Lempert, R. J. (2015). “Climate targets: Values and uncertainty.” Nature Clim. Change 5(10): 914-915.
http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v5/n10/full/nclimate2745.html
Climate change presents a risk management challenge. But covering oneself against this risk is significantly more complex than buying insurance for your car or house. In those cases, accurate actuarial tables exist that define the risk, and one can compare the known costs of premiums with known replacement costs. In contrast, managing climate risks involves judging poorly understood outcomes and likelihoods while engaging people with many different views regarding, for instance, how much to value the present versus the future. Writing in Nature Climate Change, Laurent Drouet and colleagues offer an intriguing new take on this challenge, which combines several interesting innovations.