Sascha Nick
Why focus on action levers? • Wellbeing with low energy demand is clearly defined in low energy scenarios like LED or DLS, but it is far from obvious how to get there, including even collectively deciding on what is a good transition. • Progressively changing mindsets: No sufficiently ambitious transition will be spontaneously acceptable to most people, especially in rich countries. Engaging people in the process of designing the transition is key. Citizens’ assemblies have an excellent track record of doing this, and the Academic Citizens’ Assembly could scale to potentially millions of participants. • Who benefits from negative emissions (NE)? If left within today’s power structures (incumbents and markets), there is a real risk NE could slow decarbonization and transfer billions to fossil companies. A public fund could create an objective CO2 price, and based on the realistic potential of NE with biodiversity and societal co-benefits, determine the required rate of reductions in emissions and energy use. We examine and model how this could be done for Switzerland, and for global aviation.
2022
