Government resources should be prioritized toward the most effective solutions by calculating costs and benefits rather than trying to fund every headline-grabbing issue.

“If you have 169 targets, which is what the UN had, you have no priorities. And so, we simply try to work with some of the best economists across the world to look at where can you spend an extra dollar or an extra rupee or an extra shilling or whatever your currency is and do the most good.”

Cap-and-trade markets are an efficient tool for reducing pollution at the lowest cost to industry.

“The idea of a cap trade market is to say, "Forget that. I'm not going to set a standard for Steve. I'm not going to set a standard for Michael. I'm going to do it for the combination [clears throat] and then I'm going to let them work out through trading how to reach that lower standard together."”

The current economic system is effectively socialized because society at large pays for the negative externalities of fossil fuels while a few corporations reap the benefits.

“our current system is socialized because we all of us as taxpayers and insurance owners and homeowners and people who who uh suffer the impacts of fossil fuel use we are paying for the price and a few companies are reaping the benefit”

The most effective way to protect the Amazon rainforest is by paying Brazil to keep the forest standing.

“You proposed that if rich countries paid Brazil 10 billion a year, that would give them 10 times the economic benefit that ranching gives them and the Amazon would be protected.”