No Regrets Options

The Timing of Climate Change Policy

“No Regrets” Options

“No regrets” options are steps to reduce GHGs that would pay for themselves even without a climate change policy. Some studies, for example, note that information-oriented programs that make buyers aware of energy-saving products and opportunities, such as the federal government’s “Energy Star” program, generate substantial energy and cost savings, simply by filling a gap in the market’s awareness.¹⁸ [1] 

The U.S. tax code contains features that are viewed by some analysts as subsidies for inefficient energy use. Eliminating these subsidies could have important effects on energy use and emissions of conventional pollutants. For example, efforts to reduce or eliminate CO₂ emissions often also result in lower levels of so-called “criteria pollutants,” such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, or particulates. These have their own effects on health and economic activity. Thus, reducing CO₂ may have other benefits that reduce the societal cost of abating these emissions, conceivably to the point of making them “free” on a societal basis. While there is often debate as to the extent of these essentially free options, there is broad agreement that they should be pursued.

Another type of cost that bears on the true societal cost of carbon abatement concerns our nation’s strategic vulnerability to imported oil. Economists have long recognized that U.S. dependence on foreign oil poses costs to the economy greater than those that can be mitigated by maintaining strategic oil stockpiles. Shifting the economy away from fossil fuels and towards sustainable technologies to reduce dependence on foreign oil would generate benefits even before climate effects were considered.

A far wider range of policies that abate GHG emissions, therefore, can be justified on a “no regrets” basis, once the full social costs and benefits of those actions are taken into account.

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