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Different chroniclers of the history of the Byzantine Empire have noted various economic data gleamed from historical documents and accounts of the empire at different periods of time. Research for this paper has not uncovered any estimates of long term, annual macroeconomic data (gross domestic product (GDP), national income (NI), etc.) for the empire during its existence. Such data has been estimated to one extent or another for other nations and societies that have existed during the middle ages. This paper attempts to provide conjectures on approximate real GDP per capita trends for the empire over its existence from AD 300 to 1453. Finally, some hypotheses on factors that would have affected Byzantine economic performance are tested using climate/environmental factors. The results of this paper appear to confirm some findings on how the Byzantine economy might have been affected by periods of regional climate change. [enter Abstract Body]

The aim of this discussion paper is to begin a conversation with institutional investors about the potential synergies that exist between Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investment frameworks and the principles of climate justice. Climate justice works at the intersection of climate change, development and human rights to achieve a people centred, developmental approach to addressing the climate crisis. It recognises that those least responsible for the emissions contributing to climate change are often the most vulnerable to its impacts. The finance sector presides over a large pool of capital that potentially could be steered towards more low carbon, climate resilient activities that take into account issues related to climate justice. In aggregate the value of the assets that the finance sector represents, as measured by the value of equity-market capitalization, corporate and government bonds, and loans, was estimated to be worth US$225 trillion in 2012 . While more investors are addressing climate change as part of a broader approach to ESG investing, the notion of climate justice has not yet entered the narrative. This paper shows that there is overlap between climate justice and some of the existing ESG criteria, in particular the climate change metrics and criteria related to human rights, community engagement and gender equality. The paper also proposes a number of additional metrics that might be developed to specifically evaluate climate justice and provides some examples of how this might be reflected across existing ESG investment frameworks and processes.

Australians are amongst the highest per capita emitters of carbon on Earth. The evidence is now clear that climate change will terribly impact all living things. As the window of opportunity to prevent this closes the country prevaricates on the need to act, rather deferring the cost to future generations.

Whereas the implementation of the Tourism Protocol of the Alpine Convention seems far from its completion, the Alpine Convention fourth report on the state of the Alps "Sustainable Tourism in the Alps" is under preparation and it is expected by the end of 2012. One of the main critical challenges that Alpine tourism needs to face in the quest for sustainability is climate change. In recent years several research and cooperation projects focusing on the Alpine region have been dealing with the issue of climate change. In particular the Alpine Space Programme, starting with ClimChAlp (2006-2008), focused on the issue of adaptation to climate change in the following call (2008-2011) through several projects: CLISP, ClimAlpTour, Manfred, AdaptAlp, AlpWaterScarce, ParaMount, PermaNet, SILMAS, AlpFFIRS. These projects led to a capitalization project named C3Alps that recently started. At the same time, the Alpstar project, which also started recently, will focus on climate change mitigation and on making the Alps a carbon neutral environment. The Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Climate Change (CMCC) contributed to several of these Alpine Space projects (ClimChAlp, AdaptAlp, ClimAlpTour and C3Alps). Other non Alpine Space projects have also contributed to this research and cooperation issue, such as CC.ALPS (by CIPRA), KLIWA (by various German and Bavarian institutions), Histalp (Austrian weather service), etc. However, ClimAlpTour is the only project that explicitly focused on tourism. This paper builds on these projects’ findings, especially for what concerns the implications for the tourism sector, and on the existing relevant literature.

Paper covers personal experiences relating to the relevant science, publications, negotiations, policies, measures, business responses, and sleight-of-hand which has gone around the author over many years.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) has been identified as one of the CO2 emissions reduction mechanisms that could assist South Africa to meet its emissions reduction targets. The technology is part of the various South Africa’s emission reduction plans such as the Integrated Resources Plan (IRP) and National Development Plan (NDP). CCS is further identified as one of the National Flagship Priority Programme in the National Climate Change Response White Paper. The initial focus for CCS in South Africa was on geological storage. Without safe and permanent storage, CCS would not be a viable option to mitigate CO2 emissions. Following the publication of the Atlas on Geological Storage of Carbon Dioxide in South Africa, the South African government through SANEDI/SACCCS initiated a Pilot CO2 Storage Project (PCSP). The project commenced by analysing existing onshore geological data in Zululand and Algoa Basins. The decision was subsequently made to focus on the Zululand Basin. This decision was informed by time, cost, and geology considerations. The PCSP is currently delayed for various reasons. Consequently, the opportunity arose to use that time to apply new techniques, previously not available, to analyse the existing geological data in the KZN Basin, the outcome of which was the identification of two prospective injection sites. The current work is directed to characterising these two sites. With the PCSP well advanced, SANEDI is now incorporating other aspects of carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) into the programme, such as carbon capture, carbon utilisation and mineral carbonisation. The updated Roadmap will be presented as well as details of the PCSP. More recently, the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy has approved the transfer of the CCUS Programme from SANEDI to the Council for Geosciences (CGS).

