Climate Policy after Paris: Where Do We Go from Here?

In response to the repeated failures of the international climate regime to lead to adequate mitigation policies, three main options are worth pursuing: (1) repurposing, (2) supplementing, or (3) complementing the existing regime. In dialogue with Gardiner’s article “We Never Had Paris”, this article examines the merits and limitations of these three options. Although I used to support option (1), I now agree with Gardiner that it is no longer sufficient and that the severity of the situation calls for more radical measures. Gardiner supports option (2). Since time has become such a scarce resource due to the very small remaining global carbon budget, and since option (2) would very probably take a long time to be properly implemented, I support option (3). I conclude that while options (2) and (3) are not mutually exclusive, we need to get our priorities straight to make sure we make the right strategic choices while we still can.