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| -rw-r--r-- | bibliography.bib | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | chapter1.md | 15 |
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diff --git a/bibliography.bib b/bibliography.bib index 562fd2d..2fa3943 100644 --- a/bibliography.bib +++ b/bibliography.bib @@ -1,3 +1,14 @@ +@inbook{helm-2009, + title={Climate-change Policy}, + subtitle={Why has so Little been Achieved?}, + author={Helm, Dieter}, + pages={9--35}, + booktitle={The Economics and Politics of Climate Change}, + editor={Helm, Dieter and Hepburn, Cameron}, + publisher={Oxford University Press}, + address={Oxford}, +} + @book{reason-dark-time, title={Reason in a Dark Time}, author={Jamieson, Dale}, diff --git a/chapter1.md b/chapter1.md index fea3c99..d16ea24 100644 --- a/chapter1.md +++ b/chapter1.md @@ -481,6 +481,21 @@ can be achieved by anyone at all. Example 1: legally binding emissions targets. (Who's going to enforce them?) +The economist Dieter Helm has brilliantly summarised his scepticism of any +global agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions: + +> To name but a few of the problems: the allocation of responsibility for the +> existing stock of carbon in the atmosphere \[…\] is complex; carbon emissions +> per head are low in those countries most rapidly increasing their emissions; +> some countries (and, particularly, some countries' political élites) may +> actually benefit from climate change, and generally the effects vary greatly +> between countries; there are powerful—multidimensional—free-rider incentives; +> the measurement of emissions \[…\] is at best weak; and there are, at present, +> no serious enforcement mechanisms. It is hard to think of an international +> problem which lends itself less to a coherent, credible, and sufficiently +> robust and comprehensive general agreement. To put it in perspective, limiting +> nuclear proliferation is trivial by comparison. [@helm-2009] + Example 2: give free stuff to developing countries. (Who's going to pay for it? Who are you going to give it to?) |