Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Richard Murphy — The ‘economists’ have lost control of climate change


The neoliberal economists, that is. There is no "market solution" to existential threats that require mobilization of real resources to meet the emergent challenge.

Tax Research UK
The ‘economists’ have lost control of climate change
Richard Murphy

See also

Alex Tabarrok is aware that addressing climate change is a global effort, which some people in the US apparently overlook or minimize. A US GND would be a step in the right direction, but it is not the solution.

A single country, even the US with the largest economy, cannot do the job alone. It requires concerted effort internationally. This involves sacrifice in not preferring the most expeditious and least expensive energy sources in favor of developing and deploying sustainable energy, renewables in particular.

The scale of the challenge is enormous if contemporary living standards are to maintain an anywhere near the present level, especially in developed countries. Naturally, developing countries are trying to catch up, and they cannot be expected to shoulder most of the burden by further lowering their prospects.

What to do? Alex Tabarrok proposes buying up the coal mines with the intention of leaving the coal in the ground, for starters anyway.

While market-based solutions may not be sufficient to do the job, there is no reason to dismiss them completely either. A complement of tools is called for.

Marginal Revolution
Buy (or Rent) Coal! The Coasean Climate Change Policy
Alex Tabarrok | Bartley J. Madden Chair in Economics at the Mercatus Center and Professor of Economics at George Mason University, and a research fellow with the Mercatus Center

No comments: