Are economists getting climate dynamics right and does it matter?

Working paper

We show that several of the most important economic models of climate change produce climate dynamics inconsistent with the current crop of models in climate science. First, most economic models exhibit far too long a delay between an impulse of CO2 emissions and warm¬ing. Second, few economic models incorporate positive feedbacks in the carbon cycle, whereby carbon sinks remove less CO2 from the atmosphere, the more CO2 they have already removed cumulatively, and the higher is temperatu...

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Authors: Van der Ploeg, R; Dietz, S; Rezai, A; Venmans, F

• Publication status: Published
• Publisher: University of Oxford Publisher's website
• Series: Department of Economics Discussion Paper Series
• Publication date: 2020-02-11
• Paper number: 900
• Keywords: integrated assessment modelling; carbon price; positive feedbacks; carbon cycle; climate change; social cost of carbon