1. What are: the IPCC, AR6, AR5, and the SPM?  Go beyond just spelling out the acronym—explain each of these in a sentence or two.
2. What is the central estimate of the increase total human-caused global surface temperature to date, i.e., from the pre-industrial era (1850-1900) to the most recent decade (2010-2019)?  In addition, what is the “likely range” of this estimate and what exactly does “likely” mean here? (Hint: see footnote 4).
3. What does Figure SPM.1 show about the capacity of models with natural forces only (excluding human factors) to explain observed warming (global surface temperature) as observed over the last 50 years?
4. What are the relative contributions to warming of the two groups of human influence: GHGs versus other human drivers? What role in warming has been played by natural factors like solar, volcanic and other internal variability?
5. Find the region for Davis in Figure SPM.3 and summarize the type of observed change in each of the three weather/climate extremes.

1. The future path of anthropogenic drivers of climate change (mainly net emissions of GHGs) is quite uncertain.  How does the report deal with this?  (Hint: they use SSPs.)  What are SSPs and what range is considered here?
2. What is shape of the curve depicting how increasing levels of cumulative CO2 emissions map into an increase in global surface temperature (relative to 1850-1900)?
3. With respect to hot temperature extremes over land, an extreme event that might happen once in 50 years in 1850-1900 is how many times more likely to occur under future global warming level of 2 degrees Celsius?

1. One example discussed was Sun et al.--did those authors find that human induced climate change caused the summer of 2013 heat wave (the hottest on record) in eastern China?
2. Does current extreme event attribution analysis find similar evidence for the finger print of human induced climate change for all types of extreme events.  Why?/Why not?

Garfield, Bob. 2017. How To Answer "Is This Caused By Climate Change?", On The Media, Podcast audio, March 10, 2017, http://www.wnyc.org/story/caused_by_climate_change.

Other relevant papers:

Popovich, Nadja. 2017. "From Heat Waves to Hurricanes: What We Know About Extreme Weather and Climate Change". New York Times, September 15, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/15/climate/does-climate-change-cause-hurricanes-drought.html.

Diffenbaugh, Noah S. 2017. "How We Know It Was Climate Change." New York Times, December 29, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/29/opinion/sunday/climate-change-global-warming.html

1. What is the social cost of carbon (SCC) meant to reflect/include?
2. How is it meant to be used in policy analysis--what is the objective behind generating this estimate?
3. Who is generating and then publishing an estimate of the SCC? 
   
4. This discussion has been cut from the Nov. 2021 update to this paper: C&G specify a two-step process to “return the United States government’s Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) to the frontier of economics and climate science.”  What are these two steps?  For step I, what two key changes (relative to the Trump administration estimates) and what is the resulting SCC for 2020? 
5. What are the “seven key ingredients” required to build the SCC?
6. What is the argument for not just including domestic (US) but also global damages from US emissions in the SCC?
7. Climate damages are not expected to equally impact everyone.  Who is expected be disproportionally affected?
8. What is the "equilibrium climate sensitivity" parameter?
9. What does “declining marginal value of consumption” mean and what are the implications for the SCC?
10. Why does the SCC grow over time (e.g. for a unit generated in 2020 versus 2100)?

1. What's the difference between "intergenerational" and "intragenerational" discounting?
2. What's the difference between a "prescriptive" and "descriptive" approach to choosing the discount rate?

1. How do you calculate the discount weight and how does it change as the discount rate changes? 
2. What's the difference between a "future value" and a "present value"?

D.
Stavins, R. (2016). State's Low Carbon Fuel Standard doesn't cut net emissions. Capitol Weekly, January 27.  Available online: http://capitolweekly.net/low-carbon-fuel-standard-emissions-cut8909-2/.

1. Given that the estimates in Table 1 for GHGs are statistically significant, what does it mean (how do we interpret) the result that estimates signs are κp1 > 0, κp2< 0; and κp1 + κp2< 0?   (And similarly for CAPs, though note that most but not all estimates for CAPs are statistically significant.)
2. Was there an EJ gap in exposure to CAPs in 2008, specifically for facilities that would eventually be regulated by the C&T program?
3. Given that the estimates in Table 2 for CAPs are statistically significant (mostly), what does it mean (how do we interpret) the result that estimates signs are βp1 > 0, βp2< 0; and βp1 + βp2< 0?  
   
4. Were the average outcome estimates (from Tables 1 & 2) the experience of all zip codes in CA or did some experience a different direction in the size of EJ gaps (and if so which ones)? 
   
