From Decarbonization to Building a Clean Energy Economy

By Markham Hislop

How we think and talk about energy and climate change matters. A lot. Narratives influence public opinion about energy and climate change, which in turn creates the “political space” that determines the types and severity of policies governments can introduce. What may seem clear to a climate activist can be confusing to citizens peppered with climate-denial narratives and climate “slow walking” from corporate leaders. The good news is that energy and climate narratives are now, for the most part, concerned with limiting global warming to 1.5°C by 2100 and accelerating the shift to clean energy.

For a long time, the public narrative was about the science. Was climate change real? Or, just how real was it? Should humans be concerned or was this one of those issues that would be solved with a little ingenuity and some good government policy, like the hole in the ozone layer? After all, the climate alarm bells were ringing during the late 1950s and for decades there didn’t seem to be much immediate danger, right?