“We need the State to help solve these problems... but we have not paid attention to what are the attributes of government we need.”

David Victor, Professor at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at UC San Diego, a foremost expert on the policy of decarbonisation, joins Kopi Time to shed critical light on the challenge of our generation. He begins by highlighting the urgency of deep reduction of carbon from the atmosphere, and the track record of climate policies such as cap and trade, carbon tax, and carbon offset. David walks through the reasons why he is sceptical of traditional market-based solution to pricing carbon and constraining its emission. He then delves into promising policy options and technologies, and considers the state of decarbonisation in critical sectors like energy, road transportation, and aviation. David explains why the EU has made hard-earned gains in creating a carbon marketplace, and the incentives and nudges that can help implement smart, adaptive regulations worldwide. Given the myriad of uncertainties involved, he sees wisdom in running many small policy experiments, which can then be scaled up if found promising. David takes stock of the developments in the US, China, and India, three of the most critical jurisdictions that need to pursue net zero policy over the long run.