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 examines the costs of not slowing
climate change. What impacts can we expect, how might they vary
among different nations and regions, and how likely are we to
encounter catastrophic results?
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