Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-shared-by-parts-a-and-b-of-the-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2019/s25/3/b/solution

An additional tonne changes eventual temperature by approximately . Linearizing the damage function gives . Put , , and hold approximately fixed across the effective discount horizon. The discounted integral is
so
If , this infinite-horizon approximation diverges; a finite result then needs different growth, damages or discounting assumptions. It also treats the marginal warming from the extra tonne as effectively persistent over the relevant horizon.

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