U.S. Climate Policy and the European Response: A way forward – Response to the Policy Paper 34 “Clinton, Obama, McCain: Europe’s Best Hope for Fighting Climate Change”

Stephen Boucher has written a very interesting paper “Clinton, Obama, McCain – Europe’s Best Hope for Fighting Climate Change” that does a fine job of outlining the approaches of the three leading U.S. presidential candidates to climate change issues and suggesting an appropriate EU response. Furthermore, Boucher has a good understanding of various elements of the push and pull of U.S. politics. His analysis of the gap between stated and revealed preferences about willingness to pay for environmental taxes is an important analysis often overlooked by optimists.

The current U.S. recession adds an additional element of uncertainty and difficulty to predicting U.S. behavior and formulating an appropriate European response.Stephen Boucher has written a very interesting paper that does a fine job of outlining the approaches of the three leading U.S. presidential candidates to climate change issues and suggesting an appropriate EU response. Furthermore, Boucher has a good understanding of various elements of the push and pull of U.S. politics.

His analysis of the gap between stated and revealed preferences about willingness to pay for environmental taxes is an important analysis often overlooked by optimists. The current U.S. recession adds an additional element of uncertainty and difficulty to predicting U.S. behavior and formulating an appropriate European response.