Economics

U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emissions 2006
The U.S. Energy Information Administration's report, U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Energy Sources 2006 Flash Estimate, indicates that U.S. energy-related CO2 emissions declined 1.3 percent between 2005 and 2006. An associated decline in carbon intensity was the largest since 1990 and the 4th largest since 1949, falling by 4.5 percent. Increased energy efficiency, milder summer and winter weather, increased use of natural gas, and greater reliance on non-fossil fuels contributed to the reductions.

IPCC Emissions Projections Challenged
An Australian statistician, Ian Castles, and a British economist, David Henderson believe that the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has wrongly forecast future economic growth, leading to a substantial overestimate of future carbon dioxide emissions. The IPCC's 2001 calculation of future emissions drove its projections of potential temperature increases. If Castles and Henderson are correct, the IPCC temperature projections were seriously inflated, predicting much more warming than models said will occur. The error in the IPCC's economic growth forecasts is apparent when comparing developing versus developed country growth. Castles observes that under the IPCC approach, the per capita income of the average South African is projected to be four times that of the average American in 2100 – and that the South African economy will be comparable to that of the entire world in 1990.

Broad Policy Issues in Developing Climate Policy
Climate change has been called “one of the most controversial and complex environmental policy challenges facing the United States – and the world….” The file below has eight pages taken from the Economic Report of the President 2002 highlighting some of the reasons why climate policy is so difficult.

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