Conference Agenda

Carbon pricing policies, such as carbon taxes and emissions trading systems (ETS), aim to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions but may inadvertently hinder adaptation to climate change by increasing energy costs and disrupting employment. This creates a critical but underexplored dilemma between climate change mitigation and adaptation. Using global datasets on carbon pricing and mortality from 1991 to 2021, we estimate that carbon pricing policies on average leads to 54 additional deaths per 100,000 population annually. Importantly, the impacts are observed primarily for temperature-related mortality during extreme weather, which suggests that the policies affect mortality through their impact on adaptation capacity.

Two additional analyses provide further insights: one with a finer focus on the European Union ETS using weekly high-frequency mortality data, and the other with a broader scope by including indirect carbon pricing such as fuel taxes alongside direct pricing. While the overall benefits of carbon pricing—such as lower greenhouse gas emissions and reduced air pollution—outweigh its health costs by the factor of 1.1, this paper highlights the need to integrate adaptation strategies into climate policies to balance mitigation goals with equitable outcomes.