Review of Climate Change Benefit-Cost Analysis Models and Applications

A paper by John P. Weyant of Stanford University reviews applications of benefit-cost analysis in climate policy assessment at U.S. national and global scales. It describes three main quantitative models used for calculating optimal global carbon policies and the social cost of carbon, summarizing a broad range of results. The paper concludes by discussing five key challenges facing practitioners in this field.

Use Cases

• Compare methodologies for calculating the social cost of carbon based on the described modeling approaches.
• Study the impact of different input assumptions on optimal carbon price trajectories as discussed in the review.
• Analyze challenges in climate policy modeling, such as incorporating catastrophic outcomes or equity considerations, as outlined in the paper.

Strengths

• Authored by a researcher from Stanford University, suggesting academic rigor.
• Explicitly reviews two major application types: global optimal policy and U.S. regulatory social cost of carbon calculations.
• Identifies and discusses five specific key challenges for practitioners in the field.

Limitations

• The underlying dataset or model outputs are not provided; this is a review paper.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred from the text.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

John P. Weyant, Stanford University

Collection Method

Literature review and synthesis of existing modeling studies.

Geography

United States and global scales