EMISSION ABATEMENT VERSUS DEVELOPMENT AS STRATEGIES TO REDUCE VULNERABILITY TO CLIMATE CHANGE: AN APPLICATION OF FUND

Richard Tol

No FNU-12, Working Papers from Research unit Sustainability and Global Change, Hamburg University

Abstract: Poorer countries are generally believed to be more vulnerable to climate change than richer countries because poorer countries are more exposed and have less adaptive capacity. This suggests that, in principle, there are two ways of reducing vulnerability to climate change: economic growth and greenhouse gas emission reduction. Using a complex climate change impact model, in which development is an important determinant of vulnerability, the hypothesis is tested whether development aid is more effective in reducing impacts than is emission abatement. The hypothesis is barely rejected for Asia but strongly accepted for Latin America and, particularly, Africa. The explanation for the difference is that development (aid) reduces vulnerabilities in some sectors (infectious diseases, water resources, agriculture) but increases vulnerabilities in others (cardiovascular diseases, energy consumption). However, climate change impacts are much higher in Latin America and Africa than in Asia, so that money spent on emission reduction for the sake of avoiding impacts in developing countries is better spent on vulnerability reduction in those countries.

Keywords: climate change; climate change impacts; vulnerability; adaptive capacity; development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 18 pages
Date: 2002-04, Revised 2002-04
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Published, Environment and Development Economics, 10, 615-629

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Journal Article: Emission abatement versus development as strategies to reduce vulnerability to climate change: an application of FUND (2005)
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