Carbon pricing and planetary boundariesShow others and affiliations
2020 (English)In: Nature Communications, E-ISSN 2041-1723, Vol. 11, no 1, article id 4688Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Human activities are threatening to push the Earth system beyond its planetary boundaries, risking catastrophic and irreversible global environmental change. Action is urgently needed, yet well-intentioned policies designed to reduce pressure on a single boundary can lead, through economic linkages, to aggravation of other pressures. In particular, the potential policy spillovers from an increase in the global carbon price onto other critical Earth system processes has received little attention to date. To this end, we explore the global environmental effects of pricing carbon, beyond its effect on carbon emissions. We find that the case for carbon pricing globally becomes even stronger in a multi-boundary world, since it can ameliorate many other planetary pressures. It does however exacerbate certain planetary pressures, largely by stimulating additional biofuel production. When carbon pricing is allied with a biofuel policy, however, it can alleviate all planetary pressures.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2020. Vol. 11, no 1, article id 4688
Keywords [en]
carbon, fossil fuel, biofuel, carbon emission, emissions trading, environmental effect, Article, biodiversity, biofuel production, carbon footprint, climate change, controlled study, elasticity, energy consumption, environmental change, environmental policy, fodder crop, food crop, human, optical depth, renewable energy
National Category
Earth and Related Environmental Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-189041DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18342-7ISI: 000607166300001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85091192214OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-189041DiVA, id: diva2:1518260
2021-01-152021-01-152025-02-07Bibliographically approved