‘Carrots’ can’t save the climate – we need a big ‘stick’

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-12-22 21:00

International

PHOTO: Marek Piwnicki on Unsplash

Subsidies for green technologies (‘carrots’) may help in the short-term, but punishment policies like charging for carbon emissions (‘sticks’) are likely needed as well to greatly reduce CO2 emissions by 2050, according to a US study. Researchers used a computer model of the US that included factors like socioeconomics, energy systems and consumer demands to look at the effects of ‘carrot-first’ policies, in which the ‘stick’ was introduced in 2035 or in 2045. They found that the size of the ‘stick’ (i.e. the price of carbon) would have to be just as big, or even bigger, than if only a ‘stick’ policy was used, without any ‘carrots’ to sweeten the deal. The researchers said that although ‘carrot’ policies are more appealing to governments to appease big industries and voters, leaders need to start hitting out with ‘sticks’ to make sure CO2 emissions dramatically decrease by 2050.

Journal/
conference: Nature Climate Change

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Pennsylvania State University, USA

Funder: We thank the funding support from the Sloan Foundation (grant no. G2023-22365). W.P. also acknowledge the support from Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. D.G.V. acknowledges support from the Electric Power Research Institute to the Deep Decarbonization Initiative at UC San Diego and private philanthropy to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. A.F. and G.I. are also affiliated with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which did not provide specific support for this paper. J.M. acknowledges support from the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Business and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch Project Accession No. 1020688. The views and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily state or reflect those of the affiliated organizations or the US Government and no official endorsement should be inferred.

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