REVERSING CLIMATE CHANGE

'The genius of Graciela Chichilnisky is recognized by economists and with this book she has focused that talent to the dire problem facing mankind. To survive we must do more than stave off a further rise of CO₂ in the atmosphere. We need to reverse it if the planet is to be viable. Professor Chichilnisky's achievement along with her co-author Peter Bal is to show us the way to rescue our future.''In the world of economic theory, Graciela Chichilnisky is an A-list star.''The team of Chichilnisky and Bal has exceptional skill in explaining complex topics with great clarity making it easy for non-scientists interested in climate change to read. They address the science of climate change, the complex international negotiations needed to reach a compromise between developing nations and the developed ones, and importantly the urgent need to find a way of extracting CO₂ from the atmosphere and utilizing and sequestering it in a commercially profitable manner. The last topic has been almost completely ignored by the media.'The Kyoto Protocol capped the emissions of the main emitters, the industrialized countries, one by one. It also created an innovative financial mechanism, the Carbon Market and its Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which allows developing nations to receive carbon credits when they reduce their emissions below their baselines. The carbon market, an economic system that created a price for carbon for the first time, is now used in four continents, is promoted by the World Bank, and is recommended even by leading oil and gas companies. However, one critical problem for the future of the Kyoto Protocol is the continuing impasse between the rich and the poor nations.Who should reduce emissions — the rich or the poor countries?