This book provides a novel and holistic perspective on the deployment of prepaid electricity meter technology among energy impoverished (vulnerable) households based in developing or under-developed communities of Sub-Saharan Africa. It explores and reviews the nexus between the technology and socio-economic development, technology acceptance and rejection in low-income households, and ultimately proposes a contextual model to avert or assuage energy poverty in the region using the technology. Science is applied as a convenient, valid, and reliable model to generate bespoke, contextual, and relevant knowledge for policy makers on the development of prepaid meter market in the region. The knowledge shared contributes to extant discourse and debates around the effectiveness of the technology within indigent household settings. The book is intended for energy/electricity utilities, prepaid electricity businesses, policy developers, and other interested parties whose work is related to prepaid electricity meters.

Rich countries are paying poor countries to fight climate change on their behalf - and one way they are doing it is through carbon sinks. These are reservoirs of organic carbon tied up in plants and in the earth, rather than being in the atmosphere as greenhouse gases. This book looks critically at this mode of climate change mitigation. Can it work? Is it just? Will poorer countries benefit? The book considers the scientific, economic and ethical basis for this type of mitigation. Previous attention has been focused mainly on reducing emissions from deforestation and land degradation (REDD), but this book is one of the first attempts to examine the potential for carbon sinks in agriculture in crop plants and the soil. In assessing this, the author examines exactly how north-south climate mitigation trading works, or does not, and what the pitfalls are. It highlights the complex relationship between agriculture, particularly different forms of farming systems, and the mitigation of climate change. The arguments are backed up by original research with farmers in Brazil to demonstrate the challenges and prospects which these proposals offer in terms of payments for environmental services from agriculture through carbon trading.

Non-market valuation has become a broadly accepted and widely practiced means of measuring the economic values of the environment and natural resources. In this book, the authors provide a guide to the statistical and econometric practices that economists employ in estimating non-market values.The authors develop the econometric models that underlie the basic methods: contingent valuation, travel cost models, random utility models and hedonic models. They analyze the measurement of non-market values as a procedure with two steps: the estimation of parameters of demand and preference functions and the calculation of benefits from the estimated models. Each of the models is carefully developed from the preference function to the behavioral or response function that researchers observe. The models are then illustrated with datasets that characterize the kinds of data researchers typically deal with. The real world data and clarity of writing in this book will appeal to environmental economists, students, researchers and practitioners in multilateral banks and government agencies.

Unlike existing books on the topic that cover more on non-economic aspects of natural disasters, this book covers economic aspects of natural disasters viz damage assessment, risk management and resilience. The book contains several case studies and covers some of the major natural disasters in different countries, most notably the recent Nepal earthquake, tsunami in Fukushima, the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, floods in Thailand, the typhoon Haiyan, and the eruptions of Mount Merapi. It also suggests avenues for better public policies to tackle economics of natural disasters.

Rigorous, yet written in a way that facilitates understanding of complex material, Environmental Economics: An Integrated Approach provides practical and working knowledge of how environmental policy analysis is developed. This is a true textbook, detailing the tools required to conduct that analysis and also discusses weaknesses in the existing methods, underlining areas for future improvement. This approach allows readers to get a sense of what is known and what is not known about environmental economics. The book discusses why we have environmental problems and how we would optimally react if we had perfect information about environmental benefits and costs. It then describes methods in use-and their flaws-to acquire the information necessary to enact environmental policy. The book starts with a categorization of goods types, concluding that environmental problems stem from non-excludable goods that are either rivalrous or non-rivalrous. The author introduces the Coase Theorem in the first chapter, then details how households and firms would behave when facing a zero price on pollution versus a price on pollution set equal to presumed known marginal damages. He connects the economic system with the environmental system by aggregating up from individual decisions to the aggregate market system and the aggregate environmental quality. But, of course, the information available is rarely perfect. Clarifying the information difficulties faced by households, firms, and policy makers, the author recognizes that there is both a knowledge gap and a communication gap. He then covers the methods policy makers employ in an attempt to gain sufficient insight into marginal benefits and marginal costs to properly set a marginal damage tax, properly limit emission rights, or properly provide public goods. The book then examines the nature of these methods and their likely bias, before concluding that surviving the next 50 to 100 years will lead to a w

