Contaminated land policy is a key concern of governments and policy makers across the globe, yet discussion has traditionally focused on the particular experience of the United States. This major new book develops a framework for assessing laws and regulations regarding contaminated land and polluted properties, their clean up and reuse, and the assignment of costs and responsibilities for reclamation.In Contaminated Land, the authors, a European and two Americans, lay out a framework for cross- national comparisons of policy contexts as well as ways of examining the outcomes of different approaches to contaminated land and systematically compare approaches to this issue in both the EU and US. The use of this framework leads to a reassessment of specific policies, such as the polluter pays principle, which may be more successful in the EU than it has been in the US, and subsidiarity which, while problematic in Europe, may hold promise in a US application. Specific issues discussed include the nature and extent of the contaminated land problem, legal implications, regulation in the US, the 1980 Comprehensive Environmental Liability, Compensation and Reclamation Act, European experience and EU environmental policy, integrated comparative analysis and some lessons for the future. Contaminated Land offers valuable insights on policy responses to the problem of badly polluted land from the perspectives of planning, economics and sociology. In particular, this volume offers frameworks for comparison of different national settings to help determine the preferred and most promising approaches to contaminated land in any social, economic and legal policy context.

Can global warming be mitigated by carbon trading? With climate change posing perhaps the gravest threat to humanity in coming decades, and with free market economics still dominated by a few wealthy nations, it is little wonder so much effort has gone into creating a carbon market, no matter how much evidence has recently emerged about its flaws. South Africa, a revealing pilot site, has initiated carbon trading projects with adverse economic, environmental and social impacts. This country pollutes at a rate twenty times higher than even the United States of America, measured by CO2 emissions generated by each GDP dollar per person, so the idea of trading for carbon reductions is seductive - and potentially lucrative. Current state policy is supportive and a former environment minister is a market promoter, alongside the World Bank, the Dutch government and big oil companies.

In recent decades, the intensification of unpredictable events including the Covid-19 outbreak, Brexit, trade warfare, religion-inspired terrorism and civil wars, and climate change has resulted in serious loss of human lives and property, a decrease in biodiversity and natural hazards (with long-term negative impacts on environment), and impeded social and economic development. Economics and Engineering of Unpredictable Events: Modelling, Planning and Policies provides an integrated view of the management of unpredictable events incorporating three major perspectives: economic management, environmental planning and engineering models. Contributors from economics, planning, regional science, and engineering address key questions including; How resilient are human societies and their habitats? What should societies do to shift from being vulnerable to being more resilient? And what role should planning and policies play to protect communities and the natural environment? The chapters cover academic debates, conceptual reflections, case studies, methods, and strategy development with particular reference to mitigation and adaptation in face of unpredictable events. This book is of particular interest to readers of economic policy, urban and regional planning and engineering.

Over-exploitation of environment and natural resources is becoming increasingly widespread in the modern world. To combat this, environmental economists have attempted to value such resources in order to ensure that they are given due recognition in any ex ante appraisal, or ex post evaluation of projects or policies; and also to ensure that optimal levels of consumption are determined for the resource. This authoritative title brings together seminal papers published in the last three decades which demonstrate the application of a number of techniques employed to value a range of environmental and natural resources. It will be of immense value to students, scholars and practitioners with an interest in environmental affairs and natural resources.

This authoritative two volume collection illustrates the most important methods for valuing non-priced environmental goods. It will be essential reading for new researchers as well as providing an excellent source of well-known material for scholars already working in this area.The first volume provides a variety of papers on different applications of opportunity cost, travel-cost, hedonic price and contingent valuation methods which emphasise both theory and practice. Classic articles on discrete choice, non-use values and the WTA v. WTP controversy are included. It also includes contributions from psychologists which identify anomalies in economic theory as well as developing more robust evaluation methods. The second volume addresses the problem of evaluation when there are multi-attribute goods and programmes and considers how the validity of results can be assessed. Allocative mechanisms for environmental resources are also illustrated with analysis of some of the property rights issues surrounding damage to resources. A series of case studies evaluate major issues: biodiversity; wetlands; landscape; noise; safety and air pollution. The volume concludes with the transfer of benefit estimates between sites, the usefulness of meta-analysis and two thought provoking articles concerning the meaning of valuation.

This book presents a new System Dynamics model (the ERRE model), a novel stock and flow consistent global impact assessment model designed by the authors to address the financial risks emerging from the interaction between economic growth and environmental limits under the presence of shocks. Building on the World3-03 Limits to Growth model, the ERRE links the financial system with the energy, agriculture and climate systems through the real economy, by means of feedback loops, time lags and non-linear rationally bounded decision making. Prices and their interaction with growth, inflation and interest rates are assumed to be the main driver of economic failure while reaching planetary limits. The model allows for the stress-testing of fat tail extreme risk scenarios, such as climate shocks, energy transition, monetary policies and carbon taxes. Risks are addressed via scenario analyses, compared to real available data, and assessed in terms of the economic theory that lies behind. The book outlines the case for a government led system change within this decade, where the market alone cannot lead to sustainable prosperity. This book will be of great interest to scholars of climate change, behavioural, ecological and evolutionary economics, green finance, and sustainable development.

Chitin is the second most abundant natural polymer in the world after cellulose, mainly derived from the food waste of shrimp and crabs. Chitosan is the most important derivative of chitin. Thanks to their biodegradability, non-toxicity, biocompatibility, bioactivity, and versatile chemical and physical properties, chitin and chitosan derivatives are used in a wide variety of applications, including water treatment, cosmetics and toiletries, food and beverages, healthcare/medical, and agrochemicals. Chitin and Chitosans in the Bioeconomy covers all major aspects of chitin and chitosan, including structure, biosynthesis, biodegradation, properties of chitin and derivatives, applications, and market. It offers a special focus on the bioeconomy, which is the renewable segment of the circular economy. Describes the structure, biosynthesis, and biodegradation of chitin and chitosan Covers chitin- and chitosan-based products Details valorization of these materials Presents information on shell biorefineries Chitin and Chitosans in the Bioeconomy serves as a reference for polymer scientists and engineers and is also accessible to economists and advanced students.

Thomas Sterner's book is an attempt to encourage more widespread and careful use of economic policy instruments. The book compares the accumulated experiences of the use of economic policy instruments in the U.S. and Europe, as well as in rich and poor countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Ambitious in scope, it discusses the design of instruments that can be employed in any country in a wide range of contexts, including transportation, industrial pollution, water pricing, waste, fisheries, forests, and agriculture.

While deeply rooted in economics, Policy Instruments for Environmental and Natural Resource Management is informed by political, legal, ecological, and psychological research. The new edition enhances what has already been widely hailed as a highly innovative work. The book includes greatly expanded coverage of climate change, covering aspects related to policy design, international equity and discounting, voluntary carbon markets, permit trading in United States, and the Clean Development Mechanism. Focusing ever more on leading ideas in both theory and policy, the new edition brings experimental economics into the main of its discussions. It features expanded coverage of the monitoring and enforcement of environmental policy, technological change, the choice of policy instruments under imperfect competition, and subjects such as corporate social responsibility, bio-fuels, payments for ecosystem services, and REDD.

The global expansion of irrigated lands during the 20th century and beyond continues to contribute to food production, but also degrades the environment significantly. The consequent search for policy remedies has stimulated a vital body of economic research. The issues addressed in this comprehensive collection of previously published articles include the effects of existing government intervention on the environmental impacts of agriculture, the economic costs and benefits of environmental regulations for agriculture, and the economic and environmental merits of alternative mechanisms for water allocation and water quality protection. In this volume the editors present a sampling of economic research on the interface of irrigated agriculture with the environment. The articles included are by leading researchers in this field and span the topics of nonpoint pollution control, salinity management, and the allocation of water.

Since the mid 1990s, theoretical and empirical research on how social capital affects well-being has blossomed in the field of economic development. Based on noted theoretical and empirical work in other social sciences, this concept is now becoming a vital new tool for economists. The chapters in this volume explore the challenges and opportunities raised by this concept for researchers, practitioners and teachers. Social Capital and Economic Development is based upon a consistent, policy-based vision of how social capital affects well-being in developing countries. The book includes a comparison of experimental and empirical evidence on social capital and a range of field-based evidence, from environmental to cultural to nation-building and on how investment in social capital can improve well-being. The contributions are from leading development economists as well as non-economic social scientists with expertise in this field. Development academics, practitioners, and environmental economists will find this coherent volume of great interest, as well as those involved in public policy in the developing world.

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.

Modelling Transitions shows what computational, formal and data-driven approaches can and could mean for sustainability transitions research, presenting the state-of-the-art and exploring what lies beyond. Featuring contributions from many well-known authors, this book presents the various benefits of modelling for transitions research. More than just taking stock, it also critically examines what modelling of transformative change means and could mean for transitions research and for other disciplines that study societal changes. This includes identifying a variety of approaches currently not part of the portfolios of transitions modellers. Far from only singing praise, critical methodological and philosophical introspection are key aspects of this important book. This book speaks to modellers and non-modellers alike who value the development of robust knowledge on transitions to sustainability, including colleagues in congenial fields. Be they students, researchers or practitioners, everyone interested in transitions should find this book relevant as reference, resource and guide.

Trade and the Environment presents the most important published articles and papers which are essential to an understanding of the complex interrelationship between trade and the environment - an area which reflects the increasing concern about the protection of the earth's environment and natural resources. The book examines the subject from three perspectives. The first section offers an economic analysis of the trade and environment relationship, including the problems of cost and the methodological approaches to analyses of trade and environment; and exploration of how international and national trade and environment policies affect each other and an investigation of how firms and corporations adjust their strategies to respond to environmental regulation. The second section, which is devoted to the legal aspects of the conflict between trade and environmental policies, explores the implications of existing international trade agreements for good environmental practice and investigates the effects of national environmental laws on international trade. The final section is concerned with government policy and the way in which national governments construct international 'regimes' which affect the interplay between trade liberators and environmental regulators. Trade and the Environment provides a clear insight into an area of current concern and points to future issues in the rapidly emerging trade and environment regime.

Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen's (1906-94) most original contribution is his bioeconomic theory. Based on a profound rethinking of the foundations of neoclassical economics, bioeconomics represents a completely new paradigm compared to both the standard and the Marxist approach. Opening economics to natural sciences led Georgescu-Roegen to point out the bio-physical limits to growth. In the last years of his life, he also criticised the sustainable development paradigm, but his criticism disappeared together with him, only to re-emerge recently, thanks to the research on his archiveand to the interest for his viewpoints within the framework of 'degrowth'. In his last years Georgescu-Roegen intended to publish a text entitled Bioeconomics, as an initial systematic arrangement of this doctrine. This book aims to pick up that project in two ways: first, collecting Goergescu-Roegen's main contributions to bioeconomic theory, some still unpublished, and tackling the principal nubs of the discipline particularly the criticism of sustainable development. Second, recuperating that full multidisciplinarity that represents the profoundest characteristic of the bioeconomic theory. The concluding essay is now considered a cornerstone of the degrowth perspective.

Twelve scholars examine some leading problems in environmental quality, analyze present situations and future prospects, and suggest what might be done about them.Originally published in 1966

This major authoritative collection prepared by leading figures from North America and Europe presents a careful selection of the most important published articles and papers on ecological economics.Ecology and economics have developed as separate disciplines throughout their recent histories in the twentieth century. A signal contribution of this important collection is that it brings these different traditions together and successfully integrates the natural and social sciences in a volume that will be indispensable to anyone interested in ecological economics. This unique volume contains both classics in the field and contemporary research and gives a coherent picture of the development of the major threads in ecological economics. This collection is a "sampler" in the transdiciplinary field of ecological economics which paints a coherent picture of the development of some of the major threads in this new endeavour. It consists of a selection of both classics in the field and contemporary research, and is intended both for formal courses in ecological economics and for interested independent readers. The book contains 43 papers divided into six sections: 1. Historical Roots and Motivations; 2. Basic Organizing Principles of Ecological Economics; 3. Material and Energy Flows in Ecological and Economic Systems: Theory and Applications; 4. Accounting for Natural Capital, Ecological Limits, and Sustainable Scale; 5. Valuation of Ecological Services; and 6. Integrated Ecological Economic Modeling and Assessment.

