- Consulting Editors
- [UNTITLED]
- List of Contributors
- The Macroeconomics of Global Warming
- Improving Climate Projections to Better Inform Climate Risk Management
- Energy Balance Climate Models, Damage Reservoirs, and The Time Profile of Climate Change Policy
- Economics of Environmental Regime Shifts
- Policy Scenarios in a Model of Optimal Economic Growth and Climate Change
- Adaptive Model-Predictive Climate Policies in a Multicountry Setting
- Prospects of Tools from Differential Games in the Study of Macroeconomics of Climate Change
- Fairness in Climate Negotiations: A Meta-Game Analysis Based on Community Integrated Assessment
- Climate Change and Second-Best Abatement in a Multiregion World with Endogenous Growth
- Global Warming and R&D-Based Growth in a Trade Model between Environmentally Sensitive and Environmentally Neglectful Countries
- Climate Change and Intergenerational Well-Being
- The Atmosphere as a Global Commons
- The Social Cost of Carbon
- Climate-Friendly Technological Change for Developing Countries
- Renewable Energy: Models, Implications, and Prospects
- Emission Trading Systems and Technological Innovation: A Random Matching Model
- The Reality of Nuclear Power: The Fukushima Experience and Its Impact
- Forecast-Based Pricing of Weather Derivatives
- Employment and Output Effects of Climate Policies
- Macroeconomic Effects of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Policies with a Focus on Germany
- Stabilization of Earth’s Climate in the 21st Century by the Stabilization of Per Capita Consumption
- Does the Kyoto Protocol Intensify Carbon Leakage to China?
- Climate Thresholds, Weather Extremes, and Catastrophic Losses
- Climate Impacts on Agriculture: A Challenge to Complacency?
- The Legal Framework of Global Environment Governance on Climate Change: A Critical Survey
- Environment and Development Challenges: The Imperative of a Carbon Fee and Dividend
- The Need for Sustainable Development and a Carbon Market: Avoiding Extinction
- Name Index
- Subject Index
Abstract and Keywords
This chapter discusses the importance of a carbon fee and dividend in minimizing the impacts of climate change on humanity and nature. Before outlining the policies needed to produce a rapid phase-out of fossil fuel emissions, it enumerates the fundamental flaws of the Kyoto Protocol from the standpoint of climate science. One flaw is the “cap” mechanism, which purports to reduce carbon emissions at the rate required to stabilize climate but fails to provide universal price signals that would reward efforts to reduce emissions. Another flaw concerns “offsets” that allow nations to limit reduction of fossil fuel emissions. This chapter argues that the Kyoto Protocol’s cap-and-trade-with-offsets approach must be abandoned and replaced with an approach that phases out fossil fuels in an economically efficient manner, such as utilizing carbon-free energy sources like renewable energy and nuclear power. Specifically, it proposes a flat (across-the-board) rising fee (tax) on carbon emissions. It also explains how such an approach may be implemented both nationally and internationally.
Keywords: cap mechanism, carbon dividend, carbon emissions, carbon fee, climate change, fossil fuel emissions, fossil fuels, Kyoto Protocol, offsets, renewable energy
James E. Hansen, Director, NASA Goddard Institute; Adjunct Professor, The Earth Institute, Columbia University.
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- Consulting Editors
- [UNTITLED]
- List of Contributors
- The Macroeconomics of Global Warming
- Improving Climate Projections to Better Inform Climate Risk Management
- Energy Balance Climate Models, Damage Reservoirs, and The Time Profile of Climate Change Policy
- Economics of Environmental Regime Shifts
- Policy Scenarios in a Model of Optimal Economic Growth and Climate Change
- Adaptive Model-Predictive Climate Policies in a Multicountry Setting
- Prospects of Tools from Differential Games in the Study of Macroeconomics of Climate Change
- Fairness in Climate Negotiations: A Meta-Game Analysis Based on Community Integrated Assessment
- Climate Change and Second-Best Abatement in a Multiregion World with Endogenous Growth
- Global Warming and R&D-Based Growth in a Trade Model between Environmentally Sensitive and Environmentally Neglectful Countries
- Climate Change and Intergenerational Well-Being
- The Atmosphere as a Global Commons
- The Social Cost of Carbon
- Climate-Friendly Technological Change for Developing Countries
- Renewable Energy: Models, Implications, and Prospects
- Emission Trading Systems and Technological Innovation: A Random Matching Model
- The Reality of Nuclear Power: The Fukushima Experience and Its Impact
- Forecast-Based Pricing of Weather Derivatives
- Employment and Output Effects of Climate Policies
- Macroeconomic Effects of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Policies with a Focus on Germany
- Stabilization of Earth’s Climate in the 21st Century by the Stabilization of Per Capita Consumption
- Does the Kyoto Protocol Intensify Carbon Leakage to China?
- Climate Thresholds, Weather Extremes, and Catastrophic Losses
- Climate Impacts on Agriculture: A Challenge to Complacency?
- The Legal Framework of Global Environment Governance on Climate Change: A Critical Survey
- Environment and Development Challenges: The Imperative of a Carbon Fee and Dividend
- The Need for Sustainable Development and a Carbon Market: Avoiding Extinction
- Name Index
- Subject Index
