Climate Policy and Nonrenewable Resources - 9780262027885

Recent developments suggest that well-intended climate policies--including carbontaxes and subsidies for renewable energy -- might not accomplish what policy makers intend.Hans-Werner Sinn has described a "green paradox," arguing that these policies could hastenglobal warming by encouraging owners of fossil fuel reserves to increase their extraction rates forfear that their reserves will become worthless. In this volume, economists investigate the empiricaland theoretical support for the green paradox.

Offering detailed and rigorousanalyses of the forces and assumptions driving Sinn's argument, the contributors consider whetherrising carbon tax rates inevitably speed up climate change; the effects of the design of resourcemarkets, the availability of clean substitutes, and the development of new technologies; and theempirical evidence (or lack thereof) for the green paradox result. They consider extraction costs;sustainability and innovation; timing, announcement effects, and time consistency in relation topolicy measures; and empirical results for the green paradox phenomena under several alternativepolicy measures.

ContributorsJulien Daubanes, Corrado DiMaria, Carolyn Fischer, Florian Habermacher, Michael Hoel, Darko Jus, Gebhard Kirchgassner, IanLange, Pierre Lasserre, Volker Meier, Karen Pittel, Stephen Salant, Frank Stähler, Gerard van derMeijden, Frederick van der Ploeg, Edwin van der Werf, Ngo Van Long, Ralph A. Winter, CeesWithagen