Elements of Ecological Economics provides a comprehensive introduction to the field of ecological economics, an interdisciplinary project trying to give answers to the problems related to the overexploitation of the earth's resources today. These include the problems of global warming (the greenhouse effect) and the overuse of the seas (e.g. overfishing). The book also gives an exposition of the closely related problems of global welfare and justice.

The book covers topics including:

• the general policy perspective required by sustainability
• economic growth in a historical perspective
• sustainability conceptions and measurement within ecological economics
• economics and ethics of climate change
• global food security
• the state of the seas on earth and locally (the Baltic Sea).

As an introductory-level text the book will be useful to undergraduate students taking basic courses in economics and related fields, and will be comprehensible to anyone interested in environmental problems. Through the separate chapters on the problems of climate change, sustainable food production, and the overuse of the seas, the reader will easily see the practical relevance to the theoretical concepts presented and used in the book.

How can we build the institutions that will promote the cooperation needed to meet our intertwined environmental and economic needs? Efforts to meet these twin goals in New York City 's watershed collaborations offer some guidance. The experience provides lessons in addressing scattered sources of pollution, encouraging environmentally compatible economic development, and coping with conflicts that are part of the collaboration process. It also yields insights into what we need to work effectively towards sustainable economic development.

This book identifies many barriers to achieving the cooperation necessary to solving our water problems and discusses how watershed collaborations are a means to overcoming those barriers. Historical experience and lessons from other watershed collaborations informed the design of New York City 's complex watershed collaboration which is shown to contain the elements of a "green milieu" that can foster sustainable economic development. The particular challenges to the collaboration 's environmental and economic goals created by the watershed 's rural economy, farming and forestry are described.

The unusual inclusion of the analysis of the economic aspects and effects of collaboration, of the relationship between collaboration and sustainable development, and of the processes of implementation and conflict make this book especially valuable to those interested in collaboration, regulation, environmental cooperation and conflict, watershed protection, economic development in general, and sustainable economic development in particular.

During the last ten years the enormous global loss of biodiversity has received remarkable attention. Among the numerous approaches undertaken to stop or lessen this process, access and benefit-sharing (ABS), a market-based approach, has emerged as among the most prominent. In theory, ABS turns biodiversity and genetic resources from an open access good to a private good and creates a market for genetic resources. It internalizes the resources' positive externalities by pricing the commercial values for research and development and makes users pay for it. Users' benefits are shared with the resource holders and set incentives for the sustainable use and the conservation of biodiversity. Carmen Richerzhagen, however, finds that in practice there are significant questions about the effectiveness of the approach in the protection of biodiversity and about the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the commercialization. Utilizing the empirical findings of three case studies of biodiversity-providing countries - Costa Rica, the Philippines and Ethiopia - and one case study of a community of user countries, the European Union (EU), Richerzhagen examines the effectiveness of ABS through the realization of its own objectives.

While society turns to technology solutions to solve global warming, Charles Derber in this unique and uplifting book shows that the real and achievable solution is to be found...in society itself. "Why," Derber asks, "is society not taking the urgent actions needed to save itself when much of the technology already exists?"The answer lies in overcoming deep yet profound denial and hopelessness. In the first book to intensively explore the "denial regime" surrounding global warming Derber moves beyond the "science deniers" to explore the personal denial most of us feel, consciously and subconsciously.Global Warming-capitalism's time bomb-can and must be solved through both individual and institutional change. People have more power than they think. The solution requires individuals to release themselves from the bonds of hopelessness and denial; to transform themselves toward green lifestyles; and to pursue the pathways currently available to work with: national and local governments, schools, churches, corporations, and other institutions. Derber passionately describes and models these personally transforming changes from his own life and from the lives of neighbors, friends, and colleagues who have discovered the joys of becoming part of the solution and have learned to live powerful, democratic, change-minded lives.Listen to an interview with Charles Derber on Santa Fe public radio: Santa Fe public radio interviewWatch Charles Derber speak at an August 19, 2010 talk at the Somerville Public Library in Boston: Climate Change talk

There are few areas of economic policy-making in which the returns to good decisions are so higha "and the punishment of bad decisions so cruela "as in the management of natural resource wealth. Rich endowments of oil, gas and minerals have set some countries on courses of sustained and robust prosperity; but they have left others riddled with corruption and persistent poverty, with little of lasting value to show for squandered wealth. And amongst the most important of these decisions are those relating to the tax treatment of oil, gas and minerals.

