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Climate change is one of the most daunting challenges human kind has ever faced. In the paper, we provide a survey of the micro and macro economics of climate change from a complexity science perspective and we discuss the challenges ahead for this line of research. We identify four areas of the literature where complex system models have already produced valuable insights: (i) coalition formation and climate negotiations, (ii) macroeconomic impacts of climate-related events, (iii) energy markets and (iv) diffusion of climate-friendly technologies. On each of these issues, accounting for heterogeneity, interactions and disequilibrium dynamics provides a complementary and novel perspective to the one of standard equilibrium models. Furthermore, it highlights the potential economic benefits of mitigation and adaptation policies and the risk of under-estimating systemic climate change-related risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The escalation of risks associated with environmental and climatic aspects has accelerated the introduction of voluntary personal carbon trading (PCT), a policy instrument for promotion and facilitation of low-carbon behavior in the domestic sector. This paper examines participants' motivation in the Guangdong pilot project, which aims to develop the first voluntary PCT scheme (Carbon Generalized System of Preferences, CGSP) in China to reduce the domestic sector's emissions and increase the liquidity of the Guangdong pilot emission trading scheme. The CGSP acceptance model is based on the technology acceptance model and explores the drivers of the public's participation willingness (PW) in the CGSP scheme. Further, the structural equation model has been adopted to explore the influence paths of each driver by using survey data (N = 1190) collected from Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China. The empirical results demonstrated that the strong and direct drivers are associated with the institutional technical environment, perceived usefulness and participation risk. However, other drivers affect PW through the mediation effect of perceived usefulness. Notably, implementation cost had no significant effect on PW. • An innovative voluntary personal carbon trading scheme in China was introduced. • A conceptual model was proposed to study the determinants of public acceptance. • Structural equation model was used to study the influence path of each determinant. • Both the direct and indirect paths of each determinant have been analyzed in depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the effects of framing a polluting activity in different contexts, i.e. different modes of transportation (bus versus plane) and different travel occasions (holiday versus professional training) on the individual willingness to pay (WTP) for carbon offsetting. For both types of framing, we also study additional contributions from the travel provider (i.e. matching). The empirical analyses with mixed logit and latent class logit models are based on data from discrete choice experiments with a representative sample of about 1000 individuals from Germany. The findings suggest substantial and systematic framing effects resulting from varying the mode of transportation, but not the travel occasion. Furthermore, the individual WTP is significantly higher across all four contexts when offsets are matched by the travel provider at a rate of 100%. In contrast, a lower matching rate of 33% is only relevant for one context, i.e. bus trips to a professional training. In addition, our results indicate that re-/afforestation projects are preferred to renewable energies projects or projects to improve energy efficiency. Likewise, projects carried out in a participant's region are preferred to projects implemented in European countries other than Germany or in developing countries. Finally, the WTP for offsets is found to be significantly higher for individuals with higher income, younger age, and stronger environmental and social preferences, as well as for individuals who believe that offsetting is effective in protecting the climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]