Chapter 7, "Cross-Cutting Initiatives"

This chapter discusses two private climate mitigation initiatives that could shift climate science beliefs and support for climate mitigation.

The first is a private climate prediction market, which could address conservatives’ distrust of government climate science reports. Trading could occur over predictions about temperature increases, sea level rise, and other indicators of climate change, with the price of the prediction reflecting the likelihood of the outcome. Markets can aggregate information, and conservatives may find these predictions more persuasive than government climate science reports. The second initiative is a private climate legacy registry, which could enable individuals to record their climate beliefs and actions for future generations. Drawing on survey research, the chapter suggests that although individuals care most about their current reputation, they also care about their posthumous reputation. Data preservation over multiple generations is a challenge, but the process of recording data in the registry could enhance concern about future generations and willingness to reduce emissions. The chapter concludes by noting that these initiatives are just examples of the new opportunities that begin to emerge once the reader makes the private climate governance conceptual shift, recognizing the role that private actors and actions can play in climate mitigation.