Climate change - the evolving discourse

My thought's on Bill Easterley's development theories will have to wait (again0. Too many fun things happening in the climate change space.

Two things from the media have caught my eye in the last couple of weeks. Firstly, there have been a number of responses to the Stern report in the Financial Times. This is one of the big outcomes of the Stern report - lively debate from the mainstream economic and business community.

Lord Lawson waded in again with an anti-Stern piece. It was the same piece that he wheeled out a year ago in a critique of the half completed report and the same critique that he gave when the full report came out late last year. Nick Stern appears to have lost patience and does not even dignify Lawson's comments with a detailed response.

Two more reasoned responses have come out in the last week. Martin Wolf (who's views I am increasingly attracted to) delivered an interesting piece - critical of some of the economics - but recognising the need for action - likening the cost to an insurance policy. Basically, he isn't convinced that the cost benefit analysis stands up to scrutiny from an investment perspective - but think about it as a way of potentially avoiding very high future costs (ie insurance) and it starts to make sense.

Samuel Brittan also gave an interesting perspective. He was again critical of the economics - discount rate set inappropriately - a common criticism of Stern - but he also finished with a conclusion that action against climate change was necessary anyway on standard environmental grounds - and certainly considering energy security.

Here's the challenge. Economists are now in the midst of the debate - but the debate is complex and maybe too nuanced for a solely economic argument. Security, intergenerational ethics, equality, perceptions of risk, valuations of the natural world - all these matter - all have theoretical approaches for economic valuation - but frankly, the economic uncertainties with this sort of complexity mean that ultimately tackling climate change isn't a question of economics - it is one of politics.

Before I drop the climate change tirade I really must conclude my thoughts on what is happening with the climate change debate in the U.S.