A social cost of carbon for (almost) every country

Richard S.J. Tol*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

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Abstract

This paper uses imputed national climate change impact functions to estimate national social costs of carbon, which are largest in poor countries with large populations. The national social costs of carbon of faster growing economies are less sensitive to the pure rate of time preference and more sensitive to the rate of risk aversion. The pattern of national social costs of carbon is not sensitive to the assumed impact function, climate sensitivity, and scenario, although the global social cost of carbon is. Income convergence raises the national social costs of carbon of poorer countries, and lowers them for richer countries. Both global and national social costs of carbon are most sensitive to the income elasticity of climate change impacts, a parameter about which we know little.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)555-566
Number of pages12
JournalEnergy Economics
Volume83
Early online date16 Jul 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sep 2019

Keywords

  • Climate change
  • Climate policy
  • Non-cooperation
  • Pigou tax
  • Social cost of carbon

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