Efficiency and Acceptability of Climate Policies: Race Against the Lock-ins

Policymakers have good reasons to favor capital-based policies – such as CAFE standards or feebates programs – over a carbon price. A carbon price minimizes the discounted cost of a climate policy, but may result in existing capital being under-utilized or scrapped before its scheduled lifetime, hurt the workers that depend on it, and inflict an immediate income drop. Capital-based policies avoid these obstacles, but can reach a given climate target only if implemented early enough. Delaying mitigation policies may thus create a political-economy lockin (easier-to-implement policies become unavailable) in addition to the economic lock-in (the target becomes more expensive).