Not So Hot

Many delegates here at the Paris climate conference must have leapt with joy when actor and former Californian governor Arnold Schwarzenegger published a Facebook post this week that went viral, titled “I don’t give a **** if we agree about climate change.”

The politicians and bureaucrats meeting here – now in extra time – must speak in measured language, seldom saying what they really think. Former politicians, on the other hand, get a lot more leeway.

Copenhagen Consensus Centre President Bjorn Lomborg says there are constantly climate catastrophes and it’s very easy to claim them as global warming.

“Global warming is real and it’s very likely that it does have an impact, but what you need to recognise is that because we are richer and more resilient we’ve dramatically drove down the number of people that die from climate-related disasters,” Mr Lomborg told Sky News Australia.

What is the point of climate change policy? To make the world a better place for all of us, and for future generations.

In my new book, False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet, I analyze a lot of ways to make smart climate policy—and many that unfortunately waste resources. But we also need to ask ourselves the broader question: If the goal is to make the world a better place, is climate change policy the most important thing to focus on?