The Mitigation Trinity: Coordinating Policies to Escalate Climate Mitigation

Abstract

Climate-change mitigation is a global collective-action problem of high urgency and is required for stabilizing the Earth system. But, the global coordination of credible policies to mitigate climate change is hampered by heterogonous nation states diverging in both capabilities and domestic economic interests. To make mitigation more attractive, and ensure automatic escalation in ambition, I suggest mutually reinforcing climate policies that are linked via public finance: pricing carbon within an expanding climate coalition, using the revenues to build infrastructures to accommodate low-carbon technologies and systems, and applying normative pressure to divest from fossil fuels. An algorithmic strategy based on auctioning would guarantee efficiency and escalate mitigation. Together, carbon pricing, infrastructure investment, and morally motivated collective action constitute the mitigation trinity.