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Kyle Meng is an Associate Professor at the Bren School of Environmental Management and the Department of Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Climate and Energy Program Director at the Environmental Markets Solutions Lab. An environmental and resource economist with training in engineering and atmospheric physics, Professor Meng studies the equity and efficiency consequences of environmental policies, with a focus on climate policies.

Talk abstract:
Climate change and social inequality are two of the world’s most pressing issues. They are also intricately linked. The imperative to address climate change is overlaid on a world that is already deeply unequal. Until recently, climate policy design has focused primarily on achieving greenhouse gas (GHG) targets at the lowest economic cost, thus emphasizing carbon pricing policies. At the same time, the particular reallocation of emissions induced by carbon pricing also spatially alters who is harmed by local air pollution co-produced with GHG emissions, possibly widening existing disparities in pollution exposure between disadvantaged and other individuals. This talk combines two studies, a retrospective study on the pollution disparity consequences of California's carbon market and a prospective study on pollution disparities of various simulated US-wide climate policies to explore when there is a trade-off and when there is alignment between these equity and efficiency considerations. 

The David Bradford Energy and Environmental Policy Seminar Series is coordinated by the Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment (C-PREE), and co-sponsored by the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI). This seminar is also cosponsored by the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment.