Adaptation to Climate Change: Commitment and Timing Issues

Adaptation to climate change: Commitment and timing issues

We study the impact of timing and commitment on adaptation and mitigation policies in the context of international environmental problems. Adaptation policies present the characteristics of a private good and may require a prior investment, while mitigation policies produce a public good. By developing a stylized model, where some countries coordinate their actions while others do not, we evalu...

Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change: Concepts, Issues, Assessment Methods

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Adaptation to Climate Change

We investigate the effect of climate change on population growth in 18th and 19th century Iceland. We find that annual temperature changes help determine the population growth rate in preindustrial Iceland: a year 1◦C cooler than average drives down population growth rates by 0.57% in each of the next two years, for a total effect of 1.14%. We also find that 18th and 19th century Icelanders ada...

The climate change commitment.

Even if atmospheric composition were fixed today, global-mean temperature and sea level rise would continue due to oceanic thermal inertia. These constant-composition (CC) commitments and their uncertainties are quantified. Constant-emissions (CE) commitments are also considered. The CC warming commitment could exceed 1 degrees C. The CE warming commitment is 2 degrees to 6 degrees C by the yea...

Climate Change and Adaptation