Robert Habeck should take some cues from the fate of Desertec. Politically motivated grand projects are not known for strong governance structures. Governmental ministers can mobilize large quantities of money, but they don’t have accountability for a financial or broader economic return on that money. That leads to attrition and waste in the best

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Historian Scott Gabriel Knowles proposes that we think of the “deferred maintenance” of public infrastructures as slow-motion disasters, which sustain the oppression of marginalized and underserved populations. 23 Summers, meanwhile, emphasizes the “debt burden on the next generation,” since the cost of fixing the world compounds over time.