IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/tcpoxx/v4y2004i2p205-216.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The use of PPP or MER in the construction of emission scenarios is more than a question of 'metrics'

Author

Listed:
  • Bjart J. Holtsmark
  • Knut H. Alfsen

Abstract

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)'s Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES, IPCC, 2000) has been a matter of debate since Ian Castles and David Henderson claimed that the scenarios were based on unsound economics, giving rise to improbably high emission growth. A main point in their critique was that the scenario-makers converted national gross domestic product (GDP) data to a common measure using market exchange rates (MER) rather than purchasing power parity (PPP) rates. The IPCC responded to the critique by claiming that the use of PPP- or MER-based measures is just a question of 'metrics', as important as the 'switch from degrees Celsius to Fahrenheit'. This paper addresses both the critique from Castles and Henderson and the response from the IPCC. It builds on our earlier argument that the use of MER-based measures, although misleading in some respects, probably has not given rise to seriously exaggerated emission forecasts because comparing regional income levels by the use of MER has two types of implications that draw in different directions and effectively neutralize one another. Nevertheless, we argue that the choice between MER and PPP in the construction of emission scenarios is far more than just a question of metrics. Finally, we discuss whether the SRES scenario with the lowest cumulative emissions is a reasonable lower limit with respect to global emission growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Bjart J. Holtsmark & Knut H. Alfsen, 2004. "The use of PPP or MER in the construction of emission scenarios is more than a question of 'metrics'," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(2), pages 205-216, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:tcpoxx:v:4:y:2004:i:2:p:205-216
    DOI: 10.1080/14693062.2004.9685521
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14693062.2004.9685521
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/14693062.2004.9685521?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bjart J. Holtsmark & Knut H. Alfsen, 2004. "PPP-correction of the IPCC emission scenarios - does it matter?," Discussion Papers 366, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bjart Holtsmark, 2006. "Are Global per Capita CO2 Emissions Likely to Remain Stable?," Energy & Environment, , vol. 17(2), pages 207-219, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chen, Han & Huang, Ye & Shen, Huizhong & Chen, Yilin & Ru, Muye & Chen, Yuanchen & Lin, Nan & Su, Shu & Zhuo, Shaojie & Zhong, Qirui & Wang, Xilong & Liu, Junfeng & Li, Bengang & Tao, Shu, 2016. "Modeling temporal variations in global residential energy consumption and pollutant emissions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 820-829.
    2. Calzadilla, Alvaro, 2010. "Global income distribution and poverty: Implications from the IPCC SRES scenarios," Kiel Working Papers 1664, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    3. Peter B. Dixon & Maureen T. Rimmer, 2005. "Analysing Convergence with a Multi-Country Computable General Equilibrium Model: PPP versus Mer," Energy & Environment, , vol. 16(6), pages 901-921, November.
    4. Bjart Holtsmark, 2005. "Global per capita CO2 emissions - stable in the long run?," Discussion Papers 438, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    5. Lotze-Campen, Hermann & Müller, Christoph & Bondeau, Alberte & Smith, Pascalle & Lucht, Wolfgang, 2005. "Combined impacts of food demand and climate change on land and water use: an integrated environmental-economic modelling approach," Conference papers 331433, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    6. McKibbin, Warwick J. & Pearce, David & Stegman, Alison, 2007. "Long term projections of carbon emissions," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 637-653.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:tcpoxx:v:4:y:2004:i:2:p:205-216. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/tcpo20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.