Steering the climate system: an extended comment

Linus Mattauch, Cameron Hepburn, Richard Millar, Frederick (Rick) van der Ploeg, Armon Rezai, Anselm Schultes, Frank Venmans, Nico Bauer, Simon Dietz, Ottmar Edenhofer, Niall Farrell, Gunnar Luderer, Jacquelyn Pless, Fiona Spuler, Nicholas Stern and Alexander Teytelboym

INET Oxford Working Papers from Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford

Abstract: Lemoine and Rudik (2017) argue that it is efficient to delay reducing carbon emissions, because there is substantial inertia in the climate system. However, this conclusion rests upon misunderstanding the relevant climate physics: there is no substantial lag between CO2 emissions and warming, which policy could rely upon. Applying a mainstream climate physics model to the economics of Lemoine and Rudik (2017) invalidates the article's implications for climate policy: the cost-effective carbon price that limits warming to a range of targets including 2◦C starts high and increases at the interest rate.

JEL-codes: H23 Q54 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2018-12
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.inet.ox.ac.uk/files/Physics_matters_WP.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Steering the Climate System: An Extended Comment (2018)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:amz:wpaper:2018-17

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in INET Oxford Working Papers from Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by INET Oxford admin team ().