A Question of Balance: Weighing the Options on Global Warming Policies

by William D. Nordhaus

As scientific and observational evidence on global warming piles up every day, questions of economic policy in this central environmental topic have taken center stage. But as author and prominent Yale economist William Nordhaus observes, the issues involved in understanding global warming and slowing its harmful effects are complex and cross disciplinary boundaries. For example, ecologists see global warming as a threat to ecosystems, utilities as a debit to their balance sheets, and farmers as a hazard to their livelihoods.   In this important work, William Nordhaus integrates the entire spectrum of economic and scientific research to weigh the costs of reducing emissions against the benefits of reducing the long-run damages from global warming. The book offers one of the most extensive analyses of the economic and environmental dynamics of greenhouse-gas emissions and climate change and provides the tools to evaluate alternative approaches to slowing global warming. The author emphasizes the need to establish effective mechanisms, such as carbon taxes, to harness markets and harmonize the efforts of different countries. This book not only will shape discussion of one the world’s most pressing problems but will provide the rationales and methods for achieving widespread agreement on our next best move in alleviating global warming.

Genres: Economics, Nonfiction, Environment, Science, Climate Change

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

William Dawbney Nordhaus is an American economist and Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University, best known for his work in economic modelling and climate change.

He is one of the laureates of the 2018 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Nordhaus received the prize "for integrating climate change into long-run macroeconomic analysis".

He studied at Yale University and completed his PhD in 1967 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been associated with Yale University since 1967 and a professor there since 1973. He has been a member of the Brookings Panel on Economic Activity since 1972, and from 1977 to 1979 he was an economic advisor to President Jimmy Carter’s administration.

William Nordhaus’ findings deal with interactions between society, the economy and climate change. In the mid-1990s, he created a quantitative model that describes the global interplay between the economy and the climate. Nordhaus’ model is used to examine the consequences of climate policy interventions, for example carbon taxes.

Reviews

[Lance Cahill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow, steady, universal, predictable are Noordhaus' recommendations for climate change policies as he leads the reader through his model of optimal climate change policies and an effective critique of the Stern Review.

The book is a very nice popular treatment of his academic work without skipping crucial details which drive his model. Recommended for those interested in seeing the framework of a "how-and-when" efficient climate policy might work.