image: edward burtynsky/courtesy flowers gallery. cerro dominador solar project #1, atacama desert, chile.

Beware the backlash, but move the ball forward:

Green protectionism comes with big risks

Some analysts worry that new laws could slow the green transition

Politicians think they have cracked it. The old proposals for dealing with climate change, including carbon taxation, have proved insufficient. Average global temperatures are thus on track to rise more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels. Hence the one genuinely new part of homeland economics. Industrial policy is being tasked not just with firming up supply chains and redistribution, but also with accelerating the green transition.

The solution is subsidies. Already these exist at scale, and with some success. Since Germany brought in generous subsidies for solar power in the early 2000s the price of solar generation has tumbled as a result of learning effects, economies of scale and Chinese industrial policy. In the past decade the amount of solar energy generated in Germany every year has doubled…

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