This book will be of interest to Economics postgraduates and researchers working on resource issues, as well as professionals working on taxation of oil, gas and minerals/mining.

Climate change has become one of the most important global issues of our time, with far-reaching natural, socio-economic, and political effects. To address climate change and development issues from the perspective of evaluation, an international conference was held in Alexandria, Egypt. This book distills the essence of that timely conference, building on the experiences of more than 400 reports and studies presented.

Developing countries may be particularly vulnerable to the expected onslaught of higher temperatures, rising sea levels, changing waterfall patterns, and increasing natural disasters. All societies will have to reduce their vulnerability to these changes, and this book describes how vulnerabilities may be addressed in a systematic manner so that governments and local communities may better understand what is happening. Different approaches are also discussed, including the use of human security as a criterion for evaluation as well as ways to deal with risk and uncertainty. "Evaluating Climate Change and Development" presents a rich variety of methods to assess adaptation through monitoring and evaluation.

The volume deals with climate change, development, and evaluation; challenges and lessons learned from evaluations; mitigation of climate change; adaptation to climate change; vulnerability, risks and climate change; and presents a concluding chapter on the road ahead. Collectively the authors offer a set of approaches and techniques for the monitoring and evaluation of climate change.

What do we value about the past? In formulating policies about heritage preservation, that is the inevitable question, and deals not only with economic value but also the intangible value to individuals, communities and society as a whole. This interdisciplinary group of scholarsaanthropologists, archaeologists, architects, educators, lawyers, heritage administrators, policy analysts, and consultantsamake the first attempt to define and assess heritage values on a local, national and global level. Chapters range from the theoretical to policy frameworks to case studies of heritage practice, written by scholars from eight countries.

This volume assembles a group of eminent scholars to look at the problem of growth and environment from the perspective of environmental regulation. The questions addressed are: How does economic growth interact with regulation, and what are the best approaches to regulation in use today?

The context for the volume is the current situation in China, where twenty years of rapid growth have created a situation in which there are both demands for environmental regulation and needs for choosing a future development path. The advent of "A Macro-Environmental Strategy" for China presents an opportunity to ask how and why China should introduce regulation into its management of its development. The volume includes contributions from leading Chinese experts and established environmental economists from other countries including Timo Goeschl, Ben Groom and Andreas Kontoleon.

The volume looks at both the demand side of environmental regulation and the supply side. The demand side of regulatory intervention examines how regulation operates to supplement existing resource-allocation mechanisms, via effective demand aggregation and implementation mechanisms. The supply side of regulation examines how regulation operates to guide industrial growth down particular pathways, in the pursuit of managed development. Both sides of environmental regulation involve the important issue of implementation and enforcement.

This volume will be of most value to academics and scholars of environmental economics, growth economics, the Chinese economy and policy-makers of environmental regulations.

This important book deals with the essential principles of resource and environmental economics, provides applications to contemporary issues in this field, and outlines and assesses policies being used or proposed for managing the use of environmental and natural resources. Covering specific contemporary topics such as agriculture and the environment, water use, greenhouse gas management, biodiversity conservation, tourism and the environment, and environmental economics and health, leading issues in resource and environmental economics are outlined and analyzed in an innovative manner. Institutional economics (both new and traditional) is applied and compared with other approaches such as neoclassical economics, behavioral economics and the Austrian School of Economics. This heterogeneous, multi-perspective approach enables problems to be considered from several different angles, thus enhancing the reader's comprehension of the subject matter. Furthermore, using minimal technical jargon, the book takes into account aspects of modern economic analysis such as the costs of and constraints on decision-making and the transaction costs involved in policy implementation.

