A path forward on climate change

Pope Francis’s upcoming encyclical is expected to highlight climate change as one of the world’s biggest moral crises. After hosting an environmental summit with leaders of the UN, a top adviser to the Holy See stated, “The ideology surrounding environmental issues is too tied to a capitalism that doesn’t want to stop ruining the environment because they don’t want to give up their profits.” 

While the Vatican’s mission is well-intentioned, hindering economic growth and taxing energy production – the two most commonly proposed responses to climate change – will have a devastating effect on the world’s poorest citizens. 

{mosads}I could not agree more with Pope Francis that we have a profound obligation to protect the environment and use our natural resources sustainably. But unlike some of the Pope’s advisers, I don’t think protecting the environment and growing the economy are mutually exclusive.

I cannot accept that the best way to help the poor is to increase the cost of their energy.  Higher gas prices and electric bills are regressive taxes that hurt the poor significantly more than the rich.  It is much harder for the average worker to budget for $4 a gallon of gas than it is for his or her CEO.  

Worse still, higher energy prices will increase the cost of nearly all goods and services, especially food. Over the last twelve years, there has been a 93% correlation between the price of Brent crude oil and the United Nations global food index.  In other words, the price of food and the price of oil are inextricably linked, and climate policies that increase the cost of energy will have a disastrous effect on global hunger. 

Increases in oil prices also increase the demand for biofuels.  Biofuels are made from corn and other agricultural products and therefore divert both food supply and land that could otherwise be used for food production. 

According to the UN’s World Food Programme, there are 805 million people in the world who do not have enough food to lead a healthy life.  Raising energy costs will only mire the poor more deeply in poverty.  This is already a big problem, and it would be morally wrong to exacerbate it.

Fortunately, there is a better way.  The most vocal proponents of an aggressive response to climate change hope to increase the pace of technological development by increasing the cost of energy production.  While I disagree with a strategy that will artificially inflate the cost of energy, I completely agree that the solution to climate change lies in developing new technologies. 

In the long course of history, we have never regulated our way to innovation.  Instead, we need pro-growth policies to encourage innovation and development within structures of economic freedom.  This means protection of intellectual property rights both domestically and internationally, so inventors can be protected from others stealing their efforts.  It also means avoiding overly-burdensome regulations, so that, while adequate protections of natural resources are secured, the private entities that will put us on a path to a lower carbon world will have the freedom to grow and pursue this path.  

I heartily thank Pope Francis for his compassionate message.  And I firmly believe pro-growth policies do not in any way contradict it. Questions of public policy often require Catholics to use their prudential judgment. There isn’t only one right answer, and good Catholics can disagree. So if we want to have a meaningful discussion about this issue, we need to hear from people of all points of view. 

As a public servant with over two decades of experience with climate change, I believe innovation and technological development will be the answer to climate change, not high energy costs and stifled economic growth—both of which hurt the poor disproportionately more than those who are better off. 

I look forward to the upcoming papal encyclical and the Pope’s address to Congress in September as opportunities to further the international discussion on climate change.

Sensenbrenner represents Wisconsin’s 5^th Congressional District and has served in the House since 1979. He sits on the Science, Space and Technology and the Judiciary committees.