This volume explores institutional change and performance in the resource-rich Andean countries during the last resource boom and in the early post-boom years. The latest global commodity boom has profoundly marked the face of the resource-rich Andean region, significantly contributing to economic growth and notable reductions of poverty and income inequality. The boom also constituted a period of important institutional change, with these new institutions sharing the potential of preventing or mitigating the maladies extractive economies tend to suffer from, generally denominated as the "resource curse". This volume explores these institutional changes in the Andean region to identify the factors that have shaped their emergence and to assess their performance. The interdisciplinary and comparative perspective of the chapters in this book provide fine-grained analyses of different new institutions introduced in the Andean countries and discusses their findings in the light of the resource curse approach. They argue that institutional change and performance depend upon a much larger set of factors than those generally identified by the resource curse literature. Different, domestic and external, economic, political and cultural factors such as ideological positions of decision-makers, international pressure or informal practices have shaped institutional dynamics in the region. Altogether, these findings emphasize the importance of nuanced and contextualized analysis to better understand institutional dynamics in the context of extractive economies. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of the extractive industries, natural resource management, political economics, Latin American studies and sustainable development. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

This volume explores the dynamics of urbanisation in Northeast India. It discusses the impact of the process of urbanisation on the environment, infrastructure and socio-economic conditions of the region. The chapters in the book: Examine various challenges and opportunities of urbanisation, such as frontier urbanism, urban congestion, smart cities, vernacular architecture, urban water and waste management, cross-border migration and ethnicity. Draw attention to critical issues that have massively disturbed the urban landscape including deterioration of water quality, seismic activity and air pollution. Give alternatives that could present possible solutions to the problems afflicting this region. Drawing on case studies rooted in extensive fieldwork, this book will be indispensable to researchers and students of urban studies, human geography, development economics, cultural studies and South Asian studies. It will also be of interest to policy-makers, government representatives and town planners.

This book examines China's resource endowment and the country's current exploitation and use of resources and analyzes the main challenges and potential opportunities facing the country. It then discusses how to improve the efficiency with which resources are used by taking a 'full-life-cycle' approach to resource use. After summing up the evolution of China's policies and systems relating to resources and the environment, this book goes on to study how China's participation in global resource allocation and global resource governance has progressed under its open-economy situation, as well as challenges facing that participation. Based on all these analysis, the report proposes two targets for managing the total quantities of two specific metrics. That is, it recommends aiming to reach peak consumption of resources and peak emission of pollutants by 2030. In addition, it makes a number of specific policy recommendations. The China Development Research Foundation (CDRF) is a public foundation initiated by the Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC). Its mission is to advance good governance and public policy to promote economic development and social progress. The Foundation has approached its mandate in a number of ways, including support for evidence-based policy research, leadership training, high-level forums and symposiums to promote economic cooperation and development, and the promotion of responsible public policy. As China continues to move steadily ahead with policy reforms and investments for more inclusive development, the demands for research, transparent and accountable processes, and citizenship engagement are expanding. The Foundation is striving to meet these challenges and to coordinate policy research work which supports the work of government, civil society and enterprises in furthering equitable development in China.

This book demonstrates how mathematical models constructed in system dynamics modelling platforms, such as Vensim, can be used for long-term management of environmental change. It is divided into two sections, with the first dedicated to theory, where the theory of co-evolutionary modelling and its use in the system dynamics model platform is developed. The book takes readers through the steps in the modelling process, different validation tools applicable to these types of models and different growth specification, as well as how to curve fit using numerical methods in Vensim. Section 2 comprises of a collection of applied case studies, including fisheries, game theory and wildlife management. The book concludes with lessons from the use of co-evolutionary models for long-term natural resource management. The book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental economics, natural resource management, system dynamics, ecological modelling and bioeconomics.

The Political Ecology of Austerity explores the environmental dimension of austerity that has thus far escaped academic, policy, and media attention. Offering a better comprehension of the full socio-environmental impact of austerity measures, the book highlights the importance of considering environmental issues when designing responses to economic crisis in the future. Mobilising detailed case studies from across the world, the volume documents the ways in which austerity impacts global and local ecologies, shapes environmental conflicts and gives rise to new forms and practices of social moblisation and resistance. Bringing together theoretical debates and rigorous case studies, the book proposes 'the political ecology of austerity' as an appropriate method of analysis that can inform our understanding of the shift in environmental protection policies and the intensification of growth practices (green or otherwise) that followed the 2008 global economic crisis. The Political Ecology of Austerity discloses austerity to be a globalised set of tools not only for budgetary discipline, but also for socio-environmental discipline that justifies the continuation of capital accumulation at the expense of further global environmental degradation. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of social and political sciences, environmental studies, urban studies, and political ecology.

