Is There a Sacrifice-Free Solution to Climate Change?

Abstract

John Broome claims that there is a sacrifice-free solution to climate change. He says this is a consequence of elementary economics. After explaining the economic argument in somewhat more detail than Broome, I show that the argument is unsound. A main problem with it stems from Derek Parfit's ‘nonidentity effect.’ But there is hope, since the nonidentity effect underwrites a more philosophical yet more plausible route to a sacrifice-free solution. So in the end I join Broome in asking economists and policymakers to help make this a reality.

Notes

¹ Broome, a former economist turned leading moral philosopher, was involved with the Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change (Miller, 2013; Stern, 2007), and was Lead Author for the ‘Social, Economic and Ethical Concepts and Methods’ chapter of the Fifth Assessment Report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Kolstad et al., 2014).

² All parenthetical citations that include only page numbers are to Broome (2012).

³ Those familiar with the economics of externalities will see that this is just a (partial) illustration of the Coase Theorem. See Coase (1960).

⁴ Strictly speaking, when Brittany pays $10.00, it is Tyler who is made better off without making Brittany worse off (since welfare economics treats one's maximum willingness to pay as the amount such that one is indifferent between the status quo and paying that amount). By contrast, the alternative scenario in which Tyler charges Brittany only $4.00 to reduce one cigarette is more analogous to the intergenerational climate change bargain that Broome is proposing. And in that scenario, Brittany is indeed the one who is made better off without making Tyler worse off.

⁵ Further relevant reservations about willingness to pay, which Broome may well share, are discussed in Spash (2008).

⁶ I am grateful to David Morrow for drawing this issue to my attention. However, he is in no way responsible for how I have chosen to present or develop it here.

For comments and discussion on material included here, I would like to thank Jonny Anomaly, Marc Bellemare, Greg Bognar, Daniel Bromley, Bill Gardner, Dan Hausman, Nathaniel Jezzi, Christopher McKelvey, David Morrow, Greg Nemet, and two anonymous referees for this journal. Any remaining errors are entirely my own responsibility.