Talk by Prof. Dr. Sangwon Suh (UC Santa Barbara) on November 28th at 16.15 h
"Climate change, its mitigation, and the wealth of nations and generations"
external pageProf. Dr. Sangwon Suh (UC Santa Barbara) will give a talk with the title "Climate change, its mitigation, and the wealth of nations and generations" as part of our EPSE Seminar Series. It will take place on November 28th, 2022 from 16.15-17.15 h at the ETH Zurich main building, auditorium HG E 1.1.
Abstract
Climate change as well as its mitigation create uneven cost-benefit landscape across space and time, while their implications on the wealth of different age cohorts among nations have not been well understood. Here I present the potential changes in cumulative life-time GDP per capita by country and by age cohort under climate change and its mitigation. Using, so called, ‘damage function,’ we assigned the cost of climate change by country by year until 2100, and assuming that meeting the climate target set by the Paris agreement strands the fossil energy resources with higher marginal cost of extraction beyond carbon budget and optimal resource extraction pathway, we estimated the cost of climate change mitigation by country by year. The results show that, globally, the generations born prior to 1960 are more likely to be a net income loser from climate change mitigation consistent with the Paris agreement, while those after 1990 are on the winner’s side as far as the average life-time GDP per capita goes. Our results show that high-income countries tend to bear the costs of climate change mitigation, while low-income countries are more likely enjoy its benefits, hinting the challenges in mobilizing bold global actions and leadership by global economic powerhouses. The analysis, however, does not suggest that nations and age cohorts are acting purely out of financial motivation, as the climate change activism in Northern Europe cannot be explained by it. Our results call the effectiveness of the current model for international climate negotiation, which is based loosely on ethical arguments, into question. An alternative model, based on an economic argument and its implications are discussed.
Recording
In case you missed the talk of Prof. Suh or would like to watch it again: https://video.ethz.ch/events/2022/epse.html