As instruments for controlling pollution, how do emissions taxes and emissions trading compare in terms of the incentives they create to adopt cleaner technologies? Emissions taxes may have a slight advantage over emissions trading.

Dr. Ainslie examines an elementary human paradox: that we are endangered by our own wishes.

This book is a collection of Amitrajeet A Batabyal's most important papers on the environment and economic development. This book's uniqueness stems from the fact that it uses novel modeling tools that are largely unfamiliar to economists to shed valuable light on contemporary problems at the interface of the environment and economic development.

This volume presents six new papers on environmental and energy economics and policy in the United States. Rebecca Davis, J. Scott Holladay, and Charles Sims analyze recent trends in and forecasts of coal-fired power plant retirements with and without new climate policy. Severin Borenstein and James Bushnell examine the efficiency of pricing for electricity, natural gas, and gasoline. James Archsmith, Erich Muehlegger, and David Rapson provide a prospective analysis of future pathways for electric vehicle adoption. Kenneth Gillingham considers the consequences of such pathways for the design of fuel vehicle economy standards. Frank Wolak investigates the long-term resource adequacy in wholesale electricity markets with significant intermittent renewables. Finally, Barbara Annicchiarico, Stefano Carattini, Carolyn Fischer, and Garth Heutel review the state of research on the interactions between business cycles and environmental policy.

This open access book analyzes and seeks to consolidate the use of robust quantitative tools and qualitative methods for the design and assessment of energy and climate policies. In particular, it examines energy and climate policy performance and associated risks, as well as public acceptance and portfolio analysis in climate policy, and presents methods for evaluating the costs and benefits of flexible policy implementation as well as new framings for business and market actors. In turn, it discusses the development of alternative policy pathways and the identification of optimal switching points, drawing on concrete examples to do so. Lastly, it discusses climate change mitigation policies’ implications for the agricultural, food, building, transportation, service and manufacturing sectors.

The chapters in the book cover a broad range of aspects regarding the relationship between natural resource use and long-term economic development. The book surveys existing literature as well as adds to frontier research. In particular, the following topics are studied: incentives for adoption and diffusion of clean technology, resource scarcity and limits to growth, international convergence of energy intensity, and the social norms shaping resource depletion.

The twentieth century witnessed unparalleled economic growth among developed countries, largely based upon the exploitation of fossil fuels, and unparalleled population growth in developing countries. These broad trends in turn did massive damage to the environment. Biodiversity has suffered its biggest reverse since the last great extinctions in geological time, and the burning of fossil fuels has begun to change our climate. But it was only at the end of the century that environmental concerns were transformed from a narrow sectional interest, moving to the centre-stage of government, and on to the main agendas of companies. Once a minority interest, the environment now commands the attention of ministers, chief executives, and consumers in the supermarket. Party manifestos proclaim the greenness of politicians, companies produce environmental reports, and shoppers opt for organic food and avoid genetically modified products. This volume focuses on the practical design of economic instruments for environmental policy. It is divided into three parts: the overarching policy context; the choice of policy instruments; and applications to the main sectors of the economy.