A ground-breaking new research report has been released today by the analysts at Meteo Protect demonstrating that despite the best efforts of government leaders and international organizations to lead the response to climate change, their efforts have not been able to galvanize the key players who can make a difference. In fact, not only are they not engaged, they do not even know they are already at risk.A new White Paper from Meteo Protect modelling the impact of climate variability on the private sector finds that climate change is already making a significant impact in the profits of companies operating in sectors exposed to weather. Directly challenging the direction of present empirical research, and the consensus of how to respond to climate change, it identifies how and why private industry, including companies and investors, must act immediately to manage the consequences of climate change.Indeed, the extent to which the vast majority of companies are presently exposed to climate variability is likely to be a revelation for many analysts, investors and even companies executives themselves. Demonstrating that billions of dollars are at risk each quarter, continuing to go unreported and unmanaged, the researchers call for the provision of actionable and objective indicators to measure the exposure to climate risk and the implementation of mitigating weather hedging strategies to protect financial performance.A must-read for finance executives, investors, asset managers and business analysts, the White Paper takes a new approach to tackling a long-standing and unresolved problem, making it understandable, relevant and manageable.

ObjectiveTo determine key points of intervention in urban food systems to improve the climate resilience, equity and healthfulness of the whole system.DesignThe paper brings together evidence from a 3-year, Australia-based mixed-methods research project focused on climate change adaptation, cities, food systems and health. In an integrated analysis of the three research domains – encompassing the production, distribution and consumption sectors of the food chain – the paper examines the efficacy of various food subsystems (industrial, alternative commercial and civic) in achieving climate resilience and good nutrition.SettingGreater Western Sydney, Australia.SubjectsPrimary producers, retailers and consumers in Western Sydney.ResultsThis overarching analysis of the tripartite study found that: (i) industrial food production systems can be more environmentally sustainable than alternative systems, indicating the importance of multiple food subsystems for food security; (ii) a variety of food distributors stocking healthy and sustainable items is required to ensure that these items are accessible, affordable and available to all; and (iii) it is not enough that healthy and sustainable foods are produced or sold, consumers must also want to consume them. In summary, a resilient urban food system requires that healthy and sustainable food items are produced, that consumers can attain them and that they actually wish to purchase them.ConclusionsThis capstone paper found that the interconnected nature of the different sectors in the food system means that to improve environmental sustainability, equity and population health outcomes, action should focus on the system as a whole and not just on any one sector.

Climate risk disclosure from insurance and reinsurance companies has been controversial in terms of what it can accomplish and whether it can influence private sector adaptation behavior. This white paper details findings and makes recommendations about government policies requiring climate risk disclosure from insurance companies and their effectiveness. The findings and recommendations are based on a multi-disciplinary workshop involving academics, government, and the private sector, co-hosted by UNC Law's Center for Law, Environment, Adaptation, and Resources (CLEAR), the Georgetown Climate Center (GCC), UCLA Law's Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, and the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites - North Carolina.

The Endangered Species Act was designed to protect species that had been rendered more vulnerable to extinction as a result of human activity. As such, its implementation has traditionally focused on keeping human beings away from such species and giving the species space to heal on their own. Climate change is altering the landscape everywhere on the globe, rendering the hands-off approach no longer sufficient. Active interventions will become more necessary as we get further into the changing climate. This paper/presentation will review the impacts of climate change on biodiversity and the sort of management approaches that will become more appropriate in the new climate world. It will then discuss the relationship between the ESA and both mitigation (which is not an ideal area for ESA application) and adaptation (where the most work is needed). While there are many provisions in the ESA that will prove useful to supporting the new strategies for species preservation, utilizing them properly will require a shift in implementation priorities and greater acceptance of the demise of what once was. This is a short paper prepared for CLE purposes.

Current approaches to discounting in climate policy present a seemingly intractable problem and stalemate. While it is widely recognized that choice of discount rate in climate models can easily dwarf the effect of other parameter inputs, there is at present a very wide disagreement, both in law and in economics, about the appropriate discount rate to use. This paper provides a framework for achieving a workable consensus range for acceptable discount rates in climate models. It does so by emphasizing three factors previously ignored in the literature. First, it demonstrates that the choice of discount rate should be tailored to the type of climate model at issue, distinguishing particularly between policy evaluation models versus optimization models. Second, it suggests that some disagreement in these debates is fundamental (because reflecting deep unbridgeable differences in views about the proper scope of the market) while some disagreement is not. By focusing attention on the non-fundamental sorts of disagreement it becomes possible to shrink the consensus range of plausible discount rates. Third, the paper argues that some of the current disagreement about the choice of discount rate for modeling purposes on the front-end can actually be better addressed through elements of program design on the back-end.

