A Critical Conversation on Climate Change ... - Green Choices

lessons unlearned 117power, for instance. Already, costs of various types of non-fossil energytechnology are declining. (See Figure 4.) But without opportunitiesto get ‘locked-in’ through more state-backed research, public investment,economies of scale, and other processes, solar power is stilltoo expensive to get much of a boost from emissions trading.Figure 4. Renewable Energy Cost Trends, USSource: Rocky Mountain InstituteRenewable energy cost trendsLevelised cents/kWhin constant $2001453015Wind1980 1990 2000 2010 2020GeothermalPhotovoltaic101008806604402201980 1990 2000 2010 20201980 1990 2000 2010 2020BiomassSolar thermal12100980606403201980 1990 2000 2010 20201980 1990 2000 2010 2020So there’s no way around it. Emissions markets are structurally biased againstthe kind of radical change needed to tackle global warming.That’s certainly what the evidence suggests. As the Heinrich BöllFoundation’s Jo’Burg Memo observes,[T]he ‘polluter pays’ principle has been turned into a ‘polluter buyshis way out’ principle. Decarbonisation will not really take placein this manner, since the resource base of Northern econ omies is