Traditionally, the ocean economy is viewed solely as a mechanism for economic growth. In this business-as-usual approach, large-scale industrial economies have developed the ocean economy through the exploitation of maritime and marine resources, often without consideration of how those activities impact the future health or productivity of those same resources. This has led to aquatic ecosystems being viewed and treated as limitless resources; the marine environment becoming a dumping ground for waste; overfishing diminishing fishing stocks; ocean habitats being degraded from coastal developments; sea-level rise impacting coastal communities and infrastructure; increasing ocean acidification; and the marginalisation of poor coastal communities. Recognising the failings of the traditional ocean economy, there is a transition underway around the world towards the Blue Economy. This concept moves beyond the business-as-usual approach with economic development and ocean health complementary to one another. In the Blue Economy, the environmental risks of and ecological degradation from economic activity are mitigated or significantly reduced. Therefore, economic activity is in balance with the long-term capacity of the ocean ecosystems to support this activity and remain healthy and resilient. This book will provide an overview of the various technologies used to promote cross-sectoral and multi-scalar collaboration, facilitate the integrated management of sectors and resources, foster partnerships between governments and industry, encourage R&D in new technologies in resource use and management, and scale-up innovative financing mechanisms in the development of a Blue Economy. Also, the book will contain in-depth case studies that illustrate how locations, of differing climates, lifestyles and income levels, have implemented technologies to facilitate the development of the Blue Economy. Developing the Blue Economy will provide an accessible resource for practitioners and researchers working in the field on the various innovative technologies being implemented around the world to create a Blue Economy.

The book evaluates and analyses the level of green development in over 100 major cities in Asia Pacific. A quantitative analysis of the relationship with economic growth, income distribution, innovation capabilities, service sector, governance levels, and city clusters are accumulated and presented in the form of a new index; the Urban Green Development Index (UGDI). Amongst the cities discussed in the case studies are Penang (Malaysia), Singapore, Vladivostok (Russia), Portland (USA), Hamburg (Germany), and Stockholm (Sweden).

Cultures of Sustainability and Wellbeing: Theories, Histories and Policies examines and assesses the interdependence between sustainability and wellbeing by drawing attention to humans as producers and consumers in a post-human age. Why wellbeing ought to be regarded as essential to sustainable development is explored first from multifocal theoretical perspectives encompassing sociology, literary criticism and socioeconomics, second in relation to institutions and policies, and third with a focus on specific case studies across the world. Wellbeing and its sustainability are defined in terms of biological and cultural diversity; stages of advancement in science and technology; notions of citizenship and agency; geopolitical scenarios and environmental conditions. Wellbeing and sustainability call for enquiries into human capacities in ontological, epistemological and practical terms. A view of sustainability that revolves around material and immaterial wellbeing is based on the assumption that life quality, comfort, happiness, security, safety always posit humans as both recipients and agents. Risk and resilience in contemporary societies define the intrinsically human ability to make and consume, to act and adapt, driving the search for and fruition of wellbeing. How to sustain the dual process of exploitation and regeneration is a task that requires integrated approaches from the sciences and the humanities, jointly tracing a worldwide cartography with clear localisations. This book will be of great interest to students and researchers interested in sustainability through conceptual and empirical approaches including social theory, literary and cultural studies, environmental economics and human ecology, urbanism and cultural geography.

We stand on the threshold of a "post-growth" world - one in which the relentless pursuit of economic growth has ceased to constitute a credible societal project. The symptoms that mark the end of an era are clear and incontrovertible: a return to the regularities of the past is illusory. The pursuit of economic growth no longer constitutes a credible societal project for ecological, social, and geopolitical reasons. Edited by an impressive array of experts, this book identifies several areas in which we must fundamentally rethink our societal organisation. They ask what it means to abandon the objective of economic growth; how we can encourage the emergence of other visions to guide society; how global visions and local transition initiatives should be connected; which modes of governance should be associated with the required social and technological innovations. Alongside the necessary respect of ecological limits and equity in distribution, the promotion of autonomy (involving all in the building of socio-political norms) could serve for guidance. The topics addressed over the chapters range from the future of work to the de-commodification of economic relations; the search for new indicators of progress to decentralized modes of governance; and from the circular economy to polycentric transitions. Each contribution brings a unique perspective, a piece of a larger puzzle to be assembled. Post-growth Economics and Society is an important volume to those who study ecological economics, political economy and the environment and society. It invites theorists as much as practitioners to re-explore the roots of our societal goals and play an active role in the systemic shift to come.

