Confronting Climate Gridlock: How Diplomacy, Technology, and Policy Can Unlock a Clean Energy Future

by Daniel S. Cohan, Michael E. Webber (Foreword)

An atmospheric scientist explains why global climate change mitigation and energy decarbonization demand American diplomacy, technology, and policy
 
“Daniel Cohan makes a compelling case that the problem of climate change is solvable. Fixing the gridlock on global action requires fixing the gridlock here in the United States of America. Cohan shows how that can be done.”—David Victor, University of California, San Diego
 
Professor of environmental engineering Daniel Cohan argues that escaping the gravest perils of climate change will first require American diplomacy, technological innovation, and policy to catalyze decarbonization globally. Combining his own expertise along with insights from more than a hundred interviews with diplomats, scholars, and clean-technology pioneers, Cohan identifies flaws in previous efforts to combat climate change. He highlights opportunities for more successful strategies, including international “climate clubs” and accelerated development of clean energy technologies. Grounded in history and emerging scholarship, this book offers a forward-looking vision of solutions to confronting climate gridlock and a clear-eyed recognition of the challenges to enacting them.

Genres: Environment, Economics, Nature, Science

256 pages, Hardcover

Published March 29, 2022

About the author

Daniel S. Cohan is an atmospheric scientist and associate professor of environmental engineering at Rice University. He is the author of more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and a recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER award. His first book, Confronting Climate Gridlock, will be published by Yale University Press in March 2022.

Reviews

[Mansoor · Rating 2 out of 5]

"1979: A reactor at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania suffered a partial meltdown. The accident posed only minimal health risks, as radiation remained contained. But the jolt to public opinion was severe. Opposition to nuclear power mushroomed. No new nuclear plants were completed in the United States in the four decades that followed."

[Vivian Witkind · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cohan has written an excellent interdisciplinary evaluation of the goals, opportunities and barriers to combating climate change in the next few decades. I found the discussion of the ambitions and constraints of current technologies extremely valuable and know I will be referring to it. I hadn’t realized, for example, how wind and solar power complement each other and how cheap they have become relative to fossil fuels, even before you include the subsidies.

[Kyle Thackston · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most concise, well written, comprehensive analysis of dealing with man made climate change I've read. It is the first thing I've read that made me truly feel I could imagine what a practical path to climate resilience looks like. It is written in non-academic, accessible language. Obviously climate change is an immense topic, but the authors pragmatically cut away at anything that doesn't serve to answer the question "How can we actually deal with climate change?" Other texts cover the problems of climate change, and might describe the solutions, but do not show a path to reach these solutions like this book does. For anyone interested in practical climate policy / technology, I highly recommend this book.

[Seth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Does a great job of explaining complex ideas, processes and relationships in ways that are clear and understandable without simplifying or dumbing things down. He doesn’t get lost in abstraction but instead focuses on the pragmatic aspects of the debate and the actual choices we are faced with. Really enjoyed it, found it informative and full of interesting ideas.

[Quratulain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book

[Meredith Montgomery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty cool and understandable