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Correspondence

Nature 420, 605 (12 December 2002) | doi:10.1038/420605d

What has posterity done for us? It's not the point

Lawrence H. Goulder1 & Robert N. Stavins2

  1. Department of Economics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-6072
  2. John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA

We agree with Caldeira's view that it would be unfair to require future generations to pay the present generation for the costs of current climate policy. Our example was meant to illustrate complications that arise in evaluating policy options involving winners and losers.