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Global Warming And The Green Paradox: A Review Of Adverse Effects Of Climate Policies

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  • Rick Van der Ploeg
  • Cees Withagen

Abstract

This article examines the possible adverse effects of well-intended climate policies. A weak Green Paradox arises if the announcement of a future carbon tax or a sufficiently fast rising carbon tax encourages fossil fuel owners to extract reserves more aggressively, thus exacerbating global warming. We argue that such policies may also encourage more fossil fuel to be locked in the crust of the earth, which can offset the adverse effects of the weak Green Paradox. We show that a subsidy on clean renewables has similar weak Green Paradox effects. Green welfare (the complement of environmental damages) drops (i.e., the strong Green Paradox) if the beneficial climate effects of locking up more fossil fuel do not outweigh the short-run weak Green Paradox effects. Neither the weak nor the strong Green Paradox occurs for the first-best Pigouvian carbon tax. We also pay attention to dirty backstops, spatial carbon leakage and green innovation.

Suggested Citation

  • Rick Van der Ploeg & Cees Withagen, 2013. "Global Warming And The Green Paradox: A Review Of Adverse Effects Of Climate Policies," OxCarre Working Papers 116, Oxford Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies, University of Oxford.
    • Handle: RePEc:oxf:oxcrwp:116
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    fossil fuel; renewables; coal; economic growth; global warming; carbon tax; Green Paradox;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • Q31 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - Demand and Supply; Prices
    • Q38 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - Government Policy (includes OPEC Policy)

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