A winner of this year's Nobel Prize for Economics who advocates carbon taxes as the best way to address greenhouse gas emissions says he does not expect U.S. President Donald Trump to back his view.
William Nordhaus's comments to The Associated Press on Friday followed Trump's recent dismissal of his own government's report warning of the dire consequences of climate change.
"There will be no forward progress under the Trump administration; I think that's virtually inconceivable," Nordhaus said. "It will be good if it didn't go backwards."
Professor Donna Strickland, 2018 Nobel laureate in Physics, center, arrives to take part in a press conference at the Royal Academy of Science in Stockholm, Sweden, Friday Dec. 7, 2018. (Claudio BrescianiTT via AP)
Nordhaus will split the 9 million-kronor ($1 million) prize with another American, Paul Romer, who was recognized for his work on how markets can encourage innovation.
Carbon taxes, which involves the imposition of levies on companies that burn fossil fuel, are criticized as being detrimental to economic growth, according to opponents. And that's a sensitive issue in the wake of the global economic downturn a decade ago.
"Nobody can predict with any accuracy what will happen in a year or two years," he said at a news conference with Nordhaus and the winners of the physics and chemistry Nobels.
Frances H. Arnold, 2018 Nobel laureate in Chemistry takes part in a press conference at the Royal Academy of Science in Stockholm, Sweden, Friday Dec. 7, 2018. (Claudio BrescianiTT via AP)
"On the other hand, everything in history suggests there will be another decline in output. I think we should expect that there will be additional financial crises."
Two of the chemistry prize laureates said excessive concerns about genetically modified foods and other substances can inhibit mankind from benefiting from developments in the field.
"We've been modifying the biological world at the level of DNA for thousands of years," said American Frances Arnold, citing examples such as new dog breeds. "Somehow there is this new fear of what we already have been doing and that fear has limited our ability to provide real solutions."
Frances H. Arnold, 2018 Nobel laureate in Chemistry, left, Professor Donna Strickland, 2018 Nobel laureate in Physics, and Professor Gerard Mourou, 2018 Nobel laureate in Physics take part in a press conference at the Royal Academy of Science in Stockholm, Sweden, Friday Dec. 7, 2018. (Claudio BrescianiTT via AP)
"There's a lot more we could do with directed evolution if there weren't regulatory hurdles to doing it," Britain's Gregory Winter said. "If we want to do something about it we'll have to loosen up some of these regimes."
They were named winners along with American George Smith for advances that the award characterized as speeding up evolution of enzymes and proteins.
Arnold was one of two female winners of science Nobels this year. The other, Donna Strickland of Canada, said she sees progress in attracting women to traditionally male-dominated science, engineering and mathematics.
"I think women are going into most of the fields. Physics still lags behind and I don't really know why that is the case; it depends, I think, a lot on whether society looks at physics as something to do," she told the AP. She credited the popular TV program "The Big Bang Theory" as having "helped make physics seem cool."
Strickland, Gerard Mourou of France and American Arthur Ashkin share the physics award for developments in lasers. Ashkin, at age 96 the oldest-ever Nobel winner, was unable to travel to Stockholm for Monday's awards ceremony.
The Nobel Peace Prize will be presented on Monday in Oslo. No winner of the literature prize was named this year.
Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed to this story
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk expressed satisfaction on Monday after a series of candidates supported by his party won weekend races for mayor.
Candidates from his pro-European Union centrist Civic Coalition, or running with the party's backing, won in a series of cities in the second round of local elections held on Sunday, among them Krakow, Poznan, Wroclaw and Rzeszow.
“It is very difficult to clearly say who won and who lost,” Tusk said Monday. “But if we compare these results, especially in the most attractive places, on these attractive battlefields ... then I actually have reasons for satisfaction.”
“Law and Justice has simply disappeared in many places,” Tusk added at a news conference, referring to the main opposition party.
The results put Civic Coalition in a favorable position as the country looks next to elections to the European Parliament on June 9.
Mayors were chosen in a total of 748 cities and towns where no single candidate won at least 50% of the vote during the first round on April 7.
Candidates for Tusk’s party also recaptured cities where they had not held power for many years, including Zielona Gora, Legnica and Torun.
The local and regional elections were viewed as a test for Tusk's pro-European Union government four months after it took power at the national level. Sunday's second round strengthened the Tusk government's leverage in the cities, which should facilitate cooperation on development projects and allotment of EU funds.
Tusk's allies also won in some places in the first round two weeks ago, including in Warsaw, where incumbent Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski was an easy victor.
In the first round, the right-wing Law and Justice, prevailed on the level of regional assemblies in the country's 16 provinces, where it took 34.3% of the votes, while Tusk's Civic Coalition got 30.6%. Law and Justice governed on the national level from 2015-23.
Tusk’s socially liberal Civic Coalition traditionally has strong support in cities, while Law and Justice has a more solid base in conservative rural areas, particularly in eastern Poland.
Civic Coalition is the largest group in a three-party coalition that governs the EU nation of 38 million people. The coalition is pro-European Union but otherwise spans a wide ideological spectrum with left-wing politicians in the Left party as well as conservatives in the Third Way.
Polish voters take part in a local runoff election in Lomianki, near Warsaw, Poland on Sunday, April 21, 2024. Voters are choosing mayors who did not win outright in the first round of the election two weeks earlier. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
Campaign posters promote candidates as Poles vote in local and regional elections in Lomianki, near Warsaw, Poland on Sunday, April 21, 2024. Voters are choosing mayors who did not win outright in the first round of the election two weeks earlier. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
Polish voters take part in a local runoff election in Lomianki, near Warsaw, Poland on Sunday, April 21, 2024. Voters are choosing mayors who did not win outright in the first round of the election two weeks earlier. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
Polish voters take part in a local runoff election in Lomianki, near Warsaw, Poland on Sunday, April 21, 2024. Voters are choosing mayors who did not win outright in the first round of the election two weeks earlier. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
FILE - Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk reacts during his and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meeting with students in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Jan. 22, 2024. Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk is celebrating a victory on Monday April 22, 2024 after a series of candidates supported by his party won weekend races for mayor. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)
FILE - Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk listens to the media in Berlin, Germany, Friday, March 15, 2024. Tusk is celebrating a victory on Monday April 22, 2024 after a series of candidates supported by his party won weekend races for mayor. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)
