In the 2015 Paris Agreement, governments promised to adopt policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to limit global warming. The most obvious tool is to increase the price of fossil fuels like gasoline. Some countries, especially in Europe, have done exactly this. Yet, in many countries gasoline taxes remain low. And a substantial number of governments explicitly have subsidies that allow citizens to buy gasoline below market prices.
In the latest Good Authority podcast, UCLA professor Michael Ross explains why it has proven to be so hard to move away from gasoline subsidies and, more generally, why price-based fossil fuel policies are often politically unsustainable.
Professor Ross has published extensively on the politics of oil. This conversation is based on his recent research with Paasha Mahdavi ,Cesar Martinez Alvarez, and Chad Hazlett published in The Journal of Politics and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Hear our conversation using the audio player below. You can also subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts.
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