The elusive consensus on climate change

Richard Tol

Working Paper Series from Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School

Abstract: Thirteen studies quantify the agreement that climate change is real and human-made. Consensus is at odds with the scientific method and irrelevant for policy. Respondents with little relevant expertise and papers on loosely related subjects dominate the studies. Data are analyzed with insufficient care, and samples arbitrarily restricted. Combining estimates from different studies, 89% agree that human activity significantly affected climate after 1750, and 80% that humans were the most important driver of climate change. 97% agree that human activity was the most important factor in climate change since 1950, but only 80% that anthropogenic greenhouse gases were.

Keywords: climate change; consensus; surveys (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sus:susewp:0319

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