Costs and Benefits of Energy Sources

Energy sources have advantages and disadvantages along several different dimensions.

Direct Benefits

These are the advantages of a climate change mitigation strategy or energy source that are immediate consequences of the strategy.

A switch from natural gas heating to direct solar heating would have the direct benefit of reducing CO2 emissions.

Indirect Benefits and Co-Benefits

Added benefits of climate change mitigation strategies beyond the direct benefits of climate stability.

These can be useful to communicate to stakeholders that don’t have a strong interest in the direct climate benefits of a policy or technology.

Categories of Co-Benefits

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