What is Russia's potential as a partner in the global race towards a low-carbon economy? This book provides a balanced analysis of Russia's impressive, understudied and sometimes surprising strengths in the renewable energy sector. The work is a first of its kind, exploring the significant political and economic obstacles to developing renewable energy in Russia. The volume explores whether effective partnerships may be achieved by combining Russia's excellence in basic research and its diverse natural resources with Western management skills - and aiming for innovation and exports. Solar power, electricity reform, market niches for renewable energy and Nordic-Russian partnership are all examined in detail. Providing crucial insights for academics, policy-makers and business actors seeking to cooperate with Russian partners, this groundbreaking book raises the vitally important question of how key countries such as Russia will approach global climate politics and their own energy supply in the post-Kyoto world.

This volume, with contributions from a team of multi-disciplinary team experts, addresses the economic sustainability and clean manufacturing methods to deal with the challenges that water scarcity and water quality are imposing on many countries, particularly on Mediterranean arid areas, that are threatening their economic and social development. Water plays a crucial role in industry, agriculture and daily life. Its use has increased ten-fold between 1900 and 2000. On a global scale, about 70 % of clean water from available sources is used for agricultural purposes, primarily irrigation, the rest of it being used for domestic and industrial purposes. With the actual demographic and economic trends, it is expected that by 2025, two-thirds of the world population will live in water-stressed areas and it is expected a 40 % increase in water consumption.

The ubiquity of the commitment to economic growth, which Purdey refers to as the growth paradigm, is extraordinary. National governments around the world are seized of the same objective. Major international institutions such as the UN, the WTO, the World Bank, IMF and OECD, powerful international organizations such as regional trading blocs and multinational corporations - even civil societies of all kinds enthusiastically pursue a larger economic pie.

This book examines the deep origins and rise to prominence of the commitment to economic growth. It explains why, despite the diversity of regime types, levels of development, cultures and other divisions typical of international relations, all major actors in the modern global polity pursue an identical political priority. Purdey critically examines the growth paradigm highlighting its normative foundations and its environmental impact, especially climate change. Using a neo-Gramscian approach, Purdey re-engages the 'limits to growth' controversy, identifying the commitment to growth as a form of utopianism that is as dangerous as it is seductive.

By illuminating and interrogating the history, politics and morality of the growth paradigm, this book shifts the terrain of the limits debate from instrumental to ethical considerations. It will be of interest to students and scholars of political economy, international relations, environmental studies and ethics.

Significant advances have occurred in recent years in Europe and in North America in addressing agri-environmental policies. Land use issues tend to be more pressing in Europe than in the US as a whole because of different spatial exigencies. Because these advances have taken place within individual academic disciplines, there has been something of a loss of synergy and often efforts are duplicated.

While important institutional and legal differences still exist between the two continents, the sharing of recent scientific advances will benefit scientists on both sides of the Atlantic and this is the main purpose of this book. The primary features of the book are threefold. First, the authors aim to identify options for policy to overcome the challenges ahead related to future agri-environmental policies. Second, they synthesize existing knowledge and identify gaps in current knowledge along with future research needs. Finally, they explicitly compare agri-environmental interactions and approaches to their resolution in Europe and in the US.

This is the only major book of its kind that focuses specifically on the intersection between agricultural and environmental policies and issues. Furthermore, the multi-disciplinary approach taken in the volume, as well as the inclusion of authors from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, makes the book unique. This book will be of most value to university faculty and students interested in agriculture and the environment on both sides of the Atlantic, the text should also be of interest to informed laypersons as well as policymakers.

