ENERGY BALANCE CLIMATE MODELS, DAMAGE RESERVOIRS, AND THE TIME PROFILE OF CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY

In particular, we differentiate between two types of damages from climate change, traditional gradually increasing damages and a damage reservoir type, where the latter represents a finite source of economic damage associated with the movement of the ice line. Damage reservoirs in the context of climate change can be regarded as sources of damage that eventually will cease to exist when the source of the damage has been depleted.We identify ice caps and permafrost as typical damage reservoirs, where the state of the reservoir is connected to the latitudinal position of the ice line.