Hardback
Global Climate Change
The Science, Economics and Politics
9781843761907 Edward Elgar Publishing
This volume is written for policymakers and informed citizenry who want to understand at a general level the complexities of global climate change without becoming enmeshed in technical minutia. The introduction emphasizes the core fact that climate change issues cut across disciplines. William Schlesinger and Gerald North explain the carbon cycle and how increased greenhouse gases impact temperature. The economics papers deal with the applicability of benefit/cost analysis and then proceed to examine the benefits of avoiding temperature change versus the costs of the various CO2 abatement options. Finally, David Victor, a Stanford political scientist, asks which policies are feasible in a world where the incentives differ dramatically among countries. The book closes with open letters to the President of the United States.
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Critical Acclaim
Contributors
Contents
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Global climate change cannot be understood without knowing the fundamental principles of science, economics, and politics that condition our policy choices. To that end, the contributors to this volume, experts in their respective fields, take a comprehensive look at the major issues involved.
This volume is written for policymakers and informed citizenry who want to understand at a general level the complexities of global climate change without becoming enmeshed in technical minutia. The introduction emphasizes the core fact that climate change issues cut across disciplines. William Schlesinger and Gerald North explain the carbon cycle and how increased greenhouse gases impact temperature. The economics papers deal with the applicability of benefit/cost analysis and then proceed to examine the benefits of avoiding temperature change versus the costs of the various CO2 abatement options. Finally, David Victor, a Stanford political scientist, asks which policies are feasible in a world where the incentives differ dramatically among countries. The book closes with open letters to the President of the United States.
Policymakers along with academics, students and any reader interested in a broad look at the important issues in the global climate change story will find this book indispensable.
This volume is written for policymakers and informed citizenry who want to understand at a general level the complexities of global climate change without becoming enmeshed in technical minutia. The introduction emphasizes the core fact that climate change issues cut across disciplines. William Schlesinger and Gerald North explain the carbon cycle and how increased greenhouse gases impact temperature. The economics papers deal with the applicability of benefit/cost analysis and then proceed to examine the benefits of avoiding temperature change versus the costs of the various CO2 abatement options. Finally, David Victor, a Stanford political scientist, asks which policies are feasible in a world where the incentives differ dramatically among countries. The book closes with open letters to the President of the United States.
Policymakers along with academics, students and any reader interested in a broad look at the important issues in the global climate change story will find this book indispensable.
Critical Acclaim
‘The book explicitly addresses a wide non-expert audience and indeed any well-educated layperson will enjoy reading it, as its style is very accessible. . . this is one of the best books on climate policy published to date.’
– Axel Michaelowa, Climate Policy
– Axel Michaelowa, Climate Policy
Contributors
Contributors: R.L. Bradley Jr., J.A. Edmonds, L.H. Goulder, J.M. Griffin, L. Hjalmarssen, B. Hurd, J.K. Lazo, A.S. Manne, R. Mendelsohn, G.R. North, P. Portney, R.D. Sands, W.H. Schlesinger, J.B. Smith, D.G. Victor, J.P. Weyant
Contents
Contents: 1. Introduction: The Many Dimensions of the Climate Change Issue 2. The Carbon Cycle: Human Perturbations and Potential Management Options 3. Climate Change over the Next Century 4. Benefit–Cost Analysis and Climate-Change Policy 5. Assessing the Market Damages from Climate Change 6. The Difficulties of Estimating Global Non-market Damages from Climate Change 7. What are the Costs of Limiting CO2 Concentrations? 8. Energy, the Environment and the Economy: Hedging Our Bets 9. International Agreements and the Struggle to Tame Carbon 10. Five Letters to the President Index
