Lomborg and Climate Change

I’ve found the arguments of Bjorn Lomborg on climate change appealing for sometime but was somehow still uncomfortable with them. For one thing, I agree that the money that could be spent to address the climate problem could be better spent on some other world problems if the first criterion was saving lives wherever in the world. That seems obvious to me.

However, he might miss the point that the primary objective of environmental policy---at least for economists--- is to make polluters pay for the consequences of their actions.

In this regard, I have yet to see any proof or articulation of a tentative proof from B. Lomborg that there will be any correspondence between the responsibiity for GHG emissions and responsibiity for the other priorities. In other words, he seems to think that the funds to address the climate change problem can be raised in the same way that these can be raised in addressing perhaps more important problems.

For me, these are really different but interrelated issues.

It also seems to me that the Lomborg position is based on aid from the developed countries to the other countries, which should not be the case. This should not be a matter of generosity but fairness, especially since the developed countries are responsible for most of the current stock of greenhouse gases.