Seminar web WCEREA: The political economy of carbon pricing

September 9, 2025

9:00 – 10:30 a. m., Pacific time

Online via Zoom

The World Council of Associations of Economists and Environmental Resources (WCEREA) is pleased to announce a webinar on ‘The political economy of pricing carbon’, which will be held on September 9, 2025, from 9:00 to 10:30. m., Pacific time (refer to the converter time here).

The web seminar

There are many initiatives of fixation of carbon pricing around the world. However, in general, the level of these prices is less than the need to mitigate emissions in a manner sufficient to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement on time. One of the main reasons that explain the low-carbon taxes and the high ceilings of carbon seems to be political. The authorities are not willing to pay the political cost of a higher price of carbon. The possible increase in energy costs and the way in which this increase will be distributed between the different income groups is not the only factor that determines the political cost. Part of the cost of the policy is due to the carbon price deal with a global problem, not a national one. Therefore, international cooperation plays an important role in the political economy of national carbon price.

To induce the level and speed of mitigation is unlikely to reach the carbon pricing alone to levels politically feasible, several colleagues have suggested that climate policy should take a more ‘holistic.’ According to this approach, carbon taxes should complement other instruments, such as subsidies to R & D instruments more ‘prescriptive’ and an adjustment mechanism on the borders of the carbon. In this scenario, you are by answering some important questions: what Are doomed to failure the high prices of carbon as instruments of climate policy? How does the international cooperation to the possibilities of observing carbon pricing effective in the future? What role should play an adjustment mechanism in border by carbon emissions? In this webinar, we brought together three distinguished scholars to present their views on these urgent issues.

Invited speakers

Bård Harstad

Stanford Graduate

School of Business

Jeroen van den Bergh

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Catherine Wolfram

MIT Sloan School of Management

Registration

The event will be held online through the platform Zoom.

Organizers

The webinar is organized by the Board of Directors of the WCEREA.