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International attempts have not succeeded in addressing climate change, leaving an even heavier responsibility on countries, firms and people. As tourism is an expanding branch in the world economy, it is crucial to focus on how climate change issues are addressed in this industry as well. This paper analyses a group of tourism firms in Norway that join together to promote growth and profitability in winter tourism. The span in how these firms deal with environmental issues ranges from ecotourism till not addressing the subject at all. Although the majority of the firms have environmental issues on the agenda, environmental issues are not included in the cooperation. We use critical discourse theory to explore how this stance on environmental issues within a cooperation has come about, and categorize the firms into three discourses: neoclassical economics, environmental economics and ecological economics. Our data indicate that the hegemonic power of neoclassical economics hampers an environmental focus in the network. This power is exerted through the position of being environmentally indifferent. The paper adds knowledge to economic discourses on firm level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a macroeconomic model that combines the economic impact of climate change with the pivotal role of private debt. Using a Stock-Flow Consistent approach based on the Lotka–Volterra logic, we couple its nonlinear monetary dynamics of underemployment and income distribution with abatement costs. A calibration of our model at the scale of the world economy enables us to simulate various planetary scenarios. Our findings are threefold: 1) the +2 °C target is already out of reach, absent negative emissions; 2) the long-term (resp. short-term) results of climate change on economic fundamentals may lead to severe economic consequences without the implementation (resp. in case of too rapid an application) of proactive climate policies. Global warming (resp. too fast transition) forces the private sector to leverage in order to compensate for output and capital losses (resp. to lower carbon emissions), thus endangering financial stability; 3) Implementing an adequate carbon price trajectory, as well as increasing the wage share, fostering employment, and reducing private debt make it easier to avoid unintended degrowth and to reach a +2.5 °C target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a stock-flow-fund ecological macroeconomic model that combines the stock-flow consistent approach of Godley and Lavoie with the flow-fund model of Georgescu-Roegen. The model has the following key features. First, monetary and physical stocks and flows are explicitly formalised taking into account the accounting principles and the laws of thermodynamics. Second, Georgescu-Roegen's distinction between stock-flow and fund-service resources is adopted. Third, output is demand-determined but supply constraints might arise either due to environmental damages or due to the exhaustion of natural resources. Fourth, climate change influences directly the components of aggregate demand. Fifth, finance affects macroeconomic activity and the materialisation of investment plans that determine ecological efficiency. The model is calibrated using global data. Simulations are conducted to investigate the trajectories of key environmental, macroeconomic and financial variables under (i) different assumptions about the sensitivity of economic activity to the leverage ratio of firms and (ii) different types of green finance policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This article proposes a multi-dimensional framework for understanding the development and effectiveness of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes, framed around the notions of institutional design, performance and interplay. The framework is applied in the context of Mexico''s Programme of Payments for Carbon, Biodiversity and Agro-forestry Services (PSA-CABSA), with an emphasis on its carbon component. The analysis shows that PSA-CABSA was promoted by civil society and its rules have been subject to continuous modifications over time. In the case of the carbon component, changes have been due to an original misunderstanding of how carbon projects should be designed, implemented, and carbon traded in actual markets. From a performance point of view, the paper shows that the programme has been well received by rural communities, and carbon payments have contributed to increase household income and to enhance forest management practices and organisational skills. The paper also highlights sources of institutional interplay with local institutions and international climate policy, and it reveals the importance of capacity and scale issues in securing an effective and fair implementation of PES. The conclusion provides some policy recommendations for the future development of PES initiatives in Mexico and elsewhere. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper constitutes a first attempt to model the relationship between climate change, biodiversity, and ecosystem services, with a specific emphasis on European forests. Firstly, we construct a composite biodiversity indicator that integrates quantitative and qualitative changes of biodiversity projected to 2050 for the EU-17 under future IPCC scenarios. Secondly, this indicator is integrated into two simultaneous equation models to capture the marginal impacts of changes in biodiversity on the value of ecosystem goods and services (EGS) due to climate change. Our estimation results confirm the role of biodiversity as a nature-based policy solution for climate change mitigation, shedding light on the policy actions that generate co-benefits by enhancing ecosystems' capacity to mitigate climate change impacts, while conserving biodiversity and sustaining the flows of EGS for human livelihoods. Especially, nature-based mitigation policies are more cost-effective and better at coping with the ethic and inequality issues associated with distributional impacts of the policy actions, compared to the pure technical solutions to improving energy efficiency and reducing emissions. However, the strength of biodiversity as a nature-based policy option for climate change mitigation depends on both the nature of the EGS and the geographical area under consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experts working on behalf of international development organisations need better tools to assist land managers in developing countries maintain their livelihoods, as climate change puts pressure on the ecosystem services that they depend upon. However, current understanding of livelihood vulnerability to climate change is based on a fractured and disparate set of theories and methods. This review therefore combines theoretical insights from sustainable livelihoods analysis with other analytical frameworks (including the ecosystem services framework, diffusion theory, social learning, adaptive management and transitions management) to assess the vulnerability of rural livelihoods to climate change. This integrated analytical framework helps diagnose vulnerability to climate change, whilst identifying and comparing adaptation options that could reduce vulnerability, following four broad steps: i) determine likely level of exposure to climate change, and how climate change might interact with existing stresses and other future drivers of change; ii) determine the sensitivity of stocks of capital assets and flows of ecosystem services to climate change; iii) identify factors influencing decisions to develop and/or adopt different adaptation strategies, based on innovation or the use/substitution of existing assets; and iv) identify and evaluate potential trade-offs between adaptation options. The paper concludes by identifying interdisciplinary research needs for assessing the vulnerability of livelihoods to climate change. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Degrowth is going to happen whether governments want it or not because, as fossil fuels run out, incomes will shrink along with the energy supply. This degrowth can either be unplanned and catastrophic or managed and relatively benign. This paper argues that three tools are essential to avoid degrowth becoming a catastrophic collapse. These are (i) a system to share the benefits from using increasingly-scarce fossil fuels, (ii) new ways of financing businesses and (iii) the introduction of debt-free regional and local currencies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper addresses the role of neoclassical methodologies in ecological economics and the contradictions these methodologies pose to the field''s critical founding principles. We first consider Robert Costanza''s treatment of Nicholas Stern''s Global Deal and then survey climate change-related articles published in this journal over the past five years. This survey reveals how mainstream (neoclassical) methodologies dominate discourse, and do so by marginalizing more critical (political economy) analyses. This situation imperils the field''s founding vision of a no-growth ‘steady state’; it also fails to address the (related) growth dynamics of capitalism. Without such a critical treatment, the field''s formal embrace of ‘methodological pluralism’ actually entails an ideological empiricism that renders ecological economics theoretically incoherent. This situation undermines the field''s historical promise as an alternative economic paradigm. Ecological economics now faces a problematic future. Its survival in a form faithful to its founding vision will require an explicit choice to address its internal contradictions, and reinvent itself in ways relevant to our contemporary context. Without such a choice, ecological economics will likely succumb to an implicit acceptance of the hegemony of mainstream economic methodologies and their pro-growth imperatives. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Many new and proposed emissions trading systems involve multiple countries and regions. The introduction of interregional trading raises questions about how flexible state- or national-level authorities should be in allowing individual firms to trade with firms or authorities in other states or countries. This paper uses laboratory methods to evaluate the efficiency and pricing performance of linking trading across regions at the firm-to-firm level. In one treatment, individual firms trade directly with firms or authorities in other regions. We compare performance in this treatment to an intergovernmental trading treatment, where emissions trading is restricted to occur only between intermediaries. A baseline treatment of autarky, where firms only trade with other firms in their country or region, provides a benchmark to assess the efficiency benefits of allowing linking. Although efficiency and price discovery are both improved by allowing intermediation in linked permit markets, we find that further gains can be realized through direct firm to firm trading. Buyers in high cost regions and sellers in low cost regions benefit the greatest from linking. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Scientific information on the size and nature of the threat of climate change is needed by politicians in order to weight their decisions. Computerised models are extremely useful tools to quantify the long-term effects of current policies. This paper describes a new modelling approach that allows formulation of industrial energy demand projections consistent with the assumptions for scenario drivers such as GDP and population. In the model, a level of industrial production is used as a key variable, and we define it in physical units, rather than in monetary units. The aim of this research is to increase insights that come with long-term energy demand scenarios. This research clearly shows that physical indicators provide additional insights in scenario analysis. The use of physical indicators instead of monetary indicators seems to affect the energy scenarios significantly. The differences with monetary indicators are larger in developing regions than in OECD regions. We conclude that an integrated energy and materials approach reveals developments that are hardly visible using a monetary approach. Moreover, this research shows the potential and benefits of the use of physical indicators for scenario development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper explores the epistemological basis for economic prognostications of climate change activists arising from, arguably, the most important scientific problem confronting modern society: the facts, beliefs and theories associated with the measurement, causes, impact and mitigation of climate change. This facilitates identification of the role that rhetoric plays in activist claims associated with the economics of global warming and climate change. Following a rudimentary discussion of ancient views on rhetoric, the connection of rhetoric with anti-foundational epistemology and language is identified. Criteria for determining when language is rhetorical are specified. Exploiting this philosophical background, mitigation proposals of climate change activists derived from models of climate change economics are critiqued. • Clarifies the role of rhetoric in climate change mitigation proposals. • Provides background on the historical development of rhetoric that is absent for available literature in ecological economics. • Critiques prognostications of economic models for climate change mitigation proposals. • Explores the connection between rhetoric, epistemology and language in the context of climate change activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological economics was formally established in 1989 with the ambitious vision of developing a new economic paradigm embedding the social and economic systems in the biophysical world. Ecological economics had its roots in the biophysical understanding of economics that pioneers of the field Georgescu-Roegen (1971), Odum (1971), Daly (1977), Jansson (1984), Martinez-Alier (1987) and others developed while studying the thermodynamic bedrocks shared by natural and social systems. Subsequently, however, ecological economics has explicitly but controversially adopted a 'big umbrella' approach to methodological pluralism, focusing more on topics such as valuing nature and its functions rather than attempting to understand and quantify the biophysical roots of economic activities. Biophysical economics was established in response to these concerns, focusing more on developing analyses and models of the transformations of nature to generate wealth and approached mostly from an energy and material flows perspective. The present paper argues that to achieve its original vision ecological economics must return to its biophysical roots. Collaboration between the two fields will help the next generation of thinkers to address the socio-ecological challenges of the 21st century requiring an energy transformation called for by aspirations such as the Green New Deal and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. • The biophysical foundation of socio-economic systems must be at the center of the research agenda of ecological economics. • The socio-ecological challenges of the 21st century are biophysical in nature and will require education, management and policy that is based more on these biophysical realities and principles. • Prioritizing these biophysical foundations is fundamental for the next energy transition. • If proper biophysical procedures (such as comprehensive energy analyses) are not undertaken no "sustainable" recommendations can be considered valid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought is a source of stress that affects forest growth, resulting in financial losses for forest owners and amenity losses for society. Due to climate change, such natural events will be more frequent and intense in the future. In this context, the objective of this paper is to compare, from an economic perspective, different forest adaptation strategies towards a drought-induced risk of decline. For that purpose, we focused on a case study of a beech forest in Burgundy (France) and we studied several adaptation options: density reduction, reduction of the rotation length, and substitution with Douglas-fir. We also considered two levels of drought risk (intermediate and low soil water capacity) and two climate scenarios from the IPCC (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5). We combined a process-based forest-growth simulator (CASTANEA) with a traditional forest economics approach. The results showed that adaptation provided the best economic return in most of the scenarios considered. Combining strategies appears as a relevant way to adapt forests in view of a drought-induced risk of forest decline. We also demonstrated the importance of considering two disciplinary fields. Beneficial scenarios in an ecological perspective were not necessarily beneficial in an economic one and vice versa. • Drought affects forest growth resulting in timber production and carbon losses. • We combined a forest growth simulator with a classical forest economics approach. • We compared and combined different options of forest adaptation under two climates. • Forest needs adaptation and combining strategies provided the best economic return. • Ecological results and economics ones can coincide or not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]