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Published online 3 June 2009 | Nature 459, 628 (2009) | doi:10.1038/459628a
Column: Party of One
Climate future
Deciding how to evaluate a cap-and-trade programme raises some thorny questions, says David Goldston.
Scientists sometimes describe the way human activities are changing the composition of Earth's atmosphere as a giant (and dangerous) experiment: we don't know enough about the complexities of the climate system to fully gauge all of the impacts of the increase in greenhouse-gas levels. Less frequently noted is that the antidote to global climate change is also a giant (although necessary) experiment: we don't know enough about the complexities of the economic system to fully gauge all of the impacts of a cap-and-trade system to limit greenhouse-gas emissions.
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