Climate Change Policy: Targets, Commitments, and Energy Technology

Current climate policy emphasizes targeted reductions in greenhouse gases (GHGs). We address the credibility of commitments to quantitative (e.g., emission reduction, GHG concentration, maximum temperature) climate policy targets. We argue that commitments to end-based, climate-related, targets are not generally credible. In contrast, commitments to researching, developing and eventually deploying carbon-free energy technologies, activities that constitute the means of achieving climate policy targets are, or can be, credible. We then provide some calculations of the amount of carbon-free energy required for stabilization and the amount that might be provided by "conventional" carbon-free energy sources.