In this category of articles, we examine governments’ attempts to solve the problem of climate change using legislation, either attempting to encourage the development of new ‘green’ technology, or reducing emissions by placing caps on industries, or by changing individuals’ behaviour.
According to policy recommendations to the UK government published by the UK Climate Change Committee (CCC), between 53 and 62 per cent of the UK’s emissions reductions will come from behaviour change. Though many green advocates say that green technology will offer like-for-like replacements for applications that have been made possible by energy from hydrocarbon… Read More »Behaviour Change & Nudge
Critics of green policy have argued that renewable energy is a departure from the understanding that society and a robust economy requires energy to be abundant, reliable and affordable. After many years of experimental green policy throughout Europe, there exists a good case that renewable energy has created energy scarcity, unreliability and increased costs. Advocates… Read More »Consumer Rationing & Dynamic Pricing
The UK government was one of the first to implement a ‘legally-binding’ emissions reduction target. In 2008, the Climate Change Act committed the country to an 80 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050, based on 1990s levels. This target was amended in 2019, to the ‘Net Zero’ target of effectively 100 per cent… Read More »Emissions Reduction Targets
According to environmental economics, global warming and its consequences are an ‘externality’ – a cost incurred by society, which is not included in the price of fossil fuels. In order to correct this failure, various ideas have been proposed and implemented as policy, which bring this cost back into the price. By adding to the… Read More »Emissions-Trading Schemes & Carbon Taxes
One of the most controversial aspects of climate policy has been the use of producer subsidies to drive the decarbonisation of the UK’s power sector. Much of this part of the green agenda has been motivated by the belief that policy can in turn drive investment and innovation. Discussions in Parliament about the reform of the UK’s… Read More »Energy Subsidies
In recent years, green campaigners have attempted to use financial markets to accelerate the decarbonisation of the economy. In the view of campaigners, this does not require the intervention of politics as such, but many jurisdictions including the UK, EU and USA have attempted to bring Environmental, Social and corporate Governance (ESG) principles into legislation.… Read More »Financial regulation, ESG
The argument for radical climate policies is often based on the claim that climate change is having an impact on the world’s capacity to support industrial agriculture. According to Extinction Rebellion founders Roger Hallam and Gail Bradbrook, billions of people are going to starve, and survivors will have to resort to cannibalism. Both claim that their fears… Read More »Agriculture and Food
Similar to their claims about poverty, many climate policy advocates argue that conflict is driven by climate change. But again, the data pertaining to this hypothesis does not show it to have a solid basis in reality. Data shows that the world entered a much more peaceful phase at the end of the 1980s – when the… Read More »Conflict
It has long been assumed that higher temperatures cause a rise in the incidence of infectious disease. For example, some arguments claim that global warming will increase the range of mosquitos that carry viruses and parasites (e.g. malaria), and cause food to foul, leading to diarrheal diseases. But across the world, even in the poorest… Read More »Infectious Diseases