Green Innovation and Climate Policies, David Hémous - ONLINE ONLY

Following a recent announcement from the IEA that they have started a new initiative called “IEA Lecture Series in Economics” on selected topics of interest to economists worldwide, we are pleased to advise that David Hémous, University of Zurich, has agreed to provide this lecture to ESA members and interested parties.

The IEA lecture series is designed to disseminate novel research results to scholars from a wide range of countries, with an emphasis on countries outside the OECD (you can catch up here: Environmental Economics | IEA (iea-world.org)).

Abstract

Climate change already has a negative impact on the environment and our societies, and this impact will get worse over the course of this century. How much worse? This will depend on our ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Achieving the necessary reduction in emissions, while maintaining (and improving) worldwide living standards can only be achieved through innovation. Fortunately, innovation is not manna from heaven; it is conducted by scientists and firms and it reacts to market and policy incentives. It is therefore up to governments to steer it toward clean technologies.

In this public paper, I will review recent economic research on the role of innovation in the design of climate policy. After a quick introduction to the challenges posed by climate change, I will show that current technological trends – though promising – are unlikely to be sufficient to limit warming to 2°C. Can policy then effectively boost green innovation? Recent evidence shows that this is definitely the case. How should global climate policy be designed to leverage this innovation response? What about unilateral policies? Some innovations are “grey”: they permit the replacement of particularly dirty technologies with less dirty but still polluting ones. The shale gas revolution is an example. Can these “grey” innovations backfire?

Information

When: Monday 2 December
Time: From 7pm AEDT (SDY/CBR/MEL)
Where: Online via Zoom
Cost: Free

About the Speaker

David Hémous received his PhD from Harvard University in 2012. He is a macroeconomist working on economic growth, climate change and inequality. His work highlights that innovation responds to economic incentives and that public policies should be designed taking this dependence into account. In particular, he has shown in the context of climate change policy that innovations in the car industry respond to gas prices and that global and regional climate policies should support clean innovation to efficiently reduce CO2 emissions. His work on technological change and income distribution shows that higher labor costs lead to more automation, and that the recent increase in labor income inequality and in the capital share can be explained by a secular increase in automation. He has also shown that innovation affects top income shares. He was awarded an ERC Starting Grant on 'Automation and Income Distribution – a Quantitative Assessment' and he received the 2022 'European Award for Researchers in Environmental Economics under the Age of Forty'.

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The timing of this event is AEDT (SYD/CBR/MEL)