Afternoon Must-Read: Martin Wolf: An Unethical Bet in the Climate Casino

…of the president and obstruction of his policies. The result will have big implications for the future of the US. But it also has implications for the rest of humanity…. The US is also the world’s second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases and among the highest emitters per head. The most important consequence of this election may therefore be to bury what little hope remained of getting to grips with the risk of dangerous climate change…. Other countries will not–indeed cannot–compensate….

Nothing now suggests that humanity will move off the path towards ever greater emissions, with potentially huge and irreversible consequence. Why is that? If one ignores the charge that the science is a hoax, one sees two justifications and two reasons. One justification is that cost of action to mitigate emissions would be inordinate. It should be noted, however, that the costs indicated above would be less, possibly substantially less, than the costs to the high-income countries of the recent financial crises…. Yet, fascinatingly, the very same people who consider the costs of mitigation excessive wish to lighten financial regulation and so increase the risk of a repetition of the recent calamity. In addition, many of the opponents of such action are firm believers in the ability of economies to respond to market forces. So why do they not believe that markets would adjust to higher carbon prices?

So what then are the real reasons? The first is ideology. If one accepts the existence of large global environmental externalities, one must also accept that there exists an important role for policy…. The second and more important reason is indifference to the fate of future generations…