2021年经济学人 绿色投资繁荣下的世界隐忧(4)（在线收听）

Governments need to be more hardheaded. There is a crucial role for an activist state in supporting the construction of key infrastructure, such as transmission lines, and in research and development. But the overwhelming priority must be to catalyse a bigger surge in private investment, in two ways.

各国政府需要更加冷静。积极的国家在支持输电线路等关键基础设施建设以及研发方面都能发挥至关重要的作用。但当务之急必须是从两个方面推动私人投资的大幅增长。

First, by easing planning rules. The average global mining project takes 16 years to get approval; the typical wind project in America over a decade to get lease approvals and permits, which is one reason why its offshore-wind capacity is less than 1% of Europe’s. Speed requires centralised decision-making, and will often mean disappointing local NIMBYs and conservationists.

首先，放宽规划规则。全球采矿项目平均需要16年才能获得批准；美国普通的风力发电项目要经过十年才能获得租赁批准和许可，这也是其海上风力发电产能不及欧洲1%的原因之一。加速审批需要集中决策，这往往意味着会造成当地的邻避症群体和环保主义者失望。

Second, governments can help companies and investors deal with risks. They can provide certainty in some areas: for example, by guaranteeing minimum prices for power generation. Western governments also have a duty to provide cheap financing to lift investment in poorer countries. But the key is the introduction of carbon prices which embed market signals into millions of everyday commercial decisions and give entrepreneurs and investors more visibility over a long-term horizon. Today only 22% of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions are covered by pricing schemes, and those schemes are not joined up. Green bottlenecks are a sign that decarbonisation is at last shifting from being a theoretical idea to a reality. A powerful push is now needed to help make the revolution happen.

其次，政府可以帮助企业和投资者应对风险。它们可以在某些方面给予保证：例如，确保发电的最低价格。西方政府也有责任提供廉价融资，以提升对穷国的投资。但关键是碳价格的引入，它将市场信号纳入数百万日常商业决策中，给予企业家和投资者更长远的视野。如今，碳价计划只覆盖了全球温室气体排放量的22%，而这些计划之间毫无关联。绿色瓶颈标志着脱碳终于从理论转变为现实。现在需要强有力的推动来帮助实现这场革命。