Rafe Pomerance, a central figure in early climate action, has died at 79. He was instrumental in bringing climate change to the attention of the US government, pushing for the first congressional hearings on the issue during the late 20th century. Beyond domestic policy, Pomerance played a critical role in international diplomacy, helping to negotiate the Kyoto Protocol. His work transitioned environmental focus from local pollution to the global challenge of atmospheric greenhouse gases.
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It is easy to forget that the Kyoto Protocol was the first real attempt to put a legal framework around emissions. Pomerance understood early on that without a treaty, individual national efforts would just be fragmented.
True, but the transition from those early treaties to actual carbon markets took decades. The gap between the policy intent he fought for and the actual project finance we see today is massive.
The early alarm was necessary, but the real struggle now is the physical deployment. We have the treaties and the goals, but we are still fighting over transmission lines and interconnection queues.
