Cap and Trade Programs, and Climate-Friendly Innovation

March 14, 2007
Technological innovation in support of the environment will be a key component of the cost-effective mitigation of the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global climate change. In the current policy debate, political actors appear to have accepted, more or less without examination, the original expectation of economic theorists that cap-and-trade programs (CTPs), a type of emissions trading scheme, are more supportive of innovation than traditional environmental policy instruments. This talk will discuss how economic theory and empirical studies are starting to show mixed results on this issue. It will also characterize the innovation problem in climate change, explore the potential lessons for innovation that can be gleaned from the performance of existing air quality CTPs, and consider how various CTP design features under discussion could affect the innovation problem.

Category:

Education

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• CITRIS
• UCBerkeley
• Research
• Technology
• Engineering
• Science