An Economic Anatomy of Optimal Climate Policy

Optimal climate policy and the future of world economic development

How much should present generations sacrifice to reduce emissions today, in order to reduce the future harms of climate change? Within climate economics, debate on this question has been focused on so-called “ethical parameters” of social time preference and inequality aversion. We show that optimal climate policy similarly importantly depends on the future of the developing world. In particula...

Optimal Economic Stabilization Policy: An Extended Framework

Economic development, climate and values: making policy.

The two defining challenges of this century are overcoming poverty and managing the risks of climate change. Over the past 10 years, we have learned much about how to tackle them together from ideas on economic development and public policy. My own work in these areas over four decades as an academic and as a policy adviser in universities and international financial institutions has focused on...

Uncertain climate thresholds and optimal economic growth

We explore the combined effects of a climate threshold (a potential ocean thermohaline circulation collapse), parameter uncertainty, and learning in an optimal economic growth model. Our analysis shows that significantly reducing carbon dioxide ðCO2Þ emissions may be justified to avoid or delay even small (and arguably realistic) damages from an uncertain and irreversible climate change—even wh...

Economic Analysis of Global Climate Change Policy: a Primer

Global climate change — perhaps even more than other environmental problems — can be addressed successfully only with a solid understanding of its economic dimensions. This paper, prepared as an introduction to the economics section of a forthcoming book from the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, provides a primer for non-economists on how economic analysis can be brought to bear on three br...