A lesson in carbon conversion factors
December 5th, 2006
The Stern Report has kicked off some of the most immature tit for tat I have ever come across. Monckton vs. Monbiot, Lomborg vs. Stern etc., etc. It’s like watching a playground tiff – fascinating to watch grown men getting their knickers in a twist, basically over semantics, politics and economics. I could loftily ignore it all, or I could weigh in and start nitpicking? What do you reckon?
This morning the (amateur) economist and uber-blogger I most like to agree and disagree with in equal measure has been criticising my new best friend (not really) George Monbiot. Tim Worstall thinks these two figures are pretty much the same:
$85 per tonne CO2 (Stern)
£70 per tonne carbon (Eddington)
Given this mornings exchange rate of £1 = $2
$85 = £42.50 per tonne CO2
To convert CO2 to carbon multiply by a factor of 12/44 = so 1 tonne carbon dioxide equals 0.27 tonnes carbon. So Stern is putting a cost of £11.90 on a tonne of carbon, around 1/6 of Eddington’s £70.
Sorry Tim, you’ve got your maths wrong.
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