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Carbon-reducing innovation as the essential policy frontier – towards finding the ways that work

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2021

Frank J. Convery
Frank J. Convery*
Affiliation:
Environmental Policy, University College, Dublin EnvEcon Decision Support, Dublin, Ireland
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Finding the ways that work to deliver the innovation needed should be given parity of esteem with getting the prices right as a focus of the economics profession and policy systems. Learn from experience as regards carbon pricing and carbon-reducing innovation; insights from the latter coming mainly from the US, China and Europe; demographically relatively small countries – Denmark (wind) and Australia (solar PV) – can make outsize contributions. A carbon price ceiling is too low to drive innovation; generating carbon-reducing innovation requires that it be explicitly recognized as a priority, and nurtured accordingly: identify the priority area(s) where innovation at scale will be necessary to make progress; baseline the elements of the innovation ecosystem which are already in place, and the gaps that need to be filled. Key elements include institutions and incentives that promote innovation, a research and enterprise community that make it happen, and a supportive public.

Keywords

carbon reductionclimateinnovationpolicy

JEL classification

Q55: Technological Innovation Q54: Climate • Natural Disasters and Their Management • Global Warming H21: Efficiency • Optimal Taxation O54: Latin America • Caribbean
Type
Policy Discussion
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 26 , Special Issue 3: Climate Change: Emerging Issues and New Challenges for Economic Development , June 2021 , pp. 261 - 280
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press.

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