Effective Strategies to Reduce Carbon Dioxide Emissions
School
Hofstra University**We aren't endorsed by this school
Course
HISTORY 245
Subject
Economics
Date
Dec 11, 2024
Pages
1
Uploaded by CorporalLightningKudu44
Carbon Dioxide emissions are a serious problem facing the world right now as they are produced and used in almost every facet of life. This is a problem due to the greenhouse effect which means that these gasses being emitted into the atmosphere are absorbing more of the sun's energy and heating up the Earth which is causing global warming. To try and curb these effects Governments have tried and proposed various solutions including a Gas Tax, subsidizing clean energy, and policies of Command and Control along with Cap and Trade.One of the ideas presented to curb the use of fossil fuels is a Gas Tax which looks to raise the price of gasoline through a tax that would make it less attractive to buy and thus lower consumption. Overall I think this is a good idea as it will make people more hesitant to buy gas but in the long run it just won’t have close to the same impact as the other measures. Gas is an Inelastic good meaning that a change in price will not have a significant effect on demand, people need gas to fuel their cars and operate on a day to day basis. Hiking prices of gasoline will not change this significantly and instead just negatively affect consumers. I think the Cap and Trade policy which sets an allowance on the amount of emissions manufacturers can emit is another very good option. It is strict in that it sets a limit but also allows flexibility in that it allows trading and companies to go over the limits at an economic hit if needed by buying them off other manufacturers. I think this is a better version of the Command and Control policy which sets limits but does not give the market an option to trade. Despite being two good options in curbing emissions I think the most effective way to do so is Subsidizing clean energy.Clean energy is the practice of creating energy sources without or very little emissions and includes Wind, Hydro, and Solar power. These are still very new practices and thus they are still very expensive and difficult to produce on a large scale making them promising but ineffective. Subsidization is the policy of financially supporting an initiative that has positive effects and thus the Government may wish to do this to clean energy. Subsidies would make clean energy cheaper and make people more willing to buy it which would take away several sources of gas emissions. Subsides would make the field more competitive which would in turn fuel innovation as producers are ready to enter the field as it has become more profitable and high in demand. Subsides would most importantly further research in the field of clean energy which could lead to innovative new products that make it more appropriate on a large scale.Overall the other techniques to lower greenhouse gas look into direct ways to curb it without offering an alternate solution. The world can’t just stop relying on energy so a better option is to give an alternative that leads to no emissions and subsidizing clean energy sources does that, paving a way for the future.
