“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity […]”
Charles Dickens’s famous opening to A Tale of Two Cities in many ways represents 2016 in the areas of climate change and sustainable development. On one hand, the Paris Agreement came into force, while, on the other, climate change skeptics have captured crucial positions of political authority. Market-based mechanisms in climate change mitigation reached new heights, but so did the world’s average temperature and levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide. This brief looks back to the milestones of 2016 to assess whether it was an age of wisdom or that of foolishness, on the basis of which it may be easier to expect whether 2017 will be the epoch of belief or that of incredulity.
Read the full Briefing here: PDF Download.
Soo-hyun LEE is a Research Associate at The Asan Institute for Policy Studies. The views expressed herein are solely the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of The Asan Institute for Policy Studies. He can be reached at urbaninsights@gmail.com.