The case for a sustainable climate policy: Why costs and benefits must be temporally balanced

The question of what actions on climate change make sense in the short term-raised in the quotes above-remains largely unanswered. Until we better organize the climate science and technology enterprise to focus on policy options for the short term, the climate debate is likely to remain in its present gridlock. Policies that address climate change-including both mitigation and adaptation-have both longterm and short-term effects. To date, climate policy has focused primarily on the long term, and so too has the research intended to inform that policy. As a consequence, too little attention is paid to policy options and technological alternatives that might make sense in the short term. One reason for the short term being overlooked is the intellectual gerrymandering of the climate change issue at the international level, which has maintained a narrow focus on greenhouses gases (GHGs) and their effects. Billions of dollars of public investments in climate science and technology might be reoriented to better serve the needs of decision makers grappling with climate change, which will be a policy issue for decades to come, by focusing on policies that make sense in both the short and long terms. This Article presents a series of seven assertions. First, human-caused climate change is real and requires attention by policy makers to both mitigation and adaptation-but there is no quick fix. The issue will be with us for decades and longer. Second, any conceivable emissions reductions policies, even if successful, cannot have a perceptible impact on the climate for many decades. Third, costs (whatever they may be) are consequently borne in the near term, while climate-related benefits are achieved in the distant future. Fourth, many policies that result in a reduction in emissions also provide benefits in the short term which are unrelated to climate change. Fifth, adaptation policies can similarly provide immediate benefits. Sixth, climate policy, particularly international climate policy under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC),(3) has been structured so as to keep policy related to long term climate change distinct from policies related to shorter-term issues of energy policy and adaptation. Seventh, research agendas have followed the political organization of international climate change policy and have emphasized the long term, meaning that relatively little attention is paid to developing specific policy options or near-term technologies that might be put into place with both short-term and long-term benefits. The climate debate may have slowly begun to reflect these realities, but the research and development community has not yet focused much attention on research to develop policy and technological options that might be politically viable, cost effective, and practically feasible.