We can’t innovate our way out of the climate crisis

OPTIMISM, ESPECIALLY ABOUT our ability to solve big problems, is in brutally short supply these days. The gloom might beat its worst in the climate change arena, where the Trump administration is in the midst of an all-out assault on green energy and the world is poised to miss the Paris Agreement target of limiting warming to no more than 1.5°C.

- GAUTAM MUKUNDA

Given that backdrop, I was struck by Bill Gates’ recent announcement of a major—and decidedly optimistic—shift in his thinking about climate change.“We’ve made great progress” on addressing global warming, he writes, and he’s confident the changing climate “will not lead to humanity’s demise.’ But it’s time to shift our attention from cutting near-term emissions to investing in ways to“improve life in a warming world? Doing so, according to Gates, will require us to “focus on innovation”.

Ensuring that global warming doesn’t exterminate humanity strikes me as a terribly low bar. I’d like our children to say that our generation left them a world better than the one we inherited. Unfortunately, that goal is becoming harder and harder to reach, and technological innovation alone won’t be enough to get us there.