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Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Environmental economics > General
Frances Cairncross, senior editor of The Economist and author of the best selling Costing the Earth, shows that economic growth does not have to be at the expense of environmental protection. For the poor, growth is essential, to eliminate the threats to health and environmental security that poverty presents. As for the more affluent, they may be unwilling to sacrifice their living standards, even for a cleaner environment. The question is, rather, how can the environmental impact of growth be minimized? Here, the role of business is crucial. New technologies and well-designed policies have to work hand in hand; and the interests of governments, of companies and of the environmental movement lie in making a cleaner environment an opportunity for profitability. All three parties will find this a stimulating survey and an invaluable practical guide.
Written in a way that facilitates understanding of complex concepts, laws, and policy, Production, Growth, and the Environment: An Economic Approach explores how economic growth usually makes people better off, but also asks at what environmental cost? These costs are not often realized until after the fact, when their remediation is more expensive, and sometimes not reversible. Very few books on environmental economics model the joint production of desirable and undesirable outcomes in any depth. This book fills that void. It discusses the demographic transition and the escape from the Malthusian trap. It also covers the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis that examines the relation between polluting outputs and economic welfare. The book integrates environmental valuation methods with the production possibility frontier (PPF) approach. It presents both types of outcomes in a PPF framework that accounts for scarcity and allows the concepts of technical and allocative efficiencies to be introduced and measured. The PPF can then measure technological progress/regress and can be used to measure whether resource use is sustainable over time. It can also be used to determine shadow prices for non-market desirable outputs such as ecological services and non-market undesirable by-products such as SO2, NOx, and CO2 that arise from fossil fuel combustion. The beauty of the PPF framework is that it can be depicted in simple two-dimensional diagrams that make the concepts easy to understand. The author uses this framework to introduce concepts such as technical efficiency, allocative efficiency, technological progress/regress, shadow pricing, externalities, public goods, pollution taxes, and permits. In addition, each chapter has numerous problems and discussion questions that provide examples and practice in using the introduced theories. The book also includes a chapter that shows how the solver routine in Excel can be used to measure technical and allocative efficiency. This gives you the tools to examine all outcomes and therefore make a decision that takes into account the environmental challenges along with any economic benefits.
State climate and clean energy policy will play a critical role in the future of the political dialogue and economic development. Policymakers from around the world already recognize the leadership of American states in this domain. Rooted in public policy theory, and employing a mixed-methods approach that includes advanced economic analysis and qualitative research, Benjamin H. Deitchman explores the policy tools that address the politics and economics of clean energy development and deployment across all 50 states. Deitchman includes in his analysis international case studies of this policy context in Canada, Germany, and Australia to reveal different state-level policy tools, the politics behind the tools, and the economic implications of alternative approaches. The rigorous analysis of the politics of state level institutions and economic implications of subnational climate and clean energy actions offers researchers, students, and policymakers with practical information to advance their understanding of these options in the policy process.
This major annual publication is an authoritative state-of-the-art survey of current issues in environmental and resource economics written by the leading academics in the field.The discipline of environmental and resource economics has undergone a rapid evolution over the past three decades with the early literature focusing mainly on valuation, and the design of policy instruments to correct externalities and encourage optimal resource exploitation. In the past few years, the field has broadened its scope by making numerous links with other disciplines in economics as well as the natural and physical sciences. As a result there has been an explosion in the literature which has made it increasingly difficult to keep up with developments in the field. TheYearbook cuts through this by focusing on the principal issues of current interest. Considering both macroeconomic and microeconomic issues, this edition deals with environmental policy in economies in transition, green accounting, the impact of macroeconomic policies on the environment, the economics of fisheries management reactions to environmental policy within firms as well as means of incorporating uncertainty in environmental analysis and policy. The Yearbook will provide economists working in environmental and resource economics, as well as those who are interested in knowing more about the field, with a comprehensive overview of the main issues written by leading international scholars.
This unique and up-to-date book analyzes the functioning of the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and assesses the extent to which relevant legislation has affected its capacity to promote cost-effective reduction of European carbon emissions. The author investigates whether inefficiency has been caused by both the ETS cap setting procedure and by the ETS relevant allocation rule, as defined by the Directive 2003/87/EC. He then considers whether the new Directive 2009/29/EC, which reforms the ETS institutional design, is likely to improve the scheme's effectiveness by reducing the risk of carbon leakage -which could potentially be induced by implementing a unilateral policy across the asymmetric political landscape of Europe. This well-documented book will appeal to researchers and postgraduate students in environmental law and environmental economics, as well as policy makers within environment, industry and economics, and electric and industrial operators and stakeholders. Environmental NGOs, energy and environmental consulting groups, members of the European Commission, and energy and environmental think-tanks will also find much to interest them in this insightful book. Contents: 1. Introduction; 2. Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol: An Overview; 3. Toward a Cap and Trade Scheme Solution: Economic and Legal Instruments to Address the Problem of Externality; 4. Legal and Economic Aspects of the European Emissions Trading Scheme; 5. Analysis of the EU ETS Effectiveness: Assessing the Stringency of the ETS Cap; 6. Analysis of the Allocation Rules: Do Polluters Pay under Grandfathering?; 7. ETS Reform and Carbon Leakage: Assessing the Inconsistencies of the New ETS Directive; 8. Summary and Conclusions; References
Bringing together a mixture of theoretical discussion, political analyses and illustrative case studies, this volume provides the first comprehensive scholarly analysis of the tension between environmental protection and economic development in Turkey. Through its dual focus on democratization and modernization, this book also makes an important contribution to the literature on politics in contemporary Turkey. It identifies and analyses the forces underwriting the growth of environmental social movements, investigates the impacts these movements have on development and modernization, and above all, evaluates the role played by environmental movements in the democratization process of Turkey.
Permit trading is an environmental policy instrument that has received increasing levels of attention over recent years. Coming from the field of air quality management, with the European CO2 emissions trading system being the most prominent example, it enters new fields of application, such as land use policy and biodiversity protection, water quality and water quantity trading. This book gives an overview of these recent developments and discusses the possibilities and limits of permit trading in environmental policies. The advantages of permit trading are not only seen with respect to economic efficiency, which leads to achieving the environmental target at minimum cost, but also with respect to the instrument's environmental effectiveness. By setting a cap for the overall emissions, a given environmental target can be met. This makes permit trading an interesting case for many environmental fields where safeguarding the environmental target plays a dominant role. Against this background, permit trading is discussed in environmental policy fields, where it has not been considered before, for example, land use management, biodiversity protection and water trading. Permit Trading in Different Applications analyses the properties of permit trading: its possibilities and limitations, its design options and its restrictions on a more general level. It demonstrates how lessons learnt in established policy fields like air quality management can be transferred to new and emerging fields of application. This collection will provide students and practitioners in environmental sciences and policy with valuable research into instrument choice and design with respect to permit trading.
Providing an updated state of the art report on the effects of the 2003 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform, this volume has a particular emphasis on the governance of institutional changes and national/regional implementation. Written from an agricultural economist's point of view and enriched by the contribution of political scientists and policy makers, this book offers: - an updated report of the European debate on agricultural and rural policies; -an in-depth analysis of the decoupling process of the agricultural financial support in Europe; - an analysis of the CAP implementation in the old and new Europe Member States ; - a discussion on the future scenarios for the European Agricultural Policies Based on a selection of papers from the 109th Seminar of the European Association of the Agricultural Economists (EAAE), this book, with a foreword by Franz Fischler, also includes four commissioned contributions from leaders in the field including Sofia Davidova, Roberto Esposti, Tassos Haniotis and Johan Swinnen.
The remarkable performance of the Chinese economy in the last three decades has placed China at the centre of the world stage. In 1993, China became a net importer of energy, although it was not until the early 2000s that the world began to pay more attention to China's energy needs and its potential impact on the world. With China's energy search occurring within a hegemonic global structure dominated by the United States, the US watches with interest as China enhances its ties with energy-rich states. The book examines this triangular relationship and questions whether the US and China are in competition regarding access to the energy of a third state, within the context of a potential power transition. It includes case studies on China's energy relationship with countries such as Canada, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Iran, Sudan and Venezuela and aims to understand the way a rising power interacts with the existing leading power and the possible outcome of this competition. The analytical framework employed helps the reader to understand not only the nature and pattern of triangles among US, China and the Resource Rich States under 'resource diplomacy', but also the salient features of US-China competition around the world. Making an impressive contribution to the literature in fields such as US-China relations, international relations, Chinese foreign policy and global energy geopolitics, this book will appeal to students and scholars of these subjects.
This important volume brings together seminal papers investigating the framework upon which the economic analysis of land markets is based, stretching from the earliest insights of the founding fathers to current debates and research. Recent work on the process and implications of 'land value capitalisation' and land use regulation is well represented, for due to capitalisation, land is responsible for far more of the distribution of real incomes than is widely recognised. This collection settles this, restoring the study of land markets to its rightful place - central to economic understanding. With an original introduction by the editors this insightful collection is an essential reference point for students, researchers and policymakers.
