ECONOMIC-ISSUES IN GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE

The author highlights the critical role of economics in understanding the potential magnitude of global climate change as a problem for human society and for assessing and developing effective responses. It is shown that many of the basic economic tools and techniques needed to address global climate change issues are already found in the existing environmental and natural resource economics literature. However, in the application of economic concepts to climate change problems, much work remains. It is suggested that priority areas for future economic research include analysis of the impacts and the adaptation of economic systems, the value of information and decision making under uncertainty, and the development of world models of the economy that aid in understanding and predicting the sources and effects of global change that are linked to economic activity.