Man-Made Climate Change: Economic Aspects and Policy Options: Proceedings of an International Conference Held at Mannheim, Germany, March 6-7, 1997 (Zew Economic Studies)

As the Kyoto conference of the parties on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change once again underscored, man-made climate change has become one of the major challenges to our generation and many generations to come. Since scientific evidence on climate change can be seen as increasingly reliable, the focus of our attention has to turn more and more to the question of foreseeable damages and to possibilities to prevent and mitigate climate change. In other words, we need to analyse the economic aspects of man­ marle climate change and the policy options to prevent its most severe impacts. This book reports on the findings of an international workshop on these aspects of global climate change. It was organised by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim, Germany on March 6th and 7th 1997. In the light of the ongoing international policy-making process on climate change, we decided to publish the report after the Kyoto conference from December Ist to 10th, 1997, to include the results of the conference, which emphasise the importance of economic aspects and economic policy options when it comes to addressing the problern of man-made climate change. Thus, this book went to press in February 1998 the moment we received the official version of the Kyoto Protocol, which is reproduced in the annex. Front Matter....Pages III-VIII Introduction: Economic Aspects of and Policy Options for Climate Protection....Pages 1-4 Front Matter....Pages 5-5 The Science and Impacts of Climate Change — Conclusions from the Second IPCC Assessment Report....Pages 7-19 Front Matter....Pages 21-21 Decision-Making Frameworks for Addressing Climate Change....Pages 23-41 What is Sustainable Development?....Pages 42-82 Linking Weak and Strong Sustainability Indicators: The Case of Global Warming....Pages 83-110 Discounting of Long Term Costs: What Would Future Generations Prefer Us to Do?....Pages 111-125 Is Adaptation Cheaper than Prevention? The Applicability of Cost-Benefit Analysis to Global Warming....Pages 126-164 Some Critical Remarks on Today’s Bottom-up Energy Models....Pages 165-179 Double Dividend of Climate Protection and the Role of International Policy Coordination in the EU — An Applied General Equilibrium Analysis with the GEM-E3 Model....Pages 180-215 Front Matter....Pages 217-217 Possible Contributions of Renewable Energies to the Solution of the Global Climate Problem....Pages 219-235 What Hope for a Sustainable Energy System?....Pages 236-243 Comment on: Potentials of Joint Implementation Measures....Pages 244-246 Assessment of Voluntary Agreements in Environmental Policy- A Neoliberal Perspective....Pages 247-281 The Political Context for Emissions Trading in the Climate Change Negotiations....Pages 282-290 The Kyoto Protocol and the Emergence of “ Contraction and Convergence ” as a Framework for an International Political Solution to Greenhouse Gas Emissions Abatement....Pages 291-345 Back Matter....Pages 347-401

The successful signing of the Kyoto Protocol showed that there is international consensus about the problem of man-made climate change and that substantial greenhouse gas emission targets will soon be established. Based on the current scientific knowledge about climate change this workshop report analyses the most important economic aspects of man-made climate change and the way effective and efficient policies can be designed to achieve the necessary reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, the official versions of the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol are included as a reference for the reader.