The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2022 emphasized that changes to lifestyles and behavior have the potential for large reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions. These changes – from using more mass transit to ensuring homes and offices are made more energy-efficient – have the potential to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions 40%-70% by 2050. But to achieve these large reductions, policies are needed to help drive individual change, often through government or businesses…
Corporations sparking large-scale change
Speakers Michael Greenstone, the Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago.
John List, the Kenneth C. Griffin Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago and Chief Economist at Walmart.
Moderator: Anna Harvey, President of the Social Science Research Council.
Greenstone presented evidence from a study in India that developed permits for industrial plants to release pollution in a large Indian city. Plants could trade the permits among one another to meet emission requirements, with those who polluted more buying permits from those who polluted less. The study showed that the system helped reduce pollution by 20% to 30% compared with plants that were not in the system.