67We can quibble endlessly about the numbers,
tweaking the models this way and that. But we
should look at the big picture beyond the math.
The crucial news is that the price tag of preventing
the apocalypse is in the low single digits of annual
global GDP. It is certainly not 50% of annual global
GDP, nor is it 15%. Rather, it is somewhere below
5%, perhaps as low as investing an additional 2%
of global GDP in the right places.
And note the word investing. We aren’t talking
about burning piles of banknotes in some huge
sacrifice to the spirits of the earth. We are talk-
ing about making investments in new technolo-
gies and infrastructure, such as advanced batter-
ies to store solar energy and updated power grids
to distribute it. These investments will create
numerous new jobs and economic opportunities,
and are likely to be economically profitable in the
long run in part by reducing health care expendi-
tures and saving millions of people from sickness
caused by air pollution. We can protect the most
vulnerable populations from climate disasters, be-
come better ancestors to future generations, and
create a more prosperous economy in the process.
This wonderful piece of news has somehow
been sidelined in the heated debate about climate
change. We should bring it into focus, not merely
in order to give people hope, but even more so be-
cause it can be translated into a concrete politi-
cal plan of action. We have learned in recent years
to define our goal in terms of one number: 1.5°C.
We can define the means to do this with another