Why is timing such a critical dimension?
• Slow natural decay rates of greenhouse gases (up to centuries) • Long-lived capital stock (decades to 100 yrs) • Gradual technological change • People are not indifferent between incurring costs today or 10 or 30 years from now • This imbalance between upfront costs and future benefits is likely to involve intergenerational tradeoffs.
Greenhouse gases, once emitted, stay in the atmosphere for centuries. Any emissions made today, tomorrow, and over the next several years commit the planet to warming over the lifetime of those gases. This means that the infrastructure choices we make today will have environmental (and economic) consequences over the decades-long lifetime of the equipment and over the centuries-long lifetime of the gases they emit.
