Context
The Center for the Integrated Study of the Human Dimensions of Global Change is interested in applying multiattribute value elicitation, and, more broadly, value-focused thinking, as ways to gain insight into "what people care about" regarding climate change policy issues. This work plan outlines a modest research project to be carried out by Ralph Keeney and Tim McDaniels, which would employ these approaches in a brief "workshop" comprising a set of meetings to occur in Pittsburgh at a convenient time in the first four months of 1999. The focus would be on value issues for climate change policy choices facing governments in North America over the
next 20 years.

Objectives
The overall objective is to help obtain insight into the value-related aspects of climate change decisions facing governments in North America over the next 20 years. Specifically, the sub-objectives include:

-insight into the value structure and attributes (measures) relevant for climate change policy decisions;

-insight into the value tradeoffs associated with climate change policy decisions;

-insight into opportunities to improve the information base and available alternatives.

Approach
In brief, we would develop a value hierarchy to clarify what people care about, and then elicit some sets of value tradeoffs for climate change policy decisions from experts within the center, to provide an expert characterization of important tradeoffs.

Uses of the Results
We expect that the results will be useful for (i) defining information requirements for evaluation of policy alternatives, (ii) providing the basis for creating more attractive alternatives, (iii) providing a basis for quantitative evaluation of alternatives, and (iv) providing a basis for future dialogue and refinement of values and valuation issues.