Description
Book SynopsisAn investigation into the scale and costs of transitioning our energy systems to achieve net-zero emissions.
Canada and the rest of the developed world have committed to decarbonizing basic energy systems, but do this country's citizens and governments truly understand the sacrifices ahead and are we willing to accept those sacrifices in the name of reducing the impact of climate change? Will the rest of the developed world take on the necessary costs, and will Canada forge ahead with decarbonization, even if other countries do not?
Carbon Change explores this most visceral of public policy choices for Canada, with a deep dive into recent North American energy and climate policy, the enduring impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and political processes across the developed world with respect to dealing with climate change risks. It offers a dispassionate analysis of the scale and cost of trying to realize the aspiration of decarbonization. De
Trade Review
Dennis McConaghy's treatise provides a wonderful review of the evolution of climate policy in Canada. While most Canadians support the eventual energy transition, McConaghy makes clear that decarbonization by 2050 will be expensive and unlikely feasible. Whether one agrees or not, his book challenges us to consider an alternative approach with an objective to keep temperatures rising no more than three celsius by the end of the century.
-- Jack Mintz, President's Fellow School of Public Policy, University of Calgary
The must-read book about Net Zero by 2050, the massive “energy transition” that without workable technologies requires decarbonization. This can only be achieved by government control and fossil fuel rationing, dramatically affecting everyone. What makes McConaghy’s analysis timely is the last big undertaking by central planning, COVID pandemic lockdowns. Benefits indeed, but at what cost? Not a climate change denier, McConaghy proposes carbon taxes and markets as the only fair and workable solution to this global challenge.
-- David Yager, Calgary oil service executive, oil writer, energy policy analyst and author of From Miracle
A thoughtful and relevant contribution to the climate change discussion. * Energy Now *
Table of ContentsContents
Introduction 1
Part One: The Climate and Energy Context
1 The UN Climate Process: How We Got to Decarbonization 11
2 The Orthodoxy: From Climate Sensitivity to Carbon Budgets to Decarbonization 19
3 Reality: The Grim Cost of Decarbonization 29
4 Before the Fall: Canadian Energy Developments from the Beginning of 2019 to March 2020 43
5 Early 2020: The Advent of Covid-19 63
6 The Descent to Glasgow 79
Part Two: Reconsidering Climate Policy
7 Covid-19 Sacrifice as Predicate for Decarbonization? 119
8 Reconsidering Decarbonization: Not a Hoax…but Not an Apocalypse 141
9 Oh, Canada! 159
10 Hope and Realism 171
Afterword 177
Acknowledgements 179
Notes 181
Suggested Reading 183
Index 187
About the Author 199
