A rationale for the Right-to-Development climate policy stance?

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2024.102981
• Publication Date: 2024-04-22T19:04:52Z
• Authors: Dorothée Charlier; Aude Pommeret; Francesco Ricci
• Keywords: Sober development; JEL: O - Economic Development; 330; and Growth/O.O4 - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity/O.O4.O44 - Environment and Growth; and Growth/O.O1 - Economic Development/O.O1.O13 - Agriculture • Natural Resources • Energy • Environment • Other Primary Products; Right to develop; JEL: O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth/O.O1 - Economic Development/O.O1.O13 - Agriculture • Natural Resources • Energy • Environment • Other Primary Products; [SHS.ECO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Economics and Finance; Technological Change; Pollution; 7. Clean energy; Right to development; Developing countries; [SHS]Humanities and Social Sciences; Fossil energy intensity; JEL: Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics • Environmental and Ecological Economics/Q.Q4 - Energy/Q.Q4.Q43 - Energy and the Macroeconomy; JEL: O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth/O.O4 - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity/O.O4.O44 - Environment and Growth; JEL: Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics • Environmental and Ecological Economics/Q.Q5 - Environmental Economics/Q.Q5.Q56 - Environment and Development • Environment and Trade • Sustainability • Environmental Accounts and Accounting • Environmental Equity • Population Growth; 13. Climate action; and Growth/O.O1 - Economic Development/O.O1.O11 - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development; Structural change; JEL: O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth/O.O1 - Economic Development/O.O1.O11 - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development; [SHS] Humanities and Social Sciences; Innovation; [SHS.ECO] Humanities and Social Sciences/Economics and Finance

International audience<br/>We represent in a formal model a policy argument concerning the pertinence of the adoption of a restrictive environmental policy limiting the use of abundant fossil energy resources in a developing economy. This “Right-to-Develop” argument highlights the risk that such a policy may halt economic development, and therefore result in persistent environmental damages as well as consumption below potential. Confronted to a ceiling on cumulative emissions, the forward looking regulator will want to stimulate economic growth–and incidentally emissions– the more, the stricter the ceiling on pollution is. One assumption is crucial for the argument to hold: polluting fossil energy is an essential input over the early phase of economic development, but not in the later phases. Such a discontinuity could result from structural change. We provide empirical evidence on the plausibility of a discontinuity in the elasticity of aggregate output with respect to carbon dioxide emissions, using cross country data. It does not appear to be as strong as assumed in the model economy.<br/>