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- By Author- Ackerman, Frank Bueno, Ramón Chandler, Chelsea Clark, Victoria Cook, Alyson de Condappa, Devaraj Dougherty, Bill Erickson, Peter Escobar, Marisa Fencl, Amanda Flores, Francisco Heaps, Charlie Joyce, Brian Kartha, Sivan Kemp-Benedict, Eric Kollmuss, Anja Lazarus, Michael Lee, Carrie Mehta, Vishal Olson, Kathryn Purkey, David Schipper, Lisa Sieber, Jack Smith, Gordon Stanton, Elizabeth A. Swartz, Chris Taylor, Matthew Vicuna, Sebastian von Hippel, David Yates, David Young, Chuck

Recent Publications

		Climate damages in the FUND model: A disaggregated analysis Ecological Economics, in press; available online April 11, 2012 Author(s): Ackerman, F. ; Munitz, C. Year: 2012 Research Area(s): Climate Economics Description: This article examines the treatment of climate damages in the FUND model. By inserting software switches to turn individual features on and off, the authors obtain FUND's estimates for 15 categories of damages, and for components of the agricultural category. FUND, as used by the U.S. government to estimate the social cost of carbon, projects a net benefit of climate change in agriculture, offset by a slightly larger estimate of all other damages. Use of estimates from such models is arguably inappropriate for setting public policy. But as long as such models are being used in the policy-making process, an update to reflect newer research and correct modeling errors is needed before FUND's damage estimates can be relied on. More information External Link
		Low-Greenhouse-Gas Consumption Strategies and Impacts on Developing Countries (Policy brief) SEI Policy Brief Author(s): Erickson, P. ; Owen, A.; Dawkins, E. Year: 2012 Research Area(s): Climate Mitigation Policy Description: This policy brief, based on SEI Working Paper 2012-01, outlines a study of the implications of a potential shift towards low-carbon consumption in wealthier countries for the poorer countries that produce goods for export. The authors find that if high-income countries were to shift spending to lower-emission types of products and services, the average GDP of lower-income countries could drop by more than 4 percent, and Least Developed Countries' GDPs could drop by more than 5 percent. Given the importance of both emission reduction and sustainable development, it is important to find ways to reduce emissions from consumption that minimize the impact on poorer countries. More information Download PDF
		Low-Greenhouse-Gas Consumption Strategies and Impacts on Developing Countries SEI Working Paper 2012-01 Author(s): Erickson, P. ; Owen, A.; Dawkins, E. Year: 2012 Research Area(s): Climate Mitigation Policy Description: This paper explores the implications of a potential shift to low-carbon consumption in wealthy countries for the poorer countries where many goods are made, and looks at ways to minimise negative impacts. It finds that if the U.K. and all other high-income countries shifted spending to lower-emission products and services, lower-income countries would be disproportionately affected, with average GDP losses greater than 5 percent in the world's poorest countries. These findings suggest that greater efforts need to be made to embed development considerations in efforts to reduce emissions from consumption in high-income countries. Several approaches could yield both climate and sustainable-development benefits, the authors note, such as helping low-income countries reduce the GHG-intensity of production; preferentially sourcing products from low-GHG and low-income regions; and helping low-income countries produce higher-value, more-durable goods. Read a policy brief summarizing the study findings More information Download PDF
		The national bioenergy investment model: Technical documentation Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) Working Paper 88 Author(s): Kemp-Benedict, E. Year: 2012 Research Area(s): Sustainable Futures ; Bioenergy Description: The National Bioenergy Investment Model is a scenario model that simulates the decisions of domestic and international investors on whether to invest in biofuel enterprises in a developing country. In the model, investors compare the profitability of different biofuel feedstock and fuel operations using a riskadjusted discount rate – taking market, currency, country and sector risks into account. Prices for biofuels and feedstocks are determined in part through exogenous international prices and in part through a dynamic, equilibrium-seeking price adjustment mechanism. The model is intended to be used within a participatory scenario exercise, and can be run interactively. More information Download PDF External Link
		Reason, Empathy, and Fair Play: the Climate Policy Gap SEI 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
		The $1.75 trillion lie Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law 1:1, 127-158 Author(s): Heinzerling, L. ; Ackerman, F. Year: 2012 Research Area(s): Climate Economics Description: This article identifies serious flaws in a 2010 study commissioned by the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) that found that federal regulations impose annual economic costs of $1.75 trillion. This estimate has been widely circulated, in everything from newspapers to Congressional testimony, but Heinzerling and Ackerman find it is not credible. They find it reflects a misunderstanding of the definition of the relevant data, fails an elementary question on the normal distribution, pads the analysis with several years of near-identical data, and fails to recognise the difference between correlation and causation, among other problems. The SBA should acknowledge the study's many failings, they argue, and publicly disavow it. More information External Link
		Revisiting Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Inventories Environmental Science & Technology, available online 17 April Author(s): Erickson, P. ; Lazarus, M. Year: 2012 Research Area(s): Climate Mitigation Policy Description: This viewpoint article reviews how local governments are measuring their communities' contributions to global greenhouse gas emissions. The last year has seen a surge of interest in methods for measuring and tracking community-wide GHG emissions, but no broadly accepted standard yet exists to measure or track GHG emissions at the local level, though several protocols have recently been developed or are in the works. One of the most vexing questions is how to account for the emissions associated with goods and materials consumed and/or produced in the community. The authors suggest pulling industry out of community-scale inventories, and looking at it separately from both a production and consumption perspective, to provide a clearer view of a community's emissions. More information External Link
