Pardee Center Director in the NYT on Climate Change

Prof. Adil Najam, the Director of the Boston University Pardee Center, was quoted in the New York Times and other media outlets on the brewing debate over just how much of the climate change problem can be addressed with existing technologies.

Responding to the debate sparked by economist Jeffrey Sachs and others, Prof. Najam, who was a Lead Author of the Nobel winning IPCC team, was quoted by the New York Times as saying: “You can do a tremendous lot with available technology … It is true that this will not be enough to lick the problem, but it will be a very significant and probably necessary difference.”

In an earlier precursor to the story on the New York Times blog Dot Earth, Prof. Adil Najam was quoted as saying:

“My view is that we are saying that you CAN do a tremendous lot with what available technology… Enough to make a real difference. It is true that this will not be enough to lick the problem, but it will be a very significant and probably necessary difference. Let us not make the perfect the enemy of the good here. The need to make a real technology shift is very real. But let that not be an excuse not to do what we already can with existing technologies… Especially because doing the latter WILL make a difference.”

“My worry about the some of these arguments is that they are still looking only for technology fixes … These will be necessary, but not sufficient. Ultimately it WILL require lifestyle changes too. Not just WHAT we drive but how far we drive. Not just what appliances are in our house but WHERE our house is. That, I think, is an even bigger challenge than technology.”

Also in the International Herald Tribune.