Fast, Cheap, and Imperfect
Introduction:
Unmitigated climate change is extremely costly. Mitigation (the reduction of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions at the source) is the only prudent response. While upfront costs can be high, in the long run mitigation is relatively cheap and because it tackles the root cause of the problem, its benefits are permanent and transparent. However, because the effects of mitigation investments are subject to considerable physical and social inertia, they are slow to manifest. Moreover, effective mitigation requires overcoming the well-known “free rider” effect inherent in the most global of global commons problems.
Enter climate engineering in the form of planetary albedo modification, or Solar Radiation Management (SRM). Although it is both cheap and fast, SRM is clearly an imperfect method of countering climate change. Rather than addressing global warming’s root cause, it counteracts its effects with additional pollution.
Full text: “The Economics of Climate Engineering” (March 3, 2015)
Citation:
Moreno-Cruz, Juan B., Katharine L. Ricke, and Gernot Wagner. “The Economics of Climate Engineering.” In: Geoengineering our Climate?: Ethics, Politics and Governance. Routledge, edited by Jason J. Blackstock and Low Sean: p. 71-74 (2018). [Prior version published in: Geoengineering Our Climate Working Paper and Opinion Article Series (2015).]