The Economics Of Climate Change

This study examines the costs and benefits of an aggressive program of global action to limit the greenhouse effect. Cline summarizes the issues from the standpoint of an economist and estimates the damages of long-term warming.

This impressive new collection couldn't come at a better time. With global warming now becoming physically noticeable and the Kyoto treaty stalling in its efforts to get the developed world on board, a look at the economic factors of global warming is very much welcome. With contributions from distinguished authors and covering everything you need

While debates over the consequences of climate change are often pessimistic, historical data from the past two centuries indicate many viable opportunities for responding to potential changes. This volume takes a close look at the ways in which economies—particularly that of the United States—have adjusted to the challenges climate change poses, including institutional features that help insulate the economy from shocks, new crop varieties, irrigation, flood control, and ways of extending cultivation to new geographic areas. These innovations indicate that people and economies have considerable capacity to acclimate, especially when private gains complement public benefits. Options for adjusting to climate change abound, and with improved communication and the emergence of new information and technologies, the potential for adaptation will be even greater in the future.

Independent, rigorous and comprehensive analysis of the economic aspects of climate change.

This book is a philosophical critique of the economics of climate change from both an ethical and philosophy of economics perspective. Mitigating climate change is not so much a scientific problem, but rather a political, social and above all an economic problem. A future without greenhouse gas emissions requires a radical transformation towards a sustainable low-carbon economy and society. How this transformation could be achieved raises numerous economic questions. Many of these questions remain untouched, although economists are equipped with a suitable toolkit and expertise. This book argues that economists have a social responsibility to carry out more research on how global warming could be stopped and that, ultimately, economic analysis of climate change must be a political economic approach that treats the economy as part of a wider social system. This approach will be of interest to policy makers, educators, students and researchers in support of more pluralism in economic research and teaching.

This book presents the latest science and social science research on whether the world can adapt to climate change.

The Behavioral Economics of Climate Change: Adaptation Behaviors, Global Public Goods, Breakthrough Technologies, and Policy-Making shows readers how to understand mitigation strategies emerging from global warming policy discussions and the ways that changing climate conditions can alter these strategies. Through quantitative analyses, case studies and policy examples, this bottom-up approach to climate change economics gives readers the tools to create effective responses to global warming. This self-contained book on the topic covers key scientific and economic subjects in an applied, innovative and immediately relevant fashion. Unravels individual behaviors and national policies about global warming by evaluating their evolving motives and incentives Provides an economic analysis of the ways individuals makes decisions when faced with climate change Details a full range of alternative economic and policy responses, placing them in an integrated conceptual and policy framework

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing human kind owing to the great uncertainty regarding future impacts, which affect all regions and many ecosystems. Many publications deal with economic issues relating to mitigation policies, but the economics of adaptation to climate change has received comparatively little attention. However, this area is is critical and a central pillar of any adaptation strategy or plan and is the economic dimension, which therefore merits the increase in attention it is receiving. This book deals with the difficulties that face the economics of adaptation. Critical issues include: uncertainty; baselines; reversibility, flexibility and adaptive management; distributional impacts; discount rates and time horizons; mixing monetary and non-monetary evaluations and limits to the use of cost-benefit analysis; economy-wide impacts and cross-sectoral linkages. All of these are addressed in the book from the perspective of economics of adaptation. Other dimensions of adaptation are also included, such as the role of low- and middle-income countries, technology and the impacts of extreme events. This timely book will prove essential reading for international researchers and policy makers in the fields of natural resources, environmental economics and climate change.