In the United States alone, solving global warming could well be a $5 trillion problem—internationally the costs could be four times that. A new study by McKinsey & Company, however, shows that the United States could reduce carbon emissions in 2030 by 3.0 to 4.5 gigatons, using tested approaches and high-potential emerging technologies that could make this process much more affordable.

In this talk, sponsored by the Stanford Center for Social Innovation, Rick Duke, director of the Center for Market Innovation, discusses some of those technologies, emphasizing that reductions would involve pursuing a wide array of options with marginal costs less than $50 per ton, with the average net cost to the economy being far lower if the nation can capture sizable gains from energy efficiency. He emphasizes that achieving these reductions at the lowest cost to the economy will require strong, coordinated, economy-wide action that begins in the near future.