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Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Environmental economics > General
Provides a conceptual set of tools for how to approach environmental issues in a rigorous and thoughtful manner, based on an analysis of incentives, property rights, market failure, supply and demand constraints, and insights from behavioral economics. Easy-to-read and filled with real-world examples of the most complex environmental challenges, " "this book demonstrates that sound economic analysis and reasoning can be one of the environmental community's strongest allies.
First published in 1988, this work provides a comprehensive picture of the range of physical environments in Africa, focusing upon those characteristics and issues central to the management of environmental resources. Beginning with an overview of the geographical and environmental history of Africa, the authors also provide to the evolution of the management of resources and then details a broadly defined ecosystem approach, in which major environmental resource issues are identified and addressed in the tropical rainforest, the Savannah dry-forest, the arid and semi-arid areas, the highlands, and the extra-tropical zones of Northern and Southern Africa. The book is designed to contribute to a better understanding of African environmental and resource-management problems and this reissue should be welcomed by students of Africa and of environmental resource management problems in general.
First published in 1976, this book deals with contemporary tensions between the West and the Third World, caused by hunger, malnutrition and poverty, perpetuated by an imbalance in the distribution of world resources. The book deals with the issue of malnutrition in the Third World, which owes much more to poverty and unemployment than to agricultural failure. The author also believes that population control can do little in the absence of a more equitable distribution of world resources and political power within and between countries involving a fundamental change in ideology and education. This is a challenging and critical book, whose arguments cannot be ignored by anyone concerned with the creation of a just and stable world order.
This book represents both a textbook and a monograph. Part I entitled 'Basics' mainly contains textbook material and this is also partly true for Part II. Here the precise de nition and characterization of the not so well-known notion of interg- erational ef ciency within Diamond's two-period overlapping generations model gures prominently. In Part III, a renewable natural resource is introduced in the log-linear Cobb-Douglas overlapping generations model, and the ef ciency c- cepts developed in Part II are applied. The balance among material for a textbook und for a monograph is approximately even. In Part IV research monograph ch- acteristics gain progressively prominence. While this part dealing with intergene- tional equity in perfectly competitive market economies presents already published work, the last part focusing on harvest cost contains still unpublished work. Asthesubtitle ofthepresentbookannounces, ourintentionisto provideanint- duction to the not so widespread overlappinggenerationsapproach to intertemporal resource economics. It is introductory in that utility and production functions are functionally speci ed such that the interested reader can derive explicit solutions to intertemporal general equilibria. However, we do not primarily aim at enhancing the reader's skill of solving general equilibrium models-we rather aim at prov- ing the tools for coping with analytically much more advanced dynamic general equilibriummodelswith renewable natural resources, published in leading journals. This book emerged out of lectures of the rst author within the master programs of the University of Life Sciences in Vienna and at Karl-Franzens-University of Graz.
Environmental policy is undergoing a dramatic transformation. The problems connected with global change, the need for preventative action, and the growing importance of non-source pollution call for new courses of action and new institutional arrangements. In this situation, it is fairly obvious that both the traditional command and control policy instruments and the more modern financial and economic instruments are increasingly under stress. This volume deliberately aims to break new ground in providing the conceptual tools necessary for the next generation of environmental policies. In doing so, it covers a wide interdisciplinary range, from public policy analysis to international law, and draws upon much international experience, well reflected by the mixed composition of the contributors. On the basis of a shared theoretical framework, the book explores the potential of new policy instruments, such as policy evaluation or mediation, proposes alternative institutional arrangements for dealing with the issues, classifies existing instruments, and illuminates the process through which old and new tools can be set into operation.
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 scholars--anthropologists, archaeologists, architects, educators, lawyers, heritage administrators, policy analysts, and consultants--make 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.
Against the background of realities of underdevelopment and economic growth, environmental pressures and global governance challenges, this volume presents a broad picture of contemporary issues in African development. The multi-disciplinary collection presents a variety of important themes, covering land questions, housing, water, health, economic liberalization, climate, environment, and gender. The specific country studies illustrate the diversity of the African continent and demonstrate how unique contexts impact upon different levels of achievement. The volume seeks to present and promote novel analytical frameworks, new conceptual approaches, and empirical accounts of relevance to scholars studying Africa as well as practitioners in African development and policy makers.