'Cool Companies' turns on its head the idea that measures to avert global warming and climate change will pile massive costs on to the industrial sector. It shows how the smartest companies have been able to make money through the improvements that reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Industry is going to have to adjust to the new tax and regulatory regimes being introduced around the world, aimed at reducing emissions and meeting internationally agreed targets. The more far-sighted companies have recognised the opportunities this offers. Joseph Romm shows how successful they have been in taking them. Romm profiles more than 50 companies, and describes their experiences in the context of their corporate strategies. All are leaders in their sectors and many are household names such as Xerox, Toyota, BP (now BP Amoco), DuPont, Compaq and 3M. They grasped early on the strategic importance of cutting emissions. By working to do so, through increased efficiency, new technologies and improved processes, they have cut their energy costs and boosted their productivity, often dramatically - improvements which translate straight down to the bottom line. The message is clear. Cool Companies - those prepared to overhaul their policies and innovate - are much more likely to thrive in the new climate for business, while those which have to be dragged backwards into the future will face higher costs and tougher competition.
Perhaps the most defining characteristic of the global economy today is the rise of emerging market economies (EMEs). Many states have experienced rapid economic growth over the past two decades that has led to an increasing share of global wealth. Such dramatic changes are highly relevant because they raise important issues about the distribution of global monetary and fiscal power. As the EMEs have gained importance in the global economy, their influence and significance have grown across a wide range of policy domains. One particularly relevant example is the increasingly critical role of EMEs in addressing climate change. Contrary to the popular belief that the level of development determines a country's ability to produce positive environmental outcomes, this book shows that the variation in environmental outcomes among the EMEs is due to differences in the types of economic institutions prevalent in their economies. Since EMEs differ dramatically on a number of variables, examining national variations in economic institutions helps explain why international climate policy has been more successful in some countries than in others. To assess how variations in capitalism may influence important outcomes, this book explores a representative sample of 31 EMEs and employs a mixed method research design that incorporates both conventional regression analysis and Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to explain these outcomes. The analysis shows that although liberal market economies were expected to perform better than other types of capitalism, their performance fell below expectations. On the contrary, economic institutions related to coordinated types of capitalism (like those found in China and Brazil) have led to greater Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) market participation. Theoretically informed, this book employs innovative ways of understanding a broad set of increasingly important but under studied states in an effort to highlight the interactions found in complex socio-political and ecological systems. With the growing importance of the EMEs, a better understanding of how to design market-based policies with them in mind will be required if future efforts across a range of policy issues are to be meaningful and effective.
SME's are acknowledged as effective sources of jobs and incomes, gaining an important position in the development agenda, subsequently 'cluster' policies were conceived as a framework to augment the effects of SMEs and to optimize resources used to support them. Based on case studies from Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia and India, this volume examines SME clusters and argues that unless they counteract common problems such as very low wages, poor working conditions, poor quality products and lack or environmental regulation, they will be pushed out of the market and so become unsustainable. This book suggests that the SME clusters currently being stretched should react by 'socially upgrading' in order to improve their innovation capacity, as well as social, environmental and labour standards. It puts forward conceptual frameworks which explain the way firms can upgrade: through markets, interaction among cluster members, through Corporate Social Responsibility and other such public policy, and through the better enforcement of regulation.
Bringing together case studies from Kenya, Benin, Cameroon and the Philippines, this volume provides a multidisciplinary overview of the economics of natural resource management in Tropical regions, at household and village level. By comparing a wide array of climatic and economic conditions, it examines the effect of location and access to the market - as well as the importance of national policies - have on soil and water conservation. The book not only analyzes the benefits of soil and water conservation based on econometric studies, but also assesses the costs involved. In doing so it challenges commonly held assumptions about poorer community's ability to finance such measures.
This monograph length report, first published in 1970, originated from a program of research at Resources for the Future that dealt with the management of residuals and of environmental quality. It presents some of the broad concepts that the program was based on and represents the effort to break out of the traditional approach in pollution and policy research, which had treated air, water, and solid waste problems as separate categories. This book will be of interest to students of economics and environmental studies.
The New Energy Paradigm provides an overview of the current energy policy debate, contextualized by the oil shock from 2000, and considers how the trends in international energy markets impact on security of supply and climate change. It includes a discussion of market design, looks at carbon and oil markets, and considers best practice for effective policy design.