5. Do the authors think market-based policies should be used to address EJ concerns?  Why/why not?

1. Make sure you know the full name for and definition of the key jargon involved here: ACC I, ACC II, light duty vehicle, EV, BEV, PHEV, ZEV, DCFC, and L2 charger.
2. The marquee component of the ACC II regulation is the ZEV sales requirement—what is this (qualitatively and numerically)?  How big of a jump in 2026 is this for CA (i.e. what’s the increase relative to the current level)?
3. Besides the sales requirement, there are also additional performance standards—what are these and why are they included?
4. This is a California regulation but is expected to impact many other U.S. states.  What is the federal legal arrangement/ framework that facilitates this?  What are the benefits of this?  What is the potential risk?
5. In Figure 1, why does the authors’ “likely compliance scenario” of what they predict will occur (in terms of ZEV sales as a percentage of all sales in CA) differ from the sales requirement in the policy (ZEV baseline)?
6. What do the authors estimate will be the cost of installing the battery chargers needed to meet this mandate, specifically for California over the time horizon of ACC II and also in terms of the average for each ZEV?

1. With respect to U.S. economy-wide GHG emissions, what is the moderate estimate of the additional (due to IRA) decrease in emissions by 2030?  You might express this in percentage terms using 2005 emissions as a reference point.
2. With respect to U.S. economy-wide GHG emissions reductions from 2005 levels by 2030, how close numerically is the “moderate” estimate to the U.S. nationally determined commitment (NDC) under the (internationally negotiated) Paris Agreement?
3. Political attacks of proposed environmental protection laws commonly assert that such laws kill jobs and hurt the economy.  What are the estimated outcomes for jobs and the economy?
4. While “the IRA is the most significant federal climate and clean energy legislation in U.S. history, and its provisions could cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 37 to 43 percent below 2005 levels” by 2030, it also includes fossil fuel extraction leasing provisions expected to increase GHG emissions.  How does the expected increases in GHGs compare with the expected GHG reductions from the IRA under the moderate scenario for bother measures?
5. While the “IRA’s $369 billion in funding for emissions-reducing climate and clean energy provisions run the gamut from clean energy and electric vehicle (EV) tax credits to large-scale investments in domestic clean technology manufacturing” (p. 1) the vast majority of the emissions reductions are expected to come from one sector.  What sector is this and why is this the case?
6. The core objective of the IRA is environmental (reduce GHGs and accompanying criteria air pollutants to reduce global climate change damages and domestic air pollution human health impacts).  What other, non-environmental objectives does the IRA pursue?

1. What are the key points in international climate change negotiations, i.e., what happened in what year at Rio de Janeiro, Kyoto, and Paris?
2. What were the key flaws of the Kyoto Protocol (KP)?
3. How is the Paris agreement different from the KP?  What are NDCs?  [See also Calliari, D'Aprile and Davide (2016) below.]
   
4. Is it difficult to leave/rejoin the Paris agreement?
5. If the prospects for “meaningful and ambitious climate legislation will be difficult, if not impossible” at the federal level in the U.S., what are the other policy avenues for making progress on climate?

1. There is one mitigation objective of the Paris Agreement stated in explicit numeric terms--what is it? 
2. What is an "NDC"?
3. With respect to adaptation, are countries required to take any specific measures by a specific deadline?
4. What compromise was reached between developing and developed countries with respect to developed country liability for loss and damage from climate change?
5. What is the Global Stocktake and how is it linked with submission of new NDCs?
6. Are the emissions targets and/or financing commitments legally binding?

1. The authors cite the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.: "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice" (p. 109).  How does this apply to the context of international climate policy?
2. Prior to the PA, what was the “preexisting paradigm” for international climate law?  (Note: some of this may come early in the reading while some may come from Section II.)
3. What country characteristics are correlated with low climate vulnerability?
4. “[W]hat does “common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities” (CBDRRC) mean” in the context of international climate agreements?
5. How do the following terms overlap and differ--justice, equity, and fairness? Which of these have/have not been referred to frequently in international climate agreement texts?  Why is/isn’t each respective term used frequently?

1. How does the Stern Review express estimates for the costs of climate  change  (i.e. what are the units)?
2. What is the Stern Review's range of estimates for the costs of climate change?

1. How did the Congressional Budget Office frame the cost to the U.S. of the proposed Waxman-Markey climate bill?   What was this estimated cost?  How does this compare to costs more broadly to the world economy?
2. What does Krugman argue are the implications of uncertainty (regarding the magnitude of climate change) for the case for action (mitigation)?
3. What is the difference between the so-called "policy-ramp" approach and "big bang" approach? (p. 15).
   

1. What percentage of GHG emissions come from fossil fuels?
2. Without regulatory intervention there are two market forces that could hypothetically lead to a reduction in fossil fuel use and thus GHG emissions... 
   
• A. In this vein, what are the "supply theory" and "demand theory"?
• B. What do the authors see as the prospects for either of these forces to be sufficient to curb GHG emissions in the near to intermediate term?
3. What is the case made (i.e. argument and evidence) for the fossil fuel supply curve either shifting inward (to the left, all else equal reducing use) or outward (to the right, all else equal increasing use)?  And similarly, for the fossil fuel demand curve either shifting inward (to the left, all else equal reducing use) or outward (to the right, all else equal increasing use)?
4. Other than cost, what are three additional key challenges to displacing fossil fuels with solar/wind for electricity generation?
5. If the SCC is accounted for does this significantly change conclusions regarding their Demand Theory?