Economics Of Climate Change

Meyer, A. Lee

doi:10.1038/378433a0

Cited by 22 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…Though many economists assume anything can be rationally attributed a monetary value, many others question the valuation of all valuable things for individuals and society in money. Indeed, when in the IPCC's Second Assessment Report (Pearce et al, 1996) money values were attributed to the environment and human life, it immediately raised a hard scientific controversy (Masood and Ochert, 1995;Meyer, 1995;Tol, 1997;Spash, 2002). The global estimates of positive (beneficial) effects of climate change on social welfare obtained in some IAMs are the consequence of estimated welfare gains in rich countries, offsetting welfare losses in poor countries.…”

Section: Limitations Of Iamsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamics and Economic Aspects of Climate Change

Granados¹,

Carpintero²

2013

Combating Climate Change

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Climate change is the alteration of climate directly or indirectly caused by human activities that modify the composition of the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases (GHG), particularly CO 2 , are accumulating in the atmosphere, with the consequent warming. Global mean temperature has risen since preindustrial times, with most of the warming occurring in the last three decades. The consequence are increasingly frequent extreme weather events.Though economists have often disagreed about economic aspects of global warming, views as those of the Stern Review-that purports global warming as a major economic problem implying risks of disaster and demanding the use of major resources-are increasingly common. The idea that with development and technological progress total GHG emissions or at least emissions per capita would decrease has been discredited by evidence of a link between increased economic activity and greater emissions. In general, global emissions of CO 2 have increased at rates correlated with the annual increase of world GDP (WGDP). Furthermore, the annual increase in atmospheric concentrations of CO 2 is correlated with the growth of WGDP.Impacts of climate change and strategies to mitigate them have been often subjected to integrated assessment models (IAMs), which involve many controversial aspects. For global warming above 2 or 3 °C IAMs agree that there will be a reduction of long-term social well-being and a negative impact suffered mostly by low-income regions, but different IAMs strongly disagree on the level of human-induced damage, with estimates ranging from less than 1% to over 10% of WGDP. However, significant economic and technological potentials for mitigation and emissions reductions are now available. These would be larger if non-technical options (changes in consumption models and lifestyles) are also considered.Direct emissions of GHG related to agriculture are mainly emissions of CH 4 and NO 2 . Indirect emissions of GHG from agriculture include large CO 2 emissions from land use change, when natural ecosystems are transformed into cultivated land. The sum of direct and indirect emissions may represent annually ¼ of GHG global emissions, with about ¾ of GHG agricultural emissions coming from low-income countries. Global warming impacts on agriculture include decreased yields in warmer environments, increased yields in colder ones due to longer growing season and CO 2 fertilization (that perhaps could be offset by ozone emissions), more insect outbreaks and risk of wildfires, crop damage, and land and water degradation. Mitigation measures focused in soil carbon sequestration by modifying practices of intensive agriculture and moving towards agroecology or low-carbon agriculture are needed.Permits trading and the implementation of a carbon tax are the major options in the public debate about policies to mitigate climate change by reducing emissions. The European Trading Scheme (ETS) implemented in 2005 has yielded very poor results, failing to reduce emissions and with the emissions market pre...

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Section: Limitations Of Iamsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamics and Economic Aspects of Climate Change

Granados¹,

Carpintero²

2013

Combating Climate Change

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“…Philip Fearnside (1998) raises the by now well-known issue of how to assess climate-change induced changes in human mortality. Others did so before (e.g., Hohmeyer, 1996;Massood, 1995;Meyer, 1995;Pearce, 1995), and we have participated in the ensuing debate with a series of articles (e.g. Fankhauser et al, 1997Fankhauser et al, , 1998.…”

Section: The Value Of Human Life In Global Warming Impacts -A Commentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fankhauser

Tol

1998

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change

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“…The authors and IPCC officials (see Bruce, 1995) tried to explain that VOSL does not purport to represent the value of individual lives, simply aggregate individual WTP to avoid risk of death, but it was precisely this reduction in VOSL figures of the value of individual human lives to a question of individual WTP that critics found so offensive. Many called for the complete withdrawal of the chapter from the IPCC report unless Pearce and the other authors agreed to change their VOSL figures (Masood, 1995;Meyer, 1995a), which they refused to do. The second assessment report was only approved after a last-minute closed-door compromise, in which government representatives agreed to wording in the summary for policymakers that disavowed much of the contents of the Pearce et al (1996) chapter on the social costs of climate change (Douthwaite, 1995;Masood and Ochert, 1995).…”

Section: Have Insistedmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the heat of debate, three distinct concerns about the IPCC report and its approach to VOSL became conflated and confused: WTP over WTA; regionally differentiated VOSLs; and the evaluation of impacts in terms of descriptive market-like prices rather than prescribed monetary values. Critics such as Aubrey Meyer of the Global Commons Institute, the London-based environmental group that led the charge against the IPCC damage report, freely mixed all three criticisms, alternatively calling for the IPCC to value all human mortality loss in terms of WTA (Meyer, 1995b), a globally equal VOSL figure (Meyer, 1995a), or prescriptively in terms of universally applied OECD-level VOSLs (Meyer and Cooper, 1995). Although WTA measures would, undoubtedly, have yielded much higher damage values, they too would have been regionally differentiated, because the marginal utility of income is lower in developed than in developing countries.…”

Section: Have Insistedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Figuring the Costs of Climate Change: An Assessment and Critique

Demeritt

Rothman

1999

Environ Plan A

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In this paper we examine the evidence for the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) estimate that the costs of global climate change will be on the order of 1.5-2.0% of world gross domestic product (GDP). Although this estimate is widely and authoritatively repeated, it rests on a handful of preliminary studies, chiefly of the United States and performed by a select group of economists. We examine the methods and assumptions of these studies and consider the social and political commitments built into their analytical techniques. We conclude that the prevailing methods of economic damage assessment and valuation provide a highly conservative estimate of the potential costs and risks of future climate change. We suggest that the IPCC scientific assessment process has been organized in such a way as to foreclose public debate about the moral and political judgments built into the technical details of its reports. p

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Economics Of Climate Change

Cited by 22 publications

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Dynamics and Economic Aspects of Climate Change

Dynamics and Economic Aspects of Climate Change

Untitled

Figuring the Costs of Climate Change: An Assessment and Critique

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