CSSN Scholar Benjamin Sovacool and coauthors have published new research on the global externalities that will shape the future of energy.

They find that while electricity systems and transport could cost trillions of dollars per year in externalities ($11.6 trillion/year and $13 trillion/year, respectively), energy efficiency has annual positive value of $312 billion per year.

“The fundamental policy question is whether we want global markets that manipulate the presence of externalities to their advantage, or a policy regime that attempts to internalize them.”