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The need for multiple types of information to inform climate change assessment

  • Michael Toman EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: January 13, 2015
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Abstract

Many critics of economic analysis of climate change impacts and response options claim that information is needed on ecosystem characteristics as well as on economic values to fully inform decisions about how climate change affects human well-being. Information on the irreversibility of impacts also is important, critics argue, because it relates to how society evaluates implications for intergenerational equity. In addition, because climate change is subject to a large degree of Knightian uncertainty, it is useful to understand both the information available for assessing climate change risks, and how individuals themselves perceive and evaluate risks. The paper discusses rationales for using these types of information as important complements to benefit-cost analysis for evaluating climate change risks and responses. Ideally such information could be available in a “dashboard” for decision makers assessing social and economic impacts, although limits on currently available information are a significant barrier to using that approach.


Corresponding author: Michael Toman, Lead Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank, 1818 H St., NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA, e-mail:

Acknowledgments

Views expressed in the paper are the author’s alone and should not be attributed to the World Bank or its member countries. The author acknowledges with gratitude comments from Fran Sussman, Ed Barbier, an anonymous referee, and other authors in the issue, as well as editorial assistance from Elaine Wylie.

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Published Online: 2015-1-13
Published in Print: 2014-12-1

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