Climate Economics

image

The field of economics plays a crucial role in the debate about appropriate policies intended to mitigate climate change. For example, the tools of economics can be used to measure and/or estimate impacts such as the costs of mitigation, the valuation of damages, the role of abatement in lowering damages, design of policy instruments (e.g. taxes vs. permit systems), international agreements on climate policy, risk assessment, questions of distributional ethics, and more.

With financial support from SAGE, Matrix will continue to support a team dedicated to Climate Change Economics, which brings together some of the many faculty, post-docs, and Ph.D. students at Berkeley who are working on economic aspects of climate change. This group's regular meetings serve as a convening ground for researchers from across the UC Berkeley campus, and provide a space for scholars to share early research drafts, discuss recent literature, consider special topics, and bring in external speakers. Matrix also previously hosted an Advanced Workshop on Climate Economics.

 

Image Credit: Flooding in Cedar Rapids, Iowa: U.S. Geologic Survey