From the Wall Street Journal:
As policy makers around the world take action to avoid a predicted climate catastrophe, the debate is turning to the costs of reducing carbon-dioxide emissions. Energy-efficiency measures are often pricey, and alternative energy sources are more expensive than the fossil fuels they replace. A steep price on carbon emissions will ripple through the economy.
Does that mean a serious effort to tackle global warming is incompatible with economic growth? Or can we make significant cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions without causing serious damage to the economy?
We put the question to a pair of experts. Robert Stavins, a professor of business and government at Harvard University and director of Harvard's environmental economics program, says the answer to the second question is yes: Making the necessary cuts need cause little more than a blip in world-wide growth if smart policies are used.
Steven Hayward, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, says no: Energy use—and the carbon dioxide it emits—is so central to the world's economy that major cuts can't be made without significant damage.
