What can we do to fix the climate problem?

The author contends that climate solutions are profitable rather than costly, as saving fuel is cheaper than purchasing it. By increasing global energy productivity to approximately 3% per year and removing market barriers to energy efficiency, carbon emissions can be stabilized. The text highlights 'micropower' and 'negawatts' as economically superior alternatives to nuclear power and traditional centralized electricity, suggesting that a transition away from oil and toward a diverse, renewable system is driven by business logic and market forces.

• Climate protection is profitable because the cost of saving fuel is lower than the cost of buying it, with some companies already achieving profits by reducing carbon intensity or emissions by 5–8% annually.
• Stabilizing the climate requires increasing global energy productivity (GDP per GJ) to approximately 3% per year, a rate already achieved or exceeded by the U.S., California, and China.
• Energy efficiency is the primary tool for profitable climate protection; for example, three-quarters of U.S. electricity could be saved at approximately $0.01/kWh, which is below short-run marginal cost.
• The U.S. could eliminate oil use by the 2040s through a combination of redoubled oil efficiency and the substitution of saved natural gas and advanced biofuels, with an average transition cost of approximately $15/bbl.
• Decentralized 'micropower' (low-carbon combined-heat-and-power and carbon-free renewables) is more economically viable and faster to deploy than nuclear power, providing one-sixth of the world's electricity in 2005.

APA

LOVINS, A. B. (2006). What can we do to fix the climate problem? RMI. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_C06-10_FixTheClimateProb.pdf

Chicago

LOVINS, AMORY B. What can we do to fix the climate problem? RMI, 2006. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_C06-10_FixTheClimateProb.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=LOVINS |first1=AMORY B. |title=What can we do to fix the climate problem? |publisher=RMI |date=31 October 2006 |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_C06-10_FixTheClimateProb.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{lovins2006what, author = {LOVINS, AMORY B.}, title = {{What can we do to fix the climate problem?}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2006}, month = oct, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_C06-10_FixTheClimateProb.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }