Integrative Assessment of Mitigation, Impacts, and Adaptation to Climate Change

This volume presents the proceedings of the second international workshop held at IIASA in October 1993 assessing the current state of integrated assessments. Numerous models and less formalized approaches analyze anthropogenic sources of greenhouse gas emissions, their concentrations in the atmosphere, the resulting climate forcing, impacts of the induced climate change on the economy and other human activities, as well as possible mitigation and adaptation strategies. Studies that include all or several of these salient aspects of the climate change problematique are known as integrative assessments. The number of such studies is increasing, highlighting the need for consistent analytic frameworks and comparative analyses. This volume reviews the current practice of integrative assessments, directions for improvement and further research, and implications for climate change policies. The workshop covered issues such as the role of science, integrated assessment, impacts and benefits, mitigation and adaptation, intergenerational assessments, and the role of technology. The volume includes the original papers presented at the workshop

Climate Change: Integrating Science, Economics, and Policy

This volume reports on the proceedings of the third international workshop on "Climate Change: Integrating Science, Economics, and Policy" held at IIASA in March 1996. Currently, it is widely recognized in both the analytical and policy communities that the complex issues surrounding the prospect of climate change and response measures and policies cannot be adequately assessed from the perspective of any single discipline in either the natural or social sciences, and that these issues cannot be resolved in the policy domain alone. This volume addresses these issues. The workshop focused on three related research areas in the economics of climate change: market and nonmarket impacts of climate change; costs and timing of greenhouse gas emissions abatement measures and strategies; and emissions reduction policies. This volume includes the revised versions of papers presented at the workshop

Chapter 5 - Drivers, trends and mitigation

Chapter 5 analyzes the anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emission trends until the present and the main drivers that explain those trends. The chapter uses different perspectives to analyze past GHG-emissions trends, including aggregate emissions flows and per capita emissions, cumulative emissions, sectoral emissions, and territory-based vs. consumption- based emissions. In all cases, global and regional trends are analyzed. Where appropriate, the emission trends are contextualized with long-term historic developments in GHG emissions extending back to 1750

The design and implementation of an international trading scheme for greenhouse gas emissions

The inclusion of emissions trading in the Kyoto Protocol reflects an important decision to address climate change issues through flexible market mechanisms. In this paper, we address a number of policy issues that must be considered in designing and implementing an international greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions trading scheme. These include how much of a Party’s assigned amount of GHG emissions can be traded internationally; emissions trading models; competitiveness concerns in the allocation of emissions permits; banking and borrowing; the issue of liability for non-compliance; enlarging emissions trading system; and bubbles. Although our focus is exclusively on emissions trading, we discuss its relationship with the clean development mechanism, joint implementation and bubbles wherever necessary. By providing some new insights, the paper aims to contribute to the design and operationlization of an international emissions trading scheme