Abstract

This article reviews current issues of global financial crisis and its relationship to the climate crisis. It recommends linking these two crises and policy responses and devising strategies beyond conventional economics. A systems view is required to see the opportunities to move beyond the failures of the Copenhagen Conference and identifies the two «win-win» agreements that both industrialized and developing countries left on the table: a floor global price on carbon and direct public and private investments in rapid ramp-up of «green» infrastructure in developing countries to allow them to «leapfrog» the Industrial Era and proceed straight to the Solar Age.