You are right when you warn that the United Nations’ “Global Green New Deal” harbors some serious dangers (“Green, Easy, and Wrong,” November 8, 2008). The pressing problems facing the world, economic meltdown and global warming, cannot both be solved by governments investing in green technology any which way. America’s massive ethanol subsidies are a case in point. Overinvestment not only led to a bust, but it also distorted food prices to the detriment of the poor around the world. As you point out in your leader, subsidizing renewable energy requires politicians to decide on the best way of allocating the funds, and their judgment tends to be worse than the market’s. Making polluters pay through a cap-and-trade system, which caps carbon dioxide emissions and charges companies for permits to pollute, offers much more hope than subsidies. Fair enough. But this does not mean that a Global Green New Deal is to be chucked overboard, as you argue. Governments have a major rôle to play in investing in green technology, especially in dire times, and now is the moment to consider the best ways of doing so. The first step is in the right direction is for governments to set up expert boards—composed of scientists, engineers, and economists—that will limit the scope for politicians’ judgment. Mind you, green technology cannot be entirely left to the market, either.