by Professor Peter R. Hartley, Rice University, USA
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ENGLISH VERSION
SCE-Warning. We are publishing P. Hartley’s article, which demonstrates how the energy and climate sectors are intertwined, making it difficult to formulate coherent policies at a global level and particularly within the EU. This study also shows that the problems arise at both local and global levels. This is particularly true of CO₂, and the author proposes a new type of analysis which shows that solutions for managing the global reduction in CO₂ levels are far from straightforward, given the multitude of climatic phenomena and the uncertainties associated with them.
Articles in SCE have long emphasised that CO₂ is not a problem, but it seems to us that Hartley’s article should be useful for those concerned about CO₂.
Executive Summary [1]
Much discussion of climate policy is based on a narrow framing of climate change as a change in climate, thought of as a singular object independent of location, occurring only because of human emissions of greenhouse gases, especially CO2. This leads to the simple policy prescription of reducing global CO2 emissions.
The linked papers argue instead that climate policy has to allow for geographic diversity along several dimensions, source of extreme weather apart from an enhanced greenhouse effect, external effects of CO2 apart from any effects on local climates, public defensive measures to limit the costs or likelihood of extreme weather events, multiple uncertainties, and significant interactions between climate and energy policies. The technical paper’s core is a model that formalizes the trade-offs implied by these complexities.
Continuer la lecture de The Entanglement of Climate and Energy Policies
