Abstract
© 2021 Elsevier B.V.We explore the bidirectional relationship between population growth and climate change: while population determines carbon emissions which drive climate change, climate change impacts the mortality rate and so population growth. Such population-climate feedback effects suggest that demographic policy may represent an alternative to traditional mitigation policies. We explore this possibility by introducing a population policy aiming at imposing a cap on population growth into an extended global integrated assessment model of climate-economy with endogenous fertility choices and temperature-related mortality. We show that the social costs of environmental policies, as reflected by both the social cost of carbon and social welfare, substantially increase by accounting for endogenous population change, but demographic policy allows to significantly reduce such costs. This clearly suggests that population growth does matter and so population policy may represent an effective mitigation tool to complement standard climate policies.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 107011 |
| Journal | Ecological Economics |
| Volume | 184 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jun 2021 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
We are indebted to three anonymous referees for their constructive comments on an earlier draft of the paper. We also wish to thank Valentina Bosetti, Enrica De Cian and Marzio Galeotti for insightful discussions and feedback. All remaining errors and omissions are our own sole responsibility. Simone Marsiglio acknowledges financial support from the University di Pisa under the “PRA - Progetti di Ricerca di Ateneo” (Institutional Research Grants) - Project no. PRA_2020_79 “Sustainable development: economic, environmental and social issues”.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Università di Pisa | PRA_2020_79 |
