Economics of climate change

I am tidying up my stack of interesting newspaper articles before going on vacations (and remaining offline!).

Here are several interesting pieces on the economics of climate change:

A. My colleague (and boss ;-) Christian Gollier points out (in French, but with graphs) that we are still emitting more and more carbon in the atmosphere, because the real progresses in the First World are overtaken by changes in the developing world. Here are the graphs:

1 - La consommation d'énergies propres est en augmentation... mais moins que celle des énergies fossiles

2 - L'intensité de la consommation en carbone n'a pas diminué depuis 1999

3 - La consommation mondiale de charbon atteint des records

4 - Les énergies propres sont en pleine expansion... mais ne représentent qu'une petite partie de la consommation

5 - Conclusion : les émissions de dioxyde de carbone sont toujours en expansion

Read more at http://www.atlantico.fr/decryptage/5-graphiques-pour-comprendre-quel-point-monde-echoue-maitriser-consommation-energies-christian-gollier-1629698.html#yY4rzRUtlGpcMMZ9.99


B. A nice piece showing all the potential downsides of natural gas in the US: although it has a smaller carbon footprint than coal, it often replaces nuclear energy, it is often burned off as a byproduct of oil fracking, it escapes unburned, it reduces the growth of wind energy, etc.

C. How the North- East of the US has cut emissions and enjoyed growth (no excuse anymore for the other US states not to join their cap-and-trade program then!)

D. How a recent deal between Russia and China to bring natural gas from the former to the latter has played out.

E. The challenges awaiting the US to reduce their emissions.

F. The climate scientist and campaigner James E. Hansen pressing the climate case for ... nuclear energy!

G. Carbon tax versus cap-and-trade in Australia.

H. The incredibly dumb German energy policy, attaining what is close to a Pareto worsening allocation.