ABSTRACT
The chapter offers a comprehensive treatment of climate change by covering the science and economics of climate change, as well as relevant international treaties. The scientific consensus on the causes and consequences of global warming is presented, while carefully noting the scientific uncertainty that still remains. The economic consideration of climate change provides a systematic analysis of the damage and abatement costs of CO2 and other GHG emissions. The chapter explores the assessment mechanism used by economists to integrate climate models and economic models in order to arrive at ‘rough’ estimates of the ‘social cost of carbon,’ information that is essential for climate policy. The chapter further describes the scientific, economics, and ethical assumptions that separate advocates for an initial moderate climate policy measure, but with a gradual tightening as future circumstances demand, from advocates of immediate and strong policy measure to avoid future climate catastrophes. The chapter concludes by discussing the evolution of international climate treaties since the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992. By examining the last three decades’ efforts to negotiate binding and enforceable climate treaties, the chapter offers important lessons for the latest climate accord, the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, as it moves from commitment to implementation phase in 2020.
