Antipodean agricultural and resource economics at 60: climate change policy and energy transition

Abstract

The Australian and New Zealand agricultural and resource economics profession has made a significant contribution in the field of climate policy and analysis of the energy sector. Much of this contribution has been based on quantitative economic modelling which had its roots in the earlier computable general equilibrium modelling on domestic policy and trade in which the profession was heavily involved from the 1970s onwards. By far the largest share of model development and analysis has been sponsored by government and conducted in the public sector, but in more recent years, there has been some shift into the private sector. However, the trend to the use of much more complex integrated assessment models in assessing the impacts of climate change and responses to new policy instruments raises the issue of whether more government support of quantitative modelling will be required in future.