Climate Change Projections and Policy Design Under Uncertainty

Uncertainty is at the core of designing climate change policy. There are many aspects of uncertainty. One is how to project the plausible futures of the world economy over the long time frames relevant for analyzing climate change. Estimates of the economic costs of alternative policies depend on the state of the world when the policy is applied. The second is what types of policies give the best outcome under a wide range of different futures. The aims of this project are to improve our understanding of the uncertainties in future economic projections that are a key part of climate change scenarios and to improve our ability to design and evaluate alternative responses to climate change at the global level.