Concise introductions to the main issues in energy policy and their interaction with environmental policies in the EU. The European Union (EU) faces critical challenges in energy policy making, the most pressing of which are how to achieve the deep greenhouse gas reductions promised at the December 2015 UN Conference of the Parties in Paris, and how this effort can be coordinated with already existing policies. Energy policy is primarily a member state responsibility, and policy makers need an overarching view of the main issues in energy policy and their interaction with environmental policies. This volume aims to fill this need, offering concise introductions to some of the major issues as well as practical suggestions for policy making. The contributors discuss reforms to the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), the world's largest carbon market; ways to improve the operation and integration of the EU's power grids, in terms of both supply and demand; changes to the EU's Energy Tax Directive, which sets tax floors for fuels outside the ETS; the coordination of climate policies with policies to promote renewables and energy efficiency; research into clean technology; challenges to shale gas development; and transportation policy and the need for action on such externalities as traffic congestion. Finally, contributors consider obstacles to reform, including its potential effects on vulnerable households and energy-intensive industries. Contributors Mikael Skou Andersen, Niels Anger, Bruno De Borger, Antoine Dechezlepretre, Jos Delbeke, Ottmar Edenhofer, Christian Flachsland, Beatriz Gaitan, Polona Gregorin, Cameron Hepburn, Alan Krupnick, Andreas Loeschel, Claudio Marcantonini, Felix Christian Matthes, Paul Nahmmacher, Ian Parry, Karen Pittel, David Popp, Stef Proost, Christina Roolfs, Bert Saveyn, Oliver Schenker, Stephen Smith, Alexander Teytelboym, Kurt Van Dender, Herman Vollebergh, Nils-Henrik M. von der Fehr, Zhongmin Wang, Georg Zachmann

The debate on the valuation of nature and the environment, sustainable national income and economic growth is one of prime importance in environmental economics. Economic Growth and Valuation of the Environment deals with the fundamental approaches to calculating sustainable national income and their implications for the valuation of the environment. Leading economists present their views on how the UN system of national accounts could be adjusted to include environmental impacts and the depletion of natural resources. The discussion centres on the appropriateness of national income as an indicator for welfare, and specific attention is paid to the question of how to value changes in environmental quality or emissions of pollutants. Centred around the topics raised by the seminal publications of Roefie Hueting, this book will be of great interest to environmental economists and students focusing on environmental and natural resource economics. Environmental policymakers will welcome the lively and up-to-date discussion of a range of policy issues.