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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2010

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Selected Works

2. Under Review

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Mitigation And The Geoengineering Threat, Juan B. Moreno-Cruz Jan 2010

Mitigation And The Geoengineering Threat, Juan B. Moreno-Cruz

Juan B. Moreno-Cruz

Recent scientific advances have introduced the possibility of engineering the climate system to lower ambient temperatures without lowering greenhouse gas concentrations. This possibility has created an intense debate given the ethical, moral and scientific questions it raises. In this paper I examine the economic issues introduced when geoengineering becomes available in a standard two-period two-country model where strategic interaction leads to suboptimal mitigation. Geoengineering introduces the possibility of technical substitution away from mitigation, but it also affects the strategic interaction across countries: mitigation decisions made in the first period directly affect the geoengineering decisions made in the second period. With …


Revisiting The Economics Of Climate Change: The Role Of Geoengineering, Juan B. Moreno-Cruz, Sjak Smulders Jan 2010

Revisiting The Economics Of Climate Change: The Role Of Geoengineering, Juan B. Moreno-Cruz, Sjak Smulders

Juan B. Moreno-Cruz

Technically simple and reversible measures to directly reduce mean global temper- atures could be available anytime soon. We introduce the concept of \geoengineering" into an analytical model of climate change. We model the technical and economic characteristics of geoengineering in line with the recent literature from physical and environmental management sciences. We investigate (i) under which circumstances geoengineering can substitute, partly or completely, for traditional abatement strate- gies, (ii) under which conditions and at what level geoengineering is optimally em- ployed, and (iii) whether geoengineering can mitigate free-riding problems.