Caribbean small island developing states (SIDS) have witnessed great upheaval and change over the last decade and a half - from the global economic recession of 2008, the 2010 and 2021 earthquakes in Haiti, to hurricanes that devastated islands like Jamaica, Barbuda, Dominica and The Bahamas, volcanic eruptions, and health crises. These events are reminders of how vulnerable Caribbean SIDS are to external and internal shocks; today Caribbean SIDS are grappling with how to restart their economies and embrace a "new normal" in the wake of disasters and the sharp losses in tourism. Pandemics, Disasters, Sustainability, Tourism examines the resilience of Caribbean SIDS and their tourism industries from the perspectives of culture, economy, environment, politics, psychology, social justice, and socio-historical context. Pandemics, Disasters, Sustainability, Tourism's broad-based topics engage scholars, students, and the public in discourse regarding Caribbean SIDS' resilient Island economies that, facing calamity, implement new initiatives to forge environmentally sound policies for sustainable tourism and hospitality development.
Drawing on the middle chapters from the first edition of J. Barkley Rosser's seminal work, "From Catastrophe to Chaos, " this book presents an unusual perspective on economics and economic analysis. Current economic theory largely depends upon assuming that the world is fundamentally continuous. However, an increasing amount of economic research has been done using approaches that allow for discontinuities such as catastrophe theory, chaos theory, synergetics, and fractal geometry. The spread of such approaches across a variety of disciplines of thought has constituted a virtual intellectual revolution in recent years. This book reviews the applications of these approaches in various subdisciplines of economics and draws upon past economic thinkers to develop an integrated view of economics as a whole from the perspective of inherent discontinuity.
Business is coming under increasing pressure from government, customers and campaigning groups to improve its environmental performance. Soaring utility and compliance costs are hitting companies where it hurts - on their bottom line. But there is another way of looking at the green agenda - as an opportunity rather than a threat. Written by renowned green business expert Gareth Kane, this practical 'how-to' guide contains everything you need to know about making your business green and increasing profits. Key features include: ' The Three Secrets of Green Business Success. ' Preparing To Go Green - change management, indicators, communication and marketing. ' Small Steps - the easy actions that will cut waste of materials, water and energy and save you money. ' Huge Leaps - the really big changes that will make your business truly green by changing your processes, products and business models. ' Hundreds of handy hints and tips. ' Checklists and a brainstorming tool Packed with examples, this book provides a highly accessible, practical guide to those who want to introduce sustainability into their business or organization quickly and effectively.
Edited by a leading scholar in the field, this new four-volume Routledge Major Work brings together canonical and cutting-edge research in ecological economics. In tracing both the development of thought in the field, as well as exploring the most recent scholarship, diverse elements of the rapidly expanding literature are brought together for the first time, providing an overview of?and vision for?ecological economics. While the roots of ecological economics can be traced back to the late 1800s the modern movement developed from diverse writings in the following century. The field became fully established and institutionalized in the late 1980s. This collection shows how research questioning the basis of mainstream economics combined with a concern for environmental degradation and limits to growth to produce ecological economics. There are also many academics who, while not calling themselves ecological economists, have ideas which are directly of relevance. The common interest, as shown especially in Parts 1?3 of the collection, has been to move beyond standard economic approaches and towards a new political economy which takes note of learning in other sciences. Besides identifying and collecting seminal works, the editor has also chosen pieces for their ability cogently to summarize and explain developments and ongoing thinking. Ecological economics is now a vibrant and dynamic field, but it has to date lacked a coherent guide to its rapidly expanding literature. Aided by the collection's thematic organization and the editor's newly written general and volume introductions, this Routledge Major Work will enable users to make sense of the wide range of approaches, theories, and concepts that have informed research in ecological economics to date. It is an essential collection destined to be valued as a vital research resource by all scholars and students of the subject.
