> I'm not very well-read but I had the impression that there was really
> quite a strong consensus that modest mitigation was sensible
> (Tol/Nordhaus/Yohe etc, even without going as far as Stern). Are there
> serious claims that we should do nothing at all, or do you consider this
> range of views already to be broad enough as to consist of "no
> scientific consensus"? Of course I'm sure they all disagree to some
> extent about the detailed implementation.
It seems my earlier attempt at a reply got lost.
The following reference gives a good overview of estimates of marginal
damage costs in the peer reviewed literature:
The marginal damage costs of carbon dioxide emissions: an assessment
of the uncertainties
Energy Policy, Volume 33, Issue 16, November 2005, Pages 2064-2074
Richard S. J. Tol
I think there are many issues underlying economic analysis (eg the
discount rate) that are fundamentally not about finding a scientific
consensus, but about finding a democratic consensus.
On top of that, the range of costs (marginal damage) in the peer
reviewed literature quite credibly includes zero and negative values.
But that doesn't mean, nothing should be done.
Many people will agree that public funding of some research is
worthwhile, and there are many measures, such as petrol taxes, or
support for nuclear power, that can be supported both for climate and
non climate reasons.
The range of marginal damage costs given by Tol is quite low for
discount rates greater than 3%. As discussed on this board before, I
think that for such low carbon taxes, the total level of tax/subsidy
will often be completely dominated by other factors (eg for petrol or
coal).
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