1. I always enjoy being interviewed by my old friend Stu Ellis. He asked a great question here and I had a chance to revisit one my big themes on twitter for 2021: what is the tolerance of the voting public for costly carbon mitigation policies?
https://twitter.com/FarmGateMedia/status/1476488484290367489
2. To recap, my main point is that the climate change lobby has been doing their movement a disservice by not playing it straight with the broad public about the cost of carbon mitigation polices to address climate warming.
3. You can dismiss me because I am certainly not an expert on climate change in general nor on all the different policy options to address it. But what I do know as an economist I think is important: there ain't no free lunches.
4. People are gonna figure out that carbon mitigation is costly. I think the focus of the climate lobby should then be on convincing the broad public that it is worth the cost today for the benefits our children and grandchildren will experience down the line.
5. There may well be some great stuff out there that I don't know about that lays out the tradeoff between current costs vs. future benefits of carbon mitigation in a clear and balanced manner. I am happy to look at it if anyone has suggestions.
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