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Policy Forum: Combating climate change

Academics, policymakers and other experts explored the pros and cons of a range of economic policy innovations to curb the harms of a warming planet.
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A step in the right direction

While we can’t turn back the clock, there are ways to help shape the future when it comes to combating climate change and mitigating its social costs.

Ultimately, however, the biggest hurdle will be political.

That was the broad agreement expressed by panelists who spoke Wednesday at a policy forum co-hosted by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) and The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution.

The event, held at Stanford, explored the pros and cons of a range of economic policy innovations — from a federal carbon tax and stricter emission standards to investment increases of R&D into energy alternatives and recycling carbon dioxide. An analysis detailing how policy inaction will lead to substantial economic harm, including damage to mortality rates and agricultural productivity, was also released.

Mary Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Board — and a key player in the state’s path-breaking climate programs — delivered the forum keynote, saying climate change “is the existential issue of our time.” Her remarks mixed optimism with realities.

Nichols discussed the success of California’s cap-and-trade program and emission targets, and how the state’s comprehensive climate plan provides a framework for others to follow.

“Despite the progress we’ve made, we’re losing the battle.”

Given the rate of global warming, cutting greenhouse gas emissions is not enough. We need to find ways to take carbon out of the air, she said. And “success over the long term means we have to enlist the private sector's ingenuity and their ability to innovate, to bring technologies to the table.”

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