Most Climate Policies Don’t Work. Here’s What Science Says Does Reduce Emissions.

Relying on green subsidies alone has failed, but combining various economic tools has helped limit climate-warming emissions

By Eric Niiler of The WSJ. Excerpts:

"An evaluation of more than 1,500 climate policies in 41 countries found that only 63 actually worked to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

Subsidies and regulations—policy types often favored by governments—rarely worked to reduce emissions, the study found, unless they were combined with price-based strategies aimed at changing consumer and corporate behavior."

"These policies ranged from energy-efficient standards for household appliances to a carbon tax on fossil fuels like oil and gas.

The fraction of policies that worked combined financial incentives, regulations and taxes, according to the study."

"By searching through the OECD database, which identifies 46 types of policy interventions, the study’s authors found government policymakers prefer subsidies and regulations, according to Koch.

“We see a lot of policy packages built around these two policy types, and we find that it’s very rare that they really work in reducing emissions,” Koch said." [Nicolas Koch, senior researcher at the Berlin-based Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change and an author of the study.]

"In China, emissions fell 20% in 2016 from the industrial sector in seven provinces that started an emissions trading program in 2013 that ratcheted down the use of fossil fuels, combined with the elimination of fossil fuel subsidies. 

In isolation, policies such as labeling appliances or cars as energy efficient, imposing speed limits or imposing new vehicle taxes, weren’t sufficient to bend the emissions curve, the study found."