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Quantifying Non-cooperative Climate Engineering

Author

Listed:
  • Johannes Emmerling

    (FEEM and CMCC)

  • Massimo Tavoni

    (Politecnico di Milano, FEEM and CMCC)

Abstract

The mismatch between actions to combat climate change, which are based on voluntary national initiatives of limited effort, and the recognition of the importance of global warming is growing. Climate engineering via solar radiation management has been proposed as a possible complement to traditional climate policies. However, climate engineering entails specific risks, including its governance. Free driving, the possibility of unilateral climate engineering to the detriment of other nations, has been recently proposed as a potentially powerful additional externality to the traditional free riding one (Weitzman, 2015). This paper provides the first quantitative evaluation of the risks of free driving. Our results indicate that in a strategic setting there is significant over-provision (by almost an order of magnitude) of climate engineering above what is socially optimal, resulting in a sub-optimal global climate. Regions with high climate change impacts, most notably India and developing Asia, deploy climate engineering at the expenses of other regions.

Suggested Citation

  • Johannes Emmerling & Massimo Tavoni, 2017. "Quantifying Non-cooperative Climate Engineering," Working Papers 2017.58, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    • Handle: RePEc:fem:femwpa:2017.58
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. repec:awi:wpaper:0644 is not listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Climate Engineering; Climate Governance; Free Driving; Climate Policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • 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

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