Economic Growth and Carbon Emissions: The Road to “Hothouse Earth” is Paved with Good Intentions

De-carbonization to restrict future global warming to 1.5 °C is technically feasible but may impose a “limit” or “planetary boundary” to economic growth, depending on whether or not human society can decouple growth from emissions. In this paper, we assess the viability of decoupling. First, we develop a prognosis of climate-constrained...

Climate Change and Economic Growth: Production Based versus Consumption Based Evidence on the Decoupling of CO2 Emissions from Economic Growth

Of all the issues the world is facing today, Climate Change is the most threatening. The atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases has increased significantly after industrial revolution and the vast majority of scientists now agree that most of the observed warming in the Earth’s climate system has been caused by these anthropogenic...