• Extreme Weather, Economics and the Arctic

    Last Friday, the Guardian published a short piece by two colleagues and me in its EcoAudit, “Why has British weather been so bad?” Here is the complete piece that we sent to the Guardian, which includes a bit more about the scientific programme which is just starting to try to understand and better model the…

  • We need a strong and sustained carbon price to combat climate change

    In Business Green last week Tom Burke argued that a narrow cost-benefit analysis and an obsession with carbon pricing is steering politicians away from the action climate change demands, but he appears to misunderstand what he is criticising. It is unfortunate that he should state “We have a very precise idea of what constitutes climate…

  • What Matt Ridley won’t tell you about climate change impacts

    Matt Ridley has a short piece in this week’s Spectator entitled Why climate change is good for the world. In it, he draws heavily on one paper by the Climate Economist Richard Tol, claiming that this paper supports his view that climate change would be beneficial. Let’s leave aside for now that Tol is careful to…

  • ‘An evidence-based approach to pricing CO2’ could benefit from some evidence

    The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) is a think-tank associated with noted climate dissentient Lord Lawson. So it is somewhat surprising to see it publishing a paper arguing for a carbon tax today. Most of the paper, by Ross McKitrick, is a standard and sound statement of the reasons why economists tend to favour a…

  • How much will the world benefit from Obama’s climate plan?

    On 25 June 2013, President Obama made a major speech on climate change whose over-arching goal was to put the US on track to meet its commitment to cut carbon emissions 17% from 2005 levels by the end of the decade. It is by no means clear that the plan will succeed in this aim, but…

  • Is the US China HFC deal a big deal for the climate?

    The BBC today reported a new US China deal to phase out HFCs, and claimed that it ‘could, by itself, curb global temperatures by 0.5 degrees Celsius. No small achievement.’ The White House press release says the deal could ‘potentially reduce some 90 gigatons of CO2 equivalent by 2050, equal to roughly two years worth of current global…