|
Toward a New Climate Economics
The customary starting point for economic theory is a system of perfectly competitive markets; the challenge of climate change makes the traditional vision of perfect markets highly inappropriate. A world in which business as usual threatens to cause disaster in less than a century is not usefully modeled by theories in which stable, optimal equilibrium is the norm. Yet the notion that the market economy is or could easily be at equilibrium continues to permeate economic theory; market equilibrium is generally taken to be desirable, and implicitly assumed to be sustainable. If conventional theories of optimal market outcomes encourage a public policy of inaction on climate change, these theories may ironically hasten the arrival of a decidedly suboptimal, disequilibrium state of affairs.
Our research explores alternatives to conventional economy theory that address, among other subjects, the issue of inter- and intra-generational equity and the impossibility of monetizing priceless benefits. We are actively involved in the Economics for Equity and the Environment (E3) and its Climate Economics Taskforce. This group joins together professional economists from academia, think tanks, and NGOs for the purpose of establishing an integrated response to climate change that is firmly rooted both in science and in E3’s commitment to social justice.
The Economics of 350
Studies for Friends of The Earth, including a review of the Stern Review, and our first study of the costs of inaction
Can We Afford the Future? The Economics of a Warming World
Law & Economics for a Warming World
Climate Change & Human Health
The Economics of Inaction
Review of Lomborg’s Cool It!
Read more about GDAE's work on the Economics of Climate Change
|
