Abstract
Over the last few years political declarations by the European Union (EC (European Community), Climate change – Council conclusions 8518/96 (Presse 188-G) 25/26. VI.96, 1996), the G8 (Major Economics Forum, Declaration of the leaders of the major economies forum on energy and climate, MEF, 2009. http://www.g8italia2009.it/static/G8_Allegato/MEF_Declarationl.pdf) and in the Copenhagen Accord (UNFCCC, Draft decision -/CP.15: Proposal by the President. Conference of the Parties, Fifteenth session, Copenhagen, 2010. Retrieved July 6, 2010, from http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2009/cop15/eng/l07.pdf) have referred to the 2°C target as a potential goal for climate protection. Such an objective is undoubtedly highly ambitious but has not been made a binding target under international law. The Copenhagen Accord also failed to address the willingness of nations to take the necessary measures to attain this target. If the 2°C target is to be pursued by policy-makers, a robust assessment by the scientific community of the side risks and benefits of achieving this mitigation target will be required. This includes the careful evaluation of different technology options and the associated costs of mitigation.
In this chapter we describe the historical challenge of mitigating climate change and present mitigation strategies assessed with intertemporal general equilibrium models. We complement the analysis with a detailed risk assessment of the technology portfolio.
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Knopf, B., Kowarsch, M., Edenhofer, O., Luderer, G. (2012). Climate Change Mitigation: Options, Costs and Risks. In: Edenhofer, O., Wallacher, J., Lotze-Campen, H., Reder, M., Knopf, B., Müller, J. (eds) Climate Change, Justice and Sustainability. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4540-7_13
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