Nowadays, as stressed by important strategic documents like for instance the 2009 EU White Paper on Adaptation or the recent 2009 “Copenhagen Accord”, it is amply recognized that both mitigation and adaptation strategies are necessary to combat climate change. This paper enriches the rapidly expanding literature trying to devise normative indications on the optimal combination of the two introducing the role of catastrophic and spatial uncertainty related to climate change damages. Applying a modified version of the Nordhaus’ Regional Dynamic Integrated Model of Climate and the Economy it is shown that in both cases uncertainty works in the direction to make mitigation a more attractive strategy than adaptation. When catastrophic uncertainty is concerned mitigation becomes relatively more important as, by curbing emissions, it helps to reduce temperature increase and hence the probability of the occurrence of the event. Adaptation on the contrary has no impact on this. It is also shown that optimal mitigation responses are much less sensitive than adaptation responses to spatial uncertainty. Mitigation responds to global damages, while adaptation to local damages. The first, being aggregated, change less than the second in the presence of spatial uncertainty as higher expected losses in some regions are compensated by lower expected losses in other. Accordingly, mitigation changes less than adaptation. Thus if it cannot be really claimed that spatial uncertainty increases the weight of mitigation respect to that of adaptation, however its presence makes mitigation a “safer” or more robust strategy to a policy decision maker than adaptation.

EU climate policy based on GHG emissions reduction (mitigation) is coupled with measures aimed at responding efficiently to the unavoidable consequences of climate change (adaptation). However, as the European Commission stated recently in its Green Paper on adaptation in Europe, there is still need to develop an overall EU adaptation strategy. Moreover, such a strategy should take into consideration both efficiency and equity concerns. In this article we propose a framework for EU adaptation policy that addresses both concerns and which enables a transparent decision-making process. In the proposed scheme universal weightings of the individual policy objectives have to be agreed upon prior to actual decision-making.

The First Green Building Movement that marked the beginning of an ideological revolution of the era occurred in the Late 19th Century. Climate Change and Global Warming have always been a major concern for humanity and justify the need for the development of innovative and greener technologies to help conserve natural resources for the future. This paper presents a Literature Review on the Historical Progress of Green Buildings so far and their impact on the occupant’s health and productivity. The term which emerged in the context of green buildings as a result of these movements is High-Performance Green Buildings. The construction industry is considered to be the largest consumer of power and contributes about 1/4 of Global Green House Gas emissions. The Green Building Movement was an initiative to emphasize the need for a sustainable Built Environment. This paper presents the findings of a survey conducted on the occupants of GreenTech Malaysia, a certified Green Building, and the results which are somewhat counterintuitive in nature are analyzed.

Since the beginning of the 19th Century, the natural environment of the planet has been placed under the dire threat of climate change. That has been caused by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. GHG emissions threaten to alter the planets ecosystems disastrously and permanently. Statistics reveal that Australian individuals are among the highest GHG emitters on the planet and the transport sector contributes nearly one-fifth of the nation’s GHG emissions. It suggests that significant reductions in Australian GHG emissions are urgently required, and it is considered that those reductions might be helped by transitioning to electric vehicles (EVs) in the transport sector. This paper looks at the consumption of motor vehicle fuels in Australia’s transport sector and suggests how a reduction in GHG emissions might be achieved. It suggests that electrification of Australian motor vehicles could eliminate up to 20 per cent of existing Australian GHG emissions. The paper presents further findings of a case study that was conducted on a Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-in Electric Hybrid (PHEV) in remote Western Australia from 2016-17. That research is updated and extended in this paper to October 2021. It further considers published statistical data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Australian government agencies to support its findings, conclusions and suggestions for further research. It looks at the rate of transition towards electrification of Australian roadways and concludes that while the transport sector’s growing contribution to Australia’s overall GHG emissions could be significantly reduced by the transition to electric vehicles, it has a way to go. The paper suggests that there are significant economic factors that are inhibiting the adoption of electric vehicles in Australia. However, rising fuel prices could encourage the transition away from the environmentally damaging internal combustion engine powered vehicles towards the electrification of the transport sector in Australia.

Designing policy for climate change requires analyses which integrate the interrelationship between the economy and environment, including: the immense risks and impacts on distribution across and within generations; the many failures, limitations or absences of key markets; and the limitations on government, both in offsetting these failures and distributional impacts. Much of the standard economic modelling, including Integrated Assessment Models, does not embody key aspects of these essentials. We identify fundamental flaws in both the descriptive and normative methodologies commonly used to assess climate policy, showing systematic biases, with costs of climate action overestimated and benefits underestimated. We provide an alternative methodology by which the social cost of carbon may be calculated, one which embraces the essential elements we have identified. Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.

