Ethics, equity and the economics of climate change
The principal purpose of this paper is to set out a framework for combining economic and ethical analyses of climate change in the context of the science. The science of climate change indicates thatbusiness-as-usual implies substantial risks of temperatures not seen on the planet for tens of millions of years, with consequences that could lead to the movement of hundreds of millions of people and thus possibly severe and prolonged conflict. Risks on this scale take us far outside the familiar policy questions and standard, largely marginal, techniques commonly used by economists; they raise deep questions about ethical perspectives beyond those traditionally captured in analyses of Pareto efficiency or social welfare functions. Climate change is absolutely central to economic policy-making around the world and we must therefore ask carefully how we can put economics and ethics to work to tackle the questions posed by the science and by our past, current and future patterns of economic growth and emissions.
Year of publication: |
2012-08
|
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Authors: | Stern, Nicholas |
Institutions: | Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics (LSE) |
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