Conservation programs have increased significantly, as has the evaluation of their impacts. However, the evaluation of their potential impacts beyond program borders has been scarce. Such spillovers can significantly reduce or increase net impacts. In this review, we discuss how conservation programs might affect outcomes beyond their borders and present some evidence of when they have or have not. We focus on five major channels by which spillovers can arise: (1) input reallocation; (2) market prices; (3) learning; (4) nonpecuniary motivations; and (5) ecological-physical links.

Clustering small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) into eco-industrial parks is a promising way to abate environmental pollution from SMEs. However, to make this happen is a challenging task. The use of interfirm alliances to encourage SMEs to relocate into eco-industrial parks is a new phenomenon in China.

This paper analyzes the factors affecting adoption of sustainable land management and climate smart agricultural (SLM-CSA) practices (in particular tree planting, soil conservation and intercropping) and the effects of adoption on crop net revenue. We use two rounds of household and parcel level survey data collected from the East Gojjam and South Wollo Zones in the Amhara region of Ethiopia, in combination with spatially explicit climate data (rainfall and temperature).

Highlights of the Chapter: 

• Payments for ecosystem services (PES) schemes can improve resilience to climate change
• The design of a PES scheme should consider equity criteria for users and providers
• Assessing minimum enabling conditions for PES implementation is key for success
• Four key components of a PES schemes should be assessed
• The rapid participatory appraisal guide, enables actors to assess key conditions

Using household-plot level panel data from the Nile Basin of Ethiopia, this article applies a random effects ordered probit endogenous switching regression model to empirically investigate the impact of weather events and other conditioning factors on farmers’ choice of tillage intensity and the effect of changing tillage frequencies on differences in farm returns. Results indicate that, while low frequency tillage is more likely in drier areas, plot-level shocks (such as pests and diseases) are key variables in the choice of high-frequency tillage.

An appropriate design of climate mitigation policies such as carbon taxes may face a lot of challenges in reality, e.g., the strategic behavior of fossil fuel producers, and huge uncertainty surrounding the climate system. This paper investigated the effect of possible climate tipping events on optimal carbon taxation and energy pricing, taking into account the strategic behavior of energy consumers/producers and the uncertainty of tipping points through a stochastic dynamic game.

Outdated capacity and substantial potential for energy conservation are the two main features of energy-intensive sectors in developing countries. Such countries also seek to implement market-based options to further control domestic carbon emissions as well as to promote the withdrawal of outdated capacity and upgrade production level. This paper presents a quantitative assessment of the emission trading scheme (ETS) for China's iron and steel industry. The diverse array of normal and outdated capacities was modeled in a two-country, three-good partial equilibrium model.

To move China's climate policy forward, improved analyses of climate impacts on economic sectors using rigorous methodology and high quality data are called for. We develop an empirical framework, using fine-scale meteorological data, to estimate the link between corn and soy bean yields and weather in China.

The adoption of good practices for the economic valuation of environmental services (ES) has strong implications in the evaluation and design of a Payment for Environmental Services program.