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Climate
Change: Science and Economics
Publications | Researchers
While scientists increasingly view the climate problem as calling for immediate action, many economic models still imply that the optimal policy is to do very little for now. Our goal is to identify the key economic assumptions that lead to this passive policy prescription, and to create alternative economic analyses consistent with the widespread scientific sense of urgency about climate change. GDAE Co-Director and IPCC scientist William Moomaw is active on the international level, working to improve the outcome of climate negotiations. GDAE researchers are also studying the economics of climate change in several different areas.
The Costs of Inaction: An increasingly common argument is that it will be expensive to do something about climate change; our research demonstrates that it will be much more costly to do nothing about it. A study by Frank Ackerman and Liz Stanton in 2006 made this argument for the UK and the world. Similar, more detailed studies focusing on Florida, and on the US as a whole, are scheduled for release in late 2007.
Toward a New Climate Economics: Several recent articles and reports, listed below, examine the economists’ debate about the Stern Review, the challenge of climate change for conventional economic theory, the conflict between scientific and economic analyses of climate change, and the shortcomings of some of the well-known “integrated assessment models” of climate and economic growth.
Carbon Content of Trade: We have collaborated with a team of Japanese researchers led by Professor Masanobu Ishikawa of Kobe University, in an analysis of the carbon content embodied in trade between the US and Japan (see article below). This helps to understand the impacts of international trade on carbon emissions, and suggests new priorities for US and Japanese policy toward trade and climate change.
Waste, Recycling and Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Our work has highlighted the importance of greenhouse gas emissions from waste management, primarily landfill methane. This is the largest non-energy source of carbon emissions in developed countries, and likely one of the easiest and cheapest areas for reduction. Work on this subject has included academic publications on the climate benefits of recycling, and a report for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change evaluating international data on carbon emissions from waste management systems.
Publications
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"Hot, It’s Not: Reflections on Cool It!, by Bjorn Lomborg," by Frank Ackerman; forthcoming in Climatic Change, 2008.
"Florida and Climate Change: The Costs of Inaction," by Elizabeth A.Stanton and Frank Ackerman; report commissioned by Environmental Defense, November 2007.
"Debating Climate Economics: The Stern Review vs. Its Critics," by Frank Ackerman; report to Friends of the Earth-UK, July 2007.
"Law and Economics for a Warming World," by Lisa Heinzerling and Frank Ackerman; Harvard Law and Policy Review volume 1, no. 2, pp.331-362.
"The Carbon Content of Japan-US Trade," by Frank Ackerman, Masanobu Ishikawa, and Mikio Suga; Energy Policy, volume 35 no. 9, September 2007, pp.4455-4462.
"The Economics of Inaction on Climate Change: A Sensitivity Analysis," by Frank Ackerman and Ian Finlayson; Climate Policy, volume 6 no. 5 (2006), pp.509-526. (Despite the nominal publication date, this first appeared in print in mid-2007.)
An earlier version of this article first appeared as a GDAE Working Paper: "The Economics of Inaction on Climate Change: A Sensitivity Analysis," Frank Ackerman and Ian Finlayson; GDAE Working Paper 06-07. October, 2006.
"Climate Change - The Costs of Inaction," by Frank Ackerman and Liz Stanton; report released with Friends of the Earth UK, October 2006.
"Can Climate Change Save Lives? A comment on ‘Economy-wide estimates of the implications of climate change: Human health’,” by Frank Ackerman and Liz Stanton; GDAE Working Paper 06-05. September, 2006.
“Waste, Recycling, and Climate Change: US Perspective,” Frank Ackerman, in Velma Grover et al., eds., Recovering Energy From Waste. Enfield, New Hampshire: Science Publishers, 2002.
“Waste Management and Climate Change,” Local Environment 5(2):223-229, May 2000.
“Economic Theory and Climate Change Policy,” Frank Ackerman, Irene Peters, and Steve Bernow, Energy Policy, September 1999.
Researchers
Frank Ackerman, GDAE Research Director: His current research interests include the economics of climate change, energy, materials and waste, and the relationship between trade and the environment. He has been a co-founder and editor of Dollars & Sense magazine, and has studied the economics of energy and environmental policy at Tellus Institute in Boston. He is a member of the Center for Progressive Regulation. He is the co-author of Priceless: On Knowing the Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing, theauthor of Why Do We Recycle? Markets, Values, and Public Policy, and co-editor of several books in GDAE's Frontier Issues in Economic Thought book series, including The Changing Nature of Work and The Political Economy of Inequality. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.
Liz Stanton, Researcher: Her interests include the economics of environmental policy, and the relationship between inequality and human well-being. She holds a M.A. in economics from New Mexico State University and is a Ph.D. candidate in economics at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. She is the author of Environment for the People, with James K. Boyce, and the editor of Reclaiming Nature: Worldwide Strategies for Building Natural Assets, with James K. Boyce and Sunita Narain. She is also the former Program Director of the Center for Popular Economics, based in Amherst-Massachusetts.
William R. Moomaw, GDAE Co-Director. Dr. William R. Moomaw holds a Ph.D. from MIT in physical chemistry. He is Professor of International Environmental Policy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and directs the Center for International Environmental and Resource Policy there. He is the Senior Director of the Tufts Institute of the Environment (TIE), an interdisciplinary research institute at Tufts University. He has played leading roles in Working Group III for the last three IPCC reports (1995, 2001, and 2007). His research interests include: global climate change; stratospheric ozone depletion; air pollution; the role of science and technology in national and international policy; and forest and energy policy. He is working with diplomats and negotiators to improve the likely outcome for international treaties on climate change, biodiversity and other global issues.
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