The ThunderBlogs

On Friday afternoon the main room of UBC’s Asian Centre was full of economists eager to discuss fixing, of all things, the environment. Welcome to the 21st century.

Environmental economist Lawrence H. Goulder gave the keynote speech in a weekend long conference entitled, “UBC 2010 Workshop on Environmental Economics and Climate Change.” His talk outlined the role economists can play in creating policies to deal effectively with climate change. It was called, “Pricing Greenhouse Gases: Efficiency, Distribution and Politics.”

Coming from a talk in the neighbouring building, economists ranging in age and ethnicity shuffled in with coffee and cookies in their hands to take their places among the blue plastic chairs. For every two rows of men there were about four women.

“I’ll start off by showing you all a very simple economics graph,” Goulder said. As the slide went up the room filled with laughter at what was obviously, to most, a hilariously simple economics graph. But once Goulder began getting into the meat of his ideas the tone in the room changed. Heads tilted and bodies leaned back into chairs, arms crossed and eyes squinted in what looked like reserved and contemplative skepticism. An old man, with white hair in a ponytail and his blue bike helmet and backpack still on, squeezed into the middle of the third row to sit in one of the last empty chairs.

“Reasons why we haven’t had serious climate change policies are the influence of special interest and a lack of public knowledge,” Goulder said. “How can we as environmental economists breakthrough these barriers?” In terms of the special interests groups his answer was, “Buy them off. It actually wouldn’t cost that much.” He explained that in order to be able to pass carbon taxes it would be necessary to make it worthwhile for industry like oil and gas. Current stakeholders’ profits could be preserved while discouraging further investment into the industry.

It was probably his most contentious statement, but seemed to be gravely acknowledged as a practical solution. Alexandre Vigneault, a chemical engineering PhD student, said he agreed with Goulder. “It makes sense,” he said. His friend, Nick Chow, a political science major who was also minoring in economics, nodded. The atmosphere in the room was one of grave concern and a desire to find practical solutions.

“Climate change is a big problem, largely beyond economics,” Goulder concluded. “Some people are positive. I have a friend who says look at the anti-smoking campaign and how effective that was over time.”

He paused.

“I’m not sure that we have the time. We can’t wait three decades,” he said, “I’ll end on that note.”