Conservationists claim that future generations are morally entitled to enjoy the benefits of stable climatic conditions. Libertarians argue that polluters are entitled to emit greenhouse gases in the absence of undue regulation. This chapter explores the implications of these competing value...

This chapter demonstrates that results from climate change models using the OLG approach can depend significantly on various economic and social conditions. Thereby, policy recommendations derived from OLG models can prove rather different from those resulting from conventional ILA models. This...

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has been proposed as a means of reducing the costs of abating greenhouse gasses, and for assisting developing countries. Although the CDM offers apparent environmental benefits, in addition to benefiting both investors and developing country hosts, it has...

This chapter examines the validity of standard technology assumptions used in climate economy models, and explores the policy consequences of changing them to reflect actual as opposed to postulated trends. In this analysis, global oil production is determined by an augmented Hotelling model in...

The conventional economic perspective on long run resource limitations is that short run scarcity will lead to price increases, which will induce innovation, which will in turn, overcome scarcity. In the global warming case, if we are convinced that cost-effective low carbon technologies will in...

This report describes an analysis of possible technology-based scenarios for the U.S. energy system that would result in both carbon savings and net economic benefits. We use a modified version of the Energy Information Administration's National Energy Modeling System (LBNL-NEMS) to assess the...

Algorithmic models specifying the kinds of computations carried out by economic organizations have the potential to account for the serious discrepancies between the real-world behavior of firms and the predictions of conventional maximization models. The algorithmic approach uncovers a...

As CO2 equivalent gases increase beyond a doubling, there will likely be unavoidable damage to U.S. agriculture. In equatorial regions of the world, damage from global warming will occur earlier than in the U.S. Biogeophysical lags, including deep-ocean mixing with warmer surface waters, can...

Crop yield variability is a defining characteristic of agriculture. Variations in yield and production are strongly influenced by fluctuations in weather. Concern has been expressed about the consequences of the buildup of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere on long-term climate patterns,...

This chapter contributes to efforts to improve the accuracy of estimating damages resulting from climate change. It examines potential hydrological impacts on California, and how the state might adapt. For a doubled-CO2 scenario, general circulation models coupled with California hydrological...