The strict conversation of financial capital allows accountants to preserve capitalism in its current form. Thus, building a more humane economy will require a new accounting model. Humanitarian Ecological Economics and Accounting: Capitalism, Ecology and Democracy argues for the adoption of a CARE model: comprehensive accounting in respect of ecology. This new model will take the traditional weapons of capitalist accounting and turn them against capitalism, with a goal to protect and conserve human and natural capital within the framework of a democratic society. The CARE model has been conceived as the potential basis of a new type of market economy and of a new type of governance of firms and nations. Additionally, this allows for a new conception of capital, cost and profit that helps with moves towards a society of the commons. The first part of the book explores the reconstruction of accounting and economics from the ground up, outlining the theoretical basis for the model. The second part of the book explores the transformation of the governance of firms and nations. Finally, an additional section is dedicated to the conception of a new model of national accounting. This book will be of significant interest to readers of ecological economics, critical accounting and heterodox economics.

Choice modelling is an area of growing popularity as many researchers and consultants seek to find better ways to explain the choices made by individuals, households and firms in many application contexts such as transportation, health services, environmental science, marketing, finance, economics, tourism, education, employment and taking a vacation. Choice modelling as a field begin as long ago as 1927 but it was the research in the 1960s and 1970s that cemented the field a dominant one for studying choice. This authoritative volume, along with an original introduction by the editors, brings together seminal papers that laid out the main features of the booming literature on discrete choice modelling. This timely collection will be of immense value to anyone with an interest in this evolving field of study.

Featuring a stellar international cast list of leading and cutting-edge scholars, The Routledge Handbook of the Political Economy of the Environment presents the state of the art of the discipline that considers ecological issues and crises from a political economy perspective. This collective volume sheds new light on the effect of economic and power inequality on environmental dynamics and, conversely, on the economic and social impact of environmental dynamics. The chapters gathered in this handbook make four original contributions to the field of political economy of the environment. First, they revisit essential concepts and methods of environmental economics in the light of their political economy. Second, they introduce readers to recent theoretical and empirical advances in key issues of political economy of the environment with a special focus on the relationship between inequality and environmental degradation, a nexus that has dramatically come into focus with the COVID crisis. Third, the authors of this handbook open the field to its critical global and regional dimensions: global issues, such as the environmental justice movement and inequality and climate change as well as regional issues such as agriculture systems, air pollution, natural resources appropriation and urban sustainability. Fourth and finally, the work shows how novel analysis can translate into new forms of public policy that require institutional reform and new policy tools. Ecosystems preservation, international climate negotiations and climate mitigation policies all have a strong distributional dimension that chapters point to. Pressing environmental policy such as carbon pricing and low-carbon and energy transitions entail numerous social issues that also need to be accounted for with new analytical and technological tools. This handbook will be an invaluable reference, research and teaching tool for anyone interested in political economy approaches to environmental issues and ecological crises.

Embracing the reality of biophysical limits to growth, this volume uses the technical tools from ecological economics to recast the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as Ecological Livelihood Goals - policy agendas and trajectories that seek to reconcile the social and spatial mobility and liberty of individuals, with both material security and ecological integrity. Since the 1970s, mainstream approaches to sustainable development have sought to reconcile ecological constraints with modernization through much vaunted and seldom demonstrated strategies of 'decoupling' and 'dematerialization'. In this context, the UN SDGs have become the orchestrating drivers of sustainability governance. However, biophysical limits are not so easily sidestepped. Building on an ecological- economic critique of mainstream economics and a historical- sociological understanding of state formation, this book explores the implications of ecological limits for modern progressive politics. Each chapter outlines leverage points for municipal engagement in local and regional contexts. Systems theory and community development perspectives are used to explore under- appreciated avenues for the kind of social and cultural change that would be necessary for any accommodation between modernity and ecological limits. Drawing on ideas from H.T. Odum, Herman Daly, Zigmunt Bauman, and many others, this book provides guiding research for a convergence between North and South that is bottom-up, household-centred, and predicated on a re- emerging domain of Livelihood. In each chapter, the authors provide recommendations for reconfiguring the UN's SDGs as Ecological Livelihood Goals - a framework for sustainable development in an era of limits. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of ecological economics, socio- ecological systems, political economy, international and community development, global governance, and sustainable development.