Responding to threats of climate change mega-catastrophes

Carolyn Kousky, Olga Rostapshova, Michael Toman () and Richard Zeckhauser

No 5127, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: There is a low but uncertain probability that climate change could trigger"mega-catastrophes,"severe and at least partly irreversible adverse effects across broad regions. This paper first discusses the state of current knowledge and the defining characteristics of potential climate change mega-catastrophes. While some of these characteristics present difficulties for using standard rational choice methods to evaluate response options, there is still a need to balance the benefits and costs of different possible responses with appropriate attention to the uncertainties. To that end, the authors present a qualitative analysis of three options for mitigating the risk of climate mega-catastrophes - drastic abatement of greenhouse gas emissions, development and implementation of geoengineering, and large-scale ex ante adaptation - against the criteria of efficacy, cost, robustness, and flexibility. They discuss the composition of a sound portfolio of initial investments in reducing the risk of climate change mega-catastrophes.

Keywords: Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases; Climate Change Economics; Science of Climate Change; Hazard Risk Management; Transport and Environment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-11-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-ene and nep-env
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Responding to Threats of Climate Change Mega-Catastrophes (2010)
Working Paper: Responding to Threats of Climate Change Mega-Catastrophes (2010)
Working Paper: Responding to Threats of Climate Change Mega-Catastrophes (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5127

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