IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/renvpo/v9y2015i2p239-245..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Introductory Comment–The Green Paradox: A Supply-Side View of the Climate Problem

Author

Listed:
  • Hans-Werner Sinn

Abstract

Why have policies aimed at reducing the demand for carbon not succeeded in slowing down global carbon extraction and CO2 emissions, and why have carbon prices failed to increase over the last three decades? This comment argues that this is because of the Green Paradox, that is, the anticipation of sales by resource owners who try to preempt the destruction of their markets by green policies. Reviewing some of the conditions under which strong and weak versions of the Green Paradox may emerge, it is argued that there is little hope that green replacement technologies will impose hard price constraints that would keep long-run extraction within a fixed carbon budget and that, therefore, even strong versions of the paradox cannot easily be avoided.

Suggested Citation

  • Hans-Werner Sinn, 2015. "Introductory Comment–The Green Paradox: A Supply-Side View of the Climate Problem," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 9(2), pages 239-245.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:renvpo:v:9:y:2015:i:2:p:239-245.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/reep/rev011
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Frederick van der Ploeg & Cees Withagen, 2015. "Global Warming and the Green Paradox: A Review of Adverse Effects of Climate Policies," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 9(2), pages 285-303.
    2. Svenn Jensens & Kristina Mohlin & Karen Pittel & Thomas Sterner, 2015. "An Introduction to the Green Paradox: The Unintended Consequences of Climate Policies," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 9(2), pages 246-265.
    3. Ngo Van Long, 2015. "The Green Paradox in Open Economies: Lessons from Static and Dynamic Models," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 9(2), pages 266-284.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Peña, Juan Ignacio & Rodríguez, Rosa, 2019. "Are EU's Climate and Energy Package 20-20-20 targets achievable and compatible? Evidence from the impact of renewables on electricity prices," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 477-486.
    2. Geoffrey Heal, 2022. "Economic Aspects of the Energy Transition," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 83(1), pages 5-21, September.
    3. Elizabeth Baldwin & Yongyang Cai & Karlygash Kuralbayeva, 2018. "To Build or Not to Build? Capital Stocks and Climate Policy," CESifo Working Paper Series 6884, CESifo.
    4. Foster, Edward & Contestabile, Marcello & Blazquez, Jorge & Manzano, Baltasar & Workman, Mark & Shah, Nilay, 2017. "The unstudied barriers to widespread renewable energy deployment: Fossil fuel price responses," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 258-264.
    5. Martin Zapf & Hermann Pengg & Christian Weindl, 2019. "How to Comply with the Paris Agreement Temperature Goal: Global Carbon Pricing According to Carbon Budgets," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-20, August.
    6. Juan Ignacio Pe~na & Rosa Rodriguez, 2022. "Are EU Climate and Energy Package 20-20-20 targets achievable and compatible? Evidence from the impact of renewables on electricity prices," Papers 2202.01720, arXiv.org.
    7. Berger, Johannes & Strohner, Ludwig & Thomas, Tobias, 2020. "Klimainstrumente im Vergleich: Herausforderungen in Hinblick auf ökologische, ökonomische und soziale Nachhaltigkeit," Policy Notes 39, EcoAustria – Institute for Economic Research.
    8. Dominique Bureau & Alain Quinet & Katheline Schubert, 2020. "Cost-Benefit Analysis For Climate Action," Policy Papers 2020.03, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    9. Baldwin, Elizabeth & Cai, Yongyang & Kuralbayeva, Karlygash, 2017. "Build Today, Regret Tomorrow? Infrastructure and Climate Policy," Conference papers 332887, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    10. Parton, Lee C. & Dundas, Steven J., 2020. "Fall in the sea, eventually? A green paradox in climate adaptation for coastal housing markets," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    11. Frederick Ploeg, 2023. "Fiscal Costs of Climate Policies: Role of Tax, Political, and Behavioural Distortions," De Economist, Springer, vol. 171(2), pages 119-137, June.
    12. Baldwin, Elizabeth & Cai, Yongyang & Kuralbayeva, Karlygash, 2020. "To build or not to build? Capital stocks and climate policy∗," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    13. Marie-Catherine Riekhof & Johannes Bröcker, 2017. "Does The Adverse Announcement Effect Of Climate Policy Matter? — A Dynamic General Equilibrium Analysis," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 8(02), pages 1-34, May.
