Carbon pricing can be a cost-effective way to cut carbon dioxide emissions, but only if it is politically sustainable. Two recent papers document how carbon pricing can create winners and losers, while also showing how these shortcomings can be addressed by careful policy design.
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Casey, G. Distributional consequences of climate policy. Nat. Clim. Chang. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-026-02612-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-026-02612-1