The Introduction establishes the motivation and intent behind the Handbook as being to evolve economic thinking to meet the challenge of climate change as it emerges as the defining topic of our time. It discusses each chapter within, all of which contain ideas to support and accelerate that evolution, and provides an overview of the book’s division into three sections, each covering critical new areas and ideas about economics and climate change. The first section, The Political Economy of Climate Change and Climate Policy, explores the impediments and potentials of climate policy in correcting distributional inequities of climate change via market forces. In the second section, Integrated Assessment Modelling, connections between individual elements of the climate and the economy are analyzed using integrated assessment modelling. Prominent models are improved and expanded upon with the aim of helping researchers and policymakers to better understand climate change and the efficacy of policy addressing it. The final section combines Climate Change and Sustainability. Sustainability is contextualized historically and through previous environmental disasters, while equity is considered through regional developmental and intergenerational approaches. A summary of each individual chapter is included.
Browse by title
Graciela Chichilnisky and Armon Rezai
Rosemary Lyster and Robert R.M. Verchick
The Anthropocene brings with it a risk of environmental disasters at scales not previously experienced. This chapter argues that disasters caused or made worse by climate change are appropriately addressed under the rubric of international climate law rather than global disaster policy. A turn to generic disaster risk reduction in response to the risks of climate disasters in the Anthropocene is no substitute for the urgent task of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in order to meet the objectives of the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Instruments such as the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, as important as they are, can offer only wishful thinking when it comes to the governance of environmental disasters in the Anthropocene.
Edited by Barry D. Solomon and Kirby E. Calvert
Barry D. Solomon and Kirby E. Calvert
The Introduction has three aims. First, the editors unpack the meaning of ‘geographies’ as it relates to energy studies, and question the significance of distinguishing energy from other geographical traditions. Indeed, reviews of research in energy geography since the early 1980s have failed to uncover coherent or integrated themes. The editors ponder the implications of thinking about energy as a concept, rather than as merely an object of empirical analysis. Second, they situate the volume in the recent geography literature. Third, they identify themes and big questions that have emerged throughout the volume, finding inspiration in the work of the distinguished list of contributors. The Introduction also provides a brief overview of the chapters in the Handbook.
Edited by Barry D. Solomon and Kirby E. Calvert
Mary Jane Angelo
This chapter serves as an introduction to the issues associated with agriculture and climate change and provides context for the other chapters in the volume. It describes how, although a wide range of ideas and perspectives are presented in the volume, several common themes emerge. Climate change and agriculture are part of a complex web of science, law and policy, which extends from the global scale to the smallholder. Agriculture is a significant contributor to climate change and thus should be considered part of the solution, as well as part of the problem. Consequently changes to agricultural systems that reduce GHG emissions, sequester carbon or put land to use in ways that reduce overall atmospheric carbon can be important tools for climate change mitigation. Conversely agriculture in general and food security in particular, will suffer serious adverse impacts from climate change even with mitigation measures in place. Accordingly agricultural adaptation strategies targeted at agricultural production will be critical to ensuring food security in the future. Because of the pervasive complexity and uncertainty regarding climate change impacts on agriculture, it will be important to ensure that any adaptation efforts employ systems approaches aimed at building resiliency in agricultural production as well as in the entire agricultural value chain. In many cases resilient agricultural systems are comprised of both mitigation and adaptive elements. Thus building more resilient systems will have benefits in reducing the adverse effects of climate change as well as adapting to the inevitable effects that will occur. Although climate change will result in adverse impacts throughout the globe, disproportionate impacts will be felt by the poorest and most vulnerable populations. Regions of the developing world face the greatest threats to food security. Mitigation and adaptation strategies, including regulatory and financial policies must include measures to ensure greater food security for poor and vulnerable populations. This volume provides a number of proposals for climate change mitigation and adaptation aimed at providing food security for a growing population in an era of dramatic changes to the global environment. Key Words: food security, climate change, agriculture, resilience, adaptation, mitigation
Thomas Cottier and Tetyana Payosova
Climate Change mitigation and adaptation is not limited to specialized instruments of international law based upon the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It will increasingly bear upon international trade regulation within the World Trade Organization (WTO) and in preferential trade and investment agreements. The chapter develops the linkages between climate change and trade, taking recourse to the principle of common concern; which provides the proper foundation to address collective action problems in the field. Different from public goods or the principle of common heritage of humankind, common concern of humankind offers the foundations, but also the limitations, of unilateral action addressing climate change mitigation. The chapter discusses the status and use of production and process methods (PPMs) which increasingly move at the heart of international trade regulation and the analysis of like products. Methods of clean production of goods and services are key to addressing climate change and can be properly framed within the emerging principle of the common concern of humankind.