Reading: Overview of the “Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change”

A reading from the ‘Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change’ by economist Nicholas Stern for the Government of the United Kingdom which contains a compilation of the scientific evidence of human caused climate change, its analysis through economic theory, and possible climate policies. This comprehensive documents is divided into six main sections as mentioned below:

1. Part I: Climate change: our approach
   1. The science of climate change
   2. Economics, ethics and climate change
   3. Technical annex: ethical frameworks and intertemporal equity
2. Part II: The Impacts of climate change on growth and development
   1. How climate change will affect people around the world
   2. Implications of climate change for development 
   3. Costs of climate change in developed countries 
   4. Economic modelling of climate change impacts
3. Part III: The economics of stabilisation
   1. Projecting the growth of greenhouse gas emissions 
   2. Annex: Climate change and the environmental Kuznets curve 
   3. The challenge of stabilisation 
   4. Identifying the costs of mitigation 
   5. Macroeconomic models of costs 
   6. Structural change and competitiveness 
   7. Annex: Key statistics for 123 UK production sectors 
   8. Opportunities and wider benefits from climate policies 
   9. Towards a goal for climate change policy
4. Part IV: Policy responses for mitigation
   1. Harnessing markets to reduce emissions 
   2. Carbon pricing and emission markets in practice 
   3. Accelerating technological innovation 
   4. Beyond carbon markets and technology 
5. Part V: Policy responses for adaptation
   1. Understanding the economics of adaptation 
   2. Adaptation in the developed world 
   3. The role of adaptation in sustainable development
6. Part VI: International collective action
   1. Framework for understanding international collective action for climate change 
   2. Creating a global price for carbon 
   3. Supporting the transition to a low carbon global economy 
   4. Promoting effective international technology co-operation 
   5. Reversing emissions from land use change 
   6. International support for adaptation 
   7. Conclusions 

Use this tool to help your students find answers to:

1. State how the current rate of climate change is linked to anthropogenic activities.
2. How does climate change impact developed and developing countries differently?
3. What is carbon pricing? How effective is it in tackling the issue of climate change and economic development?
4. What are some effective policy frameworks for sustainable development?

About the Tool

Tool Name	Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change
Discipline	Economics
Topic(s) in Discipline	Climate Change Economics, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, International Economics, Economic Policy, Competitive Market Policies, Economics of Energy, Carbon Pricing
Climate Topic	Energy, Economics and Climate Change
Type of tool	Reading
Grade Level	Highschool, Undergraduate
Location	Global
Language	English
Translation
Developed by	Nicholas Stern
Hosted at	Grupo de Pesquisa em Mudancas Climaticas (GPMC), Brazil
Link	Link
Access	Online/Offline
Computer Skills	Basic