Intergenerational Equitable Climate Change Mitigation: Negative Effects of Stochastic Interest Rates; Positive Effects of Financing

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Autori principali: Fries, Christian P., Quante, Lennart
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2023
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author Fries, Christian P.
Quante, Lennart
author_facet Fries, Christian P.
Quante, Lennart
contents Climate mitigation decisions today affect future generations, raising questions of intergenerational equity. Integrated assessment models (IAMs) rely on discounting to evaluate long-term policy costs and benefits. Using the DICE model, we quantify how optimal pathways distribute abatement and damage costs across cohorts. Unconstrained optimization creates intergenerational inequality, with future generations bearing higher costs relative to GDP. Extending the model with stochastic discount rates, we show that discount-rate uncertainty significantly amplifies this inequality. We consider two independent extensions: the financing of abatement costs and the modeling of nonlinear financing costs under large damages. Both extensions can materially improve intergenerational equity by distributing mitigation efforts more evenly. As an illustration, we present a modified DICE model whose optimal pathway limits generational costs to 3 % of GDP, leading to more equitable effort sharing. Our proposed model extensions are model-agnostic, applicable across IAMs, and compatible with alternative intergenerational equity metrics.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2312_07614
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Intergenerational Equitable Climate Change Mitigation: Negative Effects of Stochastic Interest Rates; Positive Effects of Financing
Fries, Christian P.
Quante, Lennart
Mathematical Finance
General Economics
Economics
91-10
I.6.3; J.4
Climate mitigation decisions today affect future generations, raising questions of intergenerational equity. Integrated assessment models (IAMs) rely on discounting to evaluate long-term policy costs and benefits. Using the DICE model, we quantify how optimal pathways distribute abatement and damage costs across cohorts. Unconstrained optimization creates intergenerational inequality, with future generations bearing higher costs relative to GDP. Extending the model with stochastic discount rates, we show that discount-rate uncertainty significantly amplifies this inequality. We consider two independent extensions: the financing of abatement costs and the modeling of nonlinear financing costs under large damages. Both extensions can materially improve intergenerational equity by distributing mitigation efforts more evenly. As an illustration, we present a modified DICE model whose optimal pathway limits generational costs to 3 % of GDP, leading to more equitable effort sharing. Our proposed model extensions are model-agnostic, applicable across IAMs, and compatible with alternative intergenerational equity metrics.
title Intergenerational Equitable Climate Change Mitigation: Negative Effects of Stochastic Interest Rates; Positive Effects of Financing
topic Mathematical Finance
General Economics
Economics
91-10
I.6.3; J.4
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.07614