Abstract
Except for a few loonies, most agree that there is an imperative not to let the atmospheric load of CO2 grow indefinitely. “Doing nothing implies that risks are negligible. That position implies an absurd degree of certainty” [Wolf, Financial Times (27 Oct 2015)]. As some like to say, there is no planet B. The economics of climate change is far, far behind its science. Given the important role of uncertainty in climate change policy and the debilitating limitations of alternatives such as NPV or the “neoclassical” approach, i.e., the “integrated assessment models,” when it comes to uncertainty, the detour of ROA is unavoidable. The interface between ROA and climate change turns out to be rather explosive and reveals how deep the need for a response to climate change goes.
What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible,
Umberto Eco (https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/umberto_eco_457208)
I cannot help it. In spite of myself, infinity torments me,
Alfred de Musset (https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/alfred_de_musset_169890)
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Baker, M.B., Roe, G.H.: Science. 318, 629–632 (2007)
Geman, D., Geman, H., Taleb, N.N.: Tail risk constraints and maximum entropy, entropy. 17, 3724–3737 (2015)
Hansen, J., Kharecha, P., Sato, M., Masson-Delmotte, V., Ackerman, F., et al.: Assessing “dangerous climate change”: required reduction of carbon emissions to protect young people, future generations and nature. PLoS One. 8(12), e81648 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0081648
Held, I.M.: The Vertical Scale of an unstable baroclinic wave and its importance for Eddy heat flux parameterization. J. Atmos. Sci. 35, 572 (1978). http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/1520-0469%281978%29035%3C0572%3ATVSOAU%3E2.0.CO%3B2
IMF: Climate, environment, and the IMF. http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/facts/enviro.htm (2015)
Jaynes, E.T.: How should we use entropy in economics? Saint John’s College, Cambridge (1991)
Kullback, S., Leibler, R.A.: On information and sufficiency. Ann. Math. Stat. 22(1), 79–86 (1951)
McNeil, A.J., Frey, R., Embrecht, P.: Quantitative Risk management, concepts, techniques and tools. Princeton University Press, Princeton (2005)
Meinshausen, M., Meinshausen, N., Hare, W., Raper, S.C.B., Frieler, K., Knutti, R., Frame, D.J., Allen, M.R.: Nature. 458, 1158 (2009)
Nordhaus, W.: The Dynamic Integrated Climate Economic model (DICE). http://www.econ.yale.edu/~nordhaus/homepage/documents/DICE_Manual_100413r1.pdf
Phillips, N.A.: Tellus. 6, 273–286 (1954)
Stone, P.H.: Baroclinic adjustment. J. Atmos. Sci. 35, 561 (1978). http://eaps4.mit.edu/research/papers/Stone_1978.pdf
Villani, C.: Optimal transport, old and new. Springer, Berlin (2008). http://cedricvillani.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/preprint-1.pdf
Weitzman, M.: On modeling and interpreting the economics of catastrophic climate change. 680 Harvard Preprint. http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/weitzman/papers_weitzman (2008)
Weitzman, M.: Rev. Environ. Econ. Policy. 5(2), 275–292 (2011)
Weitzman, M.: Precautionary tale about uncertain fat tail flattening, NBER, Working Paper 18144 683 (2012)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Morel, B. (2020). Global CO2 Emission Mitigation Through the Looking Glass of ROA. In: Real Option Analysis and Climate Change. Springer Climate. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12061-0_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12061-0_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-12060-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-12061-0
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)