    14. Garth Day & Creina Day, 2022. "The supply-side climate policy of decreasing fossil fuel tax profiles: can subsidized reserves induce a green paradox?," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 173(3), pages 1-19, August.
    15. Peszko,Grzegorz & Van Der Mensbrugghe,Dominique & Golub,Alexander Alexandrovich, 2020. "Diversification and Cooperation Strategies in a Decarbonizing World," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9315, The World Bank.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Buchholz Wolfgang & Heindl Peter, 2015. "Ökonomische Herausforderungen des Klimawandels," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 16(4), pages 324-350, December.
    2. Fischer, Carolyn & Salant, Stephen W., 2017. "Balancing the carbon budget for oil: The distributive effects of alternative policies," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 191-215.
    3. Foster, Edward & Contestabile, Marcello & Blazquez, Jorge & Manzano, Baltasar & Workman, Mark & Shah, Nilay, 2017. "The unstudied barriers to widespread renewable energy deployment: Fossil fuel price responses," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 258-264.
    4. Johannes Pfeiffer, 2017. "Fossil Resources and Climate Change – The Green Paradox and Resource Market Power Revisited in General Equilibrium," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 77.
    5. Marz, Waldemar & Pfeiffer, Johannes, 2020. "Petrodollar recycling, oil monopoly, and carbon taxes," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    6. Jaakkola, Niko & van der Ploeg, Frederick, 2019. "Non-cooperative and cooperative climate policies with anticipated breakthrough technology," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 42-66.
    7. Ghodeswar, Archana & Oliver, Matthew E., 2022. "Trading one waste for another? Unintended consequences of fly ash reuse in the Indian electric power sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    8. Ngo Van Long, 2015. "The Green Paradox in Open Economies: Lessons from Static and Dynamic Models," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 9(2), pages 266-284.
    9. Alena Miftakhova & Clément Renoir, 2021. "Economic Growth and Equity in Anticipation of Climate Policy," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 21/355, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    10. Frederick van der Ploeg & Cees Withagen, 2015. "Global Warming and the Green Paradox: A Review of Adverse Effects of Climate Policies," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 9(2), pages 285-303.
    11. Svenn Jensens & Kristina Mohlin & Karen Pittel & Thomas Sterner, 2015. "An Introduction to the Green Paradox: The Unintended Consequences of Climate Policies," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 9(2), pages 246-265.
    12. Orlov, Anton, 2016. "Effects of higher domestic gas prices in Russia on the European gas market: A game theoretical Hotelling model," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 188-199.
    13. Don Grant & Tyler Hansen & Andrew Jorgenson & Wesley Longhofer, 2024. "A worldwide analysis of stranded fossil fuel assets’ impact on power plants’ CO2 emissions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    14. Marc Gronwald & Ngo Long & Luise Roepke, 2017. "Simultaneous Supplies of Dirty Energy and Capacity Constrained Clean Energy: Is There a Green Paradox?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 68(1), pages 47-64, September.
    15. Yasuhiro Nakamoto & Akihiko Yanase, 2022. "Pollution externalities and corrective taxes in a dynamic small open economy," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 29(3), pages 667-703, June.
    16. Marz, Waldemar & Pfeiffer, Johannes, 2023. "Fossil resource market power and capital markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    17. Waldemar Marz, 2019. "Complex dimensions of climate policy: the role of political economy, capital markets, and urban form," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 85.
    18. Carrilho-Nunes, Inês & Catalão-Lopes, Margarida, 2022. "The effects of environmental policy and technology transfer on GHG emissions: The case of Portugal," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 255-264.
    19. Marc GRONWALD & Ngo Van LONG & Luise ROEPKE, 2017. "Three Degrees of Green Paradox: The Weak, The Strong, and the Extreme Green Paradox," Cahiers de recherche 02-2017, Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en économie quantitative, CIREQ.
    20. Gustav Engström & Johan Gars, 2016. "Climatic Tipping Points and Optimal Fossil-Fuel Use," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 65(3), pages 541-571, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:renvpo:v:9:y:2015:i:2:p:239-245.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aereeea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.