Speaker: Professor Robert
 S.
 Pindyck

Chair: Dr Kai Spiekermann

How great is the risk of a climate catastrophe, and what should we do about it? The likelihood and possible impact of a catastrophic climate outcome is what drives the social cost of carbon (SCC), and thus the case for a stringent climate policy. But what is that likelihood, and what kinds of outcomes might occur? Might the impact of a catastrophic climate outcome be limited to a sharp reduction in GDP and consumption (as most climate models assume), or might the impact also include the deaths of large numbers of people? The answers to these questions are necessarily speculative, but we must address them. To complicate matters, there are other potential catastrophes that we must also worry about, such as nuclear or bioterrorism, or the spread of a “mega-virus.” I discuss the policy implications of these threats, and consider how we might respond to the risk of climate – and other – catastrophes.

Professor Robert
 S.
 Pindyck
 is
 the
 Bank
 of 
Tokyo‐Mitsubishi
 Professor
 of 
Economics
 and
 Finance
 in
 the
 Sloan
 School 
of 
Management 
at 
MIT.
 
He 
is 
also 
a 
Research
 Associate
 of 
the 
National 
Bureau
 of 
Economic
 Research
 and
 a
 Fellow
 of
 the
 Econometric
 Society,
 and
 he
 has
 been
 a
 Visiting 
Professor
 at
 Tel‐Aviv
 University,
 Harvard
 University,
 and
 Columbia
 University.

Dr Kai Spiekermann is Associate Professor of Political Philosophy and the Doctoral Programme Director in the Department of Government at the London School of Economics.

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