Do Montreal! A Review Article

Abstract International climate change diplomacy has tried a rigid top-down approach (the Kyoto Agreement) and a more flexible bottom-up approach (the Paris Agreement). Neither approach has gained sufficient traction on the climate change problem. The authors of Fixing the Climate: Strategies for an Uncertain World propose a new direction. Borrowing from the framework of the Montreal Protocol of 1987, which made great strides in eliminating use of ozone-depleting chemicals, they outline a framework for “experimentalist governance” that relies on public and private organizations to promote a problem-solving approach that is, at the same time, both bottom-up and top-down, market based and institution based, technocratic and democratic. Using case studies and examples across a wide array of contexts—from U.S. coal-fired power-plant sulfur dioxide emissions to dairy farm pollution in Ireland—they build the case for infusing climate change governance with innovation-driven institutions, processes, and instruments. The case studies and examples, however, share several common features that suggest experimentalist governance thrives under ideal conditions, including clearly defined technology challenges and ability to contain the impacts of innovation largely to the incumbent industry. Under the Montreal Protocol, for example, switching chemicals in products did not require consumers to change behavior or make substantial sacrifices. Many of the challenges of climate change policy fit these and the other ideal conditions, but many do not. The full extent of the necessary energy transition, as well as the demands of climate change adaptation, present complex socioeconomic policy issues fraught with political division. Experimentalist governance can go a long way toward fixing the climate, but ultimately, fixing the climate also will require fixing the climate politics.