Breaking a deadlock

What the recent global climate change convention at The Hague could have been all about was agreeing a market structure in which the technologies most capable of economically delivering solutions to global warming are put on a fast track to development. Instead, the talks focussed on how to avoid taking any action at all. Wind power is one of the best solutions we have for replacing the technologies which pollute the world, yet it remains trapped in a series of subsidised niches. Bigger subsidies will only bring bigger niches. Europe's attempt to launch a tradable green certificate market through a renewable energy directive has fallen foul of bitter wrangling, so we offer a suggestion for a five sentence directive, which leaves legislative detail in the hands of national governments.