The ABCs of Global Warming

Robert C. Shelburne ()

No 2009_2, UNECE Annual Report Economic Essays from UNECE

Abstract: This essay provides a broad methodological framework for thinking about what is needed policy-wise for addressing climate change due to increased carbon emissions. Climate change will require mankind to decide whether it is best to adapt to higher temperatures or attempt to mitigate the increase by drastically reducing emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The optimal choice is to minimize the sum of the adaptation and mitigation costs; it is argued that much more needs to be done to reduce carbon emissions and thus the focus should be on mitigation activities. This, however, will require a considerable amount of technological advancement and the creation of a global institutional mechanism to manage the process; an attempt is made to explain what is going to be required regarding both of these.

Keywords: Climate change; global warming (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q50 Q52 Q54 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env and nep-pke
Date: 2009-01

Published in United Nations ECE 2009 Annual Report

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http://www.unece.org/oes/nutshell/2009/2_GlobalWarming.pdf First version, 2009 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ece:annrep:2009_2

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