It has always been thought that some level of pollution and waste is unavoidable in development projects. But no one has made much effort to quantify and assess the extent of this sort of damage. In this book a group of analysts from the Asian Development Bank and from the East West Center propose a means of constructing useful economic evaluations of the impacts of development projects on the environments in which they are constructed. This study demands the systematic evaluation of all the intentional and unintentional consequences of development initiatives before they are determined upon. It is essential reading for development economists, analysts and bankers. Originally published in 1986
In 1990, energy in the UK underwent a unique and fundamental transformation, with the privatization of the electricity supply industry. This is the first book to fully assess the experiment. It first explains how - and why - the British electricity supply industry was privatized. It then identifies the subsequent changes in electricity prices, profits, employment, investment, nuclear power and renewable, and the extent to which each of these was due solely to privatization or to other factors, or could have come about by reform of the previous model, rather than privatization. Finally, the authors analyse the key unresolved issues of regulation, introducing competition into the domestic energy market in 1998, supply security, and other long-term strategic considerations. Throughout, the distinguish between the uniquely British elements of the experience and those which can be drawn upon by other countries embarking upon similar reforms. Today, governments throughout the world are looking to the UK's experience as a potential prototype for the restructure of their own electricity supply industries. For them, and for electricity utilities, fuel and power plant suppliers, regulation authorities, financial analysts, international agencies, journalists and academics alike, this thorough and pragmatic study will be essential reading. 'This is likely to become the definitive book on the first six years of the great British electricity experiment' Walt Patterson The British Electricity Experiment is the result of a detailed study undertaken by the Energy Programme at the science Policy Research unit (SPRU). Professor John Surrey was head of SPR's Energy Programme between 1969 and 1986. He has worked with the central Electricity Generating Board, as a government Economic Adviser, and as a Specialist Adviser to numerous House of Commons Select Committee inquiries on energy matters. Originally published in 1996
This is a pioneering study which should serve as a model for future research and will to a wide audience' Dharam Ghai, Director United Nations Research Institute for Social Development Structural Adjustment and the Environment (Earthscan, 1992) was the first book to fully examine the effects of 'structural adjustment programmes the economic reform policies required by the World Bank and IMF as part of their lending operations with borrowing countries. To widespread Critical acclaim it exposed the damaging environmental and social effects of structural adjustment policies, and called for a thorough revision of the then-current development policy. This new work; Structural Adjustment, the Environment and sustainable Development is a major step forward in the study of structural adjustment policies. It looks in detail at new research and analysis into their effects, and incorporates recent studies by a wide range of academics and policy-makers, leading experts and institutes. Focusing on nine in-depth case studies, the book examines the complex links between macroeconomic policies, social impacts and environmental outcomes, and takes a forward-looking perspective in outlining the alternatives to current structural adjustment policies. Review quotes for Structural Adjustment and the Environment 'Should be essential reading for all students of development' Third World Planning Review 'Breaks new ground in the debate on structural adjustment generally. and in the environment/development debate' International Affairs 'The most substantial contribution to date to what is undoubtedly an important area' Development and Change David Reed is director of the Macroeconomics for Sustainable Development Programme of WWF International, and editor of Structural Adjustment and the Environment (Earthscan, 1992). Originally published in 1996
A growing number of GHG emissions trading schemes are being implemented at regional or national levels. However, even as the number of different schemes grows, few linkages exist between them. Major cap-and-trade proposals are currently at important stages in their development, especially in the United States, Japan and Australia, some of which explicitly emphasize the aim of linking with other schemes. One of the strategic goals of European climate policy is linking the EU ETS with other comparable schemes. The research presented in this volume is on actual economic, political and institutional constraints and implications. It examines the role of linking trading schemes for the development of the post-Kyoto climate architecture and for increasing linkage between schemes. This essential research will be relevant to both the scientific community and for policymakers who are involved in the design of emerging trading schemes and offset mechanisms, as well as in designing the post Kyoto climate regime. This volume focuses specifically on: o Economic, institutional/regulatory and legal dimensions of linking o Implications of linking on the design of emerging trading schemes o The role of linking trading schemes for the development of the post-Kyoto climate regime
World agricultural resources will be altered by climate change which will require both public and private actions. Global agriculture is affected by invasive alien pest and disease species and by severe weather such as sea-level rise flooding and drought. Rising sea levels will increase salinity in coastal groundwater and the loss of coastal wetlands. Drought will increase the vulnerability of forest ecosystems due to decreased soil moisture and increased evapotranspiration. Many changes will be needed to maintain global food security. Climate change will affect food supply and demand, as well as prices. Research and development have the potential to impact both supply and demand, especially through the adoption of biotechnology. Researching plant and animal breeding for multiple disease resistance against pathogens of global relevance has great evolutionary potential. One such program is aquaculture. Another problem is land constraints as rural and urban areas compete for land. For rural food-insecure households, land competition means necessary changes in production practices. Research and development investments could substantially decelerate food prices to prevent hunger and deteriorating living standards in rural households worldwide. Increasing food security will mean establishing dietary guidelines that alleviate the negative health and economic outcomes associated with malnutrition. It is highly questionable to aggregate all food items based solely on calories per kilogram content when not all calories are equal in their effect on health. Food security also includes increasing diet diversity while decreasing food waste and loss. It is imperative that actions be taken for a food-secure future.
