Tropical cyclones that make landfall on the coast of the USA are causing increasing economic losses. It is assumed that the losses are largely due to socio-economic developments, i.e. growing wealth and greater settlement of exposed areas. However, it is also thought that the rise in losses is caused by increasing frequency of severe cyclones resulting from climate change. The object of this paper ...
Global Warming Potential (GWP) is an index used to measure the cumulative radiative forcing of a tonne of greenhouse house gas (GHG) relative to that of a "reference" gas (CO2). Under the Kyoto Protocol, GWP can be used as a fixed index to govern the trade-off between different GHGs in a multi-gas approach to GHGs abatement. The use of fixed GWPs has been criticized for not being very cost effective ...
This study models maximum temperatures in Switzerland monitored in twelve locations using the generalised extreme value (GEV) distribution. The parameters of the GEV distribution are determined within a Bayesian framework. We find that the parameters of the underlying distribution underwent a substantial change in the beginning of the 1980s. This change is characterised by an increase both in the level ...
Sechs Jahre nach der Verabschiedung des Kyoto-Protokolls im Dezember 1997 sind die meisten Länder der internationalen Staatengemeinschaft noch weit von den damals verabredeten Klimaschutzzielen entfernt. Im Jahre 2001 lagen die Treibhausgas-Emissionen in den OECD-Ländern, die im Kyoto-Protokoll bis zur Periode 2008 bis 2012 noch eine Emissionsreduktion zugesagt hatten (so genannte Annex-II-Länder), ...
The present study examines the consequences of the planned coal phase-out in Germany according tovarious phase-out pathways that differ in the ordering of power plant closures. Soft-linking an energysystem model with an input-output model and a regional macroeconomic model simulates the socio-economic effects of the phase-out in the lignite regions, as well as in the rest of Germany. The combi-nation ...
