Thread by @DoctorVive

A quick thread on this study👇, which surveys @IPCC_CH & @UNFCCC experts on obstacles & response options to climate-change mitigation.

This study is baffling!

Most experts recognize "opposition from special interests" as the greatest obstacle to mitigation.

But...

1/n

@IPCC_CH @UNFCCC But what is the preferred IPCC & UNFCCC expert response to special interests blocking climate action?

Grassroots movements to counter industry power?

Targeted campaigns to curb money in politics?

Anything political at all?

Nope.

"More technological R & D."

That's it.

2/n

@IPCC_CH @UNFCCC Top 5, in descending order:

1👉Technological R & D
2👉More communication/education
3👉Behavior/lifestyle change
4👉Carbon Pricing
5👉Tech Subsidies/Standards

Of course 1, 4, & 5 are implemented through politics. 2 & 3 don't influence politics without collective action.

3/

@IPCC_CH @UNFCCC Most worrisome is that the call for more Tech R&D also lies at the foreground of the current denialist strategy to justify predatory delay.

The call for more R&D—when we already have so much tech to deploy, which must be deployed now for 2C—is a feint that delays action.

4/

@IPCC_CH @UNFCCC Climate mitigation will not be achieved by making zero-carbon tech super efficient and cheap.

Special interests are going to try to block decarbonization no matter what the reality of the market. I mean, isn't solar already cheaper than new coal in some sectors? And yet...

5/n

@IPCC_CH @UNFCCC It's really that climate mitigation, which will be achieved through democratic politics, will make zero-carbon tech super efficient and cheap.

6/n

@IPCC_CH @UNFCCC In any case the point is that a political problem requires not a technical, but a political solution.

/fin

@IPCC_CH @UNFCCC And ps not to include "electoral and grassroots politics" as a solution is not objectivity but an expression of bias.