As the threats of food insecurity loom ever larger, the world faces the sad irony of food shortages in the global South alongside a purported 'obesity epidemic' in the global North. The twin issues of food production and food access are of particular concern in the context of climate change, 'peak oil', biofuels, and land grabs by wealthy nations. Food Security, Nutrition and Sustainability offers critical insights by international scholars, with chapters on global food security, supermarket power, new technologies, and sustainability. The book also assesses the contributions of diet and nutrition research in building socially just and environmentally sustainable food systems and provides policy recommendations to improve the health and environmental status of contemporary agri-food systems. The book features contributions from a range of social science perspectives, including sociology, anthropology, public health and geography, with case study material drawn from throughout the world.

Economic development and the environment are presumed to be in conflict, but the latter part of the twentieth century experienced a series of economic changes that increasingly questioned this view. Economic activity became more footloose and the ability to attract productive labor became a prominent regional development concern. Consequently, environmental amenities began to have a larger role in determining the patterns of regional growth and development, and subsequently moved to the forefront of current regional economic development thought and practice.

Environmental amenities provide non-pecuniary benefits to area residents, and induce in-migration flows to regions that possess high levels of environmental amenities. The attraction is particularly strong for those individuals with higher incomes and wealth. The combined forces of increased demand for environmental amenities and increased spatial flexibility of production has brought environmental amenities to the forefront of current regional economic development thought and practice. Regional economic development policy needs to consider the tradeoffs of attracting firms or people, which requires an understanding of the role the environment plays directly or indirectly in attracting firms and households. This book presents key papers that explore the role of the natural environment in regional economic development. The papers contain critical insights and information for both researchers and practitioners interested in the nexus between environmental amenities and regional economic growth and development.

The book covers varied dimensions of this issue, including: the relative importance of amenities in recent variation in regional growth; the role of local infrastructure in promoting amenity-led development; socio-economic distribution concerns and sustainability of amenity-based growth; and the effects of local environmentally protected areas on other economic activities. This book will be of most value to practitioners and academics, specifically related to the areas of environmental economics, regional economic development, local and regional planning, public administration and public policy.

Wetlands are vital and valuable resources, both as rich and unique wildlife habitats, and for the functions they fulfil - providing flood and sediment control and coastal protection, as carbon sinks and pollution buffers, for their role in storing and recycling nutrients, as well as for their recreational value. Too often, however, their true value has been overlooked or underestimated and they have been mismanaged or destroyed as a result. This volume, commissioned by the OECD presents four case studies of the management policies of wetland environments in the UK, USA, France and Spain. They show how both markets and direct intervention have resulted in failure, severely reducing the amount of wetland and jeopardizing the remainder ,and they set out measures that will mitigate damage in the future .Turner and Jones have produced an essential work in the growing area of environmental economics. Originally published in 1991

The economic value of forest. has long been recognized, but the ways in which that value is calculated and the management policies adopted in consequence have all too often resulted in overuse and irreversible destruction. This is spectacularly obvious around the Mediterranean basin, but it is also true in northern Europe. These five case studies, commissioned by the OECD, examine failures of forest management in Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany and Sweden. They look at both market and intervention policies and show how each can further the destruction of the forests, and they set out ways in which future policies can evade the mistakes of the past. Originally published in 1992

We have always had land in which the agricultural productivity is limited because there is not enough moisture. Systems of farming and burning often degrade dryland further until it is desert. Today, however, the problem is becoming much more serious. Over 20 per cent of the world's population lives in dryland areas, and unless action is taken drylands will increase dramatically. This book focuses on the people who live and .farm in the drylands, their use of land resources and the economic returns from their decisions. In a clear and thorough economic appraisal, the authors show how it is still possible to arrest the problem. Originally published in 1989

