
Brian Thomas is a writer who specializes in climate change and the capital markets. While at Swiss Re, he managed the firm's participation in the Harvard Medical School's "Climate Change Futures" project.
From a business perspective, not all carbon cuts are created equal. Business leaders may care about climate issues in a general way, but they want the emissions cuts to boost profits.
The press and other media teem with suggestions. In the absence of coherent regulations, the decision becomes a complex economic one, and not many organizations have the time and the analytical oomph to sort through all the calculations.
Fortunately, the industrious numbers-crunchers at McKinsey & Co., of management consulting fame, have done the hard work. The firm examined the costs and effectiveness of many methods of cutting carbon dioxide emissions with admirable...