Los costes de la política de cambio climáticouna aproximación teórica

Abstract

There are different perspectives nowadays towards the climate change debate. In one hand, we can find some ones who affirm that the knowledge about global warming is still quite low and there exist so many uncertainties that, the cost of a mitigating policy should be the only fact that determine the decision making. In the other hand there are others who assure that the cost of the emission reduction policies is not the goal we have to take into account. These ones believe that global warming risks are so severe that emissions should be cut whatever the cost. In this document we adopt an intermediate perspective. We believe in the necessity of applying gradual mitigating policies and we know that the performance of climate change policies and the evolution of certain economic and social variables give way tome some economic cost. Particularly important is the cost of reducing carbon emissions which could materialize in a lost of production and welfare. The effective performance of economic climate change policies -that have the goal of reducing greenhouse gases- and the control of the most influent variables in the expulsion of the emissions cause a minimum cost and a very strict coordination between the different policies so that the evolution from the initial state to the final required would be most efficient. The model we present in this paper optimizes the trajectory these variables should take from the initial point to the final required, minimizing the cost of this change.