Al Gore & the Stern Review
The Challenge of Global Warming: Economic Models and Environmental Policy
Richard Nordhous, 24 July 2007
In a landmark study that should shift the terms of the debate over what to do about global warming forever, Yale economist William Nordhaus has found that the favored programs of Al Gore and Sir Nicholas Stern would cost the world more than unmitigated global warming. He found that global warming under a business as usual case would inflict damage on the world amounting to $22 trillion. Sir Nicholas Stern’s proposed course of action would reduce that damage to $9 trillion, but at a cost of $27 trillion, for a total cost to the world of $36 trillion, $14 trillion more than unmitigated global warming. Al Gore’s package of measures would reduce global warming costs to $10 trillion at a cost of $34 trillion, for a total cost of $44 trillion, twice the total cost of global warming. A variety of measures aimed at keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius would have similar benefits and costs to the Stern proposal. Nordhaus’ study demonstrates that the policies proposed by alarmists are so harmful to the world that they should no longer be seriously considered by policy makers.
Is there a case for aggressive, near-term mitigation of greenhouse gases? A critique of the Stern Report
Robert O. Mendelsohn, Regulation, Winter 2006-7
The author exposes the mistaken assumptions adopted in the influential Stern Report, which had concluded that the costs of the impacts of global warming will be far higher than the costs of stopping global warming.
Comments on the Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change
Sir Partha Dasgupta, University of Cambridge, 11 November 2006
A critique of Stern’s methodology by the Frank Ramsey Professor of Economics at Cambridge University.
The Stern Review: A Dual Critique
Part I: The Science The Stern Review: A Dual Critique: Part I: The Science (by Robert M. Carter, C. R. de Freitas, Indur M. Goklany, David Holland & Richard S. Lindzen), and Part II: Economic Aspects (by Ian Byatt, Ian Castles, Indur M. Goklany, David Henderson, Nigel Lawson, Ross McKitrick, Julian Morris, Alan Peacock, Colin Robinson & Robert Skidelsky) World Economics v7 i4 (2006): 165-232.
A number of prominent scholars dissect the inaccuracies in the Stern Report.
"Climate Zealotry Produces Bad Policy,"
William O'Keefe, Marshall Institute, September 25, 2006
The author questions whether Al Gore’s evident zealotry is an appropriate state of mind for policy making.
The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change: A Comment by Richard Tol
Prometheus, 26 October 2006
Author critiques Stern Review.
Stern Quits After UK Ignores His Report
Greg Hurst, London Times, 8 December 2006
Nicholas Stern, author of a contorversial study claiming the world will face astronomical economic associated with global warming impacts, quit the UK Treasury Department after his own government refused to implement most of his recommendations.
“Is Climate Change the 21st Century’s Most Urgent Environmental Problem?”
Indur Goklany, Lindenwood University, Economic Policy Lecture 7 (2005).
We ask whether it is more effective to rely on mitigation (emission reduction) strategies, or on adaptation approaches to climate change impacts.