Climate of Hope by Michael Bloomberg and Carl Pope is a book ,published in 2017 , to save the planet from the ill effects of climate change.Michael Bloomberg is an entrepreneur ,philanthropist , and former Mayor of New York City. Carl Pope is an environment leader.
The main thesis of the book is that cities backed by citizens and businesses can tackle climate change effectively. It is a bottoms up approach and needs the support of national governments as well as international community. This is the first book that explains how city level action to tackle climate change is not only possible but also necessary.
The book deals in detail how we are already on our way from coal to clean energy, from petrol and gas based transportation to electric vehicles. It also tells us how we should eat and how we should live to meet the challenge of climate change.
The book also mentions several market failures which are perpetuated by special interests, like continuation of fossil fuel subsidies. Such market failures that privilege fossil fuels have to be addressed by national governments. We also need to devolve more powers to cities , power to borrow funds for infrastructure and power to manage transportation systems.
But a transition from coal to renewable energy and sustainable energy will result in loss of jobs and unemployment .We must create solutions to such serious problems, in the interest of meeting the challenges of climate change.
Citizens have to understand these solutions and then communicate to other citizens. This conversation must be led by ordinary citizens and local leaders on a continuous basis.