Climate change as a reality in today’s world is evidenced in one of the most dangerous and rapidly damaging environmental disasters, forest fires caused by heat waves. Given the extreme importance of forest bodies to tackling climate change via the reduction of greenhouse gases, an increase in forest fires could eliminate efforts made to reverse climate change and pose a huge risk to humanity and the earth itself. This paper thus examines the causes and effects of forest fires to the environment and locals, focusing primarily on the role played by climate change in both cause and effect, and how this affects the achievement of sustainable development. This paper highlights sustainable methods of responding to forest fires, including emergency responses by the government, safety measures to be taken by individuals and the importance of volunteer firefighters in this regard. The paper also identifies the recurring barriers to rapid response in forest fire cases and makes recommendations as to the role of individuals and governments in sustainably managing this environmental problem. This paper concludes by stating that all pillars of sustainable development should be taken into account and respect for the lives and livelihood of locals and preservation of the environment should be the foremost consideration of the government when responding to forest fires in every location, notwithstanding that location’s economic viability.

With the advent of global crises of climate change, it is imperative that we recognize how significant the need is to maintain the balance between the ecology, environment and human life. Conceptualizing the elementary notion of ecological balance between ecology and human life, the paper reveals the detrimental impact of disruptions in the ecological balance not only on the environment but also on human well-being. Considering human activity as a centre-stage of ecological balance, the paper emphasizes the role of the individual pattern of lifestyle and consumption in governing the ecological balance. The role of the state to integrate local technology to construct a system that synchronizes ecology, environment and human life is highlighted along with empowering natural support system, local communities and systems.

We survey 861 finance academics, professionals, and public sector regulators and policy economists about climate finance topics. They identify regulatory risk as the top climate risk to businesses and investors over the next five years, but they view physical risks as the top risk over the next 30 years. By an overwhelming margin, respondents believe that asset prices underestimate climate risks. We also tabulate opinions about the correlation between growth and climate change; social discount rates appropriate for projects that mitigate the effects of climate change; most influential forces for reducing climate risks; and, most important research topics. Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.

Increased concern about climate change has led many investors to focus on its effects on portfolio returns. ESG metrics used for analyzing climate risks, however, have been shown to be inconsistent. What would happen if they were used in analyzing the climate risks of portfolios and making climate-aligned investments? In this paper, we look at different ways to incorporate ESG metrics into the investment process by creating climate factors for use with multi-factor equity returns models. We found that different ESG metrics do indeed lead to very different, sometimes even opposite, investment recommendations. At the same time, it was possible to create at least one climate factor from Exchange Traded Funds which could be used to identify investment opportunities and monitor climate risks in the Energy industry. This suggests that the market is trading to a systematic climate factor in at least one industry. The methodologies in this paper for validating the climate factors created from ESG metrics could be used to develop climate factors for other industries. It could also be used to test the validity of ESG metrics and of the integration of climate risk analysis into managers’ investment processes.

The design and conduct of climate change policy necessarily confronts uncertainty along multiple fronts. We explore the consequences of ambiguity over various sources and configurations of models that impact how economic opportunities could be damaged in the future. We appeal to decision theory under risk, model ambiguity and misspecification concerns to provide an economically motivated approach to uncertainty quantification. We show how this approach reduces the many facets of uncertainty into a low dimensional characterization that depends on the uncertainty aversion of a decision-maker or fictitious social planner. In our computations, we take inventory of three alternative channels of uncertainty and provide a novel way to assess them. These include i) carbon dynamics that capture how carbon emissions impact atmospheric carbon in future time periods; ii) temperature dynamics that depict how atmospheric carbon alters temperature in future time periods; iii) damage functions that quantify how temperature changes diminish economic opportunities. We appeal to geoscientific modeling to quantify the first two channels. We show how these uncertainty sources interact for a social planner looking to design a prudent approach to the social pricing of carbon emissions. Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.

Climate change has exacerbated extreme weather events; global warming and its effects have been described as unequivocal and unprecedented. It has been recognized that transitioning to a low carbon economy will require large scale transformation. We are witnessing a period in which there are several attempts by different EU institutions to actively contribute towards a greener economy. However, whether and to which extent the European Central Bank (ECB) ought to participate in the transformation remains a point of controversy. As such, this paper seeks to provide a comprehensive assessment of the ECB mandate in order to address the looming question of the potential legal obligation of the ECB with regards to tackling climate change. A thorough understanding of the mandate and the legal requirement of the ECB is a precursor to exploring the concrete ways in which the central bank must act. As such, the paper peels off several layers by exhaustively interpreting the ECB mandate to clarify whether the ECB is legally required to consider climate change and whether that obligation stems from its secondary and/or primary objective. In the second part of the paper, a concrete green monetary policy measure – Green Targeted Longer Term Refinancing Operations (Green TLTROs) – will be discussed, which illustrates that incorporating climate considerations into monetary policy may only require tweaking the existing monetary policy measures.

