Economics of Climate Change Uncertainty Rebecca Baldwin Value of Nature Spring 2003

Last Presidential Campaign  “incomplete state of scientific knowledge” (Bush)

Physical studies  Lots of different studies  Lots of different results in each

How do we decide?  “We need to formulate policies that make sense under this degree of uncertainty”….”The important thing is to understand what the risks are.”  Dr. Jacoby, MIT’s Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change & one of the authors of article in our text (page 517)  Program founded in 1991, greenhouse gamble wheel

Public Good Problem  Page 502 in text  Implies government likely source of solution –What government  Page 510 costs more upfront and likely to be felt by one set of countries, benefits to future generations of a different set of countries

Cost Benefit Analysis  ?net benefit or net cost  ?distributional impacts  Then treat like an insurance issue