Drylands are a sizeable part of the world's potentially arable land. They vary from the hyper-arid regions of the classic deserts of Africa and Asia to the more common semi-arid and sub-humid areas that support extensive agricultural systems dependent on rainfall or irrigation. Following their successful and innovative work The Economics of Dryland Management the editors have assembled twenty case studies from nine countries in the continents of Africa, Asia, North America and Australia. They help to explore more fully the costs of land degradation and illustrate the economics of reclamation, rehabilitation and prevention. The cases in this book present a rich, varied and readable survey of a wide range of drylands and their resources. Originally published in 19990

Environmentally sustainable development has become one of the world's most urgent priorities. But countries cannot achieve it alone: it depends on international coordination and action. Greening International Institutions, the latest in a series of highly-acclaimed publications devoted to environmental and developmental law, assesses how far and how successfully intergovernmental organizations have responded to the challenge. The organizations analyzed include: the UN General Assembly, the new Commission for Sustainable Development, UNEP, UNDP and UNCTAD, WTO, GATT, NAFTA, the Bretton Woods institutions and several regional bodies, as well as treaty bodies and the mechanisms for avoiding and settling disputes. For each, the contributors provide an accessible overview of the organization's mandate and structure, examine substantive policy initiatives and assess the need and scope for procedural and institutional reform. Drawing together a collection of essays by lawyers and researchers from various backgrounds, Greening International Institutions is stimulating reading for students and policy-makers, as well as anyone concerned with the development of international institutions. Jacob Werksman is an attorney, a Programme Director at FIELD, and Visiting Lecturer in International Economic Law at the University of London. Greening International Institutions is the fifth volume in the International Law and Sustainable Development series, co-developed with FIELD. The series aims to address and define the major legal issues associated with sustainable development and to contribute to the progressive development of international law. Other titles in the series are: Greening International Law, Interpreting the Precautionary Principle, Property Rights in the Defence of Nature and Improving Compliance with International Environmental Law. 'A legal parallel to the Blueprint series - welcome, timely and provocative' David Pearce Originally published in 1996

Sustainable development cannot be achieved solely at the international level. Without the creation of more sustainable livelihoods, it will remain a utopian and elusive goal. Yet given the huge differences in economic development and levels of consumption between North and South, how might this be brought about? Taking the 1992 Rio Summit as its point of departure, Wasted examines what we now need to know, and what we need to do, to live within sustainable limits. One of the key issues is how we use the environment: converting natural resources into human artifices, commodities and services. In the process of consuming, we also create sinks. Today, these sinks - the empty back pocket in the global biogeographical system - are no longer empty. The fate of the global environment is indissolubly linked to our consumption: particularly in the energy-profligate North. To understand and overcome environmental challenges, we need to build the outcomes of our present consumption rates into our future behaviour: to accept sustainable development as a normative goal for societies; one that is bound up with our everyday social practices and actions. In this absorbing book, Michael Redclift argues that the way we understand and think about the environn1ent conditions our responses, and our ability to meet the challenge, and discusses tangible policies for increased sustainability that are grounded in recent research and practice. MICHAEL Redclift Is Professor of International Environmental Policy at the Department of Geography, King's College London. He was previously Professor of International Environmental Policy at the University of Keele and before that Professor of Environmental Sociology at Wye College, University of London, and Director of the ESRC Global Environmental Change Programme. He is author and editor of numerous books, including Sustainable Development: Exploring the Contradictions (1987), Social Theory and the Global Environment (1994) and Sustainability: Life Chances and Lifestyles (1999). Originally published in 1996

The environmental impacts of acid rain: on human health, on buildings and materials, on forests, freshwaters, crops and biodiversity and on global warming have been well-documented. Less is known about the extent and economic costs of these impacts. This book describes the first major implementation of an integrated scientific and economic assessment of the consequences of acid rain. It provides an extensive data review and examines how this unique approach to assessment modelling can be can be used to calculate an acidification cost per unit of pollutant in monetary terms. Part One focuses on the methodological issues of scientific measurement of acidification, dose-response relationships and economic approaches to acidification control. Part Two looks at the environmental impacts and economic consequences of acidification. Affected environmental media and human health are investigated in separate chapters, each including both scientific and economic analyses. Part Three provides a summary of the findings and makes recommendations for further application of these types of results to policy actions.

