How to Think about Climate Change : Insights from Economics for the Perplexed but Open-Minded Citizen / Riccardo Rebonato.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rebonato, Riccardo, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Climatic changes--Economic aspects.

Climatic changes.

Climatic changes--Econometric models.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xx, 340 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, [2023]

Summary:

"Intelligent laypersons are bewildered when faced with the complexity of climate change. Economics can give them a powerful tool to think clearly about the problem and to make up their own mind. The new-generation economics models are painting a radically different and exciting picture of the best course of climate action"-- Provided by publisher

"Caught in the crossfire between climate deniers and catastrophists, the intelligent layperson is understandably bewildered when faced with the complexity of climate change. How To Think About Climate Change shows that economics provides not just a suitable, but an indispensable perspective to understand the root causes of the climate-change problem: scarcity of resources, externalities and free riding. Riccardo Rebonato argues that there are no silver bullets or easy solutions. However, he shows that the new-generation economics models offer a radically different insight about our best course of action from what most early models recommended - in particular, they suggest that fast and large-scale climate action can now be justified as the most cost-effective strategy without requiring the 'infinite altruism' of earlier models. Given the conceptual tools provided in this book, readers can decide whether they agree with these conclusions - and, if they do, what the most effective courses of action are." -- Provided by publisher

Contents:

Cover

Half-title

Title page

Imprints page

Dedication

Contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

Acknowledgements

1 Introduction: Or, Do We Really Need Another Book on Climate Change?

1.1 What Can Economics Offer?

1.2 Global Warming and Inequality

1.3 Two Cheers for Economics

1.4 Should We Use Models at All?

2 The Facts on the Ground

2.1 The Parable of the Dangerous Burglar

2.2 But Is It Really Science?

2.3 What We Know with Confidence

3 Deep Changes

3.1 Two Possible Future Worlds

3.2 Sizing the Transformations

3.3 The War Effort Again

3.4 The Politics of Deep Change

3.5 Unexpected Changes

3.6 Adaptation

4 How Economists Think about Climate Change

4.1 Two Ways to Look at Climate Policy

4.2 The Space between Ethics and 'Facts of Nature'

4.3 The Last Temptation

5 How Economists Look at Choice

5.1 How to Build a Model of How We Choose

5.2 Stronger than Preferences

5.3 The Psychological Drivers

5.4 Impatience

5.5 Aversion to Risk

5.6 Dislike of Feast and Famine

5.7 Is That All?

6 How Utility Theory Works

6.1 What Utility Theory Tries to Achieve

6.2 The Origins of Utility Theory

6.3 Betting with the Bernoullis: Utility and Diminishing Pleasure

6.4 From Parlour Games to Climate Change

7 From Choice to Utility

7.1 Beyond Entry-Level Utility Functions

7.2 The Fine Print

8 What Are Integrated Assessment Models?

8.1 The Key Features of the DICE Model

8.2 Where Has the Social Discount Rate Gone?

9 How Much Should We Care about Future Generations?

9.1 A Wrinkle in Climate

9.2 Distance and Altruism

10 Growth

10.1 Why Growth Matters So Much

10.2 What Do We Know about Growth?

10.3 Absolute Growth and Growth per Person

10.4 The Links between Growth and Climate Control

11 Population

11.1 Population Dynamics

11.2 Challenges

11.3 Is No Growth an Option?

12 So, What Should We Do?

12.1 How Much and How Quickly Should We Abate?

12.2 Optimal Policies with Negative Emissions

12.3 The Social Cost of Carbon

12.4 Carbon Taxes and Carbon Subsidies

12.5 How to Make Up Your Own Mind

13 Taking the Dirty Stuff Out

13.1 The Persistence of CO[sub(2)] in the Atmosphere

13.2 Negative Emission and Sequestration Technologies

13.3 Afforestation

13.4 Direct Air Capture

13.5 Why Carbon Removal Is Necessary

13.6 Logistics Considerations

14 The Role of Nuclear Energy

14.1 Fission

14.2 Fusion

14.3 The Military Threat from Fusion Power Reactors

15 Constraints

15.1 How Much Energy?

15.2 So, Is There Enough Land (and Sea)?

16 The Plumbing

16.1 Regulations for Irrational Consumers

16.2 Regulation for Rational Emitting Companies

16.3 Moving beyond Price or Quantities

16.4 But Does It Really Work? The Acid-Rain Programme

17 Unfinished Business

17.1 Equity

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 11 Jan 2024).

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781009405027

1009405020

9781009404990

1009404997

9781009404983

1009404989