Demand climate regulation, Harvard economist urges big businesses

(Reuters, 21 Sep 2020) "Without appropriate government policy, we are not going to get to zero," she says at launch of Climate Week in New York.

Slashing planet-heating emissions will require not just voluntary efforts by corporations but government regulation and taxes, a Harvard Business School economist said Monday.

"Without appropriate government policy, we are not going to get to zero," Rebecca Henderson told the opening of a series of "Climate Week" events hosted in New York City alongside the U.N. General Assembly.

She called on big businesses, hundreds of which are setting their own "net-zero" emissions targets, to lobby governments for taxes on fossil fuels, energy-efficiency regulation and other measures to spur rapid reductions in climate-changing emissions.

She said technological changes that could help curb climate change were in the pipeline but sufficient public "emotion" around the threats and government action were missing.

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Reuters, 21 Sep 2020: Demand climate regulation, Harvard economist urges big businesses