Energy, the Environment, and Technological Change

David Popp, Richard Newell and Adam Jaffe

Chapter Chapter 21 in Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, 2010, vol. 2, pp 873-937 from Elsevier

Abstract: Within the field of environmental economics, the role of technological change has received much attention. The long-term nature of many environmental problems, such as climate change, makes understanding the evolution of technology an important part of projecting future impacts. Moreover, in many cases, environmental problems cannot be addressed, or can only be addressed at great cost, using existing technologies. Providing incentives to develop new environmentally friendly technologies then becomes a focus of environmental policy. This chapter reviews the literature on technological change and the environment. Our goals are to introduce technological change economists to how the lessons of the economics of technological change have been applied in the field of environmental economics, and suggest ways in which scholars of technological change could contribute to the field of environmental economics.

Keywords: climate change; diffusion; energy efficiency; induced innovation; pollution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O30 Q53 Q54 Q55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (229)

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Working Paper: Energy, the Environment, and Technological Change (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:haechp:v2_873

DOI: 10.1016/S0169-7218(10)02005-8

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