Gute Industriepolitik ebnet den Weg zu effektiven CO2-Preisen
Es gibt handfeste Gründe dafür, effizienten Technologien zum Durchbruch zu verhelfen.
Writing
My columns, essays, books, as well as research and teaching materials like case studies.
The Best Climate Policy Puts Carrots Before Sticks
Economists have long insisted that the only way to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases rapidly and at scale is to put a price on them. But while that is true, the key to a successful, politically sustainable climate policy is to ensure that the benefits precede the costs.
Tipping Carbon
Going, Going, Gone?
Don’t Slam the Door on Inexpensive Chinese Electric Vehicles
by Gernot Wagner & Conor Walsh
Averting Climate Catastrophe Requires Economic Growth
Improving energy efficiency is not enough for advocates of degrowth, who espouse energy sufficiency as the best way to fight climate change. But their argument is absurd: using limited inputs more efficiently is the definition of economic productivity – which, in turn, boosts growth.
The Right Response to China’s Electric-Vehicle Subsidies
by Gernot Wagner & Shang-Jin Wei
What Does Trump Mean for the Climate?
Even if Donald Trump defeats President Joe Biden and tries to take a wrecking ball to US climate and environmental policies, he ultimately would be powerless to derail the inevitable renewables revolution that is gaining momentum worldwide. His anti-climate agenda would be another wall that never gets built.
The Ukraine War Blew Up the World’s Energy Economy
And the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act is surprisingly well-designed to deal with the fallout.
Supply, demand and polarization challenges facing US climate policies
by Matthew G. Burgess, Leaf Van Boven, Gernot Wagner, Gabrielle Wong-Parodi et al
How to Assess the Outcome of COP28
Given that this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference was hosted by a petrostate and led by a fossil-fuel CEO, climate campaigners understandably had low expectations. Yet the summit did deliver some new commitments, and there is good reason to think that they are more than just empty words.
What Steel Decarbonization Needs
It is both technically possible and economically feasible to eliminate almost all the carbon dioxide from iron and steel production by mid-century, thus cleaning up an industry that accounts for 10% of global emissions. But progress will not happen without a concerted policy push.
How China Can Save the World – and Itself
by Gernot Wagner & Conor Walsh
Taming Carbon
When the Price Is Right
The Green Growth Mindset
Heated academic debates between proponents and opponents of traditional economic growth under capitalism might make for good television, but they offer little in the way of solutions. Climate change demands that we achieve both growth and degrowth, depending on the activity and economic sector in question.
Carbon Capture and Delay
As long as coal plants are still operating, it is a good idea to require them capture their carbon dioxide emissions. But those designing policies to hasten such practices must tread carefully, lest they unwittingly extend the life of dirtier energy sources.
What the Climate Fight Is Really About
Hint: It's about minimizing risks and uncertainties.
There’s Only One Way to Fix New York’s Traffic Gridlock
by Charles Komanoff and Gernot Wagner
How to Think About Climate-Tech Solutions
To think that technology will save us from climate change is to invite riskier behavior, or moral hazard. Whether a climate technology creates new problems has little to do with the solution, and everything to do with us.