Climate Change and Common Sense: Essays in Honour of Tom Schelling

There is widespread agreement that climate change is a serious problem. If we fail to regulate greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, or use alternative strategies for addressing the problem, the damages could be significant, and perhaps catastrophic. After several international meetings in which nation-states have tried unsuccessfully to address the climate change problem, there is a sense of frustration and urgency: frustration at the slow pace at which countries are moving toward an international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; urgency because of the growing evidence that climate change is a serious problem that should be addressed globally and quickly. This book takes a close look at the fundamental political and economic processes driving climate change policy. It identifies institutional arrangements and policies that are needed to design more effective climate change policy. It also examines ethical and distributional arguments that are critical in understanding and framing the climate debate. The book is built around a conference honouring Tom Schelling that took place at the Sustainable Consumption Institute at The University of Manchester. Each chapter represents a significant contribution to the literature on the political economy of climate change. Contributors to this volume - David Anthoff, University of California, Berkeley Geir B. Asheim, University of Oslo Scott Barrett, Columbia University Linda R. Cohen, University of California, Irvine Partha Dasgupta, University of Cambridge David J. Frame, University of Oxford Amihai Glazer, University of California, Irvine Robert W. Hahn, University of Manchester and University of Oxford Geoffrey Heal, Columbia University Cameron J. Hepburn, University of Oxford Michael Hoel, University of Oslo Charles D. Kolstad, University of California, Santa Barbara Howard Kunreuther, University of Pennsylvania Robert Mendelsohn, Yale University Ian Parry, Resources for the Future Thomas Schelling, University of Maryland Richard S.J. Tol, Economic and Social Research Institute Alistair Ulph, University of Manchester Roberton C. Williams III, University of Maryland Anastasios Xepapadeas, Athens University of Economics and Business