Analysis and Use of Information and Communication Tools in the Economics of Climate Change

The research identifies five key areas for ICT application in climate change: observation and monitoring, modeling and simulation, socio-economic analysis, policy analysis and planning, and capacity building. Based on a survey of 18 environmental economists from European countries, the study finds that internet-based services and statistical software are the most widely used and highly valued tools across most research areas. While scientific relevance—specifically increasing exchange in the scientific community—is ranked as the highest priority for ICT, political relevance (interfacing with policy-makers) is ranked higher than economic relevance (reducing research costs). The paper highlights significant barriers to the use of specialized tools, including high costs, data shortages, and complex coding, and calls for increased data accessibility and international collaboration to support developing countries.

• The study identifies five primary research areas where ICT can be applied: observation and monitoring, modeling and simulation, socio-economic analysis, policy analysis and planning, and capacity building.
• Internet and web-based services are the most ubiquitous ICT tools, utilized by all surveyed experts across all research areas, and are perceived as having the highest usefulness, particularly in socio-economic and policy analysis.
• Experts rank the scientific relevance of ICT as the most important, specifically regarding its ability to facilitate exchange within the scientific community and make sophisticated analysis more accessible via user-friendly tools.
• Political relevance of ICT is viewed as more important than economic relevance, with the highest value placed on using these tools to interface with policy-makers and raise public awareness.
• Specialized modeling tools face several critical limitations, including data shortages, intellectual property rights issues, and complex code that hinders the development of new versions.
• The research identifies a specific need for international collaboration and support to improve the accessibility of online computing services and ICT tools for developing countries.

APA

Chiabai, A. (2009). Analysis and Use of Information and Communication Tools in the Economics of Climate Change. Basque Centre for Climate Change. https://www.bc3research.org/h6T8Uy8Nm4gFs0O/20091020020336284721362.pdf

Chicago

Chiabai, Aline. Analysis and Use of Information and Communication Tools in the Economics of Climate Change. Basque Centre for Climate Change, 2009. https://www.bc3research.org/h6T8Uy8Nm4gFs0O/20091020020336284721362.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Chiabai |first1=Aline |title=Analysis and Use of Information and Communication Tools in the Economics of Climate Change |publisher=Basque Centre for Climate Change |date=September 2009 |url=https://www.bc3research.org/h6T8Uy8Nm4gFs0O/20091020020336284721362.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{chiabai2009analysis, author = {Chiabai, Aline}, title = {{Analysis and Use of Information and Communication Tools in the Economics of Climate Change}}, institution = {Basque Centre for Climate Change}, year = {2009}, month = sep, url = {https://www.bc3research.org/h6T8Uy8Nm4gFs0O/20091020020336284721362.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }