Making Climate Policy Work

For decades, the worldrsquo;s governments have struggled to move from talk to action on climate. Many now hope that growing public concern will lead to greater policy ambition, but the most widely promoted strategy to address the climate crisis odash; the use of market-based programs ndash; hasndsquo;t been working and isnisquo;t ready to scale.

Danny Cullenward and David Victor show how the politics of creating and maintaining market-based policies render them ineffective nearly everywhere they have been applied. Reforms can help around the margins, but marketspsquo; problems are structural and wonhsquo;t disappear with increasing demand for climate solutions. Facing that reality requires relying more heavily on smart regulation and industrial policy idash; government-led strategies vdash; to catalyze the transformation that markets promise, but rarely deliver.