\u2014suggests that we reframe the problem altogether. Gernot Wagner, a lead senior economist at Environmental Defense Fund and co-author of the book, says we ought to look …<\/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":[325,9532,16683,330],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cap-and-trade","category-climate-science","category-international-agreement","category-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWe need a climate insurance policy – now - Market Forces<\/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\/markets\/2015\/02\/18\/we-need-a-climate-insurance-policy-now\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We need a climate insurance policy – now - Market Forces\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Q&A with Karin Rives first\u00a0published on EDF Voices. 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