Carbon – Institute for International Economic Policy (IIEP)

Health in the Social Cost of Carbon: Recent Advances to Fill a Critical Gap

March 22, 2022April 11, 2022Adaption to Climate Change Events, Past Events

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2022
12:00 – 1:00 p.m. ET
via Zoom

We were pleased to invite you to join the Insitute for International Economic Policy, the Climate and Health Institute, and the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health for a panel discussing “Health in the Social Cost of Carbon: Recent Advances to Fill a Critical Gap.” This event featured speakers Kevin Cromar of NYU, Noah Scovronick of Emory University, and Tamma Carleton of UCSB. IIEP Director Jay Shambaugh provided welcoming remarks, and Climate and Health Institute Director Susan Anenberg moderated the discussion.

The social cost of carbon is commonly used in regulatory cost-benefit analysis to characterize the economic damage that would result from each ton of carbon dioxide emitted. An important cost of greenhouse gas emissions is the profound public health consequences of climate change, including disease and mortality from extreme heat, extreme weather events, worsened air pollution, expanded habitats for disease-carrying mosquitoes and ticks, increased aeroallergens, and impacts to water and food supply. Currently, these health consequences are represented in the social cost of carbon in incomplete, indirect, or cursory ways. This panel of leading researchers will describe recent advances to fill this critical gap and ensure that the social cost of carbon adequately reflects the present and future public health burden stemming from a global climate altered by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.

About the Speakers:

Kevin Cromar is the Director of the Health, Environment, and Policy Program at the Marron Institute of Urban Management and an Associate Professor of Environmental Medicine and Population Health at New York University Grossman School of Medicine. His research program works at the intersection of scientific research and public policy in order to generate the knowledge needed to improve health and quality of life. He has a BS in Neuroscience from Brigham Young University and an MS and PhD in Environmental Health Science from New York University.

Noah Scovronick is a professor of Environmental Health at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. His areas of interest include air pollution, climate and health, and environmental health. He has a BS from Emory University, a MS from University of Cape Town, an MS and a PhD from the London School fo Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Tamma Carleton is a professor of Economics at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at UC Santa Barbara, an affiliate of the Climate Impact Lab, a research associate at the Environmental Markets Lab, and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. She joined Bren after a postdoc at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. She has a PhD in Agricultural & Resource Economics at UC Berkeley, where she was an EPA STAR Fellow and a Doctoral Fellow in the Global Policy Lab at the Goldman School of Public Policy. She is an environmental and resource economist, focusing on questions at the intersection of environmental change and economic development.

About the Moderator:

Susan Anenberg is the Director of the Climate and Health Institute and an Associate Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health and of Global Health at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. Dr. Anenberg’s research focuses on the health implications of air pollution and climate change, from local to global scales. She currently serves on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board and Clean Air Act Advisory Committee, the World Health Organization’s Global Air Pollution and Health Technical Advisory Group, and the National Academy of Science’s Committee to Advise the U.S. Global Change Research Program. She also serves as Secretary of the GeoHealth section of the American Geophysical Union. Previously, Dr. Anenberg was a Co-Founder and Partner at Environmental Health Analytics, LLC, the Deputy Managing Director for Recommendations at the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, an environmental scientist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and a senior advisor for clean cookstove initiatives at the U.S. State Department.

Introductory Remarks:

Jay Shambaugh is Professor of Economics and International Affairs, and Director of the Institute for International Economic Policy at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. His area of research is macroeconomics and international economics. He has had two stints in public service. He served as a Member of the White House Council of Economic Advisors from 2015-2017. Earlier, he served on the staff of the CEA as a Senior Economist for International Economics and then as the Chief Economist. He also spent 3 years as the Director of the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution. Jay is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the NBER and Non-Resident Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at Brookings. Prior to joining the faculty at George Washington, Jay taught at Georgetown and Dartmouth and was a visiting scholar at the IMF. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.A. from the Fletcher School at Tufts, and a B.A. from Yale University.

Equitable Action for Climate Change

February 9, 2022March 16, 2022Climate Adaptation, India, Past Events

Wednesday, February 9th, 2022
8:30 – 10:00 a.m. EST / 6:30 – 9:00 p.m. IST
via Zoom

We were pleased to invite you to the fifth webinar in the 2021-2022 Envisioning India series, co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the Institute for International Economic Policy. This is a platform for dialogue and debate. We invited you to engage with us in this series of important discussions.

