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Sustainability and Climate Change

Paper Session

Monday, Jan. 4, 2021 12:15 PM - 2:15 PM (EST)

Hosted By: Association for Evolutionary Economics
  • Chair: Steven Pressman, Colorado State University

Identifying Opportunities for Wisconsin to Participate in Advanced Energy Manufacturing: An Investigation into the State’s Real Capacity for Green Manufacturing

Thomas Kemp
,
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Megan Roehl
,
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire

Abstract

Global climate change will require changes in how we produce energy. At the same time recent geopolitical events combined with the COVID-19 outbreak is certain to lead to a reevaluation of global supply chains. Taken in combination it is likely that market and policy changes will create significant opportunities for the domestic manufacture of the components associated with the production of ‘green’ energy. Using a combination of NAICS industrial data and proprietary firm data, that is scalable to the national level, we determine the real capacity for Wisconsin State manufacturers to participate in the component supply chain associated with wind and solar power. We find that there exists significant untapped manufacturing capacity that could be utilized in the relative short term if required and if opportunity costs are deemed appropriate. We also address bridgeable capacity gaps and workforce related issued.

Critique of Concepts about Systems and Time in William Nordhaus’s Research about Climate Change

F. Gregory Hayden
,
University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze and critique two conceptual bases in the analysis by Nobel Prize economist William Nordhaus about the costs and gains of climate change. Simply put, his modeling indicates that global warming and climate change are not problems that require policies that would significantly slow economic growth. Thus, his work has been used by climate-change deniers, conservative policymakers, and industrial groups as the basis to prevent needed policies to mitigate climate change. Additionally, his work has been adversely criticized by economists who stress the need for such mitigation. Their criticism has mainly dwelt with his numbers, while leaving the basic structure of Nordhaus’s analysis intact. The critique here is different, it is about two of his basic concepts that are incorrect. They are the Inconsistencies with systems principles and the assertations about linear time in his work.

Institutional Failure and Sustainability Policy

Brian Chi-ang Lin
,
National Chengchi University

Abstract

The global outbreak of coronavirus disease is a real test for sustainability. The coronavirus spread has generated unexpected shocks to almost all the countries in the world. Many governments have imposed lock-down measures in cities and communities for several weeks or months. Normal economic activities have been restricted to a minimal level. More and more workers have been laid off and become unemployed. The economic prospect of the future has been dismal!

Can the implementation of fiscal policy and monetary policy adopted by governments in the world solve the socio-economic consequences caused by the coronavirus outbreak? This paper first shows that the Great Shock of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is different from the Great Recession of 2007-2009 or the Great Depression of 1929-1933. More importantly, the nature of the Great Shock of COVID-19 is a consequence of institutional failure, to some extent a serious scenario characterized by government failure and market failure at the same time.
Indeed, climate change and the global outbreak of coronavirus disease are typical examples of institutional failure. Keynesian economics has traditionally focused on macro stabilization and has had much less to say about sustainability. However, what we need today, given the various crises that threaten us all, is a comprehensive sustainability policy. Since the Brundtland Report was released in 1987, research on sustainable development has become an urgent issue of common concern. It has become increasingly clear that stabilization policy is necessary for keeping the society running, but is obviously not sufficient for pursuing the society's goal of sustainability. It is urgent to initiate a more comprehensive sustainability policy for meeting the needs of existing and future generations.
JEL Classifications
  • B5 - Current Heterodox Approaches
  • Q5 - Environmental Economics