CLIMATE CHANGE and the road to NET-ZERO
Book by Mathew Hampshire-Waugh (2021)
Climate change and the road to net-zero is a story of how humanity has broken free from the shackles of poverty, suffering, and war and for the first time in human history grown both population and prosperity. It’s also a story of how a single species has reconfigured the natural world, repurposed the Earth’s resources, and begun to re-engineer the climate. The book uses these conflicting narratives to explore the science, economics, technology, and politics of climate change. Net-zero blows away the entrenched idea that solving global warming requires a trade-off between the economy and environment, present and future generations, or rich and poor, and reveals why a twenty-year transition to a zero carbon system is a win-win solution for all on planet Earth.
I wrote CLIMATE CHANGE and the road to NET-ZERO to provide a generalist reader with a clear, comprehensive, and objective take on the issues surrounding climate change and air pollution. The book walks the reader through a history of energy, innovation, and the rise of human civilisation; how scientists have come to understand our past climate and can now forecast future change; the problems economists encounter as they attempt to piece together the potential monetary and social damages from climate inaction; and a technology agnostic assessment of potential climate change solutions (from climate-engineering to mitigation) including their costs, risks, and limitations.
The book demonstrates why sustainable technologies such as wind, solar, and batteries get cheaper with scale of production, not time, and why a rapid transition to a fully-fledged net-zero system will end up significantly cheaper than remaining bound to fossil fuels, whilst also avoiding the worst impacts of climate change, and preventing nearly eight million premature deaths each year from air pollution.
I hope Climate Change and the road to Net-Zero delivers an understanding of humanity’s relationship with Earth that is as intriguing as Simon Lewis and Mark Maslin’s The Human Planet, or Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens. I very much hope too that the book conveys the passion and call to action of David Wallace-Well’s The Uninhabitable Earth, coupled with the sober economic analysis of The Climate Casino by William Nordhaus or Capital in the 21st century by Thomas Piketty, and that it provides the technical rigour of Sustainable Energy Without The Hot Air by David MacKay, the rationality of Hans Rosling’s Factfulness, and the eternal hope of The Future We Choose by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac.
I believe net-zero will be cheaper, cleaner, safer, more reliable, more sustainable, and will create more employment than if we remain bound to fossil fuels. After reading the book, I hope you will agree.
The Future We Choose, is a high-level, easy-to-read introduction to Climate Change which will appeal to most readers and provides a well grounded introduction to possible solutions.
CLIMATE CHANGE and the road to NET-ZERO blows away the entrenched idea that solving climate change is a trade-off between the economy and environment to reveal why a twenty year transition to NET-ZERO is a win-win for all on planet Earth.
The latest non-fiction offering from Jonathan Safran Foer weaves a winding network of narratives around climate change and the consumption of animal products. The book gets you thinking about our relationship with both the planet and the animal world.
The 30 year update is now 20 years old but for anyone interested in the interaction between economy and environment this book is a must read. It provides a clear (though basic) framework of how to think about human welfare with respect to the pressures on Earth’s ‘sources and sinks’ using an integrated approach between economic modelling and physical modelling.
Whether or not you align with the political stance of Chomsky, this is a book on climate well worth a read. Unlike many other break-it-down-build-it-back new deal books out there this one is grounded in actionable insights, policies, and data.
Clearing The Air sets out the science of air pollution in clear terms and provides a good balance of statistics and storytelling which both inform and engage the reader.
“How To Avoid Climate Disaster” is an accessible, conversational, and logical breakdown of the complexities in reaching zero carbon emissions. The book focuses on ‘green premiums’, innovation, and solutions mostly required to overcome the 20% of hard-to-abate emissions in the economy. Take a read, but just remember we already have the technology and favourable economics for the other 80% of the transition.
The book provides great insight into the early developments of climate science as far back as the 19th century, an in-depth take on modern computer-based climate modelling since the 1970’s, and the cutting edge of Earth science and simulation.
Sustainable Investing is a collection of essays from over 30 expert contributors spanning high-level practitioners and academic thought leaders. The book is aimed at investors, business leaders, and academics who want to explore how sustainable investing is changing global markets, the limitations within the current system, and how to expedite change.
This paper tells us that by including the physical-economic tipping point damages into assessment models that the costs of climate change could increase by 25% and maybe even 100% or more.
In their book Merchants of Doubt, Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway meticulously piece together threads of historical evidence to show “how a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming”.
A book on climate policy which is extremely clear, pragmatic, and well rounded, with case studies used to great effect in illustrating each argument. The book makes light work of complex climate wonkery, and is well worth adding to your reading list.
Our World in Data is a tremendously useful online resource which collects, collates, and presents data on all the World’s greatest challenges including poverty, disease, hunger, climate change, war, existential risks, and inequality.
‘The Contours of the World Economy’ presents an overview of the last 2,000 years of human history through the lens of population and incomes.
The deep geological past, the rise of humanity, and how we came to dominate planet Earth. ‘The Human Planet’ argues that humans have become a geological superpower, irreversibly altering the evolution of life and the geology of our planet through agriculture, industry, and climate change.
‘There Is no Planet B’ is part book, part compendium of all the questions you can think of surrounding sustainability and carbon emissions with respect to food, travel, energy, and our daily lives.
This is one of the best books I have read on the science of climate change. It is clearly written, contains simple explanations, and does a fantastic job of helping the reader understand the basic physics underlying the greenhouse effect.
MacKay delves into the fundamental engineering, thermodynamics, and physical limits of net-zero options to build a sustainable energy future.
The book profiles the lives of ‘celebrity biologist’ Paul Ehrlich and ‘iconoclast economist’ Julian Simon. Two men who rose to prominence in the 1970s with two immoveable and diametrically opposed visions of the world. Their loathing for one another culminated in a decade long bet over the future of the planet.
Climate Casino is an accessible introduction on integrated modelling and, regardless of your viewpoint, offers a clear understanding of how traditional economics deals with climate change.
A report commissioned by the UK government and led by economist Lord Nicholas Stern, published in 2007, ‘The Stern Review’ was a landmark report that used the same cost-benefit (IAM) analysis framework developed by William Nordhaus, but concluded that immediate and decisive action on climate change is the best economic pathway.
This is an extremely detailed and comprehensive book on estimating the discount rate required to bring future climate damages into the equivalent of today’s money or evaluating investment decisions.
Not a climate change book but an important read for anyone interested in how to objectively evaluate information and make more accurate predictions about the future.