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Opinion
Peter R. Orszag and George Bilicic

Three Reasons for Optimism About Climate Change

Technological innovation and market forces appear poised to speed the transition away from fossil fuels even if the Glasgow summit falls short of its most ambitious goals.

Cleaner and cheaper.

Cleaner and cheaper.

 Photographer: Soichiro Koriyama/Bloomberg

World leaders and energy specialists seem to have a lot of pessimistic things to say about the prospects for meaningful action at the international climate summit that began on Sunday in Glasgow, Scotland.

But whatever happens across the Atlantic, there are at least three reasons for optimism about moving away from fossil fuels. Specifically, the cost of renewable energy continues to decline, storage options are improving and hydrogen shows significant promise in a wide array of applications, according to studies released last week by Lazard Ltd., where both of us work.