When we look at the state of the world today, what is most evident is the fact that the major problems of our time - energy, environment, economy, climate change and social justice - cannot be understood in isolation. They are interconnected problems, which means that they require corresponding systemic solutions. Today's global economy has brought about critical distress for ecosystems and societies and we have to go to the very root of the problems to find a way out. This volume develops a synthesized interpretation of ecological economics integrating different levels: (economic) system, (business) practice and the (economic) actor. It discusses how changes on a systems level are connected to changes in practice and development of individual consciousness. Transformative Ecological Economics delves into the insight and knowledge from different sources of inspiration (thermodynamics, Darwinism, anthroposophy and Buddhism) as well as into an integrated story describing and illustrating the core ideas, principles and values that characterize a utopian society anchored in ecological economics. Implementation of the deep changes demanded depends on our ability to write a new story, a utopian one for sure, but one which is in accordance with and based on the reality in which we live. This book will be of interest to those who study ecological economics, political economy and environmental economics.

Waste is a quintessentially ecological economic issue. The generation of waste is rooted in the very laws of nature, but waste is also a social construct, and what we understand to be waste has evolved with human societies. Therefore, a crucial issue in modern waste management is the understanding of attitudes towards waste. This book examines the ecological economics approach to waste, its conceptualisation and management. In order to provide a comprehensive understanding of the issue of waste, the authors utilise an array of disciplinary approaches from both natural and social sciences. They begin by considering waste through the thermodynamics of production processes, and through an assessment of the history of waste. Building on this physical-social background, they concentrate on specific aspects of waste policy. These include the public's attitude towards waste, the economics of waste, and the laws and regulations surrounding waste disposal. Further chapters look in detail at the three main types of waste being generated by modern societies: municipal, toxic and nuclear waste. This path-breaking book seeks to lay the basis for a general conceptualisation of waste in ecological economics and to elucidate the main issues relating to waste generation and management. This is a comprehensive analysis of waste as a concept, and as an issue for humans as both producers and consumers. It will be of great value to ecological economists, waste managers and environmental policy analysts.

In this book, first published in 1990, Judith Rees considers the spatial distribution of resource availability, development and consumption, and the distribution of resource-generated wealth and welfare. Showing that there are no simple answers, she analyses the complex interactions between economic forces, administrative structures and political institutions. This well-structured text is essential reading for upper-level students in geography, environmental planning, economics and resource management.

This study, first published in 1990, explores the ways in which institutions can succeed or fail at environmental improvement. The author first takes a look at the nature of environmental politics and the history of air pollution control in Southern California. He then develops a political economic model that asks the question: what effect have the dramatic changes that have occurred throughout the history of air pollution control in Southern California had on air quality? Jeffry Fawcett uses the information gathered to both evaluate the relationship between air quality and institutional change; and to evaluate how political economists explain how state environmental institutions work. This title will be of interest to students of environmental economics and policy.

This book highlights the latest research on waste processing technologies, particularly for domestic, agricultural, and petroleum based pollutants, intended to achieve waste valorisation. In addition, it discusses the important role of plastic recycling, as well as advanced waste processing techniques.

In The Green Leap to an Inclusive Economy, two leading thinkers, Stuart L. Hart and Fernando Casado Caneque, challenge head on the two biggest issues facing humanity and the planet today: Inequality and Environmental Degradation. They present the new design thinking required for a more inclusive and sustainable economy which respects both people and planet. Far from simply presenting the problems, this book offers insightful case studies that showcase the challenges and opportunities of base of the pyramid venturing in different geographical and cultural contexts, as well as providing a detailed description of the tools that have been proven to enhance the innovation of business models to address the issues. Through telling these stories, the authors provide a roadmap for how to make an inclusive and sustainable economy a reality, where opportunity and prosperity are available to more of the people that participate in the economy as workers, consumers, owners and the wider community, whilst addressing the risks to the natural capital we all depend on. This book is essential reading for anyone looking to accelerate the development of an inclusive business for the benefit of society and the planet, as well as those involved in the study and research of the base of the pyramid and sustainable business solutions.