Groundwater is becoming increasingly scarce while the demand for water continues to grow at a global scale. Understanding groundwater resources and their sustainable management is imperative for the future of groundwater use, conservation and protection. This revised and updated two-volume set, focused on sustainability, covers the economic values of groundwater production and use, including micro- and macroeconomic factors, groundwater markets, economic evaluation tools, climate change, transboundary issues and policy evaluation. It explores numerous applications and describes ways to evaluate the economics of groundwater use in the context of the larger ecosystem and the natural capital it provides. FEATURES OF THIS VOLUME Includes an important new chapter on groundwater sustainability management Addresses new examples of groundwater use that are applicable at both the local and international levels Provides the foundation for policy, program and project analysis for all major uses of groundwater Updates groundwater use data along with explanations of major production costs and use benefits Gives a new perspective on users' competition for the subsurface environment Production, Use, and Sustainability of Groundwater, Second Edition, the first volume of the two-volume set Groundwater Economics, is a must-have for any professional or student who needs to understand, evaluate and manage water resources from a range of production and use perspectives affecting groundwater resource sustainability.

This book aims to show that economics in general and non-market valuation methods in particular, together with participatory and engineering tools, can facilitate the design and implementation of the different European policies in relation to mitigation of water stress. The results presented in this book derive from AquaStress, an EU funded integrated project, delivering interdisciplinary methodologies to help mitigate water stress problems. The project draws on both academic and practitioner skills to generate knowledge in technological, operational management, policy, socio-economic, and environmental domains.

The book is divided in three parts and as the AquaStress project, is case study driven. Part I begins with a review of the up-to-date use of non-market valuation economic methods in the design and implementation of EU water policies. Part II of the book proceeds to discuss and analyze participatory and engineering tools that can facilitate the determination of efficient water resources policies and the consequent implementation of the EU WFD, using case studies of test sites from Bulgaria, Italy, Morocco and Poland. Part III of the book, brings us back to the use of economic tools and focuses on policy appraisal through social cost-benefit analyses and the choice/estimation of the socially efficient discount rate to be used in such analyses. The book concludes with specific policy recommendations for all case-studies considered in previous chapters.

This work would be of most interest to water resources managers and policy makers as well as consultants working on the implementation of the WFD. It would also be helpful to students and scholars of water resource management.

In today's world - despite the dramatic anthropogenic environmental changes - a proper understanding of the relationship between humanity and nature requires a certain detachment. The pressing problems in their whole extent will only be fully understood and solved with comprehensive and patient analysis. Accordingly, this book develops new perspectives on fundamental questions of biology, ecology, and the economy, integrated within a framework of a terminology specially devised by the authors.

By illuminating the epistemological backgrounds of ecological-economic research, the authors lay foundations for interdisciplinary environmental research and offer guidelines for practical action. In close contact to the findings of present-day biology and economics, they demonstrate the fruitfulness as well as the shortcomings of modern science for the understanding of the proper place of humankind in nature.. Frequently, current problems in the fields of economics, ecology, politics, philosophy and biology are discussed in a kind of "dialogue" with thinkers and poets like Bacon, Quesnay, Kant, Goethe and Novalis. On the other hand, the book offers traits of the Anglo-Saxon tradition of thought: a precise, analytical approach to theory and a pragmatic approach to action. Both approaches are used by the authors complementarily.

Thus the authors lay the foundations for an ecological economical and political practice which is able to tackle concrete environmental problems on an encompassing and long-term basis. This translated volume will be of great use and interest to students of ecology, economics and in particular environmental education, sustainable development and environmental ethics.