PNAS Opinion: Why Carbon Pricing is not sufficient
Carbon pricing has limitations with regard to effective and fundamental transformations of industries and society. Daniel Rosenbloom, Jochen Markard, Frank Geels and Lea Fünfschilling present core principles of “sustainability transition policy” to address climate change.
In the Downloadopinion papervertical_align_bottom, the authors criticize carbon pricing on 5 dimensions: 1) problem framing, 2) policy priorities, 3) innovation approach, 4) contextual considerations, and 5) politics. To address the urgency of climate change and to achieve deep decarbonization, climate policy responses need to focus on fundamental changes in existing sociotechnical systems. Effective “sustainability transition policy” includes a) policy mixes that address innovation and decline, b) sequences of policy making adapted to different phases of the transition, c) context-sensitive policies that acknowledge differences across sectors and places, and d) strategies to deal with politics and the need to build coalitions in favor of the transformation.