Acknowledgements

1 The status quo is not an option

The new debate

The invisible hand, and other fables

Economics without equilibrium

Four bumper stickers for better economics

2 Your grandchildren’s lives are important

Discounting the far future

Figure 2.1 Costs and benefits, by year

Figure 2.2 Present value of costs and benefits

Discount rates and financial markets

Discount rates and first principles

3 We need to buy insurance for the planet

The climate change card game

Worst-case scenarios

Climate policy as insurance

Incalculable risks

How sensitive is the climate?

4 Climate damages are too valuable to have prices

Expensive, or priceless?

A bargain at twice the price

A craving for heat

Is hotter weather healthier?

Agriculture in a warmer world

5 Some costs are better than others

Energy savings without costs

Good costs and bad costs

Waiting for technology

6 Hot, it’s not: climate economics according to Lomborg

Whom can you trust?

Table 6.1 Lomborg’s bibliography: selected authors and frequency of citation

Costs, benefits, and consensus

Three hundred years of Kyoto

7 Much less wrong: the Stern Review versus its critics

What did Stern conclude?

Is the Stern discount rate too low?

How do risk and uncertainty affect climate economics?

How should damages and mitigation costs be estimated?

Did Stern underestimate the problem?

8 Climate, equity, and development

Responsibility based on emissions: should the polluters pay?

Figure 8.1 Shares of world population and CO2 emissions, selected countries

Responsibility based on income: should the rich pay?

Greenhouse development rights

All together now

Cost–benefit analysis versus climate justice

9 What is to be done?

Magic bullets that miss the target

The logic of carbon prices

The inefficiency of the market

Getting refrigerator prices right

Sulfur trading and why it works

Can we change fast enough?

Notes

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

References

Index