Climate change is one of the biggest challenges for mankind. Although there is increasing evidence that climate change is already occurring, there is neither sufficient knowledge as to what extent climate change poses risks to societies and companies, nor about adequate strategies to cope with these risks. Bringing together an international group of scholars from environmental economics, political science and business, this book describes, analyses and evaluates climate change risks and responses of societies and companies. The book contributes to the question of how climate change can be mitigated by discussing efficient and effective design of mitigation measures, in particular emissions trading and clean development mechanism (CDM). Placing special emphasis on the impact of climate change risks on business, the book investigates in which way selected sectors of the economy are affected and what measures they can undertake to adapt to climate change risks.

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing human kind owing to the great uncertainty regarding future impacts, which affect all regions and many ecosystems. Many publications deal with economic issues relating to mitigation policies, but the economics of adaptation to climate change has received comparatively little attention. However, this area is is critical and a central pillar of any adaptation strategy or plan and is the economic dimension, which therefore merits the increase in attention it is receiving. This book deals with the difficulties that face the economics of adaptation. Critical issues include: uncertainty; baselines; reversibility, flexibility and adaptive management; distributional impacts; discount rates and time horizons; mixing monetary and non-monetary evaluations and limits to the use of cost-benefit analysis; economy-wide impacts and cross-sectoral linkages. All of these are addressed in the book from the perspective of economics of adaptation. Other dimensions of adaptation are also included, such as the role of low- and middle-income countries, technology and the impacts of extreme events. This timely book will prove essential reading for international researchers and policy makers in the fields of natural resources, environmental economics and climate change.

Provides a detailed analysis of the DICE model (Dynamic Integrated model of Climate and the Economy) as well as an extensive analysis of the model's results.

This book is a philosophical critique of the economics of climate change from both an ethical and philosophy of economics perspective. Mitigating climate change is not so much a scientific problem, but rather a political, social and above all an economic problem. A future without greenhouse gas emissions requires a radical transformation towards a sustainable low-carbon economy and society. How this transformation could be achieved raises numerous economic questions. Many of these questions remain untouched, although economists are equipped with a suitable toolkit and expertise. This book argues that economists have a social responsibility to carry out more research on how global warming could be stopped and that, ultimately, economic analysis of climate change must be a political economic approach that treats the economy as part of a wider social system. This approach will be of interest to policy makers, educators, students and researchers in support of more pluralism in economic research and teaching.

A revelatory study of how climate change will affect individual economic decisions, and the broad impact of those choicesSelected by Publishers Weekly as one of its Top Ten books in Business and Economics for Spring 2021 It is all but certain that the next century will be hotter than any we’ve experienced before. Even if we get serious about fighting climate change, it’s clear that we will need to adapt to the changes already underway in our environment. This book considers how individual economic choices in response to climate change will transform the larger economy. Using the tools of microeconomics, Matthew E. Kahn explores how decisions about where we live, how our food is grown, and where new business ventures choose to locate are impacted by climate change. Kahn suggests new ways that big data can be deployed to ease energy or water shortages to aid agricultural operations and proposes informed policy changes related to public infrastructure, disaster relief, and real estate to nudge land use, transportation options, and business development in the right direction.

Climate change is without question the single most important issue the world faces over the next hundred years. The most recent scientific data have led to the conclusion that the globally averaged net effect of human activities since 1750 has been one of warming and that continued greenhouse gas emissions at or above current rates would cause this process to continue to the severe detriment of our environment. This unequivocal link between climate change and human activity requires an urgent, world-wide shift towards a low carbon economy and coordinated policies and measures to manage this transition. The starting point and core idea of this book is the long-held observation that the threat of climate change calls for a change of climate in economics. Inherent characteristics of the climate problem including complexity, irreversibility and deep uncertainty challenge core economic assumptions and mainstream economic theory appears inappropriately equipped to deal with this crucial issue. Kevin Maréchal shows how themes and approaches from evolutionary and ecological economics can be united to provide a theoretical framework that is better suited to tackle the problem.

The 2nd edition of An Introduction to Climate Change Economics and Policy explains the key scientific, economic and policy issues related to climate change in a completely up-to-date introduction for anyone interested, and students at all levels in various related courses, including environmental economics, international development, geography, politics and international relations. FitzRoy and Papyrakis highlight how economists and policymakers often misunderstand the science of climate change, underestimate the growing threat to future civilization and survival and exaggerate the costs of radical measures needed to stabilize the climate. In contrast, they show how direct and indirect costs of fossil fuels – particularly the huge health costs of local pollution – actually exceed the investment needed for transition to an almost zero carbon economy in two or three decades using available technology.