Joseph Stiglitz – On Getting Carbon Pricing Right

In the 6th episode of Planet A’s second season, Dan Jørgensen talks with the American economist and Nobel Laureate, Joseph Stiglitz.

Stiglitz explains why he is a strong supporter of a “Cross Border Adjustment tax”, which adds the cost of carbon emissions to the price on imported goods and thus prevents carbon leakage. 

The economist underlines the importance of imposing a higher social cost of carbon and believes it should be upwards of 100 US dollars per emitted ton CO2. Stiglitz and Jørgensen precedes to discuss the benefits and disadvantages of different tools to price carbon, including carbon taxation and “cap and trade” systems such as the European Union Emissions Trading System (ETS).

While Stiglitz is a strong proponent of a carbon tax, he advocates for a parallel implementation of political regulation and the use of public investments on research and development, if we are to meet the climate goals enshrined in the Paris Agreement.

Stiglitz currently works as a professor at Columbia University but has also taught at several other institutions of higher education including Cambridge, Oxford, Princeton, Stanford and MIT.

Aside from his academic career, he has worked as President Bill Clinton’s Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in the White House and as the Chief Economist of the World Bank. 

He is also the author of numerous scholarly articles, op-eds in the New York Times and several best-selling books. Most notably, he has authored “Globalization and its discontents”, “The Price of Inequality” and “People, Power and Profits”.