Climate Change and Economics with Young Enthusiasts: Inter-generational Gaps and Burden Sharing

Abstract

This final chapter offers a grand finale of the book with a series of analyses on the question of generational gaps and inter-generational burden sharing in the context of climate change. It begins with an exposition of a globally harmonized carbon price as a basis for the ensuing analyses. The two aspects of the generational gaps clarified are: first, millennials and gen-Zers are more willing to support climate activism and act politically; second, future generations will bear the cost of global warming disproportionately. As per the inter-generational burden sharing (IGBS), three IGBS schemes are analyzed: a fair IGBS, an-unfair-to-future IGBS, and an unfair-to-present-IGBS. The three schemes are distinguished by the trajectory over the next three centuries of a carbon emission control rate, of the carbon price, and of the degree of global warming. The chapter concludes with the four directions and ideas to which gen-Zers and future generations may be motivated to pursue with passion: globally-shared goods, economic reality of climate change, microbehavioral actions, and a century-long planning horizon.