Friday, October 25, 2024
12:00pm – 1:00pm
Joukowsky Forum, Watson Institute, 111 Thayer Street
Lunch provided
Today's consensus is that the key to curbing climate change is to produce green electricity and electrify everything possible. The main economic barrier in that project has seemingly been removed. But while prices of solar and wind power have tumbled, the golden era of renewables has yet to materialize.
The problem is that investment is driven by profit, not price, and operating solar and wind farms remains a marginal business, dependent everywhere on the state's financial support. We cannot expect markets and the private sector to solve the climate crisis while the profits that are their lifeblood remain unappetizing.
Audience Q & A to follow.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Brett Christophers is Professor of Human Geography at the Institute for Housing and Urban Research, Uppsala University. His books include Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It? and Our Lives in Their Portfolios: Why Asset Managers Own the World