Modeling Climate Change Mitigation Options: a Review of Tol's Contribution to Copenhagen Consensus

by Roberto Roson

Copenhagen Consensus Center organized an initiative, in which an Expert Panel of outstanding economists convened in Washington DC in September 2009 to compile a prioritized list of specific solutions in the fight against Climate Change. The basis for the discussions and the ranking were Assessment Papers prepared for five different categories of solutions to Climate Change. Richard S.J. Tol was in charge of writing the Assessment Paper on Traditional Mitigation policies, by reviewing the existing frontier academic literature and presenting the economic costs and benefits of relevant solutions together with the strengths and weaknesses in the applied methodology. To ensure complete information on each category of solutions, all Assessment Papers were balanced by alternative views by one or two economists, preparing a critical Perspective Paper. This is one critical review of Tol's contribution.