Benefits of climate policy

Climate policy decisions are particularly difficult to make because the accuracy of climate projections is difficult to evaluate. Even if the changes themselves were predictable, the consequences of those changes are not. Thus, the relative benefits and dangers of a particular course of action are difficult to determine.

Background

In the 1980s, such books as W. J. Maunder’s The Uncertainty Business: Risks and Opportunities in Weather and Climate (1986) emphasized the risks and opportunities presented by Earth’s natural climate, subject to contingent human influences. Since then, mainly as a result of the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), emphasis has moved markedly to considerations of the human impact on the climate system. However, irrespective of this change in emphasis, weather and climate have always given rise to risks and opportunities, and communities and individuals who can adapt to these challenges will always be in a position to lessen the costs of climate variations and climate change. They will also be in a better position to increase the benefits and profits arising from climate variations and climate change.

In Maunder’s follow-up project, The Human Impact of Climate Uncertainty: Weather Information, Economic Planning and Business Management (1989), most of the emphasis was on variations in the natural climate. While these remain important, during the following thirty years, a greater emphasis was placed on anthropogenic effects on the climate system. Nevertheless, good economic planning should take into account the best possible advice from climate experts on likely climatic changes during the relevant planning horizons, regardless of the causes of those changes.

The Reliability of Climate Forecasts

To understand how a society might best respond to a change in its regional—as well as the global—climate, it is highly desirable to know how societies have been affected by, and how they have coped with, past climatic events, such as droughts, warm periods, cold periods, and wet periods. The climate of the future might not be exactly parallel to the climate of the past, particularly with anthropogenic factors becoming significantly more influential. Barring unforeseeable shocks to social and economic systems, however, socioeconomic institutions are likely to act in ways similar to their actions in the past. With better climate forecasts, societies can act in a much more informed manner to eradicate their weaknesses and capitalize on their strengths. Socioeconomic organizations would then be better prepared for future climate change, even if the nature of that change remains uncertain.

The Formulation of Climate Policy

If organizations and individuals are going to take a positive attitude in dealing with climate change, again considering climate change from all causes, it is important that they understand the uncertainties of any climate forecast. The forecasts made by the various reports from the IPCC must be taken into account, but these forecasts have been subject to changes since the first IPCC report was published in the early 1990s, and they will continue to be modified as new information comes to light. Furthermore, while the majority of climate scientists generally agree with the forecasts made by IPCC scientists, there is a sizable group of climate scientists who have considerable concerns about the lack of emphasis being placed on the natural causes of climate change.

In particular, some scientists believe that the IPCC minimizes the role of variations in solar output, volcanic eruptions, the oceans, and other factors beyond human control. From a policy point of view, therefore, it is important for decision-makers to take note not only of the average and extreme values forecast by the various IPCC reports but also of the possibility that some of these forecasts may prove to be wrong, particularly as the natural causes of climate change become better understood. Caution, therefore, should be a key concern, and decision-makers concerned with climate change should be aware of the uncertainties involved in understanding and predicting that change.

Context

Society would benefit considerably from correct policy decisions based on accurate climate forecasts. The world of climate forecasting and the world of decision-making, however, are both far from perfect. The state of contemporary climate forecasting, in particular, is difficult to assess because computer models make predictions about events decades in the future. The accuracy of those predictions and their underlying methodology will not be known until decades have passed. Even accurate scientific predictions must be interpreted through the lens of policy and politics, adding a significant further complication.

For example, the 2007 IPCC report stated

continued greenhouse gas emissions at or above current rates would cause further warming, and induce many changes in the global climate system during the twenty-first century that would “very likely” be larger than those observed during the 20th century.

Similarly, the 2007 IPCC report gave a best estimate and a likely range of best estimates for a global average temperature range for the last decade of the twenty-first century compared with the last two decades of the twentieth century.

Depending on the climatic greenhouse gas (GHG) scenario used, the best estimates of temperature increase ranged from 0.6 degrees Celsius to 4.0 degrees Celsius, and the likely range within these scenarios extended from 0.3° degrees Celsius to 6.4°degrees Celsius. Given these ranges, policymakers must determine which is the most appropriate forecast to use and how such a forecast would be used in planning activities in the future. Relevant activities vary widely, from constructing dams to building roads to ski resorts to planting new vineyards to even wholesale relocation of island inhabitants to avoid the consequences of sea-level rise.

The 2007 IPCC report projected many regional impacts of climate change during the next one hundred years. Under a range of climate scenarios, Africa’s arid and semiarid land was projected to increase by 5-8 percent by 2080. In Europe, climate change was expected to magnify the regional differences in the distribution of natural resources and assets. Negative impacts would include the increased risk of inland flash floods, more frequent coastal flooding, and increased erosion due to storminess and sea-level rise. North American cities that experienced heat waves were expected to be further challenged by an increased number, intensity, and duration of heat waves, with the potential for adverse health impacts. Society must continuously adapt to these forecasts and reality.

Well into the twenty-first century, policymakers continued to adapt their plans based on changing climate information. By the 2020s, there was a growing emphasis on how dire the human impact had been and continued to be on the climate. Opportunities and challenges for individuals and communities based on this new majority consensus regarding anthropogenic climate change were forced to adapt, causing challenges for climate policymakers. Though it remained important to consider all means of climate change, both natural and anthropogenic, the IPCC continued to focus on the human impacts on the climate with confidence in their forecasts and predictions. When compared to the 2007 version, the 2022 IPCC report provided an even more dire warning about the necessity of keeping warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperatures. This goal affected climate policymakers because it required the global community to plan to make sweeping changes in climate policy on a scale never before attempted.

Key Concepts

• climate impact: the effects of climate and climate change on the socioeconomic well-being of an area
• climate impact statement: empirical case study designed to help predict future impacts of climate on society
• market benefits: positive effects of a given climate policy on production and trade, including prevention or mitigation of damages
• nonmarket benefits: positive effects of a given climate policy on health, social and psychological welfare, and other attributes that are not primarily economic

Bibliography

“Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability.” IPCC, www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/. Accessed 29 Jan. 2026.

Emanuel, Kerry. “Increasing Destructiveness of Tropical Cyclones over the Past Thirty Years.” Nature, vol. 436, 2005, pp. 686–8.

Lindwell, Courtney. "IPCC Climate Change Reports: Why They Matter to Everyone on the Planet." Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), 14 Apr. 2023, www.nrdc.org/stories/ipcc-climate-change-reports-why-they-matter-everyone-planet. Accessed 29 Jan. 2026.
Maunder, W. J. The Uncertainty Business: Risks and Opportunities in Weather and Climate. Methuen, 1986.

Roca-Barcelo, Aina, et al. "Climate Action Has Valuable Benefits." Environmental Epidemiology, vol. 8, no. 1, 2024, doi.org/10.1097/EE9.0000000000000288. Accessed 29 Jan. 2026.

Singer, S. Fred, and Dennis T. Avery. Unstoppable Global Warming: Every Fifteen Hundred Years. Rev. ed. Rowman & Littlefield, 2008.