According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report, the world still isn’t doing enough to combat human-induced climate change.

We shouldn’t be surprised.

The report follows John Kerry’s worries about the emissions consequences from a Russian war against Ukraine and the international community’s paltry promises at the most recent COP26 conference on climate change.

This is part of a pattern.

A top-down approach that asks people to make sacrifices is unlikely to gain traction and build the political support that leaders need to achieve climate goals.

Until combating climate change aligns with the progress that people are trying to make in their daily lives—from feeding their families and staying warm to traveling for work and fun—the efforts to change how we consume energy will be futile.

This reality calls for a bottoms-up approach to tackling climate change that’s led by entrepreneurs and the pursuit of opportunity, not government action based on coercion and threats.

Taking climate action relies on changes in consumer and industry behavior, not on governmental promises and policies.

The evidence shows that even if they are concerned about climate change, individuals aren’t prioritizing change. In September, 2021, a Statista Research Survey found that just 4% of U.S. respondents felt that dealing with climate change was the most important problem facing the country. Issues such as immigration and the state of the economy ranked higher.

We must now reframe climate change as an opportunity.

Entrepreneurs should develop green innovations that help people make progress on the things they are actually prioritizing. Doing so will have a much higher chance of success than enacting policies that will help the environment but not people’s living conditions.

Entrepreneurs shouldn’t seek to cram in innovations that are more expensive or less efficacious than current solutions but rely on government subsidies to survive. They should instead follow the laws of innovation and take one of two paths.

Read the full article about people-centered work by Efosa Ojomo and Michael B. Horn at Christensen Institute.