DP8215 Growth and the Optimal Carbon Tax: When to Switch from Exhaustible Resources to Renewables?
Author(s): | Frederick van der Ploeg, Cees Withagen |
Publication Date: | January 2011 |
Keyword(s): | carbon tax, exhaustible resources, global warming, Green Paradox, growth, intergenerational inequality aversion, renewables, second best |
JEL(s): | D90, E13 |
Programme Areas: | International Macroeconomics |
Link to this Page: | cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=8215 |
Optimal climate policy is studied in a Ramsey growth model. A developing economy weighs global warming less, hence is more likely to exhaust fossil fuel and exacerbate global warming. The optimal carbon tax is higher for a developed economy. We analyze the optimal time of transition from fossil fuel to renewables, amount of fossil fuel to leave in situ, and carbon tax. Subsidizing a backstop without an optimal carbon tax induces more fossil fuel to be left in situ and a quicker phasing in of renewables, but fossil fuel is depleted more quickly. Global warming need thus not be alleviated.