What is it about?
In the ongoing debate on whether action is urgently needed to fight climatic change an important role is claimed by developers of models designed to estimate the cost of action of inaction. We argue that these models are an expensive distraction and can in no way inform the debate given that uncertainty these models need to tackle.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
It is important that mathematical modelling is used responsibly and not as a rhetorical device.
Perspectives
We argue in this short letter that politics more than science drive the use of these specif models for the 'cost of climate'. Advocating the use of better, more advanced models in this field is meaningful in the context of a theoretical pursuit, but not as tools to inform policy.
Professor Andrea Saltelli
University Pompeo Fabra, Barcelona School of Management
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Climate costing is politics not science, Nature, April 2016, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1038/532177a.
You can read the full text:
Resources
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page