Climate Change Mitigation, Technological Innovation and Adaptation: A New Perspective on Climate Policy

This book presents provides a rigorous yet accessible treatment of the main topics in climate change policy using a large body of research generated using WITCH (World Induced Technical Change Hybrid), an innovative and path-breaking integrated assessment model.

The authors give a particular emphasis to the analysis of technological change necessary to build low-carbon economies. The WITCH model can track all of the actions which impact the level of mitigation - such as R&D expenditures, investments in carbon-free technologies and adaptation, purchases of emission permits, or expenditures for carbon taxes - thus allowing for the evaluation of equilibrium responses stimulated by different climate policy tools. The chapters examine various questions to explore the future of climate change policy. Why is it so hard to achieve a global agreement that paves the way to widespread reductions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions? What are the technologies that would deliver clean energy without harming economic growth? And finally, how does uncertainty about future policies and future technologies affect choices in the present?

This innovative book will appeal to researchers, policy makers and academics interested in climate change policy.

Contributors; V. Bosetti, C. Carraro, E. De Cian, T. Longden, E. Massetti, L. Nicita, F. Sferra, A. Sgobbi, M. Tavoni

Edited by Valentina Bosetti, Professor, Bocconi University, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei and Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change, Carlo Carraro, President, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE) and President Emeritus, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy, Emanuele Massetti, Department of Politics, University of Surrey, UK and Massimo Tavoni, Associate Professor, Department of Management, Politecnico di Milano and Deputy Coordinator, Climate Change and Sustainable Development Research Programme, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM), Italy