The workshop was organized by the NBER-Yale Center on International Environmental Issues and funded by the National Science Foundation. For this meeting, recognized scholars who were not centrally involved in the IPCC chapters were asked to analyze the economic and policy issues involved in the assessment report. While the contributors are predominantly economists and other scientists, the viewpoints reflect a wide range of backgrounds. Nordhaus's introduction establishes the context for the book. He provides basic scientific background on climate change, reviews the IPCC's activities, and explains the genesis of the analyses.
Subsequent contributions fall into two categories.
Early chapters review analytical issues critical to social and economic understanding of climate change. A second set of chapters address specific economic questions surrounding climate-change policy. A number of themes are addressed in the book. William D. Nordhaus is A. Whitney Griswold Professor of Economics at Yale University and the author of several books, including Managing the Global Commons. He is also coauthor with Paul Samuelson of Economics, now in its 16th edition.