Summary of Contents How to obtain this publication Executive Summary (In Spanish, in German)

Summary of Contents

Humans’ effect on the earth's climate will have potentially far-reaching impacts on society and nature. We know that there are trade-offs among policies that limit global warming, but the benefits have so far received far less attention from policy makers than have the costs.

The Benefits of Climate Change Policies provides an overview of the state-of-the-art in assessment of the global benefits of climate change policies. Edited by Jan Corfee Morlot and Shardul Agrawala, of the OECD Environment Directorate, the volume includes recent analyses and viewpoints from well-known scientists and policy analysts, including John Callaway (UNEP Risoe Centre), Henry Jacoby (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Sam Hitz and Joel Smith (Stratus Consulting), Roger Jones (CSIRO, Australia), Michele Pittini and Mujaba Rahman (UK government), John Schellnhuber, Rachel Warren (and other co-authors from Tyndall Centre, UK), Stephen Schneider, Janica Lane (Stanford University), and Tom Wigley (NCAR).

This book addresses the following questions:

• What is the nature of avoided impact benefits from policies that limit global warming and how do these vary by sector or region?
• Can these benefits be quantified and monetised reliably?
• How do adaptation and mitigation policies interact?
• What is the nature of ancillary or nearer term, local benefits of mitigation policies and how do they compare to other types of benefits?
• How does the risk of abrupt climate change affect these benefits?
• How might integrated assessment models help us to assess climate policy cost and benefit trade-offs?
• Are there new ways to work with risk-based approaches to look at mitigation policy alternatives?

It also points the way to a more comprehensive approach for continuing to shed light on the important topic of mitigation policy benefits in the future. 

To learn more about this publication, read the Executive Summary (Spanish; German). Please visit our web site for more information on the OECD's programme on climate change.

How to obtain this publication

Readers can access the full version of The Benefits of Climate Change Policies: Analytical and Framework Issues choosing from the following options:

• Subscribers and readers at subscribing institutions can access the online edition via SourceOECD, our online library.
• Non-subscribers can purchase the PDF e-book and/or paper copy via our Online Bookshop.
• The report is available to journalists from the OECD Media Relations Division (Media Relations Division)