This paper examines the ways in which Bitcoin miners are responding to external pressures associated with climate change and what this means for the legitimacy of Bitcoin. Using the experiences of four miners with very different energy use practices, the paper unpacks the various motivations and choices that underpin Bitcoin mining, including factors that can be obscured in economic and data models. Miners make decisions based on cost, local partnerships, the preferences of capital investors, energy market dynamics, technology upgrades, and the regulatory environment. In responding to these pressures and events, some miners are providing services and innovations that may help the viability of clean energy infrastructures for energy providers and beyond, including the data and computing industry. The paper finds that if Bitcoin loses legitimacy as a store of value, then it may result in lost opportunities to accelerate sustainable energy infrastructures and markets.

This paper analyses the implications of climate change for the conduct of monetary policy in the euro area. It first investigates macroeconomic and financial risks stemming from climate change and from policies aimed at climate mitigation and adaptation, as well as the regulatory and fiscal effects of reducing carbon emissions. In this context, it assesses the need to adapt macroeconomic models and the Eurosystem/ECB staff economic projections underlying the monetary policy decisions. It further considers the implications of climate change for the conduct of monetary policy, in particular the implications for the transmission of monetary policy, the natural rate of interest and the correct identification of shocks. Model simulations using the ECB’s New Area-Wide Model (NAWM) illustrate how the interactions of climate change, financial and fiscal fragilities could significantly restrict the ability of monetary policy to respond to standard business cycle fluctuations. The paper concludes with an analysis of a set of potential monetary policy measures to address climate risks, insofar as they are in line with the ECB’s mandate.

This paper discusses economic policies that have supported a particular kind of agricultural development in Punjab, as well as environment-specific policies that have sought to deal with various environmental problems aris- ing from that pattern of development. In doing so, we highlight some major environmental issues associated with economic policies in the state, including with respect to water, air, soil and climate change. We attempt to analyze why and how economic policy failures adversely affect environmental quality in Punjab. The aim of this paper is to highlight these issues, as a first step towards identifying policies that may do a better job of protecting the envi- ronment. This is important because Punjab has been a trendsetter for India in its farm practices and policies.

The need for clean water is expected to substantially increase while further reductions of water availability in sufficient quantity and quality are projected owing to climate change and anthropogenic activities. Accordingly, the debate on water security has recently intensified and reached the intergovernmental arena. Industry is, in particular, one of the largest (non-consumptive) water users, accountable for massive toxic wastewater discharges and facing stringent and costly environmental oversight. However, the management of reservoirs is intricate and operational research must be further expanded to design tools that enhance water security while improving operators’ profitability. We therefore consider a game-theoretic framework to study the strategies adopted by a large group of similar producers sharing a water reservoir for their manufacturing activities. Each operator faces random demand for its outputs and chooses the optimal time to invest in a technology that ends its reliance on the reservoir. This technology introduces cost saving opportunities for the operator and benefits for the environment. Each producer therefore solves a so-called optimal stopping problem, and all problems are coupled through the reservoir level. We formulate the problem of finding a Nash equilibrium as a mean-field game (MFG) of optimal stopping. We then apply the model to the paper milling industry, an extensive water user facing a tightening of environmental regulations. This paper provides fresh insights into how to rethink the problem of technological change and water management, by offering an innovative application of operational research that builds on recent mathematical developments made in MFG theory.

This paper discusses the potential role of fossil natural gas (and other gases) in the process of the energy transformation in Europe on its way to complete decarbonization. Mainstream conventional wisdom has it that natural gas, perhaps in combination with other gases, should maintain an important role in the energy mix, first, as a “bridge fuel”, and then through a gradual transition toward decarbonized gases. This is most comprehensively rolled out in three consecutive discussion papers by Jonathan Stern from the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (2017b, 2017a, 2019). Based on an in- depth assessment of the ambitious climate targets of the EU and the subsequent need for far-reaching decarbonization, as well as on results from energy system modeling, a contrasting result emerges, where the disappearance of fossil natural gas and its corresponding infrastructure is the next logical step of the transformation process in Europe. The lack of an economic perspective for nuclear power and the absence of a plausible deployment of large-scale carbon-dioxide removal technologies (CDR) imply that natural gas has no “sweet spot” any longer in the decarbonization process. In other words: Fossil natural gas is no longer part of the solution to the challenge of climate change, but has become part of the problem. Over the last years, the phasing out of natural gas in Europe has already started, and will continue until its complete phase-out, most likely in the 2040s, i.e. only two decades from now. The decline of natural gas in Europe has implications for the short- and longer-term aggregate and sectoral energy mix, but also for the future of the lumpy infrastructure, that has been developed over the last decades for a growing market. Today, investments into natural gas infrastructure are likely to produce stranded assets, as we show in three concrete cases: The € 10 bn. investment into the North Stream 2 pipeline are not necessary to assure European supply security, nor to make a return on investment; projects of new LNG terminals on the shore of the German North Sea (Brunsbuettel, Stade, Wilhelmshaven) lack a business case; and new natural gas power plants are likely to be unprofitable. The paper proposes to replace the dominant narrative (“natural gas in decarbonizing European energy markets“) with what we consider a more coherent narrative in the context of decarbonization: Fossil natural gas exit.

