In the world’s transition to lower-emission fuels, politics is a big part of both the solution and the problem.Decarbonization is shaping up to be the next industrial revolution—a massive shift that will lead to the decline of some industries and the rise of others, creating both risks and opportunities for investors. Even though renewable energy is now often cheaper than burning fossil fuels, the time pressure imposed by global warming means politics will be instrumental in making it happen. The messiness of those politics is coming into sharper focus once again, as U.S. legislators attempt to revive some of the clean-energy initiatives included in President Biden’s failed Build Back Better bill.
Annual investment in physical assets will have to increase by $3.5 trillion to $9.2 trillion a year in order to decarbonize the global economy, according to estimates…