Cost-benefit assessment

This paper adds to the IAM and climate change literature by explicitly including adaptation in an IAM, thereby making the trade-offs between adaptation and mitigation visible. Specifically, a theoretical framework is created and used to implement adaptation as a decision variable into the DICE model.

With this climate adaptation plan we will outline the challenges the city faces in the short and medium terms as a result of changes we expect in the future climate. We will also identify those solutions that, based on our present-day knowledge, appear to be most appropriate and reveal the opportunities climate change may also present to the city.

In this appendix, we use a national cross-sectional analysis and detailed data from California to examine the sensitivity of energy expenditures to climate change in the state. The analysis begins with a logit regression that explains the probability that a building will be cooled. Long- and short-run cross-sectional approaches are then explored to estimate the sensitivity of energy expenditures and buildings to changes in climate.

This paper considers the physical and fi nancial implications for urban areas of the potential impacts of climate variability and change on water resources, illustrated by examples from sub-Saharan Africa, which is likely to be one of the most vulnerable and most affected regions. Water management, which will be particularly affected by climate change, could provide an opportunity to initiate structured adaptation responses.

This report is a contribution to the UN’s International Year of Biodiversity and is a complement to the UNEP-hosted Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) which is bringing visibility to the wealth of the world’s natural capital. It documents over 30 successful case studies referencing thousands of restoration projects ranging from deserts and rainforests to rivers and coasts. The report confirms that restoration is not only possible but can prove highly profitable in terms of public savings; returns and the broad objectives of overcoming poverty and achieving sustainability.

understood in practise, including the likely impacts of such a rise. This paper explores for the first time the global impacts of extreme sea-level rise, triggered by a hypothetical collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). As the potential contributions remain uncertain, a wide range of scenarios are explored: WAIS contributions to sea-level rise of between 0.5m/century up to 5m/century.

Climate change is expected to have an impact on the electricity sector, leading to a need to invest in adaptation measures for electricity facilities in the near future. This study aims at specifying and quantifying these needs.

Focusing on weather-related extreme events, we conduct a global assessment of the public finance costs for financially managing extreme event risks. In doing so, we assess countries’ fiscal disaster vulnerability, which we operationalize as the public sector’s ability to pay for relief to the affected population and support the reconstruction of lost assets and infrastructure. Methods employed include minimum-distance techniques to estimate the tail behaviour of country disaster risks as well as the inclusion of non-linear loss and financing resources relationships.

The two great threats to coastal zones are sea-level rise and larger and more-frequent storm surges, which can destroy property, erode coastal land, salinate aquifers, and permanently flood low-lying areas. A seminal 1998 study of the risk posed by sea-level rise found that one-third of all Canadian coastline has a moderate or high level of sensitivity, yet very little research exists quantifying the likely economic impacts.

The assessment of investment and financial flows (I&FF) is a component of the UNDP global project Capacity Development for Policy Makers to Address Climate Change. Namibia is one of the 20 countries participating in the project worldwide. The project is funded by the governments of Norway, Switzerland, Spain, Finland, UNDP and the United Nations Foundation.