ClimateCost project and navigation page

ClimateCost (the Full Costs of Climate Change) is a major research project on the economics of climate change, funded from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme.

The three primary objectives of the project are to advance knowledge in the following areas:

• Long-term targets and mitigation policies.

• Costs of inaction (the economic effects of climate change).

• Costs and benefits of adaptation.

To achieve these objectives, seven research tasks were agreed upon: 

• Identify and develop consistent scenarios for climate change and socio-economic development, including mitigation scenarios.

• Quantify in physical terms, and value as economiac costs, the effects of future climate change (the ‘costs of inaction’) under different scenarios for the EU and other major negotiator countries (China, India). This analysis will be at a disaggregated level, undertaken, where possible using spatial analysis (Geographic Information Systems, GIS). The analysis will include market and non-market sectors (coasts, health, ecosystems, energy, water and infrastructure). The analysis will also quantify and value the costs and ‘benefits’ of adaptation.

• Assess the potential physical effects and economic costs of major catastrophic events and major socially contingent effects.

• Update the mitigation costs of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions, consistent with medium- and long-term reduction targets/stabilisation goals for the mitigation scenarios, including (induced) technological change, non-CO2 GHG and sinks, and recent abatement technologies.

• Quantify the ancillary air-quality co-bene!ts (in physical and economic terms) of mitigation, using a spatially detailed disaggregated approach to quantify bene!ts in Europe, China and India.

• Develop and apply a number of General Circulation Models (GCMs) and Integrated Assessment Models (IAM) to integrate the analyses.

• Bring the information together to provide policy relevant output, including undertaking analysis of policy scenarios.

This presentation outlines some key features and outcomes of the ClimateCost project:

Publications

• ClimateCost website
• Technical Description of the PAGE09 Integrated Assessment Model