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Subject: New RFF Book Reviews Socioeconomic Aspects of Climate Change
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NEW BOOK RIGOROUSLY REVIEWS SOCIOECONOMIC
ASPECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN 1995 IPCC REPORT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, September 14, 1998
Contact: MICHAEL TEBO (202) 328-5019 tebo@rff.org
WASHINGTON, DC -- A new book published by Resources for the Future
(RFF) assesses the economic and social aspects of climate change
contained within the landmark 1995 report issued by the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The 336-page book, Economics and Policy Issues of Climate Change,
provides useful technical summaries of the conclusions from the 1995
IPCC assessment in an effort to make that material more accessible as
well as thoughtful critiques of the information and reasoning used to
derive some of the report's conclusions. The critiques and rejoinders
aim to put the strengths and weaknessses of the IPCC conclusions in a
clearer perspective, and to identify priorities for further research.
Edited by renowned economist William D. Nordhaus of Yale University,
the book attempts to bridge gaps between analytical specialists and
decisionmakers as well as their technical advisers, who are in need of
well-informed but accessible counsel on climate change issues.
"Understanding the science, economics and policy aspects of global
warming has proven to be one of the most exciting and challenging
tasks facing the natural and social sciences over the last decade,"
Nordhaus says. "This book includes contributions by nineteen eminent
analysts who tackle the social and economic aspects of climate change
and offer their views on the most difficult issues -- cost-benefit
analysis, the discount rate, the impacts and costs of climate change
-- as well as the framework issues of how to think about such long-run
and uncertain problems."
"The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports of 1995
are widely recognized to be uniquely valuable reviews of current
knowledge about climate change," Nordhaus writes in the book's
introduction. "These volumes were produced by large teams of experts
in the different fields and reviewed vast quantities of studies. At
the same time, some of the results and interpretations were
questioned. Debate about the validity of the conclusions, particularly
about the scientific consensus, sometimes has erupted into full-scale
controversy. And even if the reports' conclusions did generally
represent the current scientific consensus, that was no guarantee of
scientific or predictive accuracy. For this reason, the contributors
to our book thought it useful to stand back and take a careful look at
the findings of the economic report to assess its reasoning."
The IPCC was created by the United Nations and the World
Meteorological Organization in 1998, several years prior to the
signing of the Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992. The
IPCC's charge is to provide high-quality, unbiased, and
policy-relevant syntheses of knowledge concerning not just the science
of climate change and its potential impacts, but also the
socioeconomic consequences of climate change and greenhouse gas
limitation policies. The IPCC's activities are carried out by
international teams involving many of the world's best experts on
numerous topics related to climate change.
The new RFF book is the result of a workshop held in Snowmass,
Colorado, in August 1996. Its purpose was to analyze in depth the
economic and policy issues involved. The workshop was organized by the
NBER-Yale Center on International Environmental Issues and funded by
the National Science Foundation.
For this meeting, recognized scholars who were not centrally involved
in the IPCC chapters were asked to analyze the economic and policy
issues involved in the assessment report. Each principal author
prepared a review of a particular aspect of the report; prominent
scholars as well as lead authors of the relevant chapters of the IPCC
report were then asked to respond to the analyses. While the
contributors are predominantly economists and other scientists, the
viewpoints reflect a wide range of backgrounds.
Nordhaus's introduction establishes the context for the book. He
provides basic scientific background on climate change, reviews the
IPCC's activities, and explains the genesis of the analyses.
Subsequent contributions fall into two categories. Early chapters
review analytical issues critical to social and economic understanding
of climate change. A second set of chapters address specific economic
questions surrounding climate-change policy.
A number of themes are addressed in the book. These include both
general analytical issues, such as the applicability of cost-benefit
analysis to climate change and the proper analytical treatment of
uncertainty, and specific topics related to climate change policies,
such as the economy-wide costs of greenhouse gas control and the
international benefits derived from abatement and adaptation measures.
Contributors include: Akhiro Amano; William R. Cline; Richard N.
Cooper; Jae Edmonds; Charles D. Kolstad; Tom Kram; Robert C. Lind;
Alan S. Manne; Robert Mendelsohn; M. Granger Morgan; William D.
Nordhaus; R.K. Pachauri; Paul R. Portney; John Reilly; Richard
Richels; Richard Schmalensee; Richard E. Schuler; Richard S.J. Tol;
Michael A. Toman; Ferenc L. Toth; and John P. Weyant.
William D. Nordhaus is A. Whitney Griswold Professor of Economics at
Yale University and the author of several books, including Managing
the Global Commons. He is also coauthor with Paul Samuelson of
Economics, now in its 16th edition.
# # #
To order the book, Economics and Policy Issues of Climate Change,
contact RFF's customer service office for books at (410) 516-6955
(ISBN 0-915707-95-0; US$45).
Michael Tebo
Public Affairs Manager
Resources for the Future
(202) 328-5019
tebo@rff.org
RFF's home page:
http://www.rff.org
RFF's Weathervane, a digital forum
on global climate policy:
http://www.weathervane.rff.org
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