Irrwege der Klimapolitik – Anmerkungen aus volkswirtschaftlicher Sicht / Wrong Tracks of Climate Policy – Notes from an Economic Point of view

In this paper, the climate policy of avoiding carbon dioxide is criticized and confronted with the strategy of an ex-post repair of damages - a strategy which provides various advantages. First of all, the climate models forecasting a largely mono-causal connection between an anthropogenic emission of carbon dioxide and climate change are encumbered with significant uncertainties. Furthermore, the policy of avoiding carbon dioxide generates considerable economic costs which are supposed to exceed by far the costs of a subsequent repair of damages caused by climate changes. Another advantage of the proposed strategy is that a purposive repair of the particular damages would be possible after the incident, when the specific kind, extent, and spatial distribution of the damages are known. Finally and consequently, correctable measures of a limited extent should be implemented. They would allow to dispense with large-scale projects entailing unforeseeable consequences.