Estimates of the marginal damage costs of carbon dioxide emissions require the aggregation of monetised impacts of climate change over people with different incomes and in different jurisdictions. Implicitly or explicitly, such estimates assume a social welfare function and hence a particular...

The social cost of carbon is an estimate of the benefit of reducing CO2 emissions by one ton today. As such it is a key input into cost-benefit analysis of climate policy and regulation. We provide a set of new estimates of the social cost of carbon from the integrated assessment model FUND 3.5...

Previous versions of the FUND model assumed, like many integrated assessment models, that the carbon cycle is independent of climate change. I here introduce a feedback through which warming leads to higher net emissions. This increases the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide in the year...

Under European Union proposals for CO2 emission reduction between 2013 and 2020, a Member State can transfer to another Member State the right to use its unused Clean Development Mechanism ('CDMs') credits. The paper addresses three issues in relation to these CDM Warrants ('CDMW'). First, how...

I study the feasibility of stringent targets for stabilizing ambient greenhouse gas concentrations. Climate policy has diminishing returns, and there is therefore a maximum to what can be achieved. The success of climate policy is hampered if the terrestrial biosphere turns from a carbon sink to...

We impute a global social welfare function that is consistent with the burden sharing in the Kyoto Protocol and in two proposals for a post-Kyoto treaty. The Kyoto Protocol favored the EU. The Frankel proposal for a post-Kyoto treaty continues the favorable treatment of the EU, while the EU...

The Stern Review reported a social cost of carbon of over $300/tC, calling for ambitious climate policy. We here conduct a systematic sensitivity analysis of this result on two crucial parameters: the rate of pure time preference, and the rate of risk aversion. We show that the social cost of...

The EU has proposed four flexibility mechanisms for the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions in the period 2013-2020: (1) the Emissions Trade Scheme (ETS), a permit market between selected companies; (2) trade in non-ETS allotments between Member States; (3) the Clean Development Mechanism...

Under 2013 to 2020 European Union proposals for CO2 emission reduction, a Member State can transfer to another Member State 'part' of their allowed emission allocation in the non-Emission Trading Sector ('ETS'). The paper addresses three questions in relation to these Transfer Emission Units or...

Rich countries have emitted most of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, while poor countries will suffer most from climate change. Rich countries have therefore committed to help poor countries adapt. However, this is financed from the general development budget, and hence may do more harm...