Understanding Climate Damages: Consumption versus Investment

Abstract Climate change is likely to affect economies not only through warming, but also via an increase in prolonged extreme events like heat waves. However, the impacts of heat waves on economic output are not well captured by standard empirical approaches that ignore when hot days occur. Using a global dataset spanning 1979–2016, we show agricultural losses from past heat waves are up to an order of magnitude larger than suggested by standard approaches. Combining these estimates with a suite of climate models implies that by the end of the century, climate damages in agriculture may be 5–10 times larger than is predicted by a focus on mean temperature shifts alone. These findings have important implications for targeting and evaluating climate adaptation efforts.

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Liability for climate damages, sustainability and environmental justice

10.5040/9781509948741.ch-001 ◽

2021 ◽

Keyword(s):

Environmental Justice ◽

Climate Damages

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Climate Change: What’s the Big Deal?

Paying for Pollution ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190694197.003.0002 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 7-22

Author(s):

Gilbert E. Metcalf

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Greenhouse Gases ◽

Sea Level Rise ◽

Sea Level ◽

Ice Core ◽

Core Samples ◽

History Of ◽

The Cost ◽

Climate Damages

Droughts, floods, soaring temperatures, sea-level rise, and melting ice are just some of the damages brought about by climate change. Chapter 1 details the cost of our failure to cut our emissions, from crop-destroying droughts to devastating floods. It also documents the inexorable build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere as demonstrated by the Keeling curve and observations from Antarctic ice core samples. The chapter then provides a brief history of the science linking the build-up of atmospheric greenhouse gases and climate damages.

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Discounting under Risk

Philosophy and Climate Change ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198796282.003.0004 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 67-89

Author(s):

Maddalena Ferranna

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Discount Rate ◽

Public Policies ◽

Social Discount Rate ◽

Climate Policies ◽

The Social ◽

Ramsey Rule ◽

Climate Damages

The debate on the economics of climate change has focused primarily on the choice of the social discount rate, which plays a key role in determining the desirability of climate policies given the long-term impacts of climate damages. Discounted utilitarianism and the Ramsey Rule dominate the debate on discounting. The chapter examines the appropriateness of the utilitarian framework for evaluating public policies. More specifically, it focuses on the risky dimension of climate change, and on the failure of utilitarianism in expressing both concerns for the distribution of risks across the population and concerns for the occurrence of catastrophic outcomes. The chapter shows how a shift to the prioritarian paradigm is able to capture those types of concerns, and briefly sketches the main implications for the choice of the social discount rate.

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THE ECONOMIC, ENERGY, AND EMISSIONS IMPACTS OF CLIMATE POLICY IN SOUTH KOREA

Climate Change Economics ◽

10.1142/s2010007819500106 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (03) ◽

pp. 1950010 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

NIVEN WINCHESTER ◽

JOHN M. REILLY

Keyword(s):

Emissions Trading ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Consumer Welfare ◽

Carbon Price ◽

Trading System ◽

Iron And Steel ◽

Business As Usual ◽

The Impact ◽

Carbon Dioxide Equivalent ◽

Climate Damages

Using an economy-wide model, we evaluate the impact of policies to meet South Korea’s Paris pledge to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 37% relative those under business as usual (BAU) in 2030. Simulated BAU emissions in 2030 are 840.8 million metric tons (Mt) of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), indicating that economy-wide emissions should be constrained to 529.7 MtCO2e. Under South Korea’s Emissions Trading System (KETS) and fuel economy standards, a 2030 carbon price of $88/tCO2e is needed to meet this goal. Without considering benefits from avoided climate damages, these policies reduce 2030 GDP by $21.5 billion (1.0%) and consumer welfare by 8.1 billion (0.7%). Declines in sectoral production are largest for fossil-based energy sectors and chemical, rubber and plastic products, and iron and steel sectors.

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