Sustainable Development Policy: A European Perspective uses a variety of multidisciplinary perspectives to explore the ways in which sustainable infrastructures can play a more prominent and effective role in international development policy. Building on a solid introduction to sustainability and development policy, this book discusses ways in which viable reform can be promoted through coherent governing, the design of social security systems, education systems and the possibilities of fair trade as an alternative trading concept . Sustainable Development Policy generates a platform on which to encourage constructive dialogue on issues surrounding sustainability in the wake of the global scarcity of natural and economic resources. This edited collection will be of great interest to all students and lecturers of development studies and development policy, as well as researchers from other disciplines looking for an introduction to sustainable development policy and its practical applications.

Despite their obvious importance, the ethical implications of climate change are often neglected in economic evaluations of mitigation and adaptation policies. Economic climate models provide estimates of the value of mitigation benefits, provide understanding of the costs of reducing emissions, and develop tools for making policy choices under uncertainty. They have thus offered theoretical and empirical instruments for the design and implementation of a range of climate policies, but the ethical assumptions included in the calculations are usually left unarticulated. This book, which brings together scholars from both economics and ethical theory, explores the interrelation between climate ethics and economics. Examining a wide range of topics including sustainability, conceptions of value, risk management and the monetization of harm, the book will explore the ethical limitations of economic analysis but will not assume that economic theory cannot accommodate the concerns raised. The aim in part is to identify ethical shortcomings of economic analysis and to propose solutions. Given the on-going role of economics in government thinking on mitigation, a constructive approach is vital if we are to deal adequately with climate change. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental ethics, economics, political science, political philosophy and the philosophy of economics.

As demand for natural resources increases due to the rise in world population and living standards, conflicts over their access and control are becoming more prevalent. This book critically assesses different approaches to and conceptualizations of resource fairness and justice and applies them to the analysis of resource conflicts. Approaches addressed include cosmopolitan liberalism, political economy and political ecology. These are applied at various scales (local, national, international) and to initiatives and instruments in public and private resource governance, such as corporate social responsibility instruments, certification schemes, international law and commodity markets. In doing so, the contributions contrast existing approaches to fairness and justice and extend them by taking into account the interplay between political scales, regions, resources, and power structures in "glocalized" resource politics. Various case studies are included concerning agriculture, agrofuels, land grabbing, water resources, mining and biodiversity. The volume adds to the academic and policy debate by bringing together a variety of disciplines and perspectives in order to advance both a research and policy agenda that puts notions of resource fairness and justice center-stage.

River systems around the world are degraded and are being used unsustainably. Meeting this challenge requires the development of flexible regimes that have the potential to meet essential consumptive needs while restoring environmental flows. This book focuses on how water trading frameworks can be repurposed for environmental water recovery and aims to conceptualise the most appropriate role for law in supporting recovery through these frameworks. The author presents a comprehensive study of the legal frameworks in four jurisdictions: the States of Oregon and Colorado in the western United States; the province of Alberta in Canada; and the Murray-Darling Basin in Australia/Basin State of New South Wales. A close comparative analysis of these four jurisdictions reveals a variety of distinctive regulatory arrangements and collaborations between public and private actors. In all cases, the law has been deployed to steer and coordinate these water governance activities. The book argues that each regime is based on a particular regulatory strategy, with different conceptions of the appropriate roles for, and relationships between, various actors and institutions. Legal frameworks do not have the capacity to rationalise and provide an overarching and absolute solution to the complex environmental and governance issues that arise in the context of environmental water transactions. Rather, the role of law in this context needs to be reconceptualised within the paradigm of regulatory capitalism as establishing and maintaining the limits within which regulatory participants can operate, innovate and collaborate.

Lessons in Sustainable Development from Japan and South Korea provides a concise overview of sustainable development in Japan and South Korea. Hsu, Naoi, and Zhang focus on environment, energy, health, technology, biodiversity, production, governance, well-being, livelihood, regulation, property rights, and minerals as indicators of sustainable development. Japan has greatly improved its environment since the industrialization process ended in the 1970s. The nation also has excellent health care and transportation systems. However, Japan continues to struggle with gender inequality and traffic congestion. Poverty and inequality have remained challenges since the 1990s. Similarly, South Korea is continuing to improve its environment, as well as its health care system, but struggles with gender inequality, poverty, and inequality. The countries can benefit from better social policies, as well as from a partnership in improving energy self-sufficiency, including enhancement of renewable energy technologies.

