Chapter 28: Epilogue

Abstract

History’s evaluation of this generation will surely depend to an important extent on its handling of the climate problem—not just on what gases we leave in the atmosphere but also on what durable climate policy architecture we leave to our heirs. This valuable collection sheds new light on what I believe to be the most difficult and important dimension of the climate policy problem. All who have had a hand in the creation of this volume deserve thanks and applause. In this brief essay I offer some thoughts on what makes the international dimension of the climate problem so difficult and important, on the history of climate policy debates, and on some key elements of policy architecture that those debates have so far produced.