Response to The Stern Review: A Dual Critique

This article is a response to the articles in the previous issue of World Economics by Carter et al. and Byatt et al., which criticized the Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change’s assessment of the potential impacts of climate change. The authors demonstrate that the Stern Review does not underestimate the extent of uncertainty, and does not introduce bias by ignoring the effects of adaptation. The assessment does represent the effects of different socioeconomic futures on impact, and does explain the key sources of uncertainty. The indicators of impact used in the assessment either take adaptation into account (food security, coastal flooding) or represent exposure to impact, and hence indicate a demand for adaptation if impacts are to be avoided.