Unlike limiting pollutant gases such as sulfur dioxide, for which a variety of technical control options is available, limiting carbon-dioxide emissions requires reduced energy use, greater energy efficiency, or substitution of energy sources with lower carbon content. To make the transition economically manageable will require continued or enhanced investments in basic and applied knowledge. The government has an inescapable role to play not just in creating the incentives for private parties to seek better technologies but also in funding the development of basic knowledge about technology as well as climate change impacts. At the same time, we must recognize that our understanding of what policy can actually do to induce climate-friendly innovation is weak at best. Increase emphasis on adaptation.
Adaptation is part of an optimal response strategy in any event.
Furthering human capacity to adapt to climate change entails investment in improved understanding of the options and their international application. In many cases, the best climate policy may have little to do with greenhouse gases or climate per se, and much more to do with developing better basic social infrastructures for natural resource conservation and use and for public health protection. Michael A. Toman directs RFF's Energy and Natural Resources Division and coordinates its Climate Economics and Policy Program. The views offered in Resources are those of the contributors and should not be attributed to RFF, its directors or its officers.