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So how do you come up with a fair price to capture the carbon externality? And do you add the externalities to green power like solar? More people have died in

So how do you come up with a fair price to capture the carbon externality? And do you add the externalities to green power like solar? More people have died installing solar equipment than all nuclear accidents. Or what about environmental damage during PV manufacturing? Do we add those to the price of solar at the time of sale?

derobert 13y ago
Indeed, it's difficult to exactly price externalities. There are published estimates of the carbon externality. You do you best; it's far better than the "estimate" we currently use ($0). When comparing, you add in the externalities to everything. To be specific: - you don't count the deaths in PV installation as its not an externality. The installers are an involved party; they can (for example) ask for higher wages due to risk. (Also, if you wanted to compare this to nuclear, you need to include deaths building those nuclear plants as well. And possibly mining the uranium.) - you do count the environmental damage during PV manufacturing (and turbine manufacturing, and coal mining, and oil drilling, etc.)