A cautious approach to subsidies for environmental sustainability
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
Standard
In: Science, Vol. 386, No. 6717, 04.10.2024, p. 28-30.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
Harvard
APA
Vancouver
Bibtex
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
T1 - A cautious approach to subsidies for environmental sustainability
AU - Segerson, Kathleen
AU - Polasky, Stephen
AU - Scheffer, Marten
AU - Sumaila, U. Rashid
AU - Cardenas, Juan Camilo
AU - Nyborg, Karine
AU - Fenichel, Eli P.
AU - Anderies, John M.
AU - Barrett, Scott
AU - Bennett, Elena M.
AU - Carpenter, Stephen R.
AU - Crona, Beatrice
AU - Daily, Gretchen
AU - de Zeeuw, Aart
AU - Fischer, Joern
AU - Folke, Carl
AU - Kautsky, Nils
AU - Kremen, Claire
AU - Levin, Simon A.
AU - Lindahl, Therese
AU - Pinsky, Malin L.
AU - Tavoni, Alessandro
AU - Walker, Brian
AU - Weber, Elke U.
PY - 2024/10/4
Y1 - 2024/10/4
N2 - Tackling climate change and biodiversity loss will require government policies to reverse environmental destruction and align economic activity with sustainability goals. Subsidy-based policies feature prominently in current national and international policy discussions about ways to address these challenges. Given this, now is a critical moment to reassess the role of subsidies to ensure that not only their benefits but also their potential drawbacks are at the forefront of discussions about their use and design. We suggest that subsidies can play an important role in protecting people and the planet. However, because subsidies can have considerable drawbacks, we also suggest that subsidies should be used cautiously to ensure that they are, on net, beneficial to society and the planet in the short and long run. Avoiding “lock-in” is paramount and can be achieved through initial design features such as time limits to sunset subsidies.
AB - Tackling climate change and biodiversity loss will require government policies to reverse environmental destruction and align economic activity with sustainability goals. Subsidy-based policies feature prominently in current national and international policy discussions about ways to address these challenges. Given this, now is a critical moment to reassess the role of subsidies to ensure that not only their benefits but also their potential drawbacks are at the forefront of discussions about their use and design. We suggest that subsidies can play an important role in protecting people and the planet. However, because subsidies can have considerable drawbacks, we also suggest that subsidies should be used cautiously to ensure that they are, on net, beneficial to society and the planet in the short and long run. Avoiding “lock-in” is paramount and can be achieved through initial design features such as time limits to sunset subsidies.
UR - https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=leuphana_woslite&SrcAuth=WosAPI&KeyUT=WOS:001386690800001&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=WOS_CPL
U2 - 10.1126/science.ado2615
DO - 10.1126/science.ado2615
M3 - Journal articles
C2 - 39361746
VL - 386
SP - 28
EP - 30
JO - Science
JF - Science
SN - 0036-8075
IS - 6717
ER -