Public policy can steer incentives for a more effective response to climate change, says Daniel Esty of Yale University

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES are often based on thou-shalt-not rules. They signal to the market what is not desired. Though incentives to spur industry to action also exist, they are overshadowed by these “red lights”. Daniel Esty, an environmental lawyer at Yale University, wants to change this.

[author: Ridgway Hall]

At ACOEL’s meeting in Williamsburg last month Dan Esty challenged us to undertake a multi-year project to transform the legal framework for environmental protection. He argued persuasively that our country has outgrown its tolerance for command and control regulation, and that advances in emissions modeling and risk assessment plus the ready availability of abundant and low cost data now make possible a shift to a market-driven system. This would allow a price to be put on pollution, or “harm”, and eliminate externalities: that is, everyone must either eliminate or pay for his or her pollution.

Dan Esty, a former Connecticut environment and EPA official, says he's optimistic about the potential for a major overhaul of EPA's structure and mission once President Donald Trump leaves office, arguing that broad reform is necessary to adapt the agency to 21st century challenges and can be achieved with bipartisan backing.

"My optimism is based on the fact that I think Democrats are coming to understand that key to progress on a number of their agendas that they care about like air and water pollution requires winning Republican votes to get the job done," he says in an interview with Environment Next.