Climate 411

A Carbon Cap Would Promote International Participation

By Gernot Wagner / Published: November 7, 2008

Gernot Wagner's profileNat Keohane and I have been participating in the “Carbon Tax vs. Cap-and-Trade” debate over on Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. From Round 3, which addresses the international aspects:

A cap-and-trade system allows for the creation of a global carbon market. Such a market would provide the mechanisms and flexibility necessary to achieve the environmental goals at the lowest cost and the incentives for other countries to join. A tax does neither, while requiring much more harmonization across countries.

This post is by Gernot Wagner, Ph.D., an economist in the Climate and Air program at Environmental Defense Fund.

Posted in Climate Change Legislation / Read 3 Responses

Nature Does Not Do Bailouts

By Gernot Wagner / Published: November 7, 2008

Gernot Wagner's profileA call for change — no, not by Barack Obama, by Al Gore.

Gore co-authored a call for Sustainable Capitalism in today’s Wall Street Journal:

At this moment, we are faced with the convergence of three interrelated crises: economic recession, energy insecurity and the overarching climate crisis. Solving any one of these challenges requires addressing all three.

The op-ed concludes that:

Today, the sustainability challenges the planet faces are extraordinary and completely unprecedented. Business and the capital markets are best positioned to address these issues.

…as long as the incentives are correct:

We…need to internalize externalities — starting with a price on carbon. The longer we delay the internalization of this obviously material cost, the greater risk the economy faces from investing in high carbon content, “sub-prime” assets. Such investments ignore the reality of the climate crisis and its consequences for business.

This post is by Gernot Wagner, Ph.D., an economist in the Climate and Air program at Environmental Defense Fund, and originally appeared on the Environmental Economics blog.

Posted in Climate Change Legislation / Comments are closed

If It Worked for the Chronometer…

By Gernot Wagner / Published: November 3, 2008

Gernot Wagner's profileThe debate goes on about EDF’s competition to visually explain how a carbon cap will solve our addiction to oil. Joe Romm critiqued the competition as “bizarre” since it asked people to “explain something that isn’t true.” I responded by saying that MIT’s climate model supports us. This prompted another response from Romm titled “EDF’s and MIT’s magical thinking on carbon caps and oil.”

As I mentioned in my previous post about this thread, the discussion was not yet over. I posted my latest response on Gristmill and Environmental Economics.

The gist? History helps illustrate why, if anything, we are underestimating likely technological progress.

This post is by Gernot Wagner, Ph.D., an economist in the Climate and Air program at Environmental Defense Fund.

Posted in What Others are Saying / Read 1 Response

The Answer to the Billion Dollar Question

By Tony Kreindler / Published: October 29, 2008

Tony KreindlerThere’s a lot of buzz right now about the potential for "green" economic stimulus – policies and investments that grow the economy, create jobs, and protect the planet at the same time.

 

  • Treehugger reports that energy efficiency investment in California has led to 1.5 million new jobs and $56 billion in savings between 1972 and 2006.
  • An editorial in the Seattle Times explains how heavy investment in green infrastructure can put people back to work as well as solve the climate crisis.
  • A post on Gristmill cites Paul Krugman’s argument that federal spending is the only way out of our economic woes, and suggests that this spending should include a Green Jobs program.

Investing in projects to repair and update our aging infrastructure would pay off in new jobs and a more efficient America. But where will the money come from? Stuck between pay-as-you-go rules and no new middle-class taxes, Congress doesn’t have a lot of options. One could be the auction of pollution allowances under a national greenhouse gas emissions cap. Estimates are that an auction could generate somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 billion per year.

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Posted in Economics / Read 4 Responses

A Debate About Our Video Competition

By Gernot Wagner / Published: October 27, 2008

Gernot Wagner's profileA few weeks ago we posted about our video design competition – $10,000 to the winner  – for depicting how a cap on greenhouse gases can solve our addiction to oil. Joe Romm on Climate Progress had a problem with this – said we were asking the impossible since a cap wouldn’t do this.

I responded to Romm’s objection on the Environmental Economics blog with a post titled “Bizarre”? No. Tough? Yes. But that wasn’t the end of it. Romm fired back, accusing EDF of “magical thinking”. Our exchange is also cross-posted on Grist (Romm’s first post, my response, Romm’s answer).

Stay tuned – I’ll be posting a response to Romm’s second post this week.

This post is by Gernot Wagner, Ph.D., an economist in the Climate and Air program at Environmental Defense Fund.

Posted in What Others are Saying / Read 1 Response

Florida Report: Capping Carbon Saves Money

By Sheryl Canter / Published: October 17, 2008

Sheryl CanterThe State of Florida just issued a final report on energy and climate change with some hopeful findings. Its policy recommendations would not only reduce Florida’s greenhouse gas emissions 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, but also save the state $28 billion:

The total net cost savings of all Action Team recommendations combined is more than $28 billion from 2009 to 2025. Additionally, the recommendations would increase Florida’s energy security by reducing our dependence on fossil fuels resulting in a total fuel savings of 53.5 billion gallons of petroleum, 200.2 million short tons of coal, and 6.394 billion ft.³ of natural gas during the period of 2009 through 2025.

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Posted in Economics / Read 1 Response