MERGE: An Integrated Assessment Model for Global Climate Change

Each period's emissions are translated into global concentrations and in turn to the impacts on mean global indicators such as temperature change. MERGE may be operated in a "cost-effective" mode supposing that international negotiations lead to a time path of emissions that satisfies a constraint on concentrations or on temperature change. The model may also be operated in a "benefit-cost" mode choosing a time path of emissions that maximizes the discounted utility of consumption, after making allowance for the disutility of climate change.