The Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011 left the entire world in a state of shock. The international community was unable to fathom how a major economic power, with one of the most extensive natural disaster preparedness programs in the world, could be laid bare to such destruction. Even other highly developed countries began questioning their own abilities to handle natural disasters. Different nations have faced disasters of varying intensity throughout history, and it is in the best interests of the global community to share experiences and wisdom in order to minimize damage wrought by future catastrophes.
Based on conference proceedings presented at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in November 2012, Natural Disaster and Reconstruction in Asian Economies offers leading insight into and viewpoints on disasters from scholars and journalists working in Japan, China, the United States, and Southeast Asia. Yau Shuk-ting focuses on a broader scope of disasters, such as political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental crises, as well as psychological traumas. This work gathers together international wisdom from a variety of perspectives in the hope that nations will be better able to manage future disasters and their economic and cultural fallout.

This book uses resource economics costing approaches incorporating externalities to estimate the returns for the country's irrigation and demonstrates how underestimating the cost of water leads farmers to overestimate profits. The importance of the subject can be judged in light of the fact that India is the largest user of groundwater both for irrigation and for drinking purposes, pumping twice as much as the United States and six times as much as Europe. Despite water's vital role in ensuring economic security for the nation and farmers alike by supporting more than 70% of food production, water resource economists are yet to impress upon farmers and policymakers the true value of water and the urgent need for its sustainable extraction, recharge and use. In an endeavor to promote more awareness, the book further delineates the roles of the demand side and supply side in the economics of irrigation, and explains how the cost of water varies with the efforts to recharge it, crop patterns, degrees of initial and premature well failure and degrees of externalities. It also discusses the importance of micro-irrigation in the economics of saving water for irrigation, estimating the marginal productivity of water and how it improves with drip irrigation, the economics of water sharing and water markets, optimal control theory in sustainable extraction of water, payment of ecosystem services for water and how India can effectively recover. In closing, the book highlights the role of socioeconomic and hydrogeological factors in the economics of irrigation, which vary considerably across hard rock areas and the resulting limitations on generalizing.

This volume explores interactions between academia and different societal stakeholders with a focus on sustainability. It examines the significance and potential of transdisciplinary collaboration as a tool for sustainability and the SDGs. Traditionally, academia has focused on research and education. More recently, however, the challenges of sustainable development and achieving the SDGs have required the co-production of knowledge between academic and non-academic actors. Compromising theory, methods and case studies from a broad span of transdisciplinary collaboration, Transdisciplinarity For Sustainability: Aligning Diverse Practices is written by specialists from various academic disciplines and represents an important step forward in systematising knowledge and understanding of transdisciplinary collaboration. They are designed to provide a roadmap for further research in the field and facilitate pursuing and realizing the SDGs. The book will appeal to researchers and postgraduate students in a variety of disciplines such as architecture, design, economics, social sciences, engineering and sustainability studies. It will also be of significant value to professionals who are engaged in transdisciplinary collaboration that supports sustainable development.

This book is published open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book summarizes presentations and discussions from the two-day international workshop held at UC Berkeley in March 2015, and derives questions to be addressed in multi-disciplinary research toward a new paradigm of nuclear safety. The consequences of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in March 2011 have fuelled the debate on nuclear safety: while there were no casualties due to radiation, there was substantial damage to local communities. The lack of common understanding of the basics of environmental and radiological sciences has made it difficult for stakeholders to develop effective strategies to accelerate recovery, and this is compounded by a lack of effective decision-making due to the eroded public trust in the government and operators. Recognizing that making a society resilient and achieving higher levels of safety relies on public participation in and feedback on decision-making, the book focuses on risk perception and mitigation in its discussion of the development of resilient communities.

This textbook provides broad coverage of energy supply and use. It discusses how energy is produced, transformed, delivered to end users, and consumed. The author discusses all of this at an undergraduate level, accessible to students of varying backgrounds. High-level and human-scale perspectives are included. As a high-level example, the book discusses the shares of global primary energy that are provided by oil, gas, coal, hydroelectricity, and renewables, as well as trends in energy consumption and supply over time. Human-scale examples will resonate with readers' every day experiences. The link between economic development and energy consumption is presented, which facilitates understanding of how global energy consumption growth is inevitable as economic development occurs. Coverage includes separate chapters on the oil, natural gas, coal, and electricity sectors. Each of these provides high-level descriptions of the technology involved in the production of that type of energy as well as the processing and transportation that occurs to bring the energy to end users. The book discusses the technological implications of energy transitions such as increased use of renewables or changes in the use of nuclear energy using Germany and Japan as examples. It closes with a discussion of future energy use.

