Volume 243, Issue 5 - Special Issue: A New Decade of Research on the Economics of Climate Change: Towards an Integrated View on a Sustainable Use of the Biosphere

The crises of both the climate and the biosphere are manifestations of the imbalance between human extractive, and polluting activities and the Earth’s regenerative capacity. Planetary boundaries define limits for biophysical systems and processes that regulate the stability and life support capacity of the Earth system, and thereby also define a safe operating space for humanity on Earth. Budgets associated to planetary boundaries can be understood as global commons: common pool resources that can be utilized within finite limits. Despite the analytical interpretation of planetary boundaries as global commons, the planetary boundaries framework is missing a thorough integration into economic theory. We aim to bridge the gap between welfare economic theory and planetary boundaries as derived in the natural sciences by presenting a unified theory of cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis. Our pragmatic approach aims to overcome shortcomings of the practical applications of CEA and CBA to environmental problems of a planetary scale. To do so, we develop a model framework and explore decision paradigms that give guidance to setting limits on human activities. This conceptual framework is then applied to planetary boundaries. We conclude by using the realized insights to derive a research agenda that builds on the understanding of planetary boundaries as global commons.

Weitzman, M.L. (2014. Can negotiating a uniform carbon price help to internalize the global warming externality? J. Assoc. Environ. Resour. Econ. 1: 29–49) proposed that focusing international climate negotiations on a uniform common commitment (such as a uniform carbon price) is more effective than negotiations on individual commitments (as in the Paris agreement) in achieving ambitious climate action. We put this hypothesis to an experimental test by simulating international negotiations on climate change in collaboration with Model United Nations associations. This novel experimental format combines some of the advantages of lab and field experiments. Our results offer support for Weitzman’s hypothesis and indicate that negotiating a common commitment on a uniform carbon price may yield higher emission reductions in the long run and more participation than individual commitments à la Paris.

The proliferation of instruments targeted at combatting climate change necessitates evidence-based evaluation to identify strategies that are not only effective and cost-efficient, but also supported by the population. In Germany, the data needed to support such analysis is scarce, however. A rare exception is Green SÖP, a panel data set that was established within the project Eval-MAP funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Green SÖP encompasses household data collected by the survey institute forsa over four years, spanning 2012–2015. The BMBF-funded project Eval-MAP 2 extended the Green SÖP panel data set by two additional surveys conducted in 2020 and 2022, covering both mitigation and adaptation behavior.

Pensions for reduced earnings capacity (REC) have yearly made up about 20% of all pensions granted by the German Pension Insurance in the past 25 years. The dataset described in this article is a time series of cross-sectional observations for the retirement cohorts 2001–2020. It enables researchers to have a detailed insight into the population of REC-pensioners and allows observing trends and effects of reforms over time. The article provides general information on the data, first descriptive analyses, examples on possible matching with other data of the FDZ-RV and information on how to access the data.