Fossil fuel addiction and the implications for climate change policy

► Reinterprets a formal cigarette addiction model in terms of fossil fuel usage. ► Provides a history of the anti-smoking campaign and compares with the campaign to avert global climate change. ► Suggests fossil fuel addiction is much more difficult to break than cigarette addiction. ► Suggests that countries may suffer from an “unhappy addict” syndrome trying to avert global climate change. ► Argues for reducing the cost of alternative fuels or promoting carbon capture or geo-engineering.