It might seem that contemporary economic theory offers a scientific account of choice among alternatives. Yet this is only superficially the case; the behavior of the agents in most economic models is completely specified by preference functions, technological possibilities, and market interactions. 'Choice' is a misnomer for solution of one or another kind of optimization problem in such models. The open-endedness that characterizes genuinely free choices made by real human beings is absent.The book aims to show that (1) the deterministic vision embodied in conventional economic modeling is neither consistent with nor supported by the state of the art in mathematics, logic, and physical science; (2) use of models that rule out unpredictability and freedom of action has had negative consequences for policy design and implementation; and (3) restoring meaningful freedom to the agents is an essential first step toward making social theorizing more realistic and insightful.

The authors examine how far internal policies in the European Union move towards the objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the EU by 80-95 per cent by 2050, and how or whether the EU's 2050 objective to 'decarbonise' could affect the EU's relations with a number of external energy partners.

This book is a guide to how financial steering is designed, measured and implemented with a special focus on the energy industry. The authors offer an overview of and practical insights into the links between financial steering and accounting, and the temporary cycles of investment, divestment, return and loss, market highs and lows that form the framework of the entire energy industry across all value chain stages. The faster and the larger the cash cycles of investments and their returns, the greater not only the value created, but also the potential loss if the financial steering is not properly designed and managed. Value and value generation require an understanding of how value is both defined and measured in both and how the business/project economics model of a company works - financial steering provides this. Further, the book also discusses accounting topics such as impairments, new IFRS standards and the impact of accounting on key performance indicators of financial steering, which are associated with these investment decision valuations. The combination of accounting with the cash flow perspective provides a complete understanding of selected practical topics of financial steering which are explained in detail in a large number of examples and case studies. The book is intended for a wide range of finance/controlling/treasury/accounting professionals and students. It is written in practical and simple terms to outline the financial steering concept and to bring it to life in daily work and in the decision making process for financial steering. All illustrated concepts are in the same manner relevant and applicable to all other asset-intense industry sectors and their financial steering processes.

This book explores how African countries can convert their natural resources, particularly oil and gas, into sustainable development assets. Using Ghana, one of the continent's newest oil-producing countries, as a lens, it examines the "resource curse" faced by other producers - such as Nigeria, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea - and demonstrates how mismanagement in those countries can provide valuable lessons for new oil producers in Africa and elsewhere. Relying on a broad range of fieldwork and policymaking experience, Panford suggests practical measures for resource-rich developing countries to transform natural resources into valuable assets that can help create jobs, boost human resources, and improve living and working conditions in Ghana in particular. He suggests fiscal, legal, and environmental antidotes to resource mismanagement, which he identifies as the major obstacle to socioeconomic development in countries that have historically relied on natural resources.

Governing the Interlinkages between the SDGs: Approaches, Opportunities and Challenges identifies the institutional processes, governance mechanisms and policy mixes that are conducive to devising strategies of integrated Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) implementation. The book edited by Anita Breuer, Daniele Malerba, Srinivasa Srigiri and Pooja Balasubramanian examines the dedicated policies targeting the SDGs, as well as political and institutional drivers of synergies and trade-offs between the SDGs in selected key areas - both cross-nationally and in specific country contexts. Their analysis moves beyond the focus on links between SDG indicators and targets. Instead, the book takes advantage of recent evidence from the initial implementation phase of the SDGs and each chapter explores the question of which political-institutional prerequisites, governance mechanisms and policy instruments are suited to accelerate the implementation of the SDGs. The findings presented are intended to both inform high-level policy debates and to provide orientation for practitioners working on development cooperation. This volume will be of great interest to practitioners and policy makers in the field of sustainable development, as well as academics in the fields of sustainability research, political science, and economics.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of current renewable energy technologies and their basic principles. It also addresses the financial aspects of renewable energy projects and analyzes their profitability, covering the most relevant topics for engineers, economists, managers and scientists who are actively involved in renewable energy research and management. The authors are professionals and researchers who are active in the industry, and supplement the main content with revealing case studies and best-practice examples.

In this book, Professor Uzawa modifies and extends the theoretical premises of orthodox economic theory to those broad enough to be capable of analyzing the phenomena related to environmental disequilibrium, particularly global warming, and of finding institutional arrangements and policy measures that may bring about a more optimal state where natural and institutional components are harmoniously blended. He constructs a theoretical framework in which three major problems concerning global environmental issues may effectively be addressed. First, all phenomena involved with global environmental issues exhibit externalities of one kind or another. Secondly, global environmental issues involve international and intergenerational equity and justice. Thirdly, global environmental issues concern the management of the atmosphere, the oceans, water, soil, and other natural resources that have to be decided by a consensus of all affected countries.

provides the first in-depth investigation of how non-timber forest products are an integral part of local, national, and global bioeconomies. reveals how essential these products are to creating a greener and more sustainable future will be of great interest to students and scholars of forest and natural resource management, bioeconomics, circular economy and ecological economics more widely

Microbehavioral Econometric Methods and Environmental Studies uses microeconometric methods to model the behavior of individuals, then demonstrates the modelling approaches in addressing policy needs. It links theory and methods with applications, and it incorporates data to connect individual choices and global environmental issues. This extension of traditional environmental economics presents modeling strategies and methodological techniques, then applies them to hands-on examples.Throughout the book, readers can access chapter summaries, problem sets, multiple household survey data with regard to agricultural and natural resources in Sub-Saharan Africa, South America, and India, and empirical results and solutions from the SAS software.

