Carbon dioxide emissions are symptomatic of energy consumption in manufacturing, especially in transportation. Therefore initiatives to reduce them often cut supply chain costs as well. However, the exaggerated focus on carbon emissions is dysfunctional and it may overlook other cost-reduction opportunities.

Costs and benefits of greenhouse gas reduction

One of the most discussed environmental benefits of greenhouse gas reduction is mitigation of global warming. The costs related to greenhouse gas emission reduction are associated with sequestration of carbon dioxide, wind, and solar generation techniques that cannot pass a managerial economic analysis on their own merits, and non-value-adding carbon credit trading programs. Serious questions must be asked as to whether it’s worth hundreds of billions of dollars for marginal mitigation of rising sea levels, desertification, and so on.

However, simply adapting to greenhouse gas emissions could easily be more cost-effective. Humans and other mammals have always adapted to climate change, lower food availability, and the prospect of "greener pastures" through migration. Global warming encouraged Vikings to colonize Greenland hundreds of years ago, and global cooling forced them to abandon it. If global warming turns farmland into desert, it will also turn what is now tundra into farmland.

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