Implications of a lowered damage trajectory for mitigation in a continuous-time stochastic model

This paper provides counterexamples to the idea that mitigation of greenhouse gases causing climate change, and adaptation to climate change, are always and everywhere substitutes. The author considers optimal policy for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions when climate damages follow a geometric Brownian motion process with positive drift, and the trajectory for damages can be down-shifted by adaptive activities, focusing on two main cases: 1) damages are reduced proportionately by adaptation for any given climate impact ("reactive adaptation"); and 2) the growth path for climate damages is down-shifted ("anticipatory adaptation"). In this model mitigation is a lumpy one-off decision. Policy to reduce damages for given emissions is continuous in case 1, but may be lumpy in case 2, and reduces both expectation and variance of damages. Lower expected damages promote mitigation, and reduced variance discourages it (as the option value of waiting is reduced). In case 1, the last effect may dominate. Mitigation then increases when damages are dampened: mitigation and adaptation are complements. In case 2, mitigation and adaptation are always substitutes.Climate Change Economics,Adaptation to Climate Change,Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases,Science of Climate Change,Climate Change Policy and Regulation

Governing carbon mitigation and climate change within local councils: a case study of Adelaide, South Australia

There is growing concern about climate change impacts on local government areas. In Australia, the federal carbon tax (from 1 July 2012) will also increase costs for local councils. This paper evaluates what carbon mitigation (i.e. energy, water, and waste management) actions have been implemented by metropolitan Adelaide councils (n=14) and why (or why not). A survey of environmental officers profiled carbon mitigation actions, emissions auditing, and motives for emissions reduction by Adelaide councils. The main reasons for adopting carbon actions were a climate change plan, climate leadership, and cost savings. Internal council governance of climate change actions was also evaluated. A climate governance framework based on adaptive management, communication, and reflective practice (Nursey-Bray 2010) was applied to assess climate mitigation by Adelaide councils

Forests and climate change in Latin America: Linking adaptation and mitigation in projects and policies

Integrating adaptation and mitigation in forestry projects and policies would maximise local cobenefits and contribute to increased capacity to cope with the risks associated with climate change. Latin America has had some preliminary experience with the linkages between adaptation and mitigation at the level of projects. Projects should be assessed to determine their potential to include both adaptation and mitigation measures. Climate change or forest policies can facilitate the integration of adaptation and mitigation in the forest sector, but few policies in Latin America have addressed the linkages between adaptation and mitigation. (Résumé d'auteur

Balancing climate change mitigation and environmental protection interests in the EU Directive on carbon capture and storage

The EU Climate and Energy Package highlights the potential contradictions between the climate change imperative of reducing GHGs emissions and the importance to maintain environmental integrity. While the package supports climate change mainstreaming, it remains to be seen to what extent it succeeds in achieving internal environmental integration between climate change mitigation and other environment- protection objectives. Directive 2009/31/EC on the capture and geological storage of carbon dioxide (hereinafter the CCS Directive) offers a paradigmatic example of this potential conflict. One of the main regulatory challenges arising from the CCS Directive relates to finding the proper balance between the different interests involved and the not-fully-consistent objectives of environmental protection, climate change mitigation, and energy security. The present article will discuss this regulatory challenge and examine how the CCS Directive’s regulatory framework for CCS permits a combination of the various interests at stake and the giving of proper weight to concerns about environmental protection. The role that the precautionary principle in conjunction with the proportionality principle may have in balancing climate change mitigation and environment-protection interests will be considere

Fiscal implications of climate change

This paper provides a primer on the fiscal implications of climate change, in particular the policies for responding to it. Many of the complicated challenges that arise in limiting climate change (through greenhouse gas emissions mitigation), and in dealing with the effects that remain (through adaptation to climate change impacts), are of a fiscal nature. While mitigation has the potential to raise substantial public revenue (through charges on greenhouse gas emissions), adaptation largely leads to fiscal outlays. Policies may unduly favor public spending (on technological solutions to limit emissions, and on adaptation), over policies that lead to more public revenue being raised (emissions charges). The pervasive uncertainties that surround climate change make the design of proper policy responses even more complex. This applies especially to policies for mitigation of emissions, since agreement on and international enforcement of cooperative abatement policies are exceedingly difficult to achieve, and there is as yet no common view on how to compare nearer-term costs of mitigation to longer-term benefits.Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases,Climate Change Economics,Carbon Policy and Trading,Energy Production and Transportation,Environment and Energy Efficiency

