While Africa has contributed marginally to climate change, the continent will be disproportionately affected by it, particularly the agricultural sector. Climate change demands policy action to address mitigation and adaptation needs, and it poses opportunities in implementation of international instruments.

We investigate whether Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator recommendations regarding improvements in environmental quality differ from citizen preferences.

The paper analyses the economic impacts of climate change-induced adjustments on the performance of the Tanzanian economy, using a country-wide CGE model. The general equilibrium framework enables comparison of the effects of climate change to the overall growth of the economy, as responsiveness to shocks is likely to depend on the macroeconomic structure of the economy.

The authors surveyed firms participating in emissions trading programs in Santiago, Chile, to explore further whether tradable permits are appropriate for transition and developing economies. Their survey information revealed serious implementation and design flaws in Chile’s trading, but they are not more severe than the EU or U.S. systems. Countries with similar income levels and institutional maturity as Chile should be able to develop well-functioning permit trading schemes.

The authors studied the potential trade-off between countries’ investments in mitigation versus adaptation to climate change. Mitigating greenhouse gases may be a public good, but adaptation to climate change is a private good, benefiting only the country or individual.

Climate change mitigation presents us with a social dilemma: while mitigation benefits everyone, individuals lack the incentive to alter their behaviour, since they can reap its benefits while failing to reduce their own emissions.

In Post-Kyoto International Climate Policy: Implementing Architectures for Agreement, edited by Joseph E. Aldy and Robert N. Stavins. Cambridge University Press, pp 563-398.

China began enforcing a system of pollution levies in 1982. However, senior environmental officials expressed doubt that this system was improving the environment and, in 1996, they began to place greater reliance on mill closure as the penalty for poor environmental performance. Since then, managers have found means of subverting many of the intended mill closures, and this causes us to return to the question of the abatement efficiency and effectiveness of the levies.

Organic certification in Costa Rica improves coffee growers’ environmental performance

Using a choice experiment, this paper investigates how Swedish citizens value three environmental quality objectives. In addition, a follow-up question is used to investigate whether respondents ignored any attributes when responding.