Ramón Bueno
Staff Scientist
Somerville, MA
ramon.bueno@sei-us.org
+1 (617) 627-6793
Ramón works on research and policy analysis in the Climate Economics program at SEI-US. He brings over 20 years of professional experience designing, building and using analysis models and information systems across a variety of multi-disciplinary applications, including business intelligence and decision support systems. He is fluent in both Spanish and English and has long been a close observer of, and sometimes participant in, developments in US-Cuba relations, Puerto Rico, and more broadly the Caribbean and Latin America. Ramón attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received a B.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1974 and an M.S. in February 1977 on Systems Modeling and Optimization (Laboratory for Information & Decision Systems-LIDS). In 2007, he completed a one-year mid-career program at MIT in which he focused on socioeconomic development and policy/impact analysis.
Recent Publications by Ramón Bueno
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Reason, Empathy, and Fair Play: the Climate Policy GapSEI Working paper 2012-02 Author(s): Stanton, E.A. ; Ackerman, F. ; Bueno, R.Year: 2012 Research Area(s): Climate Economics Description: To achieve the greatest possible human welfare, SEI's Climate and Regional Economics of Development (CRED) model calls for a rapid reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, beginning in the next decade and keeping cumulative 21st century carbon dioxide emissions below 2,000 Gt. This report explains why CRED recommends such stringent reductions when some other climate-economics models say that very slow emission reductions are the best policy. The document includes a foreword by Jomo Kwame Sundaram, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development.Note: A summary of this report has been published as a UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN/DESA) policy brief. Download it here (external link to PDF, 293kb). More information Download PDF |
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Epstein-Zin utility in DICE: Is risk aversion irrelevant to climate policy?E3 Network working paper Author(s): Ackerman, F. ; Stanton, E.A. ; Bueno, R.Year: 2012 Research Area(s): Climate Economics Description: Climate change involves uncertain probabilities of catastrophic risks, and very long-term consequences of current actions. Climate economics, therefore, is centrally concerned with the treatment of risk and time. Yet conventional assumptions about utility and optimal economic growth create a perverse connection between risk aversion and time preference, such that more aversion to current risks implies less concern for future outcomes, and vice versa. This paper introduces an accessible implementation of Epstein-Zin utility into the DICE model of climate economics, creating a hybrid "EZ-DICE" model. Using Epstein-Zin parameters from the finance literature and climate uncertainty parameters from the science literature, the authors find that the optimal climate policy in EZ-DICE calls for rapid abatement of carbon emissions; it is similar to standard DICE results with the discount rate set to equal the risk-free rate of return.More information Download PDF External Link |
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Greenhouse Gas Emissions in King CountyReport commissioned by King County, Wash. Author(s): Erickson, P. ; Stanton, E.A. ; Chandler, C. ; Lazarus, M. ; Bueno, R. ; Munitz, C.; Cegan, J.; and Daudon, M., and Donegan, S. (Cascadia Consulting Group)Year: 2012 Research Area(s): Climate Mitigation Policy ; Climate Economics Description: This study, one of the first of its kind, quantifies greenhouse gas emissions for King County, Wash. – which includes Seattle – and gauges the community's contribution to global emissions from two very different, but complementary, perspectives: emissions produced locally, and consumption-based emissions. By the first measure, King County is responsible for 12 tons of GHG emissions per resident; by the second, for 29 tons per person. Most of the difference can be attributed to the fact that King County residents consume more emissions-intensive goods (such as vehicles and food) than they produce. The report also develops and pilots a framework for King County to track key sources of GHG emissions in years between more comprehensive GHG inventories, focusing on a "core" set of emissions that can be easily measured and over which local governments have relatively direct and unique policy influence: local building energy use, vehicle travel, and waste disposal.More information Download PDF External Link |
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Estimating Regions' Relative Vulnerability to Climate Damages in the CRED ModelSEI Working Paper WP-US-1103 Author(s): Stanton, E.A. ; Cegan, J. ; Bueno, R. ; Ackerman, F.Year: 2012 Research Area(s): Climate Economics Description: This article introduces the CRED climate vulnerability index (VI-CRED), developed for use in the CRED integrated assessment model. VI-CRED is an index of vulnerability to climate change, with the advantage of simplicity and transparency as compared to more complicated indices with dozens of components. VI-CRED apportions economic damages from climate change among world regions on the basis of differences in vulnerable sectors' contribution to gross domestic product, share of population living at less than 5 meters above sea level, and access to freshwater resources. Its results are broadly similar to those of other indices, but it assigns a more prominent role to water scarcity and, for this reason, includes the Middle East among the most vulnerable regions.Note: This is an updated version of a paper first published in February 2011. Download PDF |
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The CIEL Backgrounder: Understanding the Climate Impact Equity LensSEI technical report Author(s): Stanton, E.A. ; Bueno, R.Year: 2011 Research Area(s): Climate Economics Description: To provide insight into the wide range of outcomes that climate change will have on individuals, the Climate Impact Equity Lens (CIEL) calculates net gains and losses from a global failure to cut greenhouse gas emissions, viewed not as global or national averages, but instead for individuals. The purpose of the tool is to illustrate both the severity and the diversity of expected impacts from climate change. This backgrounder gives a basic introduction to CIEL tool, written in plain language, and also includes a more technical methodology for the CIEL model.Note: This report is part of a package that also includes Real People, Real Impacts: The Climate Impact Equity Lens and a policy brief of the same title. Download PDF External Link |