Until recently, climate economics has focused on the distribution of scarce resources -- regulating the right to pollute, through cap and trade -- instead of on the creation of new ones, such as zero carbon energy. With a major new paper out by MIT economist Daron Acemoglu and his colleagues, that is beginning to change. The shift within the discipline is supported by real world events that have altered the landscape for climate and energy policy, and sent cap and trade proponents scrambling: the shale gas revolution, declining solar and wind costs, and the failure of carbon pricing in Europe. Now, a new Breakthrough Journal debate with Gernot Wagner, an economist for the Environmental Defense Fund, demonstrates why we must embrace a climate policy focused on radical innovation and creative destruction. More...

Germany's carbon dioxide emissions are expected to rise 13.5 percent this year, even as two-fifths of its nuclear power fleet stands by. Reductions in energy demand and industrial output in Europe caused by the global recession have led CO2 emissions to slide more quickly than the emissions reductions mandated by either the Emissions Trading Scheme or the EU's commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. Yet instead of accelerating emissions cuts, the ironic economics of the carbon trading system have justified a return to coal in Germany and elsewhere, as a glut of emissions permits drives down the cost of carbon pollution and makes coal highly profitable once again. More...

We are extremely pleased to announce the selection of this year's Breakthrough Generation Fellows! Breakthrough Generation is the Breakthrough Institute's summer policy fellowship, which gathers some of the best young thinkers and analysts in the world to confront global technology and policy challenges. Past Fellows' research has been featured in publications like the New York Times, the Washington Post, and TIME Magazine, and Breakthrough Generation analysis has made its way into major conferences and political speeches. This year's class of Fellows will research important questions in the fields of Energy & Climate, Innovation & the Economy, and Conservation & the Anthropocene.

Click here to read about this year's class of Breakthrough Generation Fellows.

Click here to read about past Fellows' research.

In yet another sign of a growing consensus in support of energy policies that prioritize innovation, the New York Times on Sunday endorsed the recommendations of "Beyond Boom and Bust," a recent report by experts at the Breakthrough Institute, the Brookings Institution, and the World Resources Institute. The Times urged Congress to reform federal energy subsidies to "reward lower costs and better performance." "The idea is not to prop up clean tech industries forever. It is to get them to a point where they can stand on their own." More...

In January, the Breakthrough Institute published its report, "Planes, Trains, and Car Bombs," arguing that despite warnings from academics and experts, terrorists are not pursuing "exotic weapons and targets," but are continuing to pursue the same weapons and targets as in the decades before 9/11. Now, in a Breakthrough debate, terrorism experts John Mueller, Brian Fishman, and Tom Parker weigh in. More...

The Breakthrough Institute has joined with a group of leading congressmen and public policy, business, and academic organizations to sponsor the new Golden Goose Award, which will "highlight the often unexpected or serendipitous nature of basic scientific research." Recognizing that new scientific or technological advances can come from unexpected places, the award will honor federally funded researchers whose projects initially sounded odd or obscure but contributed to important breakthroughs. More...