Bjorn Lomborg, the controversial Danish economist, has pushed his way back into the global warming debate with a book that proposes ‘smart solutions’ to climate change. Those promised solutions rely heavily on R&D aimed at making clean energy cheap, rather than attempts to shut down dirty energy sources. Lomborg says his views haven’t changed, but more people are willing to listen to him because international negotiations on limiting greenhouse emissions have accomplished so little.

MELISSA BLOCK, host:

Bjorn Lomborg, a controversial Danish economist, has pushed his way back into the global warming debate. He’s done it with a book promoting what he calls smart solutions to climate change. The book has raised eyebrows because Lomborg – who’s often considered a climate change skeptic – now supports a tax on greenhouse gas emissions.

But as NPR’s Dan Charles reports, Lomborg is still making environmentalists very angry.

DAN CHARLES: Bjorn Lomborg made a big splash almost 10 years ago with a book called ‘The Skeptical Environmentalist.’ He was skeptical, for example, about evidence that humans were warming up the globe. He says those doubts got resolved.

Mr. BJORN LOMBORG (Author): I’ve said for many years: Global warming is real. It’s man-made, and it is an important problem.

CHARLES: […]