IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ses/arsjes/2014-i-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can Green Power Save Us from Climate Change?

Author

Listed:
  • M. Scott Taylor

Abstract

International efforts to lower emissions have largely failed, and many now believe we will fail to limit warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius by 2100. In this extended abstract, I discuss whether a wholesale movement to renewable energy or Green Power could limit carbon emissions to meet a 2 degree Celsius target while simultaneously meeting the world's growing demands for energy. Using a very simple growth model I calculate the burden Green Power must carry in order to keep emissions within the 2 degree target, and then discuss the speed, scope, and size of the energy transition this would imply. An energy transition of sufficient speed and magnitude to meet these targets is unlikely, leading me to believe that Green Power cannot save us from climate change.

Suggested Citation

  • M. Scott Taylor, 2014. "Can Green Power Save Us from Climate Change?," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 150(I), pages 23-31, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:ses:arsjes:2014-i-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sjes.ch/papers/2014-I-2.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William Brock & M. Taylor, 2010. "The Green Solow model," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 127-153, June.
    2. Fouquet, Roger, 2010. "The slow search for solutions: Lessons from historical energy transitions by sector and service," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(11), pages 6586-6596, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Tsigaris, Panagiotis & Wood, Joel, 2016. "A simple climate-Solow model for introducing the economics of climate change to undergraduate students," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 65-81.
    2. Tsigaris, Panagiotis & Wood, Joel, 2019. "The potential impacts of climate change on capital in the 21st century," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 74-86.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pindyck, Robert S., 2012. "Uncertain outcomes and climate change policy," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 63(3), pages 289-303.
    2. Ofori, Isaac K. & Figari, Francesco, 2022. "Economic Globalisation and Inclusive Green Growth in Africa: Contingencies and Policy-Relevant Thresholds of Governance," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue Forthcomi, pages 1-1.
    3. Edy Yusuf Agung Gunanto & Tri Wahyu & Jaka Aminata & Banatul Hayati, 2021. "Convergence CO2 Emission in ASEAN Countries: Augmented Green Solow Model Approach," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 11(5), pages 572-578.
    4. Pezzey, John C.V. & Burke, Paul J., 2014. "Towards a more inclusive and precautionary indicator of global sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 141-154.
    5. Strunz, Sebastian & Gawel, Erik & Lehmann, Paul & Söderholm, Patrik, 2015. "Policy convergence: A conceptual framework based on lessons from renewable energy policies in the EU," UFZ Discussion Papers 14/2015, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS).
    6. Huaide Wen & Jun Dai, 2021. "The Change of Sources of Growth and Sustainable Development in China: Based on the Extended EKC Explanation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-19, March.
    7. Chhavi Tiwari & Mrutyunjay Mishra, 2017. "Testing the CO2 Emissions Convergence: Evidence from Asian Countries," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 6(1), pages 67-72, January.
    8. Claire Alestra & Gilbert Cette & Valérie Chouard & Rémy Lecat, 2024. "How can technology significantly contribute to climate change mitigation?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(41), pages 4925-4937, September.
    9. Sjak Smulders & Lucas Bretschger & Hannes Egli, 2005. "Economic growth and the diffusion of clean technologies : explaining environmental Kuznets," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 05/42, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    10. Sabuj Kumar Mandal & Devleena Chakravarty, 2017. "Role of energy in estimating turning point of Environmental Kuznets Curve: an econometric analysis of the existing studies," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 19(2), pages 387-401, October.
    11. Wan-Jiun Chen, 2017. "Is the Green Solow Model Valid for $$\hbox {CO}_{2}$$ CO 2 Emissions in the European Union?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 67(1), pages 23-45, May.
    12. Massimiliano Mazzanti & Roberto Zoboli, 2008. "Waste Generation, Incineration and Landfill Diversion. De-coupling Trends, Socio-Economic Drivers and Policy Effectiveness in the EU," Working Papers 2008.94, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    13. Prudence Dato, 2018. "Investment in Energy Efficiency, Adoption of Renewable Energy and Household Behavior: Evidence from OECD Countries," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    14. Mohamed Boly, 2018. "CO 2 mitigation in developing countries: the role of foreign aid," Working Papers halshs-01740881, HAL.
    15. Jin, Wei & Shi, Xunpeng & Zhang, Lin, 2021. "Energy transition without dirty capital stranding," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    16. Katsuyuki Shibayama & Iain Fraser, 2014. "Nonhomothetic Growth Models For The Environmental Kuznets Curve," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 55(3), pages 919-942, August.
    17. Wei Jin & ZhongXiang Zhang, 2016. "China's pursuit of environmentally sustainable development: Harnessing the new engine of technological innovation," CCEP Working Papers 1601, Centre for Climate & Energy Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    18. Maswabi, Mareledi Gina & Chun, Jungwoo & Chung, Suh-Yong, 2021. "Barriers to energy transition: A case of Botswana," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    19. Guilherme De Oliveira & Deise Bourscheidt, 2016. "Convergência Multissetorial Na Emissão De Gases Do Efeito Estufa," Anais do XLIII Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 43rd Brazilian Economics Meeting] 182, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    20. Fernández, Esther & Pérez, Rafaela & Ruiz, Jesús, 2012. "The environmental Kuznets curve and equilibrium indeterminacy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 1700-1717.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    environment; carbon emissions; energy transition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q42 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Alternative Energy Sources
    • Q47 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Energy Forecasting
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

    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:ses:arsjes:2014-i-2. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Kurt Schmidheiny (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sgvssea.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.