WASHINGTON (AP) — To figure out what really works when nations try to fight climate change, researchers looked at 1,500 ways countries have tried to curb heat-trapping gases. Their answer: Not many have done the job. And success often means someone has to pay a price, whether at the pump or elsewhere.
In only 63 cases since 1998, did researchers find policies that resulted in significant cuts of carbon pollution, a new study in Thursday’s found. Moves toward phasing out fossil fuel use and gas-powered engines, for example, haven’t worked by themselves, but they are more successful when combined with some kind of energy tax or additional cost system, study authors concluded in an exhaustive analysis of global emissions, climate policies and laws. “The key ingredient if you want to reduce emissions is that you have pricing in the policy mix,” said study co-author Nicolas Koch, a climate economist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany.
“If subsidies and regulations come alone or in a mix with each other, you won’t see major emission reductions. But when price instruments come in the mix like a carbon energy tax then they will deliver those substantial emissions reductions.” The study also found that what works in rich nations doesn’t always work as well in developing ones.
Still, it shows the power of the purse when fighting climate change, something economists always suspected, said several outside policy experts, climate scientists a.
