Israel’s Climate Conference is taking place this week in the shadow of profound pessimism amongst environmentalists around the world. For much of the past 50 years, American leadership pushed the international sustainability revolution forward. Sadly, recently Republican circles in the United States have been openly celebrating the possibility that the Supreme Court may uphold the cancellation of the 2009 Endangerment Finding, the scientific and legal determination that greenhouse-gas emissions endanger public health, thereby obligating the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate them.

After almost two decades of living with policies that steadily pushed expectations for reduced carbon emissions, many climate-denying Republicans are hopeful. They believe that once the federal regulatory framework requiring improved climate performance is weakened, fossil fuels will make a triumphant return and the “green coercion” and the renewable electricity fostered by Democratic administrations can finally be quashed.

But they are mistaken. Even if the US federal government succeeds in dismantling climate regulation, it has already missed the tipping point. The energy revolution is no longer driven by ideology, government mandates, or court rulings. It is driven by economics, technology, and a global market that has already locked in its trajectory.

The transition to clean energy........

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