Rising fuel prices during recent years and the threat of global warming have reinforced public and scientific interest in the issue of sustainable energy, with the term sustainability understood as having economic, environmental and social dimensions. Renewable energy is seen as an effective means to address several problems simultaneously, including climate change, exploitation of non-renewable resources, the high volatility of energy prices on the global markets, dependency on fuels from politically unstable countries (energy-insecurity) and the transfer of wealth to these countries. This book addresses these and related topics including the diffusion of renewable technologies. Policies to induce sustainable energy use and production are discussed by researchers from a range of different disciplines. The result is a use-oriented and multidisciplinary perspective concerning policies to support sustainable energy use and production, which will be of great use to researchers and academics alike.

Rising fuel prices during recent years and the threat of global warming have reinforced public and scientific interest in the issue of sustainable energy, with the term sustainability understood as having economic, environmental and social dimensions. Renewable energy is seen as an effective means to address several problems simultaneously, including climate change, exploitation of non-renewable resources, the high volatility of energy prices on the global markets, dependency on fuels from politically unstable countries (energy-insecurity) and the transfer of wealth to these countries. This book addresses these and related topics including the diffusion of renewable technologies. Policies to induce sustainable energy use and production are discussed by researchers from a range of different disciplines. The result is a use-oriented and multidisciplinary perspective concerning policies to support sustainable energy use and production, which will be of great use to researchers and academics alike.

In their pursuit of policies to combat global warming, countries will find that they may also receive additional benefits which are not directly associated with the primary aim. These ancillary benefits are likely to include, for example, a reduction in pollution as a result of carbon containment policies. International Climate Policy to Combat Global Warming is one of the first books which analyses climate policy, taking account of ancillary as well as primary benefits. The author integrates ancillary benefits into the theory and explores the implications for international policy measures. Because of the private character of ancillary benefits, the author is able to treat climate policy as an impure public good which in turn has an impact on the efficient climate protection level. He highlights the general failures of the standard approach to climate policy design and goes on to propose a new approach to international negotiations on climate change. He suggests a flexible matching scheme which would help overcome free-rider incentives and which would have considerable advantages over traditional co-operative designs. By proposing a novel framework for the analysis of, and solution to, the problem of global warming, this book will be welcomed by environmental and ecological economists, policymakers and researchers of political science.