Revised and fully updated, this textbook provides a detailed yet accessible introduction to the key aspects of ecosystem services. Ecosystem services is one of the most powerful guiding principles for ecology, biodiversity conservation and the management of natural resources. It provides the basis of assessing the multiple values and services that ecosystems can provide to humankind, including diverse issues such as carbon sequestration, flood control, crop pollination and aesthetic and cultural services. The second edition of Ecosystem Services: Key Issues has been fully revised and updated to address policy and scientific developments, as well as new and emerging issues, such as nature-based solutions, zoonotic diseases and environmental justice. It includes new and updated case studies from across the world and each chapter contains further reading, learning objectives and discussion questions to aid student learning. The book details the historical roots of ecosystem services in the second half of the twentieth century, through initiatives such as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, The Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES) and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It shows how ecosystem goods and services can be categorised and valued in economic as well as non-monetary terms, while also highlighting some of the difficulties and limitations of valuation techniques. The author describes how themes such as systems thinking, social-ecological resilience and natural capital relate to ecosystem services, and how these can contribute to more sustainable and equitable development. This book will be essential reading for students and scholars of ecosystem services, ecology, environmental science, biodiversity conservation, environmental economics, natural resource management and sustainable development. It will also be of use to professionals and policymakers who are looking to integrate ecosystems and their services into their decision making processes.
This volume explores 25 case studies of fiscal measures that have been adopted successfully by governments in North America and Europe to reduce environmental degradation. Each study lays out the implementation issues and problems faced, and compares the effectiveness of the measure against its expectations. The political implications are also discussed, and the text draws on common themes and lessons to be gained from the measures so far. The volume is divided into sections on energy, agriculture, air and water pollution, and waste management.
Sweden has a long history of ambitious environmental, energy and climate policy. Due to the large amount of data available it is possible to perform statistically sound analysis and assess long term changes in productivity, efficiency, and technological development. The data at hand together with Sweden's ambitious energy and climate policy provides a unique opportunity to shed light on pertinent policy issues. The Impact of Climate Policy on Environmental and Economic Performance answers several key questions: What is the effect of the CO2 tax on environmental performance and profitability of firms? Does including emissions in productivity measurement of the industrial firm matter? Did the introduction of the EU ETS spur technological development in the Swedish industrial firm? What air pollutant is most inhibiting production when regulated? Being aware and learning from the Swedish case can be very relevant for countries that are in the process of shaping their climate policy. This book is of great importance to researchers and policy makers who are interested in environmental economics, industrial economics and climate change.
The current, unprecedented loss of global biodiversity resulting from anthropogenic interference in the world's ecosystems is affecting human well-being across the globe with increasing severity. This book examines two issues that are at the center of the public discussion on biodiversity. It examines whether genetic information derived from biodiversity can be used to create incentives to preserve biodiversity. Then, it examines whether establishing protected areas can be accomplished on an international level by using transfer payments.
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.
Socially desirable responding (SDR) is an often-reported source of bias in survey interviews. It describes the tendency of a respondent to answer in a way that is socially desirable rather than to answer truthfully. This response bias also threatens the reliability and validity of survey-based environmental valuation techniques such as the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM). Therefore, the study deals with the assessment of the conditions for the occurrence of SDR in CVM interviews. A behavioral model is devised to take into account a set of factors triggering SDR responses. The impact of these factors of SDR on willingness to pay (WTP) responses is tested. The results reveal that the relevant factors do not affect WTP statements simultaneously but rather influence them in an independent manner. These findings can improve future CVM studies by identifying respondents who are prone to be influenced by SDR.
Over 90 per cent of the world population lives in countries that share a river basin with others. Freshwater resources are scarce and different nations, actors and users compete for limited resources in transboundary river basins; often conflicting with each other. Water is a resource with no substitute: it cannot be secured in sufficiently large quantities through long-distance trade deals; and, due to the interconnectivity of the hydrological system, the actions of one country in its water management have a direct bearing on the interests of neighbouring countries. For instance, in the Mekong River Basin, current hydropower and navigation developments in certain countries impact on traditional sources of income such as fisheries, and rice production in others. These kinds of changes in water use have given rise to conflict between countries in that region and others, but have also led, in some cases, to greater cooperation. The past few decades have seen a number of new agreements about the sharing of river resources and cooperation between riparian states. Negotiating for Water Resources explores the drivers of conflict and cooperation between states in transnational river basins. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and interviews on the Mekong, Danube and La Plata River Basins, the book provides a three level analysis across three case studies, including the regional framework (EU, ASEAN and Mercosur), the River Basin Organisations (ICPDR, MRC and CIC) and the micro-level. The key question of the book is: To what extent do power asymmetries prevent or inhibit cooperation between riparian states over water resources? This is linked to the question of how institutions contribute to mitigate competition for natural resources and how states interact in a multilateral arena. Overall, the book argues that cooperation in transboundary river basins is possible even where there are asymmetric power relations, challenging realist assumptions about competition and conflict over resources.
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. |
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