This event featured Professor Jyoti K. Parikh, Executive Director of Integrated Research and Action for Development, and Dr. Kirit S. Parikh, Chairman of Integrated Research and Action for Development, to discuss “Equitable Action for Climate Change.” Amar Bhattacharya, Senior Fellow at the Global Economy & Development Program at Brookings Institution, and Shreekant Gupta, Professor at the Delhi School of Economics, provided discussant remarks.

In this talk, Professor Jyoti K. Parikh and Dr. Kirit S. Parikh showed that India can live within its 1.50 C budget without much loss in economic growth or consumer welfare. They show this under the assumption that technical progress in renewables and battery costs take place as is expected and that climate finance and access to technology at reasonable cost are available. They discussed various pathways that India can follow with different outcomes and highlight the roles of technology, behavioral change and finance in achieving them.

They further argued that climate science shows that due to lifetimes of over 100 years of CO2, global warming is a function of the stock of GHGs in the atmosphere, i.e. accumulated emissions over a pathway. Thus the responsibility for climate change of different countries should be based on their cumulated emissions since 1990. This should be the indicators for climate discourse and not just on their annual emissions. An annual fee for parking their emissions in the global space can encourage countries to delay their emissions as well as promote negative emissions. A $1 annual fee per tonne of CO2 space occupied from all countries can collect US $700 billion per year. They suggested that if a substantial portion is given back to countries as compensation for their climate action, it should make such a scheme acceptable to all.

The Envisioning India series is organized under the stewardship of IIEP Director Jay Shambaugh, Professor of International Affairs and Professor of Economics, and IIEP Distinguished Visiting Scholar Ajay Chhibber.

About the Speakers:

Professor Jyoti K. Parikh is the Executive Director of Integrated Research and Action for Development (IRADe), New Delhi. She was a Member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change–India and is a recipient of Nobel Peace Prize awarded to IPCC authors in 2007. She served as the senior professor and Acting Director of Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai 1986-03. IIASA, Austria for 8 years (1980-86, 76-78) and Planning Commission, as senior energy consultant at New Delhi (1978-80).

She has served as energy consultant to the World Bank, the U.S. Department of Energy, EEC, Brussels and UN agencies such as UNIDO, FAO, UNU, and UNESCO, Environment Consultant to UNDP, World Bank and so on. She worked as an advisor to various ministries for Government of India.

She obtained her M.Sc. from University of California, Berkeley, in 1964 and Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from University of Maryland, College Park in 1967. She has guided Sixteen Ph.D./Masters theses in energy, environment and climate change area and given lectures in more than 40 countries around the world. The topics ranged from vulnerability and adaptation of agriculture, forestry, power sector, construction sector, and carbon emission baselines for power, transport, cement and steel sector.

Her publications include nearly 200 project research papers and 25 books and monographs in the area of energy economics, climate change and modeling, energy technology assessment, rural energy, power sector, environment economics, natural resource management and climate change.

Dr Kirit S. Parikh is the Chairman of Integrated Research and Action for Development, IRADe, a non-profit think tank that works on policies in the areas of energy, climate change, urban issues, agriculture and poverty. He was honored with Padma Bushan (third-highest Civilian Award) by the President of India in March 2009 and shared the Nobel Prize in 2007 given to IPCC authors. He was a Member of the Economic Advisory Councils (EAC) of five Prime Ministers of India, Atal Behari Vajpayee, P.V. Narasimha Rao, Chandra Shekhar, V.P.Singh and Rajiv Gandhi. He was Member of Planning Commission (2004-09) in charge of Energy, Water and Perspective Planning. He was the principal architect of India’s official Integrated Energy Policy.

He obtained his MTech from IIT-Kharagpur, Doctor of Science in Civil Engineering from MIT and also an S.M. in Economics from MIT. He has been a Professor of Economics since 1967 and was the founding Director of IGIDR. He has authored, co-authored and edited 30 books in the areas of planning, energy and power systems, energy modeling and planning, energy policy, energy economics, inclusive growth, and strategies for low carbon development.

About the Discussants:

Amar Bhattacharya is a Senior Fellow at the Global Economy and Development Program at Brookings Institution, Visiting Professor in Practice at the London School of Economics and Co-Lead of the Sustainable Growth and Finance Initiative of the New Climate Economy under the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. His focus areas are the global economy, sustainable finance, global governance, and the links between climate and development, including on the role of sustainable infrastructure. He co-led the Independent Expert Group on Climate Finance commissioned by the UN Secretary General. From April 2007 until September 2014 he was Director of the Group of 24, an intergovernmental group of developing country Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors. Prior to taking up his position with the G24, Mr. Bhattacharya had a long-standing career in the World Bank. His last position was Senior Advisor to the President on the Bank’s international engagements and Head of the International Policy and Partnership Group. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Delhi and Brandeis University and his graduate education at Princeton University.

