Solving the Climate Problem
Ozone depletion and acid rain are problems that have some similarity to climate change – both are caused by the emission of gases that circulate widely, though neither has the scope and scale of the climate problem. But it is encouraging that both problems are well en route to solution. Our main institutions for addressing climate change are the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and the UFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), with the latter producing the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 and the 2015 Paris Agreement. Cap and Trade and regulatory policies have been used more widely than any others for tackling the climate problem so far. Replacement of fossil fuels by low-carbon energy technologies offers the greatest hope for a complete solution, and is within sight: policies need to be focused on making this a reality.