Government Economic Service Working Paper 140

Estimating the Social Cost of Carbon Emissions

by Richard Clarkson and Kathryn Deyes

"Estimating the Social Cost of Carbon Emissions" is a review of the literature on the social cost of carbon, compiled within DEFRA, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. 

The main paper focuses on the significant uncertainties surrounding the issue of climate change, both of a scientific and economic nature. These relate to the identification of the physical impacts caused by greenhouse gas emissions, determination of the magnitude of those impacts and their subsequent valuation. The range of values proposed to date in the literature for the damage costs of carbon emissions are presented along with an analysis of their robustness. Areas where future work would prove fruitful have also been identified.

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