Fathauer Lecture Speaker: Dr. Thomas Sterner, University of Gothenburg

Fathauer Lecture in Political Economy

When

5:15 – 6:30 p.m., Feb. 20, 2025

Where

Berger Auditorium, McClelland Hall
Climate Policy from Physics to Sociology
 
This year’s Fathauer lecture will illuminate the climate problem from a series of angles, from physics and chemistry over to economics, sociology and psychology. Why is it so difficult? In fact, it seems simple! Compared to biodiversity or chemical regulation with countless facets, there are only a handful of “radiative forcing agents” (CO2, CH4, N2O …), and not that many economic activities (influencing use of fossil fuel, coal, cement, steel, transport, air-travel…). To understand why analyzing climate change is complicated, we will discuss the social cost of carbon (SCC), methane, and air travel, highlighting difficulties ranging from weather to new technology and ethical dilemmas. The SCC is an uncertain entity which depends on future developments; income distribution is just the beginning. If we knew the SCC – what would we do with it? How would we design policy instruments in different countries, given that they must be politically acceptable in each country and still reasonably equivalent for the sake of “fairness” (a term that proves highly elusive both at the local and global levels).
 
About Dr. Thomas Sterner
 
Dr. Thomas Sterner lecture economics

Thomas Sterner is a Professor of Environmental Economics at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. His work is focused on the design of policy instruments to deal with resource and environmental problems. Sterner has published more than a dozen books and a hundred articles on environmental policy instruments with applications to energy, climate, industry, transport economics and resource management in developing countries. He has in particular worked on the importance of fuel taxation for climate and transport policies. He has also worked on the feasibility and income distributional aspects of environmental policies. Another body of his work is focused on intertemporal discounting.

Sterner is the recipient of the Myrdal Prize, past president for the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. At RFF, Sterner was a Gilbert White Fellow in 1998-99 and since then he has been a University Fellow. His research falls largely within Energy and Climate but he has also worked on natural resources such as fisheries. Together with a colleague Gunnar Köhlin, he has initiated the Environment for Development Initiative that is a partnership between RFF, the University of Gothenburg and a growing number (currently 15) of research centres in low and middle-income countries.

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Contacts

Veda Adams
vadams@arizona.edu