Controlling the Cost of Controlling the Climate: The Irish Government’s Climate Change Strategy. ESRI WP229. March 2008

McCarthy, Colm and Scott, Sue (2008) Controlling the Cost of Controlling the Climate: The Irish Government’s Climate Change Strategy. ESRI WP229. March 2008. [Working Paper]

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Abstract

Ireland is committed to substantial reductions in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions. A target reduction in emissions of 3% per year to 2012 was included in the 2007 Programme for Government. This is a sharp rate of emission reduction, particularly in the short term when substitution possibilities are technology-constrained. The effort implied in the EC’s proposals for 2020 is similarly demanding, with a 20% reduction on 2005 levels in Ireland,1 and possibly 30% in the event of other developed countries making a comparable commitment (EC, 2008). Integrated climate-assessment models, which attempt to identify the economically optimal pace of emission reduction worldwide, typically do not imply sharp immediate reductions. They proceed on the basis that the best pace of emission reduction is the outcome of an inter-temporal welfare-maximising calculation, not a deus ex machina (Nordhaus 2007a).

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