New MIT paper corroborates narrative that 100% renewable pathway would probably be more expensive than incorporating other low-carbon sources. For strident climate hawks this might raise the question: why do we care so much about costs? 1. news.mit.edu/2018/adding-po…
After all, no policy is ever 100% cost-effective. Society has always tolerated some inefficiency, to a large extent because democratic politics requires messy compromises. 2.
But aiming to achieve cost-efficiency asymptotically, striving towards but while knowing we will never reach it, is still a worthwhile thing to do and there are good reasons that price-insensitive climate hawks should care about cost-efficiency. 3.
For one, the costs of climate mitigation are typically regressive, hurting those who spend a larger portion of income on energy, meaning that low-cost policies will alleviate potential inequities. 4.
Second, the extent to which electricity decarbonization raises power prices can hamper our efforts to decarbonize other sectors. The competitiveness of EVs compared to internal combustion engine vehicles in particular suffers as we raise power prices. 5.
The same goes for heating and cooling, and other sectors (certain industries) that we may want to electrify, as a lot of decarbonization scenarios suggest we should. 6.
There is also the argument that the higher the costs, the harder it is to pass climate legislation. This one is not necessarily true as it matters who bears the costs rather than how high the costs are. But all else being equal, high costs make legislation harder. 7.
Some would also say that if you think of it as a budget of money to spend, a more cost-effective policy gives you more decarbonization for the same buck. I am not sure I agree with that logic because climate policy making is rarely based around a fixed budget to start with. 8.
In sum, cost-effectiveness is not just some artifact of an economist's model-land (read, dreamland). There are pure reasons of equity and environmental effectiveness for which we should care about costs.
Finally, credit to the authors @nsepulvedam and @JesseJenkins. Don't miss the summary thread here: .
