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.

"Managing climate change requires action on both its causes (reducing emissions) and its consequences (adapting to impacts that can no longer be avoided). Human societies can thrive in many climatic conditions. However, such adaptation is not necessarily smooth, and it cannot be taken for granted. This book synthesises the contribution of economics to the study and practice of climate resilience and adaptation. Including an original introduction by the editor, it brings together in one volume some of the most influential articles by economists on climate change adaptation since the topic became a subject of academic interest"--

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.

While debates over the consequences of climate change are often pessimistic, historical data from the past two centuries indicate many viable opportunities for responding to potential changes. This volume takes a close look at the ways in which economies—particularly that of the United States—have adjusted to the challenges climate change poses, including institutional features that help insulate the economy from shocks, new crop varieties, irrigation, flood control, and ways of extending cultivation to new geographic areas. These innovations indicate that people and economies have considerable capacity to acclimate, especially when private gains complement public benefits. Options for adjusting to climate change abound, and with improved communication and the emergence of new information and technologies, the potential for adaptation will be even greater in the future.

Drawing on concepts in political economy, political ecology, justice theory, and critical development studies, the authors offer the first comprehensive, systematic exploration of the ways in which adaptation projects can produce unintended, undesirable results. This work is on the Global Policy: Next Generation list of six key books for understanding the politics of global climate change.

The Behavioral Economics of Climate Change: Adaptation Behaviors, Global Public Goods, Breakthrough Technologies, and Policy-Making shows readers how to understand mitigation strategies emerging from global warming policy discussions and the ways that changing climate conditions can alter these strategies. Through quantitative analyses, case studies and policy examples, this bottom-up approach to climate change economics gives readers the tools to create effective responses to global warming. This self-contained book on the topic covers key scientific and economic subjects in an applied, innovative and immediately relevant fashion. Unravels individual behaviors and national policies about global warming by evaluating their evolving motives and incentives Provides an economic analysis of the ways individuals makes decisions when faced with climate change Details a full range of alternative economic and policy responses, placing them in an integrated conceptual and policy framework

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.