Nonpoint-source pollution (NPSP) poses a special challenge to society's ability to manage its collective environmental good - especially surface and groundwater quality. Since there is no point', such as an outfall pipe, from which the pollution is being discharged and can be measured, pollution can reach the ambient environment without being monitored. Since management of air and water polution requires the definition and enforcement of limits on discharges or the imposition of fees on those discharges, inability to measure limits our ability to manage this environmental problem. This book presents a state-of-the-art review and discussion of economists' efforts to resolve this major problem and attempts to provide a way of working around it. The book sets forth the theoretical issues, modeling, and the actual programs set up to confront this issue.

Dynamic Decisions highlights how some managers and policymakers sleepwalk into decision paralysis. Strategically, they partly recognise their world is changing radically as energy systems transition. In deciding what to invest in, they default to rewarding the predictable and proven, often misdiagnosing the ignored risks of innately ambiguous markets. To remedy this, the author frames ambiguity as a source of opportunity. As extant advantages obsolesce, new entrants could disrupt to gain dominance. Some managers could repurpose, reframe, and reconfigure their resources and processes to create tomorrow's profitable niches today. To profit from these emerging business landscapes, managers can PIVOT and BOUnCE to win by transitioning into a dynamic mindset. Endowed with a creative mind to innovate, humans could reshape their firms and their societies. Armed with these capabilities, albeit partial, managers could choose to adapt responsive strategic actions that are tangible, actionable, and achievable, with policy sustaining societal benefits by expanding people's access to opportunities.Dynamic Decisions is written for managers and policymakers that seek to benefit their firms and communities in how they conduct their business and themselves. Connecting theory to practice with actual business cases, this book is organised into four clusters that act as building blocks to structure the reader's decision-making process. Through experimentation, learning, and adaptation, the reader of Dynamic Decisions will redirect their strategic actions that are necessary to nurture tomorrow's profitable niches today.

This book provides an interdisciplinary account of how technological advances - mainly in the domains of energy and transportation - contribute to the transformation towards a more sustainable economic system. Drawing on methods from engineering, the management sciences and economics, which it combines in the framework of a systems sciences approach, the book presents qualitative and quantitative studies on government regulation, resources management and firms' strategy. Topics covered include the state-market dilemma of government CO2 emission targets, implications of the electrification of the economy, incentives and coercion in government transport policies, and innovations in the electric vehicle industry.

Every decision about energy involves its price and cost. The price of gasoline and the cost of buying from foreign producers; the price of nuclear and hydroelectricity and the costs to our ecosystems; the price of electricity from coal-fired plants and the cost to the atmosphere. Giving life to inventions, lifestyle changes, geopolitical shifts, and things in-between, energy economics is of high interest to Academia, Corporations and Governments.

For economists, energy economics is one of three subdisciplines which, taken together, compose an economic approach to the exploitation and preservation of natural resources: energy economics, which focuses on energy-related subjects such as renewable energy, hydropower, nuclear power, and the political economy of energyresource economics, which covers subjects in land and water use, such as mining, fisheries, agriculture, and forests environmental economics, which takes a broader view of natural resources through economic concepts such as risk, valuation, regulation, and distribution

Although the three are closely related, they are not often presented as an integrated whole.This Encyclopedia has done just that by unifying these fields into ahigh-quality andunique overview.

The only reference work that codifies the relationships among the three subdisciplines: energy economics, resource economics and environmental economics. Understanding these relationships just became simpler

Nobel Prize Winning Editor-in-Chief (joint recipient 2007 Peace Prize), Jason Shogren, has demonstrated excellent team work again, by coordinating and steeringhis Editorial Board to produce a cohesive work that guides the user seamlessly through the diverse topics.

This work contains in equal parts information from and about business, academic, and government perspectives and is intended to serve as a tool for unifying and systematizing research and analysis in business, universities, and government."

Capitalism is criticized as both the cause of, and the main barrier to, effective mitigation of climate change. Yet, from the earliest days of the international negotiations, states have agreed that technological innovation, believed to be a primary strength of capitalism, is crucial to prevention of a dangerous accumulation of atmospheric greenhouse gases. Nations prefer to rely on innovative technologies to reduce emissions than to use regulations to constrain markets and limit social choice. The contributors to this volume show that the strengths of the system that creates ever new consumer products and industrial processes actually prevent the generation of technological innovations that would most effectively mitigate climate change. Through comprehensive research of the US innovation system and how companies respond to its supporting institutions, they demonstrate that liberal capitalism's perceived strengths are also its weaknesses. They also show that current theories of technological innovation are incomplete and suggest the institutional changes needed to generate climate innovations.

