GLOBAL WARMING: SOME ECONOMIC ASPECTS
| Published date | 01 February 1995 |
| Date | 01 February 1995 |
| Author | Gianna Boero |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1995.tb01148.x |
Sconuh
lournul
ofPolirical
Economy.
Vol
42,
No.
I,
February
1995
Q
Scomsh
Econonuc
Soclcty
1995
Published
by
Blackwell Pubhshcrs.
108
Cowley
Road.
Oxford
OX4
IJF.
UK
and
238
Mm
Strtet,
Cambndge.
MA
02142. USA
GLOBAL WARMING: SOME ECONOMIC
ASPECTS
Gianna Boero‘
I
INTRODUCTION
In
recent years global environmental issues have received increasing attention
in the public policy debate, and the problem of global warming has become a
primary issue at the forefront of the international political agenda. The debate
over global warming culminated at the
Earth
Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June
1992, where governments from around the world discussed policy proposals to
reduce the emissions of the
so
called ‘greenhouse’ gases. The international
standards agreed at the Summit commit the developed countries to take action
with the aim of stabilizing CO, emissions, the main greenhouse gas, at 1990
levels by the year 2000. However,
no
firm plan of action was established for
the signatory countries, and due to the complexity
of
issues surrounding global
warming, those targets are likely to
be
missed. Principal issues concern the
inherent uncertainty about the science of global warming and the economic
impact of abatement policies, the difficult prospects for international coopera-
tion
and the serious implications for developing countries. Overall, the
scientific uncertainties coupled with the economic costs expected from slowing
climate change, face policymakers with the difficult question of how
immediately and drastically greenhouse policies should
be
applied, and how
sensible it is to incur high costs today to reduce the risk of global warming over
the long term.
The economic research on global warming has grown substantially and
various predictions and recommendations have been proposed. The purpose of
this
article is to provide
an
overview
to
this expanding literature and to outline
some directions for further research.
It
does
so
by reviewing three books which,
in different ways represent major contributions to this field. The books are:
Global Warming: Economic Policy Responses
edited by Rudiger Dornbusch and
James
M.
Poterba @P) (1992);
Buying Greenhouse Insurance--the Economic
Costs
of
CO,
Emission Limits
by Alan
S.
Manne and Richard G. Richels
(h4R)
(1992) and
The Economics
of
Global Warming
by William
R.
Cline (1992).
The first book (DP) is a collection of papers from
a
conference on ‘Economic
Policy Responses to Global Warming’ (Rome, 1990), which provides a useful
introduction to the literature by covering different aspects of the global warming
problem. The second
(MR)
reports on various aspects of the authors’ work
on
Department
of
Economics, University
of
Nottingham
and
University
of
Cagliari
99
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