Hoover Institution
09/26/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/25/2024 17:27
The Factual Context for Climate and Energy Policy
Climate and energy policies must balance the risks and benefits of a changing climate against growing demand for reliable, affordable, and clean energy. To strike that balance, policymakers must consider society's values and priorities, its tolerance for risk, equities among generations and geographies, and efficacies, costs, and collateral impacts. This paper reviews the scientific, technoeconomic, and societal facts that should inform policy decisions and draws some straightforward conclusions from them.
About the Author
Steven Koonin, Hoover senior fellow, has served as the Department of Energy's under secretary for science, chief scientist for BP, and professor and provost at Caltech. Koonin holds a BS in physics from Caltech and a PhD in theoretical physics from MIT. He wrote the bestselling Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn't, and Why It Matters.