Edwin Weyerhaeuser Davis Professor of Forest Policy, Professor of Economics, and Professor, School of Management - Yale University
Perspective Paper
The optimal solution to the greenhouse gas problem minimizes the sum of the climate damage and the cost of mitigation over the long run, but the current UN initiative is not even close to achieving this. There are three key insights which emerge. First, mitigation cost should be balanced against climate damage; second, as marginal damage increases with higher concentrations of greenhouse gases, so marginal cost should also rise; and third, the marginal cost of mitigation should be equated across all emitters.
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An Assessment Paper on Climate Change was prepared for the 2004 Copenhagen Consensus by William Cline. Robert Mendelsohn and Alan Manne wrote Perspective Papers in response.
The Copenhagen Consensus was our first project. The basic idea was to improve prioritization of the numerous problems the world faces, by gathering some of the world's greatest economists to a meeting where some of the biggest challenges in the world would be assessed.
