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nuclear fission, or the sun. (The energy-efficiency guru Amory Lovins calls these saved units “negawatts,” in a play on megawatts.) In the Maldives, antiquated fridges and air-conditioning systems place a huge burden on electricity supplies; much of this could be saved if buildings were better constructed or retrofitted to absorb less solar heat and lose less cooling through doors and windows. In cold countries, fantastic amounts of energy are wasted through badly insulated roofs and walls, not to mention drafty doors and windows. Vehicles can also be made more efficient if governments mandate higher standards; European and Chinese cars use much less fuel than American ones because regulators have intervened in the vehicle market.

In big and heavily populated continents like Europe the task of building a carbon-neutral electricity sector is actually much easier than in small island states. Countries can share power over high-voltage international connections, making load balancing between far-removed areas possible. So when the North Sea is especially windy the U.K. will be able to export power to Germany and Spain, while during a calm spell Norwegian hydroelectric power can be used to balance demand. In effect, giant reservoirs in the Scandinavian mountains and the Swiss Alps act like enormous batteries, releasing power only when needed. Constructing this energy “supergrid,” including a large component of imported solar power from North Africa, is a central task for the European Union. As the Economist recently pointed out, a single market in energy makes more sense than a single market in almost anything else.76 This is estimated to cost one trillion euros over the next decade, however. The only thing holding back progress is finding the cash.

Money, however, is not a limited resource in the same sense as energy. Finance we can create, if we are clever enough. Jasper Sky, a colleague at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute, suggests creating new funds with a novel twist on the traditional tactic used by recession-hit governments of “quantitative easing” (QE). QE normally means that a central bank buys government bonds from investors, in effect creating new cash, which is then available to banks to encourage them to lend more and thereby increase economic activity. Sky suggests that a central bank could buy specially issued bonds from a Green Investment Bank, which would then use its funds to support new clean technology deployment at a large scale, from offshore wind to nuclear to supergrids. By spending on large infrastructure projects, this Green bank would help revive the economy and create jobs, while at the same time putting the country on the path toward a carbon-neutral energy system. In Sky’s words, “we could potentially build our way out of the climate crisis without taking on new debt and without increasing electricity prices, while tackling the economic crisis at the same time.” To some this “printing money” approach might raise the specter of inflation, but central banks have plenty of options—like limiting the annual amount offered, altering interest rates, or forcing commercial banks to hold more reserves—to make this a minor concern.

A version of this idea has been put at the international level by the World Future Council, which suggests using the International Monetary Fund’s “special drawing rights” facility to create a $100-billion-a-year Green Fund for investment in low-carbon infrastructure.77 Much of this money could go to developing countries, particularly those in the poorest category of “least developed.” Many of these countries would be much better off eschewing expensive fossil fuel imports in favor of using their indigenous renewables, but lack both the funding and the capacity to manage energy policy properly. In case there is a danger of some of this money getting into the wrong hands, Jasper Sky proposes a system where the projects would be backed by promissory notes issued by the IMF rather than actual cash—which would only be paid out to developers once a project was properly