Climate Policy and the Optimal Balance between Mitigation, Adaptation and Unavoided Damage

It has become commonly accepted that a successful climate strategy should compound mitigation and adaptation. The accurate combination between adaptation and mitigation that can best address climate change is still an open question. This paper proposes a framework that integrates mitigation, adaptation, and climate change residual damages into an optimisation model. This set-up is used to provide some insights on the welfare maximising resource allocation between mitigation and adaptation, on their optimal timing, and on their marginal contribution to reducing vulnerability to climate change. The optimal mix between three different adaptation modes (reactive adaptation, anticipatory adaptation, and investment in innovation for adaptation purposes) within the adaptation bundle is also identified. Results suggest that the joint implementation of mitigation and adaptation is welfare improving. Mitigation should start immediately, whereas adaptation somehow later. It is also shown that in a world where the probability of climate-related catastrophic events is small and where decision makers have a high discount rate, adaptation is unambiguously the preferred option. Adaptation needs, both in developed and developing countries, will be massive, especially during the second half of the century. Most of the adaptation burden will be on developing countries. International cooperation is thus required to equally distribute the cost of adaptation.Climate change impacts, mitigation, adaptation, integrated assessment model

Climate Change Mitigation on Forestry Based on Reed+ in International Law and Indonesia

The Climate Change Convention and the Kyoto Protocol are designated to restrict and reduce the emissions of GHG through three mechanisms, i.e., carbon sinks, bubbling schemes and flexibility mechanisms. All mechanisms are designed for developed countries Parties. The developing countries Parties do not have such obligations. However, the developing countries are given chance to participate in achieving the Protocol's objectives through REDD+, especially to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide in forestry sector. Indonesia has enacted several regulations for implementing REDD+ Program. To this date, Indonesia has had carbon project mechanisms and succeeded to realize 40 projects in the period of 2008-2012.Keywords: climate change, mitigation, REDD+. Konvensi Perubahan Iklim dan Protokol Kyoto dirancang untuk membatasi dan mengurangi emisi GRK melalui 3 (tiga) mekanisme, yaitu carbon sinks, bubbling schemesdan flexibility mechanisms. Semua mekanisme tersebut ditujukan untuk Pihak negara maju. Negara berkembang tidak dibebani kewajiban seperti itu. Tapi negara berkembang diberi kesempatan untuk berpartisipasi mencapai tujuan Protokol melalui REDD+, yang secara khusus dibuat untuk mengurangi emisi karbon dioksida di sektor kehutanan. Indonesia telah membuat beberapa peraturan untuk menerapkan Program REDD+. Sampai saat ini, Indonesia telah membuat mekanisme proyek karbon dan berhasil mendapatkan 40 proyek dalam kurun waktu 2008-2012

Climate Change Disaster Management: Mitigation and Adaptation in a Public Goods Framework

This paper explores the collective action problem as it relates to climate change and develops two models that capture the mitigation/adaptation trade-off. The first model presents climate change as a certain disaster, while the second models climate change as a stochastic event. A one-shot public goods experiment with students reveals a relatively low rate of mitigation for both models. The effect of vulnerability towards climate change is also examined by varying the magnitude of the disaster across treatments. Our results find no significant difference between the high and low-vulnerability environments. This research contributes to the literature concerning public goods experiments as well as the analysis of climate change policy.Public good; climate change; mitigation; adaptation; experiment; risk

ICT and the Environment in Developing Countries: an Overview of Opportunities and Developments

Both developed and developing countries face many environmental challenges, including climate change, improving energy efficiency and waste management, addressing air pollution, water quality and scarcity, and loss of natural habitats and biodiversity. Drawing on the existing literature, this paper presents an overview of how the Internet and the ICT and related research communities can help tackle environmental challenges in developing countries. The review focuses on the role of ICTs in climate change mitigation, mitigating other environmental pressures, and climate change adaptation.information and communication technology (ICT), environment, climate change, mitigation, adaptation.