Leading climate change economist warns U.S. of trade boycott

[marmar]

AFP, via Grist:




LONDON -- A British climate change economist at the heart of international negotiations seeking a greenhouse gas deal said Friday that the U.S. faces a trade boycott if it fails to rein in its carbon emissions.

Lord Nicholas Stern, author of the British government's 2006 report on the economics of climate change, warned the U.S. that many countries would shun its goods if they deemed them to be "dirty."

"The U.S. will increasingly see the risks of being left behind, and 10 years from now they would have to start worrying about being shut out of markets because their production is dirty," Stern told The Times.

"If they persist in being slow about reducing emissions, U.S. exports will start to look more carbon intensive."

Stern advises several G20 countries and his 2006 Stern review is regarded as the most in-depth and well-known study into climate change economics. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.grist.org/article/2010-11-19-leading-climate-change-economist-warns-u.s.-of-trade-boycott

[dkf]

1. Production of what?

It's not our manufacturing so much as our way of life that uses oil.

[glitch]

4. Agriculture. nt

[joshcryer]

5. That wouldn't hurt us. That'd help us in some convoluted way.

Food prices here would drop.

That'd really fuck the rest of the world though.

[glitch]

6. Perhaps. But we do produce it and it is energy-intensive. nt

[Hello_Kitty]

2. Can't say I blame them. We need to get over ourselves and do something about our emissions. eom

[Meeker Morgan]

3. Just one climate change economist stamping his feet in frustration ...

What the US produces that people all over the world still buy are staple food crops such as corn and soybeans. Countries that import those things cannot stop without going hungry.

And the EU has enough economic problems right now without a trade war.