Giving Compass' Take:

• Hal Harvey, author of  Designing Climate Solutions: A Policy Guide for Low-Carbon Energy, explains three critical points of how to enact policies that will address climate change.  

• What is the role of philanthropy in climate action and climate policy?

• Read about funding coalitions for climate justice. 

The world has a tiny window of time to change course to avoid the worst-case scenario of climate change in the future–from global food shortages and catastrophic fires and floods to mass deaths from extreme temperatures.

The good news: We have the technology we need to tackle the problem. The next step is to roll out the right policy to implement that technology. A new book, Designing Climate Solutions: A Policy Guide for Low-Carbon Energy, explains how to do it.

“It’s all solvable if you do the right thing, and do it promptly,” says author Hal Harvey, CEO of the energy and environmental policy firm Energy Innovation.  He created the book for policymakers after seeing a need for a good guide about how to create targeted, well-designed climate policy.

Here are a few key points from the book:

  • Target the biggest emitters. A small group of countries–led by China, the U.S., India, and Indonesia–emit 75% of global emissions. Because of their outsize impact, these countries are the key places to focus new climate policy.
  • Target the important areas first. Within each country, policy needs to target six key areas.
  • Make smart policy.  Policy needs to be designed well. Good policy, the book explains, uses several principles. One example is the idea of built-in continuous improvement. Without it, a policy can eventually flop.

Read the full article about designing climate change policy by Adele Peters at Fast Company