The social cost of carbon: valuing inequality, risk, and population for climate policy

Fleurbaey, Marc; Ferranna, Maddalena; Budolfson, Mark; Dennig, Francis; Mintz-Woo, Kian; Socolow, Robert; Spears, Dean; Zuber, Stéphane

The social cost of carbon: valuing inequality, risk, and population for climate policy

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Published version

Date

2018-12-20

Authors

Fleurbaey, Marc

Ferranna, Maddalena

Budolfson, Mark

Dennig, Francis

Mintz-Woo, Kian

Socolow, Robert

Spears, Dean

Zuber, Stéphane

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Version

10.1093/monist/ony023

Abstract

We analyze the role of ethical values in the determination of the social cost of carbon, arguing that the familiar debate about discounting is too narrow. Other ethical issues are equally important to computing the social cost of carbon, and we highlight inequality, risk, and population ethics. Although the usual approach, in the economics of cost-benefit analysis for climate policy, is confined to a utilitarian axiology, the methodology of the social cost of carbon is rather flexible and can be expanded to a broader set of social-welfare approaches.

Keywords

Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) , Carbon , Climate change , Climate policy , Social cost

Citation

Fleurbaey, M., Ferranna, M., Budolfson, M., Dennig, F., Mintz-Woo, K., Socolow, R., Spears, D. and Zuber, S. (2018) 'The Social Cost of Carbon: Valuing Inequality, Risk, and Population for Climate Policy', The Monist, 102(1), pp. 84-109. doi: 10.1093/monist/ony023