Professor Shreekant Gupta is Professor, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. He is also President, Indian Society for Ecological Economics and Associate Editor, Indian Economic Review. His areas of research and teaching are environmental economics, public economics, environment and development and climate change economics. In addition to Delhi University he has also taught at the National University of Singapore, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Nazarbayev University.

He received his PhD in Economics from the University of Maryland College Park in 1993, MA Economics from Delhi School of Economics (1982) and BA (Hons) Economics from Shri Ram College of Commerce (1980). He was Fulbright Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2002) and Shastri Fellow at Queens University, Canada (2001).

Prior to joining Delhi School of Economics in 1997, he was Fellow, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi (1993-95) where he headed the Environmental Policy Cell. He has also worked as an environmental economist at the World Bank at Washington DC and as a career economist in the Indian government (Indian Economic Service cadre). His policy experience includes Director of National Institute of Urban Affairs, New Delhi. He is a Lead Author of the forthcoming Sixth Assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and was also a coordinating lead author of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report.

Professor Shreekant Gupta’s Google Scholar profile

Professor Shreekant Gupta’s Delhi School of Economics profile

The Future Global Economic and Spatial Consequences of Climate Change

October 29, 2021April 11, 2022Adaption to Climate Change Events, Climate Adaptation, Past Events

Tuesday, October 26th, 2021
12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Online

Trade & Development Workshop

Speaker: Klaus Desmet (SMU)

Local Sectoral Specialization in a Warming World

Abstract: This paper quantitatively assesses the world’s changing economic geography and sectoral specialization due to global warming. It proposes a two-sector dynamic spatial growth model that incorporates the relation between economic activity, carbon emissions, and temperature. The model is taken to the data at the 1◦ by 1◦resolution for the entire world. Over a 200-year horizon, rising temperatures consistent with emissions under Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 push people and economic activity northwards to Siberia, Canada, and Scandinavia. Compared to a world without climate change, clusters of agricultural specialization shift from Central Africa, Brazil, and India’s Ganges Valley, to Central Asia, parts of China and northern Canada. Equatorial latitudes that lose agriculture specialize more in non-agriculture but, due to their persistently low productivity, lose population. By the year 2200, predicted losses in real GDP and utility are 6% and 15%, respectively. Higher trade costs make adaptation through changes in sectoral specialization more costly, leading to less geographic concentration in agriculture and larger climate-induced migration.

Governing the New Voluntary Carbon Markets

October 8, 2021March 16, 2022Climate Adaptation, Global Governance, International Trade, Past Events

Tuesday, October 19th, 2021
9:00 – 10:30 a.m. EDT
via Zoom

We were pleased to invite you to an IIEP/ASU-Thunderbird event on Tuesday, October 19th, entitled “Governing the New Voluntary Carbon Markets.” This event will feature Mark Kenber (VCMI) and Kavita Prakash-Mani (Mandai Nature).

Averting climate catastrophe will require every available tool, including markets. Voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) could complement government policies and drive tens of billions of dollars into activities that sequester greenhouse gases, avoid new emissions, and help move the global economy toward net zero as well as protect and restore nature and benefit people. But markets do not naturally focus on such public purposes. A new multi-stakeholder initiative, the outcome of the recent high-level Task Force on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets, now aims to ensure that these markets scale quickly while maintaining their public purpose at the core. Two members of the initiative’s newly formed Board of Directors will draw on their extensive experience to provide insights into the urgent challenges and opportunities of this new kind of market.

This webinar was moderated by Ann Florini of ASU-Thunderbird. IIEP Director Jay Shambaugh and IIEP Distinguished Visiting Scholar Sunil Sharma provided welcoming remarks. This event was co-sponsored by the Thunderbird School of Management, Arizona State University, and the Institute for International Economic Policy at GWU.

About the Speakers:

Mark Kenbar serves as VCMI’s co-Executive Director for External Affairs. He has worked on environment, climate and energy issues for over two decades, in government, NGOs and the private sector. He is currently Managing Director of Orbitas, a Climate Advisers initiative that aims to make capital providers aware of climate transition risks to investments in tropical soft commodity production and shift their lending and investment decisions accordingly. With a background in development and environmental economics, Mark has worked across various areas of environmental and climate policy, with a particular focus on the use of economic instruments in the pursuit of sustainable development. His previous roles include: Chief Executive of Mongoose Energy Ltd, the UK’s largest developer and manager of community energy projects; Policy Director and later Chief Executive at The Climate Group; Senior Policy Officer at WWF International’s Climate Change Programme; Policy and Programme Director at Fundación Natura in Quito; Climate Change Advisor to the Ecuadorian government; and lecturer at both the Catholic University in Quito and the Institute of Development Studies in the UK. He has recently been elected to the Board of Directors of the TSVCM and is currently also a board member of Community Energy England and Verra, Chair of the Reneum Advisory Council and Brighton and Hove Energy Services Coop and a member of the RE100 Advisory Committee.