		Price and Quantity Trajectories: Second-order Dynamics arXiv:1204.3156v1 [q-fin.GN] Author(s): Kemp-Benedict, E. Year: 2012 Research Area(s): Sustainable Futures Description: In two previous papers the author developed a second-order price adjustment (tatonnement) process. This paper extends the approach to include both quantity and price adjustments. It demonstrates three results: a analogue to physical energy, called "activity", arises naturally in the model and is not conserved in general; price and quantity trajectories must either end at a local minimum of a scalar potential or circulate endlessly; and disturbances into a subspace of substitutable commodities decay over time. More information External Link
		The Tragedy of Maldistribution: Climate, Sustainability, and Equity Sustainability 4:3, 394-411; Special Issue: Sustainable Policy on Climate Equity Author(s): Stanton, E.A. Year: 2012 Research Area(s): Climate Economics ; Sustainable Futures Description: This essay is an initial exploration of the dimensions of the equity/sustainability linkage from the perspective of public goods analysis. Sustainability requires an abundance of public goods. Where these commons lack governance, sustainability is at risk. Equity is a critical component of sustainability that can itself be viewed as a public good, subject to deterioration (maldistribution) when left ungoverned. As is the case for so many forms of environmental degradation, the private benefits of maldistribution tend to overshadow the larger social costs, and the result is a degradation of equity. This article sketches out the analogy of equity as a public good and addresses equity's critical role as a component of sustainability in the case of climate change, with implications for climate policy. More information External Link
		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
		A Consumption-Based GHG Inventory for the U.S. State of Oregon Environmental Science & Technology, Article ASAP Author(s): Erickson, P. ; Lazarus, M. ; Stanton, E.A. ; Allaway, D. Year: 2012 Research Area(s): Climate Mitigation Policy ; Climate Economics Description: This article describes what may be the first comprehensive consumption-based emissions inventory conducted for a U.S. state. The authors find that consumption-based emissions for Oregon are 47 percent higher than those released in-state. This not only provides a different view of the state's carbon footprint, but also highlights the role of goods and services (and associated purchasing behaviors). Such a perspective could help states and their local government partners find new ways to reduce emissions, such as promoting low-carbon consumption by the public sector or households, that are well within their sphere of influence. More information External Link
		Role of policy and institutions in local adaptation to climate change: Case studies on responses to too much and too little water in the Hindu Kush Himalayas International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development report Author(s): Pradhan, N.S. ; Schipper, L. ; Khadgi, V.; Kaur, N; Geoghegan, T. (eds.) Year: 2012 Research Area(s): Adaptation & Vulnerability Description: Climate change heralds both opportunities and threats to the livelihoods of 1.3 billion people in the nine large river basins of the Hindu Kush Himalayan region and downstream. Climate impacts here are particularly severe owing to the large amount of the population depending on climate-sensitive livelihoods such as agriculture. This report, a follow-up to a 2009 ICIMOD report, focuses on the role of policies and institutions in strengthening or weakening community adaptation strategies. It examines four key themes that emerged from the findings of the earlier study: local water governance, flood mitigation measures, agricultural diversification, and alternative livelihood options. More information Download PDF External Link
		Biomass in a Low-Carbon Economy: Resource Scarcity, Climate Change, and Business in a Finite World (Policy brief) SEI Policy Brief Author(s): Kemp-Benedict, E. ; Kartha, S. ; Fencl, A. Year: 2012 Research Area(s): Sustainable Futures ; Climate Mitigation Policy Description: This policy brief, based on a report produced through a partnership between the business leaders' initiative 3C (Combat Climate Change) and the Stockholm Environment Institute, gauges the availability of biomass for low-carbon energy and other uses in the context of sustainability and competing demands. It explores four scenarios for future biomass use, depending on the relative emphasis on climate change mitigation, agriculture, or both, and finds that while all of the scenarios require trade-offs, a "Sustainability Transition" that uses biomass for food, energy, industrial materials, and more could yield great benefits, helping address the urgent climate problem while spurring improvements in agriculture to boost food production and result in new agricultural products. More information Download PDF
		Biomass in a Low-Carbon Economy: Resource Scarcity, Climate Change, and Business in a Finite World SEI Project Report Author(s): Kemp-Benedict, E. ; Kartha, S. ; Fencl, A. Year: 2012 Research Area(s): Sustainable Futures ; Climate Mitigation Policy Description: This report, produced through a partnership between the business leaders' initiative 3C (Combat Climate Change) and the Stockholm Environment Institute, gauges the availability of biomass for low-carbon energy and other uses in the context of sustainability and competing demands. It explores four scenarios for future biomass use, depending on the relative emphasis on climate change mitigation, agriculture, or both, and finds that while all of the scenarios require trade-offs, a "Sustainability Transition" that uses biomass for food, energy, industrial materials, and more could yield great benefits, helping address the urgent climate problem while spurring improvements in agriculture to boost food production and result in new agricultural products. More information Download PDF
		The nexus of water-energy-food In Inter-American Development Bank, Sustainability Report 2011, pp. 7-9 Author(s): Escobar, M. Year: 2012 Research Area(s): Water Resources Description: This article, which serves as the introduction to the Inter-American Development Bank's Sustainability Report 2011, places the water-energy-food nexus in the context of Latin America and the Caribbean. Drawing on the work of Holger Hoff and others, it explains the nexus concept and its relevance to Latin America amid rising incomes and consumption, accelerated development and urbanisation, and increasing concentrations of poor people in peri-urban zones, where they are particularly vulnerable to water, energy and food constraints. More information Download PDF External Link