Influence of Economic Constraints on the Shape of Emission Corridors

Abstract

This contribution presents an analysis within the framework of the tolerable windows approach (TWA) applied to climate change decision support. The TWA starts with an explicit normative specification of guard-rails, which exclude intolerable climate impacts as well as unacceptable socioeconomic consequences of mitigation measures. In a subsequent step, a scientific analysis of the relevant elements of the Earth System is carried out to obtain all climate protection strategies that are compatible with the predefined constraints. In the first part of the paper we demonstrate a new method of implementing the underlying inverse approach in order to determine the set of all admissible emission paths. This method is based on a control theoretic analysis of the TWA problem. The second part is subject to the application of this method and the discussion of results. Thereafter, we focus on the question of how the shape of emission corridors is influenced by economic constraints.