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A missed opportunity: the Stern review on climate change fails to tackle the issue of non-substitutable loss of natural capital

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  • Neumayer, Eric

Abstract

The Stern Review on The Economics of Climate Change is one of the few cost-benefit analyses of climate change to come out in favour of immediate and decisive action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The choice of a low discount rate is the main reason for the Review’s divergence in conclusions compared to other economic studies. I argue that the Review’s ethical reasons for a low discount rate are defendable, but unlikely to find wider public support. In order to justify spending a large amount of scarce resources for the purpose of limiting climate change it is necessary to move beyond the discounting debate. Unfortunately, the Review did not develop a persuasive argument for why climate change threatens to inflict upon future generations irreversible and non-substitutable damage to and loss of natural capital. This represents a missed opportunity as it would have provided a much more compelling case for drastic action than the Review’s arguments for a low discount rate.

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  • Neumayer, Eric, 2007. "A missed opportunity: the Stern review on climate change fails to tackle the issue of non-substitutable loss of natural capital," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 3059, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:3059
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    1. William R. Cline, 1992. "Economics of Global Warming, The," Peterson Institute Press: All Books, Peterson Institute for International Economics, number 39, April.
    2. Neumayer, Eric, 1999. "Global warming: discounting is not the issue, but substitutability is," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 33-43, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Moritz A. Drupp, 2018. "Limits to Substitution Between Ecosystem Services and Manufactured Goods and Implications for Social Discounting," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 69(1), pages 135-158, January.
    2. Pollitt, M., 2010. "Green Values in Communities: How and why to engage individuals with decarbonisation targets," Working Papers wp398, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    3. Bowen, Alex & Stern, Nicholas, 2010. "Environmental policy and the economic downturn," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 37589, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Moritz A. Drupp & Martin C. Hänsel, 2021. "Relative Prices and Climate Policy: How the Scarcity of Nonmarket Goods Drives Policy Evaluation," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 168-201, February.
    5. Hackett, Stian B. & Moxnes, Erling, 2015. "Natural capital in integrated assessment models of climate change," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 354-361.
    6. Gerlagh, Reyer, 2017. "Generous Sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 94-100.
    7. Tol, Richard S.J. & Yohe, Gary W., 2009. "The Stern Review: A deconstruction," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 1032-1040, March.
    8. Gerst, Michael D. & Howarth, Richard B. & Borsuk, Mark E., 2010. "Accounting for the risk of extreme outcomes in an integrated assessment of climate change," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 4540-4548, August.
    9. Seth Baum & William Easterling, 2010. "Space-time discounting in climate change adaptation," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 15(6), pages 591-609, August.
    10. Andersen, Torben M. & Bhattacharya, Joydeep & Liu, Pan, 2020. "Resolving intergenerational conflict over the environment under the Pareto criterion," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    11. Dietz, Simon & Morton, Alec, 2011. "Strategic appraisal of environmental risks: a contrast between the United Kingdom's Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change and its Committee on Radioactive Waste Management," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 31890, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. repec:bla:opecrv:v:33:y:2009:i:1:p:1-22 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Stern, Nicholas, 2014. "Ethics, equity and the economics of climate change paper 2: economics and politics," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 62704, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    14. repec:sae:envval:v:20:y:2011:i:2:p:163-188 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Simon Dietz & Alec Morton, 2009. "Strategic appraisal of environmental risks: a contrast between the UK�s Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change and its Committee on Radioactive Waste Management," GRI Working Papers 5, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    16. Cameron Hepburn & Greer Gosnell, 2014. "Evaluating impacts in the distant future: cost–benefit analysis, discounting and the alternatives," Chapters, in: Giles Atkinson & Simon Dietz & Eric Neumayer & Matthew Agarwala (ed.), Handbook of Sustainable Development, chapter 9, pages 140-159, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Simon Dietz & Alec Morton, 2011. "Strategic Appraisal of Environmental Risks: A Contrast Between the United Kingdom's Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change and its Committee on Radioactive Waste Management," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(1), pages 129-142, January.
    18. Andersen, Torben M. & Bhattacharya, Joydeep & Liu, Pan, 2018. "A way to resolve intergenerational conflict over the environment under the Pareto criterion using green bonds," ISU General Staff Papers 201808240700001070, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    19. Aaheim, Asbjørn, 2010. "The determination of optimal climate policy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 562-568, January.
    20. Vassilis Markantonis & Kostas Bithas, 2010. "The application of the contingent valuation method in estimating the climate change mitigation and adaptation policies in Greece. An expert-based approach," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 12(5), pages 807-824, October.
    21. Cosma Ioana Gabriela & David Katalin Gabriela & Antonescu Daniela & Dumiter Florin Cornel & Jimon Ștefania Amalia, 2020. "The Correlation Between CO2 Emissions and GDP in a Sustainable Development Framework Using Kuznets Environment Curve," Studia Universitatis „Vasile Goldis” Arad – Economics Series, Sciendo, vol. 30(4), pages 1-23, December.
    22. Smith, Kathryn, 2009. "Saving the World but Saving Too Much? Time Preference and Productivity in Climate Policy Modelling," 2009 Conference (53rd), February 11-13, 2009, Cairns, Australia 47619, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.

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