One of the real pleasures for reality-based observers of the Obama Administration is the number of thoughtful members of the Administration members, who are not just worth listening to, but who can make seeing the world in different ways an interesting and enjoyable experience. Dr. John Holdren, the President’s Science Advisor, took his quite significant scientific expertise and turned to a path to figure out how to communicate science and the value of science to policy makers and the more general public. In his appearance at the Council on Competitiveness‘ National Energy Summit, as part of a panel on Spawning Technological Breakthroughs and Entrepreneurship, Holdren laid out the priority:
It needs emphasizing. The single most critical issue is to put a price on Greenhouse Gases that will incentivize action.
Why does this matter? What is the criticality? Well, Holdren talked about harvesting fruit in the context of seizing opportunities, even while creating new opportunities to seize, in our energy and climate challenges. In essence, there are three levels of fruit to be harvested:
- Low-hanging fruit: valuable and cost-effective today, where we have the technology and capacities to act with clear benefits.
- Mid-hanging fruit: these become valuable with a carbon price, increasing competitiveness.
- High-hanging fruit: arenas where we don’t necessarily have the technology or can’t do this cost-effectively, but where a price signal and clear policy will incentivize research and development to solve the problem and bring solutions ‘into reach’.
A very simple image to lay out what we have in hand, what we could reach with a little assistance, and what sustained dedication to the problem will bring into reach in terms of energy efficiency, clean energy, new agricultural practices, and other paths to help seize opportunities in addressing the climate challenge. It is valuable because this is not static — new fruit will grow. As we move forward, new fruit will bud — at all three levels. This is a dynamic picture of how we can create a sustainable harvest of opportunities for sustainability in the years and decades ahead.
1 response so far ↓
1 Newsweek moves from green rankings to cashing in Green // Nov 4, 2009 at 7:28 pm
[…] and their environmental policies. This Summit had speakers like Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, the Presidential Science Advisor John Holdren, and many others providing meaningful and valuable perspective on what we can (and should) do to […]