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International Agreements/Politics ArchivesBreakthrough Responds: Why Carbon Pricing Won't Cut It
In the real world, the American polity and the American market are not ready for a tough carbon price. The best way to respond to the climate challenge right now is to massively expand the role of the federal government in researching, developing, and deploying clean technology.
This is a response to Max Epstein's guest post, "In Defense of Carbon Pricing: Why Clean Energy RD&D Isn't Enough." Our response is written by Breakthrough Generation fellow Zach Arnold. Before anything else, I want to thank Max for his thoughtful post. His arguments have been a big help in clarifying our own thinking. In my response, I'm going to try to define the problem we're trying to solve, and clarify the differences I see between a carbon price driven regime (as Max advocates) and an investment-led regime (as we're more fond of at Breakthrough). I'm then going to explore the political feasibility of a carbon price, and what a politically sustainable carbon price can and can't do to address climate change. In doing so, I hope to show that, for now, we can't rely on carbon pricing to drive the shift to a clean energy economy. Continue reading "Breakthrough Responds: Why Carbon Pricing Won't Cut It" » Guest Post: In Defense of Carbon Pricing: Why Clean RD&D Isn't Enough
If we don't price the externality cost of carbon, we won't need breakthroughs, we'll need miracles.
We've asked our friend, UMD student, and occasional Washington Post editorialist Max Epstein to contribute his thoughts on carbon pricing to the blog. Our response, by Breakthrough Generation Fellow Zach Arnold, is here. In the wake of the failed Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, there has been a widespread reevaluation of whether Cap & Trade is the most effective strategy to avert catastrophic climate change. At first many promoted a carbon tax instead, but recently there has been a call to reconsider the central focus on pricing carbon itself. Following Lieberman-Warner's abrupt death in the Senate, Michael Shellenberger wrote that the new way forward should focus on making renewable energy cheap, not polluting sources expensive. In "Scrap Kyoto," Shellenberger and Nordhaus call for a massive public investment in clean technology research and deployment. Joseph Romm in Nature calls for massive subsidized deployment of existing renewable technology, relegating R&D to the "longer-term effort aimed at a new generation of technologies for the emissions reduction effort after 2040." However, such efforts would be insufficient without a price on carbon as well. Continue reading "Guest Post: In Defense of Carbon Pricing: Why Clean RD&D Isn't Enough" » Breaking Through the Stalemate
At the latest round negotiations, the G8 nations are at a classic standstill over a post-Kyoto international climate agreement framework. The United States does not want to commit to anything serious unless China and India also do so, and China and India won't move until the United States does. So what will break through the stalemate?
By Frank N. Laird, Breakthrough Senior Fellow "There is chaos under heaven, and the situation is excellent." |
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