This paper presents a disaggregation of the damage estimates in FUND, followed by a more detailed examination of agricultural damages in particular.
The FUND model of climate economics, developed by Richard Tol and David Anthoff, is widely used in research and policy-making. It was one of three models used by the U.S. government’s Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Carbon in 2009, which estimated the SCC – the cost of incremental damages from greenhouse gas emissions – at $21 per ton of CO2.
FUND’s own central estimate of the SCC (under the Interagency Working Group assumptions) is $6, the sum of an estimated net benefit in agriculture, a net cost in heating and cooling, and very small net costs in all other areas. The authors identify flaws in FUND’s equations, and find that FUND relies on outdated research that overestimates agricultural benefits from climate change.
Download the working paper (PDF, 688kb)
Note: A peer-reviewed and revised version of this paper has been published in the journal Ecological Economics.
Event on 01 July in Leeds / Join us in Leeds for a day of research and collaboration focused on the impact of indoor environments on child and adolescent health.
Journal article / Deforestation policies in the Brazilian Amazon reduce forest loss but fail to curb degradation, threatening carbon, biodiversity, and ecosystems.
Other publication / How Brazil–China cooperation can reshape agricultural trade, reduce deforestation risks and drive more sustainable global supply chains.
