Supply-Side Climate Policy and the Green Paradox

Abstract

The focus of the green paradox literature has been either on demand-side climate policies or on effects of technological changes. The present paper addresses the question of whether there also might be some kind of green paradox related to supply-side policies, i.e. policies that per-manently remove some of the carbon resources. The conclusion is that there will no green paradox if supply-side climate policies are aimed at high-cost carbon reserves. If instead low-cost reserves are removed, the possibility that both early and total emissions increase cannot be ruled out. Hence, wrong supply-side climate policies may give a supply-side green paradox.