Complexity & The Politics of the Green Energy Transition

Event Summary

An increasing sense of urgency about climate change seems to be fueling momentum for national policies designed to hasten a transition to a net zero carbon economy. A rapid green transition is a massive and complex task, entailing difficult tradeoffs and value choices that are not featuring as prominently in the policy debate as one might expect.

In this presentation, David Spence (Univ. of Texas and EnergyTradoffs.com) will explore these tradeoffs, the troubling reasons why we under-attend to them in today’s policy debates, and how they are likely to become important hurdles to overcome when cobbling together a legislative majority in favor of meaningful, durable climate action.

This is a Climate Week event co-hosted by the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, and the Business, Climate and Environment Lab of the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center at the University of Pennsylvania.