Putting a price on carbon emission in the forms of a carbon tax or tradeable permits will not result in the transformative change that is necessary to stabilize carbon emissions, and will only result in marginal amounts of influence. Current technologies are not sufficient to restrain emissions while at the same time expanding the global economy; trying to do so will stifle economic growth. What is needed is a dramatic and immediate commitment to transformative low-emissions technologies. Examples of such technologies include carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), electricity generated through concentrated solar-thermal power, and plug-in hybrid cars. Each of these technologies has enormous hurdles that require a great deal of public support and financing. A combination of factors, including more research, appropriate infrastructure, regulatory changes, early high-cost investments, and public acceptance, needs to be addressed in order to ensure success. For example, the U.S. government has failed to build a CCS power plant even for demonstration purposes, despite most of the systems components being close to deployment. The cost and reliability of carbon capture has not been proven, the regulatory and policy support needed for a network of carbon dioxide pipelines has not been granted, and monitoring and regulating of geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide has not been worked out. Plug-in cars and solar-thermal power face equally daunting challenges, and patent protection could further slow the adoption of these technologies in poorer countries. However, technological innovation is what is needed to avert disastrous global warming.