Steering the Climate System: Using Inertia to Lower the Cost of Policy: Comment
Name
aer.20190089.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
1.11 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
8d1e6f804c9c9c380b94ec6480c53420
Author(s)
Mattauch, Linus
Matthews, H. Damon
Millar, Richard
Rezai, Armon
Solomon, Susan
Venmans, Frank
Date Issued
April 2020
Journal
American Economic Review
Publisher
American Economic Association
Citation
Mattauch, Linus, et al. "Steering the Climate System: Using Inertia to Lower the Cost of Policy: Comment." American Economic Review, 110, 4 (April 2020): 1231-37.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Lemoine and Rudik (2017) argues that it is efficient to delay reducing carbon emissions, due to supposed inertia in the climate system's response to emissions. This conclusion rests upon misunderstanding the relevant earth system modeling: there is no substantial lag between CO2 emissions and warming. Applying a representation of the earth system that captures the range of responses seen in complex earth system models invalidates the original article's implications for climate policy. The least-cost policy path that limits warming to 2°C implies that the carbon price starts high and increases at the interest rate. It cannot rely on climate inertia to delay reducing and allow greater cumulative emissions.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemistry
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20190089
