Table of Contents

Published on Pew Center on Global Climate Change (http://pewclimate.org)

Table of Contents

Discounting the Benefits of Climate Change Mitigation

Foreword ii

Executive Summary iii

I. Introduction 1

II. A Plethora of Discount Rates     6
          A. Market Rates     6
          B. Intergenerational Rates     9
          C. Choosing a Rate     11
          D. Changes in Interest Rates over Time     13

III. The Effect of Discount Rate Uncertainty on Future Valuations   15
          A. Modeling the Long-term Behavior of Interest Rates     16
          B. Random Walks     18

IV. Valuing Future Climate Change Consequences     20
         A. Expected Discount Factors     20
         B. Valuing Future Climate Policy     22

V. Conclusions 25

Endnotes 27

References 30

Appendices
         A. Estimation     32
         B. Simulations     36

Source URL: http://pewclimate.org/global-warming-in-depth/all_reports/discounting_the_benefits/econ_discounting_con.cfm