>> @grist economic case for climate action

grist Grist.org

Building the economic case for climate action http://ow.ly/4MvL3

http://www.grist.org/


by Kristen Sheeran

The economists who convened view climate change as a civilizational challenge that demands immediate action to protect the quality of human life today and in the future. They recognize that conventional economic thinking has failed to envision a way through the climate crisis, but believe firmly that economics can and must provide critical skills and insights. These economists take as their starting points:

• The role of economics is not to determine the optimal level of emissions reduction. Emissions goals should be informed by the best and latest scientific information and motivated by our moral obligations to future generations.


• The tools and insights of economics are most appropriate to the complex and intellectually challenging tasks of determining least-cost strategies for achieving those targets, designing policies that effectively and with confidence meet those targets, identifying the potential economic impacts of failing to meet those targets and sharing responsibility fairly for the costs, and implementation of that strategy.


• Economic analysis of climate change and solutions necessarily intertwines scientific fact and values. Economists should be open and explicit about the viewpoints and values underlying their analysis.