The Economics of Climate Change The world economy is a very complex system; in the system harmful externalities disrupt capital flows and determine economic productivity. Most notable of these externalities is inadvertent global warming. Spending towards research and regulation of climate change at both the national and international level are very important in determining current and future business trends. Economists and scientists worldwide continuously debate the pros and cons of emissions reduction and what consequences can quickly follow. Though many have different views on the issue, all can agree that the immediate and long term effects of climate change have become an economic matter of paramount importance. The sweeping impact from climate change will have important fiscal, financial, and macroeconomic ramifications that influence global commerce standards.
During the past several hundred years, civilization has made rapid progress in industries like air travel, automobiles, and energy production. These developments were made without consideration of the long-term effects that their emissions may have on the planet. Changing weather patterns are now wreaking havoc around the world,
Combating Climate Change: An Analysis of Emissions Mitigation Policies Implementing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions reduction policies is motivated by the occurrence of climate change and its projected damage to world economies, ecosystems and communities. Climate change is becoming increasingly urgent in the world sphere with its main cause being observed anthropogenic and thus certain mitigation and adaptation policies must be put in place to attempt to slow the current rate of warming and allow world economies to adapt to the already inevitable effects (Stern, 2006). The targets outlined in the Stern Review require an ideal abatement resulting in stabilised CO2 levels of 450 parts per million (ppm), which requires stronger mitigation on
Climate change and its link to increased terrorist activity will directly and indirectly affect the United States in the next ten years, while also laying the foundation for climate change to become one of the most pressing security challenges that the United States will face in the coming years. From
Parsa Khorramdin Ms. Haedtler AP Language and Composition Period 2 8 January 2015 Global Warming: An Immediate Crisis Climate change and global warming is a significant issue with severe climate, economical, and health consequences. Global warming will intensify our current weather extremes, dissolve our already depleting resources, lead to economic difficulties, lead to widespread diseases, and present future generations tremendous great difficulties. We should recognize climate change as an immediate crisis and respond to it by reducing our carbon emissions, focusing our efforts towards finding clean energy, and electing leaders that will address it as major concern. It is time for us to admit what we have done to the planet and take responsibility
Introduction We have all heard statistics over how unmitigated global warming can lead to rising sea levels, increased temperatures, lower rates of precipitation. The Congressional Budget Office recently found that climate change, if unmitigated, would create costly damage not only to the United States’s economy, but also to the world as a whole (source). Despite a scientific and general consensus that climate change is real and a problem, actual committed action against climate change has been disappointingly slow, until recently. We also know the cause of climate change. The United States EPA finds that “Carbon dioxide accounts for most of the nation’s emissions and most of the increase since 1990” (EPA). What we don’t know is a solution.
The 21st century has begun with one of the most challenge security threats to the United States of America have had to face. The perils of climate change have the ability to impact the national interest concerning power, prosperity and peace. The continued challenges around the world, and domestically, it is critical the US implements a comprehensive grand strategy. Cooperative security gives the US the best possibility to achieve the goals that will lessen the effects and place the US ahead of the international agenda. Combating climate change will require successful policies such as international climate pacts, collective-action and cap and trade initiatives. In the past, we have seen the US shy away from such accords worried about the
One of the great parts about wind energy is that it has a large amount of positives to the environment and hardly any negative effects. Because wind energy uses the wind for the energy there is no emissions generated from the energy produced. It is estimated that the use of
-- Eliot Spitzer "Global warming isn't a prediction. It is happening." -- James Hansen Climate change, specifically in reference to C02 Emissions released by human use of fossil fuels and their consequential effects on the environment, is perhaps one of the most pressing issues we, not just as Americans, but as human beings face in our lifetimes. Though it may sound like a sensationalist statement the facts are hard to deny. In May of 2013, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
U.S. policies towards climate change has continued to develop throughout the administrations of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and currently Barack Obama. In this paper I will focus specifically on Clinton. One of the Clinton administration’s main goals was to make the United States the global leader in protecting the environment. Throughout Clinton’s administration from 1993 to 2001, the ambitious goals of environmental protection had many highs and lows. The United States had to make decisions about how it would go about tackling climate change and what roles of other countries would play. There was opposition in congress about how the U.S. economy would fare with many of the ideas the Clinton administration was coming
Today, people in the United States and around the world face a changing climate that threatens our way of life. An increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather conditions poses a threat to food security, infrastructure and economic affluence. In the United States, climatologists from the United Nations project that a seven-degree Fahrenheit increase in average temperatures will cause more frequent droughts affecting agriculture in the Midwest and more severe and frequent tropical storms and hurricanes affecting major cities along both coasts (“Climate” 7). Addressing these issues will require rigorous cuts in greenhouse emissions. The implementation of a comprehensive economic policy that includes the use of cap-and-trade markets, carbon taxation, and clean energy subsidies is one step toward addressing the increasingly-critical issue of climate change.
In a poll taken in 2014 by Yale University, it was shown that one in five Americans don’t think global warming is happening. In another poll, one in four Americans think that global warming won’t harm future generations (Holthaus). Climate change is defined by Merriam-Webster as “the recent increase in the world's temperature that is believed to be caused by the increase of certain gases (such as carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere” ("Global Warming | Definition of Global Warming by Merriam-Webster"). During the ice ages, the levels of carbon dioxide in the air were 200 parts per million (ppm), in the warmer intergalactic periods, the levels stayed around 280 ppm, and in 2013, the level of CO2 passed 400 ppm for the first time in recorded history
Across 800,000 years of data of Earth’s atmosphere, carbon dioxide levels at record highs, and being added daily, have already begun disrupting established climate patterns and damaging ecosystems upon which nearly all living things depend (CTC). Tremendous and rapid reductions of carbon emissions in the United States, and developed nations around the world, are essential to avoid runaway climate damage and minimize severe weather events. Inundation of coastal cities and islands, infrastructure destruction, failure of agriculture and water supply, forced migrations, political upheavals, and international conflict are among the devastating and costly side effects of climate change, many of which have already begun to be seen (CTC). Enacting a transparent and equitable tax on carbon dioxide emissions is imperative to hand over a sustainable Earth and habitable climate for future generations. A robust tax on carbon would provide compelling incentives to reduce emissions and pollution through conservation, substitution, and innovation (Sutter). The carbon tax is also a crucial policy tool for achieving the “Intended Nationally Determined Contributions” (INDC’s) to which the 193 countries that signed the Paris Climate Agreement in December 2015 committed to in effort to prevent global warming from reaching two degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels (CTC).
Estimating future emissions is difficult, because it depends on demographic, economic, technological, policy, and institutional developments. Several emissions scenarios have been developed based on differing projections of these underlying factors. For example, by 2100, in the absence of emissions control policies, carbon dioxide concentrations are projected to be
As Earth 's population continues its rapid growth, natural resources will become increasingly strained. Conservative estimates predict the 2015 population of roughly 7 billion will increase to 11.2 billion by 2100, with undeveloped countries becoming increasingly developed (UN 2015). Historically, gross domestic product (GDP) has been used as a measure of development and has been positively correlated with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (IPCCC 2014). If this correlation holds true in the future development will further increase GHG emissions that contribute to climate change, which will add more pressure to an already strained natural resource supply. This paper attempts to quantify and simplify the perceived relationship between GHG emissions and GDP by conducting a linear regression. The correlation could be used to predict when GHG levels may reach destructive levels defined by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) under a business as usual approach with perceived growth in developing countries. A positive linear correlation was found between the natural logs of GDP as the independent variable and GHG emissions as the dependent variable, with every 1% increase in GPD being associated with a 0.79 % increase in GHG emissions.