This paper discusses the UN and EU regulations on the climate change in regard to CO2 emission in a perspective of the “Tragedy of the Commons”. The paper presents the objectives of the Rio Convention UNDCCC, the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement and the EU CO2 trading system. The main findings are that the regulation in these legal documents are too soft if defining the climate changes and the climate crisis as an example of the tragedy of the commons. The tragedy of the commons are analyzed in the paper in a climate perspective. Hence, this perspective results in a recommendation of binding legal measures as CO2 taxes or other types of regulations to regulate the climate market failure. It is argued that binding legal measures are needed to solve the tragedy of the commons and the climate crisis.

There is a lot we know about climate change, but there is also a lot we don't know. Even if we knew how much CO2 will be emitted over the coming decades, we wouldn't know how much temperatures will rise as a result. And even if we could predict the extent of warming that will occur, we can say very little about its impact. I explain that we face considerable uncertainty over climate change and its impact, why there is so much uncertainty, and why we will continue to face uncertainty in the near future. I also explain the policy implications of climate change uncertainty. First, the uncertainty (particularly over the possibility of a catastrophic climate outcome) creates insurance value, which pushes us to earlier and stronger actions to reduce CO2 emissions. Second, uncertainty interacts with two kinds of irreversibilities. First, CO2 remains in the atmosphere for centuries, making the environmental damage from CO2 emissions irreversible, pushing us to earlier and stronger actions. Second, reducing CO2 emissions requires sunk costs, i.e., irreversible expenditures, which pushes us away from earlier actions. Both irreversibilities are inherent in climate policy, but the net effect is ambiguous. Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.

21st century marks presence of technology as major force and it drives other segment of environment. It is equally true that other segments of environment influence technology. Conducive legal environment may allow technology to grow with ease against restrictive law which can impede its growth. Zooming economy may allow enough money to invest in technology, while sinking economy will have limited money to invest in technology. A progressive society will tend to accept technology at faster rate than an orthodox or illiterate society. Many environmental problems like bio-diversity, climate change, depleting water level, rising temperature and water level on some of the coastal cities, ozone depletion, dumping of wastes poses serious threat to the planet, people and profit. Many questions clutter our horizon in 21st century. The way business is passing through impulsive and unremitting changes; the new business management norms are created every day (Sapovadia, 2019). One of the major forces behind adverse environment is technology and how people use it. Technology is a two edge sword, enhancer of living standards of living creatures and poses serious challenges to environment. Technology is part and parcel of life. We cannot live without using technology. The issue is optimization; how we can use technology and minimize damage to the environment. This paper attempts to shed some light and provide lead to the researchers on evaluating devastating influence of technology on other segment of environment; viz. political, legal, social, economic and climate. Interactions among various players are highly dynamic and one’s loss may be gain for others and vice versa. Automation may reduce cost for manufacturers and hence less price for consumers; but it will huge burden on government for pacifying rising unemployment. It is not possible to measure everything in white and black. The interactions among environmental segments and its impact is complex to measure and even more complex to understand. This paper attempts to dissect environmental segments for better and immediate impact.

This paper suggests that some of the common policies and decrees made by many countries to curb the spread of the Coronavirus (a global pandemic) may also be adoptable to mitigate climate change or reduce greenhouse gas emissions and invariably contribute to the world’s ozone layer repair, considering that both issues are global in nature. However, the article pinpoints some adjustments that may have to be made to some of these rules for them to be transposable for climate change mitigation. Distinctively the paper encourages that although some of these changes imposed by the law may seem extraneous, however, they are vital sacrifices that must be made if the projected climate change effects shall not overcome the human race. According to Antonio Guterres (UN general Secretary): the challenge is a global one and the world must remain resilient in resolving it.

