Abstract

The cost-benefit analysis is a process that allows the establishment of the relationship between the costs of an activity and the benefits it generates, that is, it allows us to determine whether it is economically efficient. However, its instrumental scope is inadequate when referring to the social effectiveness related to achieving a particular objective, which can be abstracted through the limitations that this type of analysis denotes to represent all the —potential— avoided damages, for example, by mitigating the negative effects of climate change. This aspect transcends if we consider that a more effective climate change mitigation measure in turn impacts economic costs, and thus affects social efficiency in the long run. In this order of ideas and from a legal-economic approach, in the light of Colombian and Chilean regulations, this contribution aims to reflect on the need to integrate a cost-benefit analysis and a cost-effectiveness analysis in the legal and multidisciplinary study of the fight against climate change, based on their incorporation into the legal framework that establishes the guidelines for the management of Climate Change in Colombia (Law 1931 of 2018, and Law 2169 of 2021) and the Framework Law on Climate Change in Chile (Law 21455 of 2022)