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Gernot Wagner
For Gernot Wagner's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Climate protesters interrupt a campaign event for former U.S. President Donald Trump in Indianola, Iowa, on Jan. 14.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2024
What would a Trump win mean for the climate?
Even if Trump wins and tries to take a wrecking ball to climate policies, he ultimately can't derail the renewables revolution gaining momentum in the U.S.
One way to cut the steel industry’s emissions is to recycle more iron and steel products than the world currently does.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 25, 2024
What steel decarbonization needs
One way to cut the industry's emissions is by recycling more iron and steel products than we currently do.
Michael Bloomberg, U.N. special envoy for climate ambition and solutions, speaks during a summit on methane and other greenhouse gases at COP28 in Dubai on Dec. 2.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 18, 2023
What did COP28 achieve?
With pledges to cut methane, among other achievements, COP28 may have helped reduce the costs of decarbonization — an essential stepping stone.
While there should be a balance between entrepreneurial innovation and environmental responsibility, pollution should be the primary concern, not economic growth.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 19, 2023
Embracing the green growth mindset
Some high-carbon economic activities need to shrink while low-carbon, high-efficiency sectors need to grow.
As long as coal plants are still operating, it is a good idea to make them capture their carbon dioxide emissions. But the sooner that coal is replaced by renewables, the better it will be for the planet.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 11, 2023
Carbon capture and the changing economics of power generation
Carbon capture policies could unwittingly extend the life of dirtier energy sources.
While the pace of deploying clean-energy solutions is faster than it has ever been, with climate change, the world overall is racing in the wrong direction.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 1, 2023
What the climate fight is really about
Now that a future of higher average global temperatures is inevitable, managing the problem well requires that we cut off the tail end of the extreme-weather distribution.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 16, 2023
How to think about climate-tech solutions
To think that technology will save us from climate change invites the moral hazard. Whether new fixes create new problems has little to do with the fixes, and everything to do with us.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2023
Will the banking busts hurt clean tech?
Rather than impeding the clean-energy race, the collapse of the U.S. start-up community's go-to bank offers lessons for managing the public-private minuet that net-zero transition requires.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 22, 2023
Clean-energy goals and technological optimism
Speeding up the adoption of already proven and scalable technologies and exposing the many hidden costs associated with fossil fuels is a necessary clean-energy goal.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 17, 2022
The high stakes of climate-risk accounting
Businesses and investors stand to make a lot of money if they properly navigate the new climate risk environment — yet we remain where we are.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 1, 2021
World needs to look at geoengineering to mitigate the effects of climate change
Whether people believe that solar geoengineering is dangerous, potentially useful, or both, they should support more careful, open and transparent research into the matter.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 23, 2021
Lawmakers need to do whatever it takes to price carbon
Most governments have followed the bedrock economic principle that a higher price for something leads to less of its quantity being demanded in the marketplace.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 17, 2021
Are economists to blame for climate inaction?
There are indeed inherent biases built into the very structure of the economics — confusing precision with 'rationality” might be among the most pernicious.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 21, 2016
Reflecting on a potential cure for warming
A technology called albedo modification, which boosts the reflectivity of the Earth's atmosphere, holds tremendous potential to cure climate change.

Longform

High-end tourism is becoming more about the kinds of experiences that Japan's lesser-known places can provide.
Can Japan lure the jet-set class off the beaten path?