Johannes Emmerling – The WITCH model

Climate thresholds and heterogeneous regions: Implications for coalition formation

January 17, 2020

The threat of climate catastrophes has been shown to radically change optimal climate policy and prospects for international climate agreements. We characterize the strategic behavior in emissions mitigation and agreement participation with a potential climate catastrophe happening at a temperature threshold. Players are heterogeneous in a conceptual and two numerical models. We confirm that thresholds…
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The role of the discount rate for emission pathways and negative emissions

January 7, 2020

The importance of the discount rate in cost-benefit analysis of long term problems, such as climate change, has been widely acknowledged. However, the choice of the discount rate is hardly discussed when translating policy targets—such as 1.5 °C and 2 °C–into emission reduction strategies with the possibility of overshoot. Integrated assessment models (IAMs) have quantified…
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Solar radiation management in cooperative and non-cooperative settings

November 7, 2018

It’s considered as a new strategy to complement traditional climate policies, but without sufficiently strong institutions, there is a risk that some countries will unilaterally deploy climate engineering to the detriment of other nations. It will be essential that this option is discussed and negotiated within the few existing supra-national institutions and possibly jointly with…
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Scenarios compatible with 1.5 °C

October 16, 2018

New article “Scenarios towards limiting global mean temperature increase below 1.5 °C” published in NCC. The 2015 Paris Agreement calls for countries to pursue efforts to limit global-mean temperature rise to 1.5 °C. The transition pathways that can meet such a target have not, however, been extensively explored. Here we describe scenarios that limit end-of-century radiative…
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