Challenges pour l’analyse économique de long terme de l’environnement et des ressources naturelles – CLEANER

This project is motivated by the conviction that thinking the economy in the long run makes no sense without taking into account natural and environmental resources. More precisely, we believe that considering growth paths that would not be sustainable, is, in a way, useless. Of course, this idea has already gained ground in the opinion of many economists. But the research field remains both very important and very fruitful. We intend to work in five directions, corresponding to stakes which we believe are very promising in terms of new results and useful insights for policymaking: (1) growth sustainability; (2) population, environment and health; (3) carbon value and price; (4) long-term energy choices, risk and irreversibility; (5) agents' heterogeneity. Exploring these directions relies on a common methodology: we tackle the growth and environment challenges through theoretical and stylized models, allowing us to address crucial issues in the very long run and to bring out the main mechanisms involved. Not only do we se study the optimal growth paths of the economy and their environmental consequences under various assumptions, but also the policy tools designed to implement sustainable paths in decentralized economies, as we are ultimately interested in the design of environmental policy.