In the present technological era, climate change has become the word of the hour. Since 1970, Climate Change has been in discussion and that its adverse effects should be reduced by 2100. But these climate change effects have been observed and felt predominantly since the past 10 years. One such effect is the thawing of permafrost. Permafrost, being an integral component provides stability to the land around the Arctic regions. But, due to thawing of 2,000-43,000 years old permafrost structures around Alaska and Siberia, has resulted in instability triggering in loss of millions of dollars. Due to the unstable nature there has been a historic, economic and cultural revolution in the regions present around the arctic. The permafrost has also been considered as the last remnants of the Ice age and is also a prominent source of the Paleontological remains. Permafrost depletion is a dynamic effect which results in a misnomer to regular people. Due to such changes in permafrost, nature of water, ecosystems and also communities living on the permafrost land will be primarily affected. Therefore, this resulted in release of greenhouse gases and also caused bubbling effect in 72 lakes around Alaska. Thawing of permafrost creates a staggering impact as they contain 1600 billion tons of carbon dioxide and methane stored globally within which 150 billion tons of carbon dioxide and methane is expected to be released by 2100 which is tantamount to the amount of greenhouse gases released by USA alone by the burning of fossil fuels. Acceleration of the adversity of climate change is being observed due to the effects caused by nature and fossil fuels which in turn results in difficulties in sustainability of living beings. Depletion of permafrost also results in land sliding into the sea simultaneously resulting in erosion of 2-5 meters of land per year. Furthermore, melting of permafrost provoke the awakening of prehistoric microbes that have been dormant for the past 20,000 years giving rise to deadly diseases like those that resulted in Neanderthal extinction. In this paper, we will be discussing about the impact of depletion of permafrost on the socio-economic conditions around the Arctic region and the methods which could be imbibed to have a stable socio-economic condition around that region. This paper also corroborates about the escalation of deadly diseases caused worldwide due to the depletion of permafrost. This paper provides an overview on the drastic change beginning from food chain pattern to the conventional cremation procedure of the people living in the arctic region.

With the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015, nations ushered in a new era of international climate change cooperation. To meet the Agreement’s goals, countries need to adopt increasingly ambitious national emissions control pledges. While the Agreement covers all countries, ambition levels and the implementation of policy measures will likely vary. Any unevenness in ambition or implementation will increase pressure on policy makers to prevent loss of competitiveness, relocation of carbon-intensive production to other countries (carbon leakage), and free rider behavior. Addressing these issues will likely require measures providing some form of remedy for producers subject to carbon constraints. This paper focuses on one such proposal: border carbon adjustments, which are charges levied on the greenhouse gases emitted during the production of a good. In recent years, policy makers have increasingly pushed for the development of a carbon charge imposed at the border. However, if border adjustments are implemented, policy makers need to address concerns about violating international trade law. This paper outlines how such a design could be developed. First, we introduce the concept of border carbon adjustments and explain how they have featured in policy discussions thus far. We then examine the compatibility of border carbon adjustments with World Trade Organization (WTO) law. Finally, we outline several design principles that could guide the adoption and implementation of such measures.

Climate Change has become a serious issue in contemporary times everywhere in the world. The most pathetic truth about this issue is that it targets the most vulnerable and the in-secured sections of the population as victims more compared to those who are in an advantageous position in society. Thus, women as they are physically and socially weak stay at the receiving end and suffer the most due to the devastating impacts of climate change. In India, women are held to be socially weak due to the patriarchal nature of most of the Indian societies. Further, women in India are seemed to be neglected mostly in the decision-making process. The study in this matter therefore assumes huge significance since the health of women is also equally important for sustainable development of a particular nation, or what I believe in some cases, women’s health is more important as compared to the health of men since they need extra care as they are the builders of a nation. This paper will thereby focus on the actual position of women in India and the impact of climate change on them. This paper will further try to address the gravity of gender discrimination existing in Indian societies and the impact that has been made by climate change due to such gender inequalities. At last, this paper will finally try to analyze a few of the important health policies in India to understand the nature of these policies and the ways adopted by them for addressing this issue and also will analyze the opinions of various scholars to verify the achievements of those policies.

In response to global climate breakdown and the financial and macro-economic instability that underpins the current era of the Anthropocene, climate reparations represent an important remedy for the Global South. While not a new concept, climate reparations offer an appropriate encompassing philosophical and policy apparatus for first coming to terms with the magnitude of climate breakdown associated with the fallout from the climate crisis, and second for mounting a response that applies a framework that has history and ethics at the centre. This policy paper offers analysis of the current and historical factors that give rise to the necessity of, and an action agenda for realising climate reparations, namely the interrelated effects of colonialism and the disproportionate role of former colonising powers in greenhouse gas emissions. Through an examination of the macroeconomic character and repercussions of the climate crisis, relevant data and financial needs associated with ongoing long-term loss and damage especially of formerly colonised regions and marginalised societies, the paper offers two policy solutions - a Global Climate Stabilization Fund that effectively replaces any role the current International Monetary Fund have regarding climate change governance and a Resilience financing scheme for loss and damage. Ex-colonial regions face an extremely uncertain and volatile future and because of their economic and institutional vulnerabilities, current mechanisms and policy tools have fallen far short of their needs and fail to recognise the historical condition of their colonisation as cause for growing social and economic inequities borne and aggravated by the climate crisis. In response, this paper sets out the argument for a global climate stabilisation and resilience programmes through which climate reparations can be materialised. In addition, climate stabilization requires appropriate democratic and institutional structures at the multilateral, regional and national levels. As such, the paper discusses governance arrangements and fund and programme leadership comprising civic groups and developing-country governments and organisations. At the national and regional level, central banks and regional development banks will play a critical role to localise the institutional relationships and fast-track funding disbursements in response to climate-induced events and disasters that affect livelihoods, agriculture, increased displacement, and a range of other needs and social and economic support systems. This paper thus explores and offers a starting point for a policy framework around macroeconomic effects and financial instability borne and aggravated by climate change that offers an important case for climate reparations for the Global South.

