climate change policy Articles
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Opportunities and constraints for local and subnational climate change policy in urban areas: insights from diverse contexts
Climate change became the centre of public concern in the last years. Many cities and urban areas are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Local governments play an important role in implementing climate change policies. This paper explores the key factors shaping climate change policy in terms of both enabling conditions for action and the barriers that many urban centres ...
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Climate change policy and the social discount rate: political not ethical
A prominent strand in recent discussions of climate change policy concerns the value of the social discount rate (SDR). Some argue that the parameters that determine the value of the SDR should be viewed as ethical parameters. Additionally, those who defend an ethical approach tend to believe that normative support for the value of the SDR should come from the general public's moral beliefs. ...
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Climate change policies in Europe: national plans, EU policies, and the international context
Climate change policies in Europe can be characterised by two broad, though certainly not universal, consensuses. The first is that climate change is a serious problem. The second is that we should not do anything serious about it. This paper examines the characteristics of, and pressures on, each of these two consensuses, and explores where the obvious tension that is embodied in them may lead. ...
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Oil prices will rise without climate change deal
International Energy Agency predicts price per oil barrel can rise to $135 by 2035 without agreement on global climate change policies. According to predictions done by the International Energy Agency (IEA), failing to implement ambitious global climate change policies and cut fossil fuel subsidies will see oil prices skyrocket over the next two decades. The IEA is the global body tasked with ...
By Vital Energi
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International climate change policy: triggering environmental reforms in the European electricity sector
International climate change policy has come to a relative standstill with most of the countries being discouraged by the high costs of actively pursued climate policy measures. However, climate change policy offers ancillary benefits for proactive stakeholders like the European Union, in addition to the main benefit of mitigating climate change. This article takes a closer look at ancillary ...
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Climate Change Policy & Sustainability Update
Proven Investment Vehicles May Spur New Renewable Energy Grow Harnessing two types of investment vehicles for renewable energy investing; Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs), would speed adoption rates for renewable energy, level the playing field with fossil fuel investments and attract billions in new investment. REITs and MLPs are publically traded ...
By Delphi Group
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Air quality and ancillary benefits of climate change policies
The Thematic Strategy on air pollution aims to improve European air pollution significantly by 2020. This report from the European Environment Agency looks a further ten years into the future, and brings together two major policy challenges — combating climate change and reducing air pollution in an integrated way. Thus, the report analyses projected changes in European air quality up to 2030, ...
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The bottom line on state and federal climate change policy roles
As different statewide greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction policies continue to emerge in the United States, more and more businesses are calling on the federal government to enact a single, uniform policy. The prospect of complementary policies between different levels of government—as well as the potential for conflicting and even duplicative regulations—could have significant implications for ...
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Heating up international trade law: Challenges and opportunities posed by efforts to combat climate change
For many years, the relationship between international trade and environmental rules has been on the agenda of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and elsewhere. In a few celebrated decisions, discussed below, the WTO Appellate Body has interpreted several of the WTO provisions that apply to this interface. Nonetheless, a number of issues remain unresolved. The current momentum behind climate ...
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Air quality and ancillary benefits of climate change policies
Action to combat climate change will deliver considerable ancillary benefits in air pollution abatement by 2030. The ancillary benefits will be: • lower overall costs of controlling air pollutant emissions in the order of EUR 10 billion per year; • reduced air pollutant emissions, leading to a fall in damage to public health (e.g. more than 20 000 fewer premature deaths/year) and ...
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Improving the clean development mechanism with sustainability-rating and rewarding system
As the world contemplates a post-Kyoto Protocol climate change policy architecture, some key observations of the clean development mechanism (CDM) remind us that climate change policies should be linked more closely to the promotion of sustainability. A sustainability-rated CDM (SR-CDM) is proposed in this paper; it applies the gold standard as a way of assessing the sustainability value of ...
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Reducing terrestrial greenhouse gas emissions: a human dimensions contribution
This paper describes achievements from the human dimensions research within New Zealand's 'Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Terrestrial Biosphere' programme, in three parts: (i) regional responses to climate change policy development, (ii) indigenous groups, land use and climate change, and (iii) participation in the Land Use in Rural New Zealand (LURNZ) model development. We then ...
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Climate change, poverty, and intragenerational equity: the national level
This paper discusses seven propositions: climate change and poverty are linked by the issue of vulnerability; the hardest equity issues arise because of qualitative differences in the nature of climate change and policy impacts on the poor and those who are better off; poverty cannot be understood in terms of lack of goods or income, or even basic needs, but must rather be understood in terms of ...
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The “Social cost of carbon” and climate change policy
Economist Frank Ackerman has called the “social cost of carbon” the most important number you never heard of. What is the social cost of carbon, where do the numbers come from, and why should policymakers take care when using them? The Obama Administration (and the Bush Administration before it) uses the SCC to assess the benefits of regulations that would limit emissions of carbon ...
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Economists and ecologists: modelling global climate change to different conclusions
Numerous articles and studies have pointed to a divergence of opinion between economists and ecologists on environmental matters. This paper examines these differences as they apply to the debate over climate change. In particular, the paper examines the models that economists use for making decisions regarding climate change policy: cost–benefit analysis; utility theory; time-discounting; and ...
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The language of flexibility and the flexibility of language
Flexibility instruments such as joint implementation and emissions trading have played an important part in climate change policy negotiations since before the signing of the Framework Convention on Climate Change. They are likely to remain an important feature of future negotiations. This paper examines the characteristics of the various flexibility mechanisms introduced by the Kyoto Protocol. ...
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Modelling trade and climate change policy: a strategic framework for global environmental negotiators
In the past, failure of trade–climate talks might have created negative signs, but international trade actually induces more participation and helps to attain joint agreement. Carbon permit trading has a key role to play in the abatement process. Participation in global multilateral negotiations and a country's self-interest with respect to entering an abatement process depends upon either ...
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Canada's efforts towards greenhouse gas emission reduction: a case study on the limits of voluntary action and subsidies
Canada has committed internationally to several agreements to limit climate change, most recently by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol in 2002. However, its domestic climate change policy is not reflective of these international commitments. In particular, federal government climate change policy over the last decade has emphasised noncompulsory policies such as voluntarism, information provision, and ...
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Kyoto mistakes
The Kyoto Protocol conflicts with a rational view of what short-term climate policy should achieve. Chosen emission reduction targets conflict with individual and social interests, and will therefore be hard to reach. Possibilities to cheat on the agreement are plentiful. Methane emission reduction may help to meet the short-term aims, but does not contribute to the ultimate objective.Keywords: ...
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Investors take climate change into account
Increasing interest in climate change from investors generates improvements in disclosure into business operations and strategies, reports Envido. A new survey from the Institutional Investors Group in Climate Change (IIGCC) revealed that the proportion of institutional investors who consider firms' climate change policies when making investment decisions has more than doubled in the past two ...
By Vital Energi
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