Kavita Prakash-Mani is the CEO for Mandai Nature, a new environmental conservation NGO established in Singapore by Temasek and Mandai Park Holding, with a focus on SE Asia. Mandai Nature helps protect threatened species from extinction, especially those endemic to Asia and often overlooked, addressing such issues as wildlife trade and the fragmentation of habitats. It works with partners to drive nature-based solutions for climate change, and it works closely with local communities and organizations to create economic opportunities and invest in building skills and conservation capacity on the ground. Prior to this, Kavita was the Global Conservation Director at WWF, leading the development of WWF strategy and approach, partnership development and engagement, planning and performance as well as campaigns. Before this position, she led WWF’s global practice on Markets – engaging companies, communities and citizens/consumers. Previously, Kavita was Executive Director of Grow Asia in Singapore (a World Economic Forum initiative); the Global Head, Food Security Agenda at Syngenta International; and Executive Director, SustainAbility in London. She has worked at the World Resources Institute in Washington DC and Glaxo SmithKline in India. Kavita is a member of Unilever Sustainability Advisory Council. She has been on numerous councils and boards including the Tropical Forest Alliance, Science Based Targets for Nature, World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Food Security and Nutrition, Volans, SustainAbility Inc., and the Institute for Human Rights and Business. She recently joined the Board of Directors of the new governance body for voluntary carbon markets.

About the Moderator:

Ann Florini is Clinical Professor at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University, where she directs programs at the Washington, D.C. campus. She was previously Professor of Public Policy at Singapore Management University founding director of the Centre on Asia and Globalisation at the National University of Singapore; and a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. She has spearheaded numerous international initiatives on global governance, energy and climate policy, and cross-sector collaborations including government, civil society, and the private sector. Her many books and articles have addressed governance in China, transparency in governance, transnational civil society networks, and the role of the private sector in public affairs. Dr. Florini received her Ph.D. in Political Science from UCLA and a Masters in Public Affairs from Princeton University.

Welcome Remarks:

Sunil Sharma is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Institute for International Economic Policy, Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University, Washington, D.C., USA, and a Senior Associate at the Council on Economic Policies, Zurich, Switzerland. He was Assistant Director in the IMF’s Research Department from 2015-2018, and the Director of the IMF- Singapore Regional Training Institute (STI) in Singapore from 2006-2015. Before moving to Singapore in 2006, he was Chief of the IMF Institute’s Asian Division in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining the IMF in 1992, Dr. Sharma was on the Economics faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He has a Ph.D. and M.A. in Economics from Cornell University, a M.A. from the Delhi School of Economics, and a B.A. (Honors) from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University. His current interests include rethinking capitalism and democracy, systemic hazards, complex systems, the international financial architecture, and the institutional structure and design of financial regulation.

IIEP Rethinking Capitalism and Democracy Series

The COVID-19 pandemic, like the global financial crisis a decade ago, has laid bare the cracks in the leading capitalist democracies. Fissures in the political, social, economic, and financial orders, accompanied by an increasingly stressed natural environment, pose serious and possibly existential threats to these societies, as exploding income and wealth inequality subverts the integrity and fairness of markets and elections, weak regulatory oversight increases the likelihood and severity of the next crash, and the visible effects of climate change threaten lives and livelihoods and drive migrations. The three spheres of wellbeing – political and social, economic and financial, and the natural environment, are each becoming more fragile while their complex interrelationships are producing wicked challenges. The IIEP webinar series on Rethinking Capitalism and Democracy examines these difficult questions and possible policy responses.

Thunderbird Finance and Sustainability Series

The global financial system is facing new pressures to become “sustainable” – not only financially stable, but simultaneously environmentally friendly and socially inclusive. These pressures are partly political, in reaction to the increasing financialization of the global economy and the sector’s failure to steer investment to meet the needs of society. New financial technologies (“fintech”) pose yet more pressures on incumbent financial institutions but also offer great opportunities for the creation of what some are calling “citizen-centric” finance. Top public authorities are convening in the new Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System. The private sector has already moved rapidly from CSR to considering broader forms of ESG (environmental, social, governance) risks and opportunities in investments. Thunderbird’s Finance and Sustainability webinar series explores these urgent questions with leading practitioners and thinkers.