CRED: A New Model of Climate and Development

The paper introduces the Climate and Regional Economics of Development (CRED) model, which analyzes the economics of climate and development choices with a focus on global equity, resource flows, and mitigation costs.

• The Climate and Regional Economics of Development (CRED) model is designed to analyze the economics of climate and development choices, featuring innovations in the treatment of global equity, the calculation of optimum interregional resource flows, and the use of McKinsey marginal abatement cost curves for projecting mitigation costs.
• Unconstrained optimal climate policy within the CRED model requires very large capital flows from high-income countries to developing countries, a level that may be politically unrealistic. When more realistic constraints are applied, climate outcomes typically worsen, meaning stabilization then depends on either a very low discount rate or moderate capital flows to developing countries.
• The CRED model indicates that scenarios with greater equity result in better climate outcomes, suggesting that the primary challenge for climate policy is convincing high-income countries to accept the necessity of both climate protection and international equity.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2011). CRED: A New Model of Climate and Development. https://www.sei.org/publications/cred-a-new-model-of-climate-and-development/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. CRED: A New Model of Climate and Development. 2011. https://www.sei.org/publications/cred-a-new-model-of-climate-and-development/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=CRED: A New Model of Climate and Development |date=27 May 2011 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/cred-a-new-model-of-climate-and-development/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2011cred, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{CRED: A New Model of Climate and Development}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2011}, month = may, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/cred-a-new-model-of-climate-and-development/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }