California has invested tens of billions of dollars in preventing climate change, billions more than California’s investment in adapting to the effects of climate change and directly preventing disasters. And now, the devastation of the recent Los Angeles wildfires is further proof that governments need to focus on protecting citizens through cheap and simple investments in climate adaptation rather than expensive and inefficient investments in climate change prevention.

Bjorn Lomborg is the president of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, the former director of the Danish government's Environmental Assessment Institute, and the author of the best-selling book The Skeptical Environmentalist (2001). He has been named one of Time’s 100 most influential people and one of the UK Guardian’s “50 people who can save the planet.” His latest book is Best Things First: The 12 Most Efficient Solutions for the World’s Poorest and Our Global SDG Promises (Copenhagen Consensus Center, 2023).

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