The power of capital is the power to target our attention, mould market-ready identities, and reduce the public realm to an endless series of choices. This has far-reaching implications for our psychological, physical and spiritual well-being, and ultimately for our global ecology. In this consumer age, the underlying teachings of Buddhist mindfulness offer more than individual well-being and resilience. They also offer new sources of critical inquiry into our collective condition, and may point, in time, to regulatory initiatives in the field of well-being. This book draws together lively debates from the new economics of transition, commons and well-being, consumerism, and the emerging role of mindfulness in popular culture. Engaged Buddhist practices and teachings correspond closely to insights in contemporary political philosophical investigations into the nature of power, notably by Michel Foucault. The 'attention economy' can be understood as a new arena of struggle in our age of neoliberal governmentality; as the forces of enclosure - having colonized forests, land and the bodies of workers - are now extended to the realm of our minds and subjectivity. This poses questions about the recovery of the 'mindful commons': the practices we must cultivate to reclaim our attention, time and lives from the forces of capitalization. This is a valuable resource for students and scholars of environmental philosophy, environmental psychology, environmental sociology, well-being and new economics, political economy, environmental politics, the commons and law, as well as Buddhist theory and philosophy.

Problems of climate change, biodiversity and air pollution are clearly growing globally, but more particularly in Asia because of its economic importance and richness in nature. The increasing interest in environmental and resource economics applied in regions of Asia will make this book an outstanding resource to the existing literature, particularly in the fields of environmental and resource economics and the integration of applied content in traditional and agricultural development. At present there is no single handbook or text on the state of current knowledge in environmental economics in Asia or one which offers a comprehensive guide to students and academics on the subjects of environmental economics research. This book will help to fill the gap in the existing literature.

By making available the almost unlimited energy stored in prehistoric plant matter, coal enabled the industrial age - and it still does. Coal today generates more electricity worldwide than any other energy source, helping to drive economic growth in major emerging markets. And yet, continued reliance on this ancient rock carries a high price in smog and greenhouse gases. We use coal because it is cheap: cheap to scrape from the ground, cheap to move, cheap to burn in power plants with inadequate environmental controls. In this book, Mark Thurber explains how coal producers, users, financiers, and technology exporters drive this supply chain, while fragmented environmental movements battle for full incorporation of environmental costs into the global calculus of coal. Delving into the politics of energy versus the environment at local, national, and international levels, Thurber paints a vivid picture of the multi-faceted challenges associated with continued coal production and use in the twenty-first century.

Anarchism and Ecological Economics: A Transformative Approach to a Sustainable Future explores the idea that anarchism - aimed at creating a society where there is as much freedom in solidarity as possible - may provide an ideal political basis for the goals of ecological economics. It seems clear that it is going to be impossible to solve the problems connected to environmental degradation, climate change, economic crashes and increasing inequality, within the existing paradigm. The anarchist aims of reducing the disparities of rank and income in society and obtaining a high standard of living within environmentally sound ecosystems chime well with the ecological economists' goal of living within our environmental limits for the betterment of the planet and society. The book refers to the UN's sustainability development goals, and the goals expressed in the Earth Charter, viewing them through an anarchist's lens. It argues that in order to establish ecological economics as a radical new economy right for the 21st century, neoliberal economics needs to be replaced. By connecting ecological economics to a solid philosophical tradition such as anarchism, it will be easier for ecological economics to become a far more potent alternative to "green" economic thinking, which is based on, and supports, the dominant political regime. Innovative and challenging, this book will appeal to students and scholars interested in economics and the politics surrounding it.

Can insurance be used as a means to obtain compliance with environmental policy? Answering this question requires examination of a broad mosaic of academic issues, including current systems available for providing compensation and deterrence, use of contracts (including insurance) as substitutes for tort law, limitations of regulatory policy-making by government agencies, pre-conditions for creation of insurance products, and market mechanisms necessary for insurance to be purchased or sold. The purpose of Managing Environmental Risk Through Insurance is to highlight the potential role that insurance and performance standards can play in managing environmental risk. Insurance can play a significant role in dealing with one of the most problematic issues facing society today - how to compensate for environmental exposures. This book analyzes the ability of insurance to play a role in managing environmental risk. It begins by outlining the role insurance plays in society in contrast to other societal tools for addressing risk: government benefit programs and imposition of involuntary liability using the court system. By so doing, the book describes the comparative advantages of insurance. The book then analyzes the insurability of the risks. Finally, the book applies the insurability analysis to three concrete environmental examples.