Read more
Global climate change has emerged as one of today's most challenging and controversial policy issues. In this significant new contribution, a roster of premier scholars examines economic and social aspects of that far-reaching phenomenon. Although the 1997 "summit" in Kyoto focused world attention on climate, it was just one step in an ongoing process. Research by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been ongoing since 1988. An extensive IPCC Working Group report published in 1995 examined the economic and social aspects of climate change. In this new volume, eminent economists assess that IPCC report and address the questions that emerge. The result is a reasoned, cogent look at the realities of climate change and some methods (and difficulties) of dealing with them.William Nordhaus's introduction establishes the context for this book. It provides basic scientific background, reviews the IPCC's activities, and explains the genesis of the project. Subsequent contributions fall into two categories. Early chapters review analytical issues critical to social and economic understanding of climate change. For example, Granger Morgan looks at how typical decisionmaking frameworks relate to this topic. Other chapters in this section discuss discounting and intergenerational equity, the possible role of cost-benefit analysis, and the institutional architecture needed to address the problem effectively. A second set of chapters address specific economic questions surrounding climate-change policy. For example, John Weyant and Tom Kram look at the costs of slowing climate change. Weyant agrees with the IPCC that the economic cost is high, relative to othereconomic and environmental policies. There is tremendous uncertainty in these estimates, however, and different approaches to modeling -- economic, engineering, and social-psychological -- yield very different interpretations and prognoses. In another chapter, Robert Mendelsohn ex
List of contents
Foreword
Michael A. Toman
Preface
William D. Nordhaus
1. Assessing the Economics of Climate Change: An Introduction
William D. Nordhaus
Part 1. Major Analytical Issues
2. Policy Analysis for Decisionmaking About Climate Change
M. Granger Morgan
Comments
Akihiro Amano
Alan S. Manne
3. Equity and Discounting in Climate Change Decisions
Robert C. Lind and Richard E. Schuler
Comments
William R. Cline
Richard N. Cooper
4. Applicability of Cost-Benefit Analysis to Climate Change
Paul R. Portney
Comments
Ferenc L. Toth
5. Greenhouse Policy Architectures and Institutions
Richard Schmalensee
Comments
R. K. Pachauri
Part 2. Specific Climate Change Policy Issues
6. The Costs of Greenhouse Gas Abatement
Tom Kram
7. The Costs of Carbon Emissions Reductions
John P. Weyant
Comments
Richard Richels
8. Climate Change Damages
Robert Mendelsohn
Comments
Richard S. J. Tol
John Reilly
William R. Cline
9. Integrated Assessment Modeling of Climate Change
Charles D. Kolstad
Comments
John P. Weyant
Jae Edmonds
Index
About the author
William D. Nordhaus is the A. Whitney Griswold Professor of Economics at Yale University. He is a recognized authority on climate change: among his books are Managing the Global Commons and The Swedish Nuclear Dilemma: Energy and the Environment (RFF, 1997). He is coauthor (with Paul Samuelson) of Economics, now in its sixteenth edition.
Summary
In this volume, eminent analysts assess the IPCC Working Group report published in 1995 and address the questions that emerge from it. The result is an instructive and cogent look at the realities of climate change and some methods (and difficulties) of dealing with them. First Published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
