The assessment of climate change mitigation policies through economic modeling depends crucially on assumptions under which technological change has been incorporated in the model. Earlier climate-energy-economics modeling attempts heavily relied on the assumption of exogenous technological...

We develop a theoretical model of directed technical change in which clean (zero emissions) and dirty (emissions-intensive) technologies are embodied in long-lived capital. We show how obsolescence costs generated by technological embodiment create inertia in a transition to clean growth....