The Kyoto Protocol is now a legally binding treaty signed by 141 nations, although not by major polluting nations such as the United States, China and India. Can nuclear power, which is carbon free, save Kyoto and solve the global warming problem? Nuclear energy is a tough sell in the developed...

Environmental agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol aim to stabilize the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, which is mainly caused by the burning of nonrenewable resources such as coal. We characterize the solution to the textbook Hotelling model when there is a ceiling on the stock of...

A well-known theorem by Herfindahl states that the low-cost nonrenewable resource must be exploited first. Consider resources that are differentiated only by their pollution content. For instance, both coal and natural gas are used to generate electricity, yet coal is more polluting. We show...

Many regions such as the European Union and states in the U.S. have introduced mandates aimed at restricting carbon emissions. On the other hand, the stated goal of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which provides the science behind the current global climate negotiations is...

In this paper, we show that the potential for endogenous technological change in alternative energy sources may alter the behaviour of resource-owning firms. When technological progress in an alternative energy source can occur through learning-by-doing, resource owners face competing incentives...