Tyler Cowen reports on this:
There was a brief symposium, here are the results:
Larry Summers
President Emeritus of Harvard University, Former Chief Economist of the World Bank
My sense is that cap and trade is not the route to the future. It did not make it politically in the US at a moment of great opportunity in 2009. And European carbon markets have been plagued by constant problems. And globally it’s even harder. My sense is that the right strategy has three major elements. First, as the G20 vowed in 2009, there needs to be a concerted phase out of fossil fuel subsidies. This would help government budgets, drive increases in economic efficiency and substantially reduce global emissions. Second, there needs to be assurance of adequate funding for all areas of basic energy research. As a practical matter my guess is the world will produce non fossil fuel power in the next 25 years at today s fossil fuel prices or it will fail with respect to global climate change. Third, there is a strong case for concerted carbon taxes to further discourage greenhouse gas emissions. But this is a follow-on step for after the elimination of fossil fuel subsidies.
Bjorn Lomborg
Director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center and adjunct professor at Copenhagen Business School
The only way to move towards a long-term reduction in emissions is if green energy becomes much cheaper. If it cost less than fossil fuels, everyone would switch, including the Chinese. This, of course, requires breakthroughs in green technologies and much more innovation.
At the Copenhagen Consensus on Climate (fixtheclimate.com), a panel of economists, including three Nobel laureates, found that the best long-term strategy to tackle global warming was to increase dramatically investment in green research and development. ...
Alex Tabarrok
Bartley J. Madden Chair in Economics at the Mercatus Center, George Mason University
Neither the developed nor the developing world will accept large reductions in their standard of living. As a result, the only solution to global climate change is innovations in green technology. A carbon tax will induce innovation as people demand a way to avoid the tax. A carbon tax, however, will be more politically acceptable if technologies to avoid the tax are in existence before the tax is put into place. ...
Tyler Cowen
Professor of Economics, George Mason University
This is a problem we are failing to solve. Keep in mind it is not just about getting the wealthy countries to switch to greener technologies, but we also desire that emerging economies will find green technology more profitable than dirty coal. A carbon tax is one way forward but the odds are that will not be enough and besides many countries are unlikely to adopt one anytime soon. Subsidies for technology could occur at a very basic level and we could make a gamble that nuclear fusion will finally pay off. ...
bad the climate change problem is slated to be.
There are further responses at the link.
- See more at: http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/03/summers-lomborg-cowen-and-tabarrok-on-climate-change.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20marginalrevolution%2Ffeed%20%28Marginal%20Revolution%29#sthash.dtFMO2vu.dpufbad the climate change problem is slated to be.
There are further responses at the link.
- See more at: http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/03/summers-lomborg-cowen-and-tabarrok-on-climate-change.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20marginalrevolution%2Ffeed%20%28Marginal%20Revolution%29#sthash.kU4eDJx1.dpufbad the climate change problem is slated to be.
There are further responses at the link.
- See more at: http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/03/summers-lomborg-cowen-and-tabarrok-on-climate-change.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20marginalrevolution%2Ffeed%20%28Marginal%20Revolution%29#sthash.kU4eDJx1.dpufbad the climate change problem is slated to be.
There are further responses at the link.
- See more at: http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2014/03/summers-lomborg-cowen-and-tabarrok-on-climate-change.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20marginalrevolution%2Ffeed%20%28Marginal%20Revolution%29#sthash.kU4eDJx1.dpuf
My favorite is Summers, but all three statements make a lot of sense.
