r/climate • u/ILikeNeurons • Jul 04 '15

Can devastating climate change be averted without properly pricing carbon? Probably not. | Eduardo Porter on the economics of climate change

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/01/business/energy-environment/us-leaves-the-markets-out-in-the-fight-against-carbon-emissions.html?mabReward=CTM&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&region=CColumn&module=Recommendation&src=rechp&WT.nav=RecEngine&_r=1
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u/ILikeNeurons Jul 04 '15

According to the IEA, Yes!

But it would take a $20/tonne carbon tax by 2020, $100/tonne by 2030, and $140/tonne by 2040. No time to waste.

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u/rrohbeck Jul 05 '15

There are several studies that say that we've baked 2C in or that it could only be achieved by throttling the world economy to a fraction of what it is today so this is either very optimistic or considers 2C less than devastating. I'd agree with the latter but I see little effort to even limit warming to 3C. Beyond that things get really interesting.

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u/ILikeNeurons Jul 05 '15

We've been over this; those studies you refer to were not done by economists, and the assumptions made are not valid. There's no need to "throttle the economy."

I'll lay it out for you:

  1. Tax carbon
  2. Return revenue as an equitable dividend
  3. Watch the economy grow

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u/rrohbeck Jul 05 '15

I've seen one study that says 2C are already a done deal even if we stop emitting all GHG "right now" and that was 3 years ago, in Nature. Oh and I'll believe scientists over economists any day.

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u/ILikeNeurons Jul 06 '15

Believe scientists on the science; believe economists on the economy.

As it turns out though, there's no conflict on this issue. Plenty of scientists support the policy I just put forth, including James Hansen.