Can the World Still Exit the Climate Casino?

In 2013, William D. Nordhaus, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences, published his acclaimed book The Climate Casino. In the book, Professor Nordhaus argued that the world had entered the climate casino and was rolling the global warming dice in the absence of effective policies to tackle climate change. A decade on from the book’s release, and following his important recent research on the 'climate club' and the release of his 2021 book, The Spirit of Green, Professor Nordhaus considers whether the world still has an opportunity to exit the climate casino and implement policies that will reverse the tide of global warming. This lecture forms part of the Environmental Resilience lecture series, which is co-organised by the IIEA and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). About the Speaker: William Nordhaus is Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA. His major work focuses on the economics of climate change, developing models that integrated the science, economics, and policies necessary to slow warming. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2018 "for integrating climate change into long-run macroeconomic analysis." From 1977 to 1979, Professor Nordhaus served as a Member of President Carter's Council of Economic Advisers. From 1986 to 1988, he served as the Provost of Yale University and was President of the American Economic Association from 2015 to 2016. Professor Nordhaus completed his undergraduate work at Yale University in 1963 and received his Ph.D. in Economics in 1967 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.