Climate-Change Policy

About this book

The threat posed by climate change has not yet been matched by international agreements and economic policies that can deliver sharp reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions. Although the Kyoto Protocol has now been ratified by Russia and hence come into legal effect, the USA, China, and India are all outside its emissions caps. Few European countries are on course to meet their own national targets, and even if fully implemented, it is widely acknowledged that the Kyoto Protocol would make little difference to the carbon concentrations in the atmosphere. In consequence, there is a search for a post-Kyoto framework, new institutions, and new economic policies to spread the costs and meet them in an economically efficient way.

This volume provides an accessible overview of the economics of climate change, the policy options, and the scope for making significant carbon reductions.

Contents

1. Introduction; 2. Climate change policy: a survey; 3. Uncertainty and climate change policy; THE SOCIAL COST OF CARBON; 4. The social cost of carbon; 5. Climate change policy; 6. Climate change costs; TRADABLE PERMITS AND CARBON TAXES; 7. The tradable permits approach to protecting the commons; 8. Carbon trading in the policy mix; 9. Fiscal interactions and the case for carbon taxes over grandfathered carbon permits; INTERVENTIONS AND COMMAND AND CONTROL; 10. Renewables, technical progress and innovation; 11. Energy efficiency: the evidence; KYOTO AND AFTER; 12. Will Kyoto work?; 13. Alternatives to Kyoto; 14. After Kyoto: what to do next; INSTITUTIONAL DESIGN; 15. Credible carbon taxes; 16. The IPCC: its role and influence; 17. Whither climate-change policy?; 18. Integrated assessment models

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