Earth Equity News

Economists Concur on Threat of Warming and Need for Price Mechanism. By Todd Woody, NYTimes, November 4, 2009. "New York University School of Law survey [Economists and Climate Change, PDF, 49 pp] found near unanimity among 144 top economists that global warming threatens the United States economy and that a [carbon tax or] cap-and-trade system of carbon regulation will spur energy efficiency and innovation. 'Outside academia the level of consensus among economists is unfortunately not common knowledge,' Richard Revesz, dean of the law school, said during a press conference on Wednesday. 'The results are conclusive -- there is broad agreement that reducing emissions is likely to have significant economic benefits.' The law school's Institute for Policy Integrity sent surveys to 289 economists who had published at least one article on climate change in a top-rated economics journal in the past 15 years... The survey found that 84% of the economists agreed that climate change 'presents a clear danger' to the United States and global economies -- hitting agriculture the hardest -- even though the severity of global warming remains unknown... [91.6% preferred or strongly preferred 'market‐based mechanisms, such as a carbon tax or cap‐and‐trade system' over command‐and‐control regulation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.80.6% preferred auctioning carbon allowances rather than freely distributing allowances.