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9 - Worse Than Useless

from Part II - Economics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 March 2023

Simon Sharpe
Simon Sharpe
Affiliation:
World Resources Institute, London
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Summary

Estimates of the economic costs of climate change rely on guesswork in the face of huge uncertainties, and arbitrary judgements about what is important. The models can produce any number their creators want them to; and typically, they trivialise the risks. Despite being described as ‘worse than useless’ by leading academics, economic analysis of this kind has been credited with a Nobel Prize, and it continues to inform government policy.

Keywords

ModelsGuessworkSocial cost of carbonClimate impactsCost–benefit analysis
Type
Chapter
Information
Five Times Faster
Rethinking the Science, Economics, and Diplomacy of Climate Change
 , pp. 83 - 90
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Worse Than Useless
  • Simon Sharpe, World Resources Institute, London
  • Book: Five Times Faster
  • Online publication: 19 March 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009326506.009
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  • Worse Than Useless
  • Simon Sharpe, World Resources Institute, London
  • Book: Five Times Faster
  • Online publication: 19 March 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009326506.009
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Worse Than Useless
  • Simon Sharpe, World Resources Institute, London
  • Book: Five Times Faster
  • Online publication: 19 March 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009326506.009
Available formats
×