A global blue economy is an economic arena that depends on the benefits and values realized from the coastal and marine environments. This book explains the "sustainable blue economy" as a marine-based economy that provides social and economic benefits for current and future generations. It restores, protects, and maintains the diversity, productivity, and resilience of marine ecosystems, and is based on clean technologies, renewable energy, and circular material flows.

Renewable energy is rising within an energy system dominated by powerful vested energy interests in fossil fuels, nuclear and electric utilities. Analyzing renewables in six very different countries, the author argues that it is the extent to which states have controlled these vested interests that determines the success or failure of renewables.

This book takes a compelling approach to describing what is needed to create the kind of future that most people on Earth really want. Our global society is hopelessly addicted to a particular vision of the world and a future that has become both unsustainable and undesirable. Addicted to Growth frames our current predicament as a societal addiction to a 'growth at all costs' economic paradigm. While economic growth has produced many benefits, its side effects are now producing existential problems that are rapidly getting worse. Robert Costanza considers lessons from what works at the individual level to overcome addictions and applies them to a societal scale. Costanza recognises that the first step to recovery is recognising the addiction and that it is leading to disaster; however, simply pointing out the dire consequences of our societal addiction is only the first step and can be counterproductive by itself in motivating change. The key next step is creating a truly shared vision of the kind of world we all want, and the book explores creative ways to implement this societal therapy. The final step is using that shared vision to motivate the changes needed to achieve it, including adaptive transformations of our economic systems, property rights regimes, and governance institutions. An exciting contribution from a key thinker in the field, this book will be a valuable resource to students and scholars of public policy and sustainability studies, and anyone interested in understanding and overcoming our societal addiction to growth.

This book shows the push and pull effects between resources, human security and conflicts in Africa. It recognizes the need for resources in Africa to be processed into finished goods in order to influence global market and redefine the pattern of trade relations with powerful countries of Asia, America and Europe in shaping the destiny and future of African countries. The achievement of this laudable objective is plagued by the security challenges which are directly or indirectly linked to resource-related conflicts rocking most of the resource endowed countries in the continent, thereby threatening global peace and security. To deal with this menace in the continent, it requires global co-operation and support of foreign governments, international organizations, international non-government organizations, governments of host countries and its citizens. The book presents the cases and experiences of countries that are endowed with resource, as well as have experienced different forms of human insecurity and have witnessed environmental conflicts in its analysis, which make the discourse interesting and quite educating.

Revised and updated for the 2nd edition, this textbook provides an analysis and investigation of the most essential areas of environmental economic theory and policy, including international environmental problems. The approach is based on standard theoretical tools, in particular equilibrium analysis, and aims to demonstrate how economic principles can help to understand environmental issues and guide policymakers. Current topics including climate change, overfishing and integrated approaches to environmental policies are carefully analyzed in this framework, and a multitude of practical examples from various parts of the world is presented. Addressing undergraduate and graduate students, this book is a must read for everybody interested in a better understanding of environmental economics.

Rapid growth of the global economy has accelerated the degradation of the Earth's most important asset: the environment. Increasing poverty and challenges arising from climate change further threaten the planet's natural systems. With a rising global population, the demand on natural resources to cover even basic human needs is intensifying - supporting businesses that promote the sustainable use of natural resources and help ensure their long-term viability is imperative. As part of a pioneering movement to harness business towards effecting environmental change, The Nature Conservancy launched EcoEnterprises Fund in 2000 to provide investment capital to grow small "eco"-businesses in Latin America. There is a compelling need for financing this niche. Companies of this size truly drive change - creating the engine for economic activity and generating livelihoods for bottom of the pyramid rural peoples which brings about positive social and conservation impacts. EcoEnterprises Fund's portfolio highlights twenty-three cutting-edge companies, in expanding sectors such as organic agriculture, ecotourism, sustainable forestry, and non-timber forest products which include innovative industry first-movers-from organic shrimp to biodynamic flowers, and ready-to-drink smoothies made from the latest Amazonian berry. With a successful ten-year track record, EcoEnterprises Fund has valuable learning to share - from what pitfalls to avoid when structuring investments to what types of assistance entrepreneurs in these emerging environmental sectors need most. Portfolio for the Planet translates a decade of experience into accessible lessons for both veterans and newcomers in the field: for those interested in investing in sustainable businesses, discovering novel approaches to environmental conservation, or seeing entrepreneurs pursue their dreams.