Fraser Institute News Release: Rhetoric--not evidence--continues to dominate climate debate and policy
"When considering climate policies, it's important to understand what the science and analysis actually show instead of what the climate alarmists believe to be true," said Kenneth P. Green, Fraser Institute senior fellow and author of Four Climate Fallacies.
The study dispels several myths about climate change and popular—but ineffective—emission reduction policies, specifically:
Capitalism causes climate change: In fact, according to several environment/climate indices and the Fraser Institute's annual Economic Freedom of the World Index, the more economically free a country is, the more effective it is at protecting its environment and combatting climate change.
Even small-emitting countries can do their part to fight climate change: Even if Canada reduced its greenhouse gas emissions to zero, there would be little to no measurable impact in global emissions, and it distracts people from the main drivers of emissions, which are China, India and the developing world.
Vehicle electrification will reduce climate risk and clean the air: Research has shown that while EVs can reduce GHG emissions when powered with low-GHG energy, they often are not, and further, have offsetting environmental harms, reducing net environmental/climate benefits.
Carbon capture and storage is a viable strategy to combat climate change: While effective at a small scale, the benefits of carbon capture and storage to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions on a massive scale are limited and questionable.
"Citizens and their governments around the world need to be guided by scientific evidence when it comes to what climate policies make the most sense," Green said.
"Unfortunately, the climate policy debate is too often dominated by myths, fallacies and false claims by activists and alarmists, with costly and ineffective results."
The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian public policy research and educational organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal and ties to a global network of think-tanks in 87 countries. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for Canadians, their families and future generations by studying, measuring and broadly communicating the effects of government policies, entrepreneurship and choice on their well-being. To protect the Institute's independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit www.fraserinstitute.org
SOURCE The Fraser Institute
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