IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v110y2020i4p1231-37.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Steering the Climate System: Using Inertia to Lower the Cost of Policy: Comment

Author

Listed:
  • Linus Mattauch
  • H. Damon Matthews
  • Richard Millar
  • Armon Rezai
  • Susan Solomon
  • Frank Venmans

Abstract

Lemoine and Rudik (2017) argues that it is efficient to delay reducing carbon emissions, due to supposed inertia in the climate system's response to emissions. This conclusion rests upon misunderstanding the relevant earth system modeling: there is no substantial lag between CO2 emissions and warming. Applying a representation of the earth system that captures the range of responses seen in complex earth system models invalidates the original article's implications for climate policy. The least-cost policy path that limits warming to 2°C implies that the carbon price starts high and increases at the interest rate. It cannot rely on climate inertia to delay reducing and allow greater cumulative emissions.

Suggested Citation

  • Linus Mattauch & H. Damon Matthews & Richard Millar & Armon Rezai & Susan Solomon & Frank Venmans, 2020. "Steering the Climate System: Using Inertia to Lower the Cost of Policy: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(4), pages 1231-1237, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:110:y:2020:i:4:p:1231-37
    DOI: 10.1257/aer.20190089
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20190089
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E112141V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20190089.appx
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20190089.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/aer.20190089?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Campiglio, Emanuele & Dietz, Simon & Venmans, Frank, 2022. "Optimal climate policy as if the transition matters," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 117610, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Yongyang Cai & William Brock & Anastasios Xepapadeas, 2023. "Climate Change Impact on Economic Growth: Regional Climate Policy under Cooperation and Noncooperation," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 10(3), pages 569-605.
    3. Pommeret, Aude & Ricci, Francesco & Schubert, Katheline, 2022. "Critical raw materials for the energy transition," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    4. Yongyang Cai & Khyati Malik & Hyeseon Shin, 2023. "Dynamics of Global Emission Permit Prices and Regional Social Cost of Carbon under Noncooperation," Papers 2312.15563, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2024.
    5. Chang, Juin-Jen & Chen, Jhy-Hwa & Tsai, Ming-Fang, 2022. "Corporate social responsibility, social optimum, and the environment-growth tradeoff," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    6. Xianpu Xu & Shan Li, 2022. "Neighbor-Companion or Neighbor-Beggar? Estimating the Spatial Spillover Effects of Fiscal Decentralization on China’s Carbon Emissions Based on Spatial Econometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-26, August.
    7. Jin, Wei, 2021. "Path dependence, self-fulfilling expectations, and carbon lock-in," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    8. Coppens, Léo & Venmans, Frank, 2023. "The welfare properties of climate targets," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120567, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Michael Grubb & Rutger-Jan Lange & Nicolas Cerkez & Pablo Salas & Ida Sognnaes, 2020. "Interactions of time and technology as critical determinants of optimal climate change policy," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 20-083/VI, Tinbergen Institute, revised 29 Dec 2022.
    10. Ernst, Anne & Hinterlang, Natascha & Mahle, Alexander & Stähler, Nikolai, 2023. "Carbon pricing, border adjustment and climate clubs: Options for international cooperation," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    11. Traeger, Christian, 2021. "ACE - Analytic Climate Economy," CEPR Discussion Papers 15968, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Stefano Carattini & Giseong Kim & Givi Melkadze & Aude Pommeret, 2023. "Carbon Taxes and Tariffs, Financial Frictions, and International Spillovers," CESifo Working Paper Series 10851, CESifo.
    13. Ernst, Anne & Hinterlang, Natascha & Mahle, Alexander & Stähler, Nikolai, 2022. "Carbon pricing, border adjustment and climate clubs: An assessment with EMuSe," Discussion Papers 25/2022, Deutsche Bundesbank.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

    Lists

    This item is featured on the following reading lists, Wikipedia, or ReplicationWiki pages:
    1. Steering the Climate System: Using Inertia to Lower the Cost of Policy: Comment (AER 2020) in ReplicationWiki

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:110:y:2020:i:4:p:1231-37. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.