An Economist's Guide to Climate Change Science

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4029050
AutoresSolomon Hsiang (0000-0002-2074-0829, Solomon Hsiang is Chancellor’s Associate Professor of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley, California, and is a Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Principal Investigator, Climate Impact Lab, .), Robert E Kopp (0000-0003-4016-9428, Robert E. Kopp is Director of the Institute of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences and Professor of Earth & Planetary Sciences, both at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. Principal Investigator, Climate Impact Lab, .)
Ano2018
Volume32
Fascículo4
Páginas3-32
Data de publicação2018-11-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe Journal of Economic Perspectives (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0895-3309 • E-ISSN: 1944-7965
EditoraAmerican Economic Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1257/jep.32.4.3
OpenAlexW2899047754
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas10
Referências citadas76

This article provides a brief introduction to the physical science of climate change, aimed towards economists. We begin by describing the physics that controls global climate, how scientists measure and model the climate system, and the magnitude of human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide. We then summarize many of the climatic changes of interest to economists that have been documented and that are projected in the future. We conclude by highlighting some key areas in which economists are in a unique position to help climate science advance. An important message from this final section, which we believe is deeply underappreciated among economists, is that all climate change forecasts rely heavily and directly on economic forecasts for the world. On timescales of a half-century or longer, the largest source of uncertainty in climate science is not physics, but economics

Climate change · Climate commitment · Climate model · Climate science · Economic science · Economics · Effects of global warming · Global warming · Natural resource economics · Political economy of climate change · Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics · Climate Change Policy and Economics · Climate variability and models · Ecology