Not sure if this is the best way, but you could set up some dummy pages (hidden from searching and indexing http://www.concrete5.org/documentation/how-tos/editors/prevent-a-ne... ) then place a redirect on those pages.

If you search the marketplace there are many redirect addons and methods, or you could code it up as script in an html block.

This one looks promising for non-permanent redirecting:
http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/addons/redirect1/...

(I have never used it)

PS. Not sure if this has even understood your question correctly :)

Perhaps I didn't phrase the question good enough. Let's see.

The site in question uses this page list as some sort of really short news field visible on all pages. To create a new piece of news you create a new page and type the content of the news item as a description.

Not the most elegant solution, I know, but it's what it is and I'd like to keep it that way. However I'd like to be able to add clickable URLs to these page descriptions.

Just to clarify: The page list displays the title and description of each page but no content. I want URLs in the description to be clickable.

OK, my answer above is completely irrelevant.

The page list should link to the pages concerned anyway (a link from the heading). I expect you already have that.

For a full html rendering (including links) of the description, one of the alternative views for the page list may do it. Maybe
http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/addons/page-list-teasers/...
(its free to try)

If none of these do, then you would need to create your own custom template.