Economic values are increasingly used in policy analysis and legal settings. With the growing recognition that many of the things that benefit or harm people are outside the market system, have come increasing efforts to develop nonmarket valuation techniques. One such technique is the contingent valuation method (CVM). CVM seeks to value environmental and other nonmarket goods and services by asking individuals about their values using survey methods. These procedures are different from the revealed-preference' methods that economists have historically employed to estimate economic values. Why depart from well-established revealed-preference procedures and apply a stated-preference' method like CVM? For nonmarket goods and services, revealed-preference methods have two shortcomings that those applying CVM hope to avoid. First, revealed-preference methods involve econometric problems that have yet to be fully overcome. The second shortcoming of revealed-preference methods is that such methods, when applied to environmental amenities, are likely to be only partial measures of value. Given the tremendous interest that exists in economic values and the limitations of revealed-preference methods, it is not surprising that interest in CVM has grown rapidly. Environmental Resource Valuation reviews the application of CVM and compares American experiences in nonmarket evaluation with those in other countries.
Integrating environmental and world-systems analyses in chapters ranging from the ancient to the contemporary, from the global to the local, from West to East, and from North to South, this book is the first collection to analyze environmental issues from the world-systems perspective. The introduction provides Immanuel Wallerstein's fullest explication of the role of ecological constraints in the world-system. Early chapters diagnose the increasing environmental threats to global sustainability and suggest ways to arrive at an integrated theoretical understanding of those threats. The work then shows the historical and geographical range necessary to do justice to ecological considerations in chapters considering ancient civilizations, capitalism, the circumpolar North, the dam-builders of Asia, and the polluters of East Central Europe. The final chapters analyze the successes and limits of environmental movements in the United States, South Africa, and South Korea.
'Sustainability Analysis' provides a detailed exploration of current environmental thinking from a variety of perspectives, including institutional and psychological angles. Primarily focusing on macroeconomic policies and green national accounting, this book provides a strong basis for further study in sustainable development.
This book develops a new theory of "identity" ecological modernization (EM), to analyze renewable history and policy development in many of the world's states, which are leading the drive to install renewable energy. "Identity EM" concerns how an industry has arisen allied to environmental NGOs to challenge the ascendancy of conventional energy technologies.
Cost-benefit analysis - the formal estimating and weighing of the costs and benefits of policy alternatives - is a standard tool for governments in advanced economies. Through decades of research and innovation, institutions have developed in the United States, European Union, and other developed countries that examine and weigh policy alternatives as an aid to governmental decisionmaking. Lawmakers in the advanced economies have used cost-benefit analysis to evaluate core environmental and public health questions, such as urban air pollution control, water quality, and occupational safety. Yet despite its broad adoption in the industrialized world, most developing and emerging countries have not yet incorporated cost-benefit analysis into their policymaking process. Because these countries face significant limitations on financial resources and have less ability to shoulder inefficient rules, it is extremely important for their officials to determine which policies maximize net benefits for their societies. Cost-Benefit Analysis, Environmental Policy, and Emerging Economies examines how cost-benefit analysis can help developing and emerging countries confront the next generation of environmental and public-health challenges. Analysis in the book examines the growing reach of cost-benefit analysis; presents relevant case studies where cost-benefit analysis has been incorporated in the Americas, Africa, Middle East, and Asia; and includes a discussion on the conceptual and institutional issues that must be addressed when adopting cost-benefit analysis in developing and emerging countries. In part because governments in developing and emerging countries have not extensively used cost-benefit analysis, there has been only limited research and discussion of the practice and its potential. Most work that has been done is on the domestic or regional level, and has not been widely shared or distributed within the international academic or policy community. By providing both theoretical and practical discussion of this important new tool, this book makes a valuable contribution to the fields of environmental policy, development studies, and environmental law.
