Fix The Climate: Cutting Methane Emissions Perspective, Anthoff

Perspective Paper

Dr David Anthoff  concludes that a methane emission mitigation policy that follows the spending schedule suggested by the Copenhagen Consensus project does not pass a benefit-cost test. More reasonable methane mitigation policies spend less on mitigation in the years 2010-20, but more in later time periods. Such policies can generate significant net benefits. At the same time, they are no substitutes for CO2 emission mitigation policies because they do not alter the long term temperature trend beyond marginal perturbations. Joint methane and CO2 emission mitigation is an optimal policy mix and leads to highest net benefits, suggesting that a “either-or” approach between CO2 or methane emission mitigation is misguided.