According to Ken Hersh, in order to avert the worst effects of climate change, the only thing that matters is quickly stopping coal consumption from the US and China (even if it’s replacing it with natural gas). Decarbonizing the US and Europe doesn’t make a difference relative to the growth of emissions in emerging economies.
Ken Hersh envisions doing this by building a serie1s of large combined cycle natural gas plants in China, using existing technology and processes. These plants take only 18 months to come online, according to him.