ABSTRACT
The global climate problem is not without solutions. A small amount of climate change is now locked in, but the serious impacts and potential catastrophes described in Chapters 3 and 4 are still avoidable if quick action is taken on emissions abatement. At the same time, sensible adaptive preparations could offer protection from impacts caused by past (and unavoidable near-term future) emissions. The nature of the climate problem (as explained in Chapters 5, 6, and 7), however, complicates economic analysis – and therefore policy decisions – related to climate change in ways that few, if any, other economic or environmental concerns have prepared us for: the magnitude of climate impacts is uncertain but potentially enormous; solutions require one generation to act to benefit a later generation; and the need for virtually worldwide cooperation appears to be inextricably linked to controversial issues of equity among countries and among income groups.
