Pledges without R&D back-up carry little weight

M

aking a pledge to reduce carbon dioxide emissions is one thing, understanding how to do it is another.

Jonathon Symons and Barry Brook explore this dichotomy in today’s edition of The Conversation.

Brook, the Professor of Environmental Sustainability at University of Tasmania, and Symons, a Friend of The Conversation, is a lecture in International Relations at Macquarie University.

They say: “Mitigating climate change means reducing the carbon intensity of economies, with the goal of displacing fossil fuel use. Virtually every serious analysis of climate change has concluded that technology policy must be used to accelerate the pace at which low-emissions innovations are brought to market”.

Their story - “What’s missing from our climate pledges? Low-carbon R&D” – discusses the importance of research and development and the need to include it in discussions at the United Nations climate talks in Paris later this year.