This book looks at how the benefits of economic development in the Great Lakes Region of Africa are not being equally distributed. It studies the impact of the increasing scramble for natural resources upon local livelihoods and considers the ambiguities that characterise the relationship between mining and development.
The climate policy debate has been dominated by economic estimates of the costs of policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Yet the models used to derive those estimates are based on assumptions that have largely gone untested. The conventional approach embodies structural features that rule out alternative market outcomes. In addition, the distribution of "climate rights" is crucial to determining the economic affects of various policies. Bringing these considerations to the forefront shows how domestic and international policy solutions might be found.
Few policy areas in recent history have the attention of the Australian public and polity as much as those relating to water. Water Policy in Australia considers the current policy reform agenda from agricultural, environmental, and cultural perspectives. It presents a comprehensive account of the country's critical water issues and provides expert perspectives from behavioral and institutional economists, engineers, hydrologists, sociologists, and water law specialists. norms, and values relating to the exploitation of water resources. Until the 1980s, the engineer was king, and policymakers viewed water as an endless resource for driving economic growth. However, in the last twenty years, policymakers have been forced to acknowledge that it is not possible to perpetually supply more water at a low cost. Consequently, the country has begun to focus on water resource management through legislative and institutional change - attempting to allocate water in a more economically efficient and socially and environmentally acceptable manner. institutional change, as well as valuable lessons on the design of property rights for complex resources. The editor and contributors look beyond recent reform efforts and address the hydrological, biophysical, economic, and social factors at play in Australia. The book addresses pertinent issues, such as irrigation in the Murray-Darling basin, one of Australia's largest drainage divisions; the progression from common law riparian rights to share-based entitlements that encourage sustainable water use; and the potential outcomes of the recent National Water Initiative, a wide-ranging strategy to improve water management and simultaneously maintain healthy groundwater and river systems.
The last decade has seen increasing awareness of the importance of understanding corporate environmental management systems (EMSs) and their relationships with sustainability, competitiveness and institutional practice. It is now assumed that most large companies have some version of an EMS in place with systems ranging from informal policies and practices to formalised third-party certified systems that are widely publicized by companies and are now integral to their strategic direction. No matter what level and type of system a firm chooses, both practitioners and researchers wish to examine and better understand the extent to which these systems are cross-functional, how they impact on performance evaluation, their capability to monitor supply chains and the life-cycles of products and services and, most importantly, whether these systems actually make a contribution to better environmental performance. This book provides intriguing insights into strategic and sustainable EMSs. It provides clear evidence of benefits that should exceed the costs (tangible and otherwise), and help practitioners understand the attributes of well-developed and strategically focused EMSs. It also demonstrates the link to performance measures such as reputation, improved position in the marketplace, cost, quality, waste reduction and numerous sustainable development-based metrics and issues. The comprehensive scope of topics spans several industries and provides environmental systems insight involving sustainable management systems, strategic and operational impacts of environmental systems, cross-country comparisons of EMS design processes and results, product-based environmental systems, EMS impacts at innovative organisations and environmental systems integration within specific industries. The book is split into three sections. First, the book covers the broad issues of planning and designing an EMS and includes topics such as performance evaluation, comparisons between multinational environmental systems, sustainable development and links between already established quality systems and an EMS. The second section focuses on EMS implementation and operation and incorporates some corporate or industry-specific case studies. The third and final category of the book highlights the use of an EMS to evaluate business processes. Strategic Sustainability will be essential reading for both managers faced with decisions regarding their own EMSs and to researchers seeking additional insights from state-of-the-art examples for further theoretical development and testing. |
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