Environment
Mark Jaccard Talks Climate Change
By James Glave published Mar 1, 2010
SFU economist and climate change expert Mark Jaccard on Earth Hour, energy-efficient light bulbs, and our capacity for self-delusion
You characterize yourself as “a very mediocre economist.” How does a mediocre economist win the Nobel Peace Prize?
I was just one of hundreds who shared the prize for our collective work on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. I understand people and policy, and people and delusion, but I’m not a topnotch academic.
You understand delusion—what do you mean?
North America-wide polls reveal that most people think they are green consumers. There are so many books telling you how you can change your life and be green, but really the only way we can get there is by having laws and rules that prevent us from producing or emitting carbon.
Will carbon offsets help?
Quality research consistently shows that subsidies, like offsets, go significantly to “free-riders,” people and firms who get money for doing what they were going to do anyway. We must make things happen that were otherwise not going to happen and that require changes to prices (like a stronger carbon tax) and regulations (like building codes and vehicle standards) so that, for example, all homes get insulated. So when you think about buying an offset, I recommend instead sending your guilt money to organizations that are trying to change laws, like the Suzuki Foundation, the Pembina Institute, and PowerUp Canada.
Do you consider yourself an environmentalist?
If we put in a climate policy and its hit on economic growth is greater than it could have been but it still reduces emissions, I don’t care that much. In that sense I’d call myself an environmentalist. Equity is also important to me. Early on I thought, “I want to be able to go toe-to-toe with the guys who influence the economy.” And when I look at where the devastation is going to hit the planet, it’s going to hit the poor—in Bangladesh, China, and so on. Cambridge economist Joan Robinson says that one learns economics so as not to be hoodwinked by economists. That’s why I’m an economist as well as an environmentalist. Environment trumps economic growth.
We can make fossil fuels more expensive to discourage their use, but the affluent are largely immune to pricing—and they’re often the highest carbon emitters. How do we get around that?
Price is a necessary—but not a sufficient—condition. We do know that if we don’t get prices adjusted, if it’s still free to pollute in the atmosphere, then the innovative human spirit will create new things that emit greenhouse gases. Wait till you go to your kids’ soccer game; somebody will have a portable propane heater to warm themselves on the sidelines. I’ve seen these things.
