Optimal abatement policies and related behavioral aspects of climate change

Climate change is one of the most urgent problems facing the earth. Its facets are multiple: environmental, economic, and social, and its consequences could become dire if drastic and concerted action is not taken immediately. This paper uses existing economic and physical models to devise CO2 emission trajectories for the whole world that optimize a neo-classical welfare function as well as an alternative function inspired by research on subjective well-being, while keeping temperature rise at 2 °C above preindustrial levels. These trajectories are then linked with certain behavioral traits that are strongly connected with the attitudes that would realize such policies. It is demonstrated that the 2 °C target is still feasible but the corresponding behavioral changes are quite demanding. Difficult as the problem might be, it is encouraging that humanity can still resolve it if no time is wasted and political action is taken immediately.