Global warming and public policy approaches

Global Warming: Public Policy

The liberalists sustain the idea according to which the market finds its own resources to regulate itself, thanks to the market forces. However, in some cases, this assumption is not valid, it affects some of the common interests at a global level for mankind and these are areas where the governments intervene with restrictions and regulations that will limit the effects of the companies' activities. One such example is the global warming process: a real threat to the environment and to the natural world, an area where government coercion was necessary to lay down the rules by which companies could restrict their activities that affect nature (Clark, Lee 2004).

While it initially seems like an effect that impacts the natural world and the environment, global warming is much deeper than that and, in fact, backfires into affecting other branches of the economy. Indeed, this is why we can argue that, while not affecting economic growth for companies operating in some sectors of the economy (the industrial segment), global warming produces negative effects for companies in, say, the insurance business, which find themselves covering disasters produced by hurricanes and storms, direct consequences of global warming (Nordhaus, Shellenberger 2005). Government restrictions to combat global warming will thus not only positively affect the environment, but will also have a direct impact on some of the connected industries, affected by global warming.

On the other hand, arguments against severe government restrictions also point out the fact that this will tend to limit economic growth over the next period of time. Whether we like it or not, economic growth is also based on energy consumption and cannot be based solely on services or tertiary activities. To what degree conclusions such as the one in the Kyoto Protocol limiting energy consumption and emissions are the true solution, given the impact they could have on the overall economy by limiting economic growth and, thus, brining disaster through a different manner at a global level? (Samuelson 2006).

At the same time, it is also useful to point out that some of the most important stakeholders are, in fact, the moralists who look at the issue from a purely environmentalists perspective and for whom the main goal is to save a particular specie of animal (Samuelson 2006). We should point out that the issue at stake here is in fact the survival of the human race and the conditions in which this can be done on Earth and, at the same time, that this tends to be an engineering rather than a moral issue (Samuelson 2006),

The latter conclusion is important in identifying another category of stakeholders who can play an essential role in the avoidance of global warming and in creating alternatives that can limit the negative effects of excessive energy consumption.

The demand for alternative energy forms is most likely going to form a very profitable niche on the market in the near future.

This is obviously the same thing as when the informational revolution began or when the industrial revolution came about. The companies who will became providers of solutions to energy alternatives and to enable the companies to abide by the governmental restrictions in the field will also be interested stakeholders in getting the governmental restrictions implemented and operational in the industry.

Recommendations

1. Increased governmental spending and involvement into creating alternative forms of energy.

PROS: An important pro-in this case is that the significant governmental involvement, especially in terms of promoting and financing research for new forms of alternative energy, can actually have a tremendous impact and produce immediate results.