CO2 EMISSIONS LIMITS - ECONOMIC ADJUSTMENTS AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF BURDENS

Policies under consideration within the Climate Convention would impos e CO2 controls on only a subset of nations. A model of economic growth and emissions, coupled to an analysis of the climate system, is used to explore the consequences of a sample proposal of this type. The res ults show how economic burdens are likely to be distributed among nati ons, how carbon ''leakage'' may counteract the reductions attained, an d how policy costs may be influenced by emissions trading. We explore the sensitivity of results to uncertainty in key underlying assumption s, including the influence on economic impacts and on the policy contr ibution to long-term climate goals.