{"id":95076,"date":"2017-07-10T12:00:27","date_gmt":"2017-07-10T11:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=95076"},"modified":"2017-07-05T18:03:16","modified_gmt":"2017-07-05T17:03:16","slug":"trump-and-the-truth-about-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/07\/trump-and-the-truth-about-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump and the Truth about Climate Change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tell Donald Trump: The Paris Climate Deal Is Very Good for America – Trump argues the treaty is unfair to the US but it is America that continues to impose an unfair burden on others.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

\u2018Global warming is real and is being caused by humans, mainly by burning coal, oil, petrol and natural gas, which puts carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere.\u2019
Photograph: Phil Noble\/Reuters<\/p><\/div>\n

2 Jul 2017<\/em> \u2013 Under President Donald Trump\u2019s leadership, the United States took another major step toward establishing itself as a rogue state on June 1, when it withdrew from the Paris climate agreement. For years, Trump has indulged the strange conspiracy theory that, as he put it<\/a> in 2012, \u201cThe concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive.\u201d But this was not the reason Trump advanced for withdrawing the US from the Paris accord. Rather, the agreement, he alleged, was bad for the US and implicitly unfair to it.<\/p>\n

While fairness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, Trump\u2019s claim is difficult to justify. On the contrary, the Paris accord is very good for America, and it is the US that continues to impose an unfair burden on others.<\/p>\n

Historically, the US has added disproportionately to the rising concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and among large countries it remains the biggest per capita<\/em> emitter <\/a>of carbon dioxide by far \u2013 more than twice China\u2019s rate and nearly 2.5 times more than Europe in 2013 (the latest year for which the World Bank has reported complete data). With its high income, the US is in a far better position to adapt to the challenges of climate change than poor countries like India and China, let alone a low-income country in Africa.<\/p>\n

In fact, the major flaw in Trump\u2019s reasoning is that combating climate change would strengthen the US, not weaken it. Trump is looking toward the past \u2013 a past that, ironically, was not that great. His promise to restore coal-mining jobs (which now number 51,000, less than 0.04% of the country\u2019s nonfarm employment) overlooks the harsh conditions and health risks endemic in that industry, not to mention the technological advances that would continue to reduce employment in the industry even if coal production were revived.<\/p>\n

In fact, far more jobs are being created in solar panel installation than are being lost in coal. More generally, moving to a green economy would increase US income today and economic growth in the future. In this, as in so many things, Trump is hopelessly mired in the past.<\/p>\n

Just a few weeks before Trump\u2019s decision to withdraw from the Paris accord, the global High-Level Commission on Carbon Prices, which I co-chaired with Nicholas Stern<\/a>, highlighted the potential of a green transition. The Commission\u2019s report<\/a>, released at the end of May, argues that reducing CO2<\/sub> emissions could result in an even stronger economy.<\/p>\n

The logic is straightforward. A key problem holding back the global economy today is deficient aggregate demand. At the same time, many countries\u2019 governments face revenue shortfalls. But we can address both issues simultaneously and reduce emissions by imposing a charge (a tax) for CO2<\/sub> emissions.<\/p>\n

It is always better to tax bad things than good things. By taxing CO2<\/sub>, firms and households would have an incentive to retrofit for the world of the future. The tax would also provide firms with incentives to innovate in ways that reduce energy usage and emissions \u2013 giving them a dynamic competitive advantage.<\/p>\n

The Commission analyzed the level of carbon price that would be required to achieve the goals set forth in the Paris climate agreement \u2013 a far higher price than in most of Europe today, but still manageable. The commissioners pointed out that the appropriate price may differ across countries. In particular, they noted, a better regulatory system \u2013 one that restrains coal-fired power generation, for example \u2013 reduces the burden that must be placed on the tax system.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, one of the world\u2019s best-performing economies, Sweden, has already adopted a carbon tax at a rate substantially higher than that discussed in our report. And the Swedes have simultaneously sustained their strong growth without US-level emissions.<\/p>\n

America under Trump has gone from being a world leader to an object of derision. In the aftermath of Trump\u2019s withdrawal of the US from the Paris accord, a large sign was hung over Rome\u2019s city hall: \u201cThe Planet First.\u201d Likewise, France\u2019s new president, Emmanuel Macron, poked fun at Trump\u2019s campaign slogan, declaring \u201cMake Our Planet Great Again.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the consequences of Trump\u2019s actions are no laughing matter. If the US continues to emit as it has, it will continue to impose enormous costs on the rest of the world, including on much poorer countries. Those who are being harmed by America\u2019s recklessness are justifiably angry.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, large parts of the US, including the most economically dynamic regions, have shown that Trump is, if not irrelevant, at least less relevant than he would like to believe. Large numbers of states and corporations have announced that they will proceed with their commitments \u2013 and perhaps go even further, offsetting the failures of other parts of the US.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the world must protect itself against rogue states. Climate change poses an existential threat to the planet that is no less dire than that posed by North Korea\u2019s nuclear ambitions. In both cases, the world cannot escape the inevitable question: what is to be done about countries that refuse to do their part in preserving our planet?<\/p>\n

__________________________________________<\/p>\n

More:<\/em><\/p>\n

Trump’s reneging on Paris climate deal turns the US into a rogue state<\/a> – Joseph E. Stiglitz, 2 Jun 2017<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Joseph Eugene Stiglitz is an American economist and a professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the John Bates Clark Medal (1979). He is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank and is known for his critical view of the management of globalization, free-market economists (whom he calls “free market fundamentalists”), and some international institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.\u00a0Stiglitz is the author of <\/em>The Price of Inequality.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 project-syndicate.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tell Donald Trump: The Paris Climate Deal Is Very Good for America – Trump argues the treaty is unfair to the US but it is America that continues to impose an unfair burden on others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nobel-laureates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95076\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}