Biden Administration Question for the Scientific Community: Breakthroughs in Science and Technology

The key is market-based solutions and changes.   If the goal of climate change is to reduce the causes of climate warming, the goal of government should be to:  1) fund the basic research needed to understand the causes and sources, 2) to provide monetary incentives to adapt new solutions (via specific tax policies which can either penalize and/or reward the shift to new technology breakthroughs), and 3) to help provide some degree of "insurance" that the large investments necessary to adapt a new technology would be protected - either directly by providing initial start-up funds, or by some type of tax policy to help protect against catastrophic failure.

Critical support can also be provided by the government by:  1) ensuring long-term commitment to environmental science funding (free from political manipulation), 2) enforcement of anti-discrimination policies - e.g., ensure that full life-cycle analyses are done so that marginal communities are neither left behind nor bearing the brunt of implementation of new changes - and, 3) ensuring that funds for job retraining are available to help people transition to new technologies (again, with clear transparent rules, which must be subject to auditing, to ensure communities and minority groups are not left behind.

Consumption that contributes to carbon should be taxed so that we pay the full price of carbon pollution. In addition, there must be adjustments such that those without the means are not priced out of markets for products that are necessary. We have been underfunding carbon abatement strategies and once the full costs of carbon pollution are realized we may have the means to make the changes that are needed.