“As students that are getting ready to start voting, it is important to think about what issues are most concerning to you,” said our panelists, Shanjun Li, Greg Poe, and David Wolfe, at the Becker-Rose Café on the Environment. The panelists shared that to them, environmental policies are important to look for during the elections and to them, regulations are absolutely critical because anything humans do require some sort of environmental trade off so policy and cost-benefit analysis is extremely important.

Although some politicians believe strongly in free markets and do not agree with environmental regulations, regulations minimize negative externalities. The reason we have climate change and all of this mess with our environment is that individuals are not aware they are contributing to it. People should be allowed to “buy” whatever they want but if it comes with a cost to society, they should pay for that cost. People should “pay to pollute” with either a tax or import tariff. The problem is choosing a policy that other countries can agree to.

And why should we want other countries to agree? We should not be focusing on environmental impact in the USA only. We all live in the same world; CO2 emissions in China account for 22% of emissions in the entire world. So if the USA puts in policies to reduce emissions but China does not, we lose our comparative advantage to Chinese firms and pollution does not decrease because China would still be producing more and releasing emissions. However, China is presently moving ahead the USA which will hopefully incentivize other countries. WE NEED AN INT. AGREEMENT / TO WORK TOGETHER AND ADRESS THIS PROBLEM! However, one big global agreement may not be the best way to go. What would be more effective? That? Or Little partnerships? The best strategy forward is not clear. What is clear is that we need to work together.