Scott Pruitt is right about CO2
11 Mar 2017 1 Comment
in economics, environmental economics, global warming Tags: 2016 presidential election, agricultural economics, climate alarmism, climate alarmists
#Globalwarming – renewable energy isn’t ready.
18 Feb 2017 Leave a comment
in economics, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming Tags: climate alarmists, solar power, wind power
The Paris climate treaty is set to go into effect on Nov. 4
07 Oct 2016 Leave a comment
in environmental economics, global warming Tags: climate alarmists
Left-wing Biases, Too, May Block Progress on Climate Change @GarethMP @JulieAnneGenter
20 Apr 2016 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economics of media and culture, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, Public Choice Tags: antimarket bias, carbon emissions, climate alarmists, expressive voting, greenhouse gases, nuclear power, rational irrationality
Source: Liberal Biases, Too, May Block Progress on Climate Change – The New York Times.
Source: Mr. Sanders’s war on clean energy – The Washington Post.
#Morganfoundation discovers that #Ukraine is a dodgy place to buy credence goods
19 Apr 2016 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of crime, economics of information, environmental economics, global warming, industrial organisation, international economic law, international economics, International law, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, survivor principle Tags: adverse selection, asymmetric information, carbon trading, climate alarmism, climate alarmists, credence goods, experience goods, inspection goods
Morgan Foundation yesterday put out a report pointing out that many of the carbon credits purchased from the Ukraine under the carbon trading scheme are fraudulent.
That comes with no surprise to anyone vaguely familiar with business conditions and the level of official corruption in the former Soviet Union. Russia is a more honest place to do business.
Carbon traders who buy from the Ukraine are not buying an inspection good. An inspection good is a good whose quality you can ascertain before purchase.
They are not buying an experience good. An experience good is a good whose quality is ascertained after purchase in the course of consumption.
Source: Russia, Ukraine dodgy carbon offsets cost the climate – study | Climate Home – climate change news.
What these carbon traders in New Zealand are doing is buying credence goods from the Ukraine. The credence goods are the carbon credits, which the Morgan Foundation and others have found often to be fraudulent.
A credence good is a good whose value is difficult or impossible for the consumer to ascertain. A classic example of a credence good is motor vehicle repairs.
You must trust the seller and their advice as to how much you need to buy of a credence good. Many forms of medical treatment also require you to trust the seller as to how much you need.
Carbon credits are such a credence good. You know there is corruption in the Ukraine and many other countries that supply them. You may never know at any reasonable cost whether the specific carbon credits you buy were legitimate.
The reason why carbon credits are purchased from such an unreliable source is expressive voting. As is common with expressive politics, what matters is whether the voters cheer or boo the policy. The fact whether it works or not does not matter too much.
The Greens are upset about this corruption in carbon trading. They did not mention the corruption in international carbon trading and climate aid when they welcomed the recent Paris treaty on global warming but that is for another day.
https://twitter.com/kadhimshubber/status/721831502372302849
Co-ordinated international action on global warming is rather pointless if some of the key countries with carbon emission caps are corrupt, which they are.
As Geoff Brennan has argued, CO2 reduction actions will be limited to modest unilateral reductions of a largely token character. There are many expressive voting concerns that politicians must balance to stay in office and the environment is but one of these.
Once climate change policies start to actually become costly to swinging voters, expressive voting support for these policies will fall away, and it has.
Networked Carbon Markets
Source: World Bank Networked Carbon Markets.
One way to stem that fading support is to buy carbon credits on the cheap and there is plenty of disreputable suppliers of cheap carbon credits. Buying dodgy carbon credits as a way of doing something on global warming without it costing more than expressive voters will pay.
One of the predictions of the adverse selection literature is that if consumers cannot differentiate good and bad goods from each other, such as with used cars, the market will contract sharply or even collapse because buyers cannot trust what is on offer. This risk of adverse selection undermining a market applies with clarity to carbon trading.
Source: How Can Your Vote Shape a Low Carbon Future? It Starts with Carbon Pricing.
@WorldBank is telling porky pies about #EndPoverty and fighting #ClimateChange
13 Dec 2015 Leave a comment
in development economics, economics of bureaucracy, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, growth disasters, growth miracles Tags: climate aid, climate alarmists, extreme poverty, global poverty, green rent seeking, overseas aid, overseas development assistance, World Bank
Will global warming boost economic growth? @GreenpeaceNZ @RusselNorman The revenge of the broken window fallacy
03 Dec 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, global warming, macroeconomics, Robert E. Lucas Tags: climate alarmists, endogenous growth theory, entrepreneurial alertness, exogenous growth theory, global warming, Matthew Kahn, neoclassical growth theory, offsetting, Robert Solow, unbalanced growth, unintended consequences
@CarlyFiorina says it all on action to fight global warming @jamespeshaw @AndrewLittleMP @garethmorgannz
24 Oct 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: 2016 presidential election, climate alarmists, expressive voting, free riding, game theory, global warming, international public goods, rational ignorance, rational irrationality
Five characteristics of science denial
21 Oct 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, environmental economics, health economics Tags: Anti-Science left, climate alarmists, conjecture and reputation, cranks, philosophy of science, Quacks
Is renewable energy the face of the future?
23 Sep 2015 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming Tags: Big Solar, Big Wind, climate alarmists, hydropower, renewable energy, solar power, wind power
EIA Forecast for US Energy Sources to 2040. Fossil fuels will supply >80%, renewables 8%, it's a 'fossil fuel future' http://t.co/B923DH9ncW—
Mark J. Perry (@Mark_J_Perry) June 11, 2015
In 1985, Obama’s science advisor John Holdren predicted that by now we’d be approaching a billion CO2-related deaths from famine
28 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in environmental economics, global warming, politics - USA Tags: climate alarmists, cranks, doomsday profits, doomsday prophecies, global warming, Quacks
There are 620 million people in Africa without electricity
22 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in development economics, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, growth disasters, growth miracles Tags: Africa, climate alarmists, energy poverty, extreme poverty, global poverty, global warming
There are 620 million people in Africa without electricity. Here's where they live. vox.com/2014/10/13/697… (via @iea) http://t.co/bhK5CVmtpZ—
Vox Maps (@VoxMaps) June 09, 2015
Why is Danish electric power more expensive than anywhere else?
17 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming Tags: Big Wind, climate alarmists, Denmark, expressive voting, green rent seeking, power prices, rational ignorance, rational irrationality, renewable energy, The pretence to knowledge, wind power
@greenpeacenz The inconvenient truth about wind power
17 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming Tags: Big Wind, climate alarmists, expressive voting, global warming, rational irrationality, renewable energy, wind power
Why developing countries aren’t interested in global climate treaties
15 Jul 2015 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, development economics, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, growth disasters, growth miracles Tags: climate alarmists, free-riders, game theory, global climate treaties, Green alarmists, healthier is wealthier, international treaties, richer is safer
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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