Bitcoin and carbon dioxide emissions: Evidence from daily production decisions

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Papp, Anna; Almond, Douglas; Zhang, Shuang
• 署名单位: Columbia University; Columbia University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Imperial College London
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2023.105003
• 发表日期: 2023
• 关键词: Bitcoin; Cryptocurrency mining; carbon emissions; climate change

摘要

Environmental externalities from cryptomining may be large, but have not been linked causally to mining incentives. We exploit daily variation in Bitcoin price as a natural experiment for an 86 megawatt waste coal-fired power plant with on-site cryptomining. We find that carbon emissions respond swiftly to mining incentives, with price elasticities of 0.69-0.71 in the short-run and 0.33-0.40 in the longer run. A $1 increase in Bitcoin price leads to $3.11-$6.79 in external damages from carbon emissions alone, well exceeding cryptomining's value added (using a $190 social cost of carbon, but ignoring increased local air pollution). As cryptomining requires ever more computing power to mine a given number of blocks, our study highlights both the revitalization of US fossil assets and the need for financial industry accounting to incorporate cryptomining externalities.