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R&D, a clean energy standard, a price on carbon, or any of the other policies from chapter 11.

We already know the emissions number; it’s 51 billion tons each year. As for the cost of removing a ton of carbon from the air, that figure hasn’t been firmly established, but it’s at least $200 per ton. With some innovation, I think we can realistically expect it to get down to $100 per ton, so that’s the number I’ll use.

Without that demand signal, the innovations that governments and businesses invest in will stay on the shelf. Or they won’t get developed in the first place, because there’s no economic incentive to make them.

Most of these zero-carbon solutions are more expensive than their fossil-fuel counterparts. In part, that’s because the prices of fossil fuels don’t reflect the environmental damage they inflict, so they seem cheaper than the alternative.

When you pay more for an electric car, a heat pump, or a plant-based burger, you’re saying, “There’s a market for this stuff.

Where do we need to focus our research and development spending, our early investors, and our best inventors? Answer: wherever we decide Green Premiums are too high.

Energy source Watts per square meter Fossil fuels 500–10,000 Nuclear 500–1,000 Solar* 5–20 Hydropower (dams) 5–50 Wind 1–2 Wood and other biomass Less than 1

The countries that build great zero-carbon companies and industries will be the ones that lead the global economy in the coming decades.