Per capita carbon emissions are an important concept in international negotiations of climate policies and also in future projections of aggregate carbon emissions. This paper argues that the convergence studies on per capita carbon emissions in the literature are theoretically biased because demographic structure is not considered. The paper therefore links demographic change to carbon convergence analysis and examines historical convergence of per capita carbon emissions for a global sample of countries over the period of 1960-2014. The results show that although demographic structure does not change the existence of carbon convergence, the growth of worker shares is significant in most estimations in this paper, and it also affects the estimates of the convergence speed. The time period of empirical analysis also matters for the convergence results. The paper further extends the IPAT identity by introducing demographic structure as well as economic and energy structure, and argues that the convergence of per capita carbon emissions depends on the convergence of each component, and each component may converge within different time horizons. The paper proposes that emissions rights should be allocated across countries based on a mix of long-term, medium-term and short-term rules.

Via a discrete choice experiment, this paper documents that residential electricity consumers in Aguascalientes, Mexico, are willing to pay a premium for renewable energies as well as for the creation of green jobs. These results are particularly timely because the current Federal administration has redirected priorities from an energy transition that was expected to boost renewable energies to the pursuing of energy sovereignty. Concerns regarding this prioritization have been raised by national and international stakeholders due to its potential economic inefficiency and its implications for the achievement of climate change goals. These concerns have only intensified as discussions begin on how Mexico should face the post-coronavirus recession. This paper’s findings open the door to discuss whether a combination of a just energy transition together with the boosting of renewable energies should be part of a strategy to reach energy sovereignty at the same time that Mexico deals with a post-coronavirus world.

This paper presents a method for the estimation and forecast of worldwide local emission levels based on a space-time extension of a discrete thin-plate smoothing model in the frequency domain. The proposed method can potentially be applied where there is an interest in forecasting the time evolution of large geographical or spatial databases at all global grid locations simultaneously. In particular, the paper illustrates the method in the estimation and forecast of underlying local levels of carbon dioxide around the globe using the 0.1ox 0.1o grid from the EDGAR database. The results highlight the world distribution of carbon dioxide emission levels and their variations during the historic period recorded in the database as well as their forecasts up to 2025. Global carbon dioxide will reach 53,161 mill tons by 2025, representing an increase of 29.4% from 2018 levels and of more than 52% since 2012. Shanghai, China, is the location leader in carbon dioxide emission levels since 2009; reaching 46.13 mill tons in its surrounding 10 km square region by 2025. China-Korea, North America, India, Europe and Japan, in this order, will be the highest emitting regions in the world by 2025, with Africa-Middle East, due to the oil and gas fields industry, and South America rising fast behind. In fact, most developing countries show a high rate of increase in their carbon dioxide levels during the 2012--2025 period. In comparison, North America and Japan show stable levels while Europe may see its levels actually decrease. However, even within these more developed regions it is of environmental interest to identify high emitting locations at a local level.

The study of the financial repercussions of low-carbon policy has focused mainly on stocks, leaving bonds out of the picture. The objective of this paper is to assess the impact of low-carbon policy upon European bond returns. This is done by extending the Fama and French (1993) two factor model for bonds with an EU-ETS compliance factor. The paper provides a highly statistically significant proxy for the risk factor in bond returns related to EU-ETS compliance, the GMC factor, and shows the presence of a statistically significant green premium in the European bond market. Furthermore, evidence is found that the addition of an environmental factor improves the performance of the original model in Europe. Lastly, the carbon stress test put forward is able to indicate the effects of a plausible but more severe average EU-ETS carbon price on bond returns.

The paper traces the evolution the concept of socioeconomic vulnerability to climate change has followed in the academic and scientific debate. The recent recognition of vulnerability as a social construction has shifted the focus of the analysis on the dimension of adaptive capacity, i.e. the human response to environmental stresses and climate hazards. Depending on the social and institutional factors in place in a society, this human response can either mitigate or exacerbate harm. In particular, the paper focuses on the role of both vertical and horizontal inequalities in determining differentiated vulnerabilities across individuals and population groups. Inequality in the distribution of income and relevant resources is primarily a question of access to tangible and intangible assets and capabilities that can enable individuals or population groups to prevent and cope with impacts from extreme weather events.

There is growing acknowledgement among policymakers that climate change may give rise to potentially catastrophic financial risk and impact financial stability. This paper explores the specific features of climate-related financial risks (CRFR), drawing on a growing body of macrofinancial literature and policy work, and discusses the options macroprudential policy-makers have in the face of such risk. It finds that there are significant challenges associated with ‘greening’ macroprudential policy, both epistemological and methodological as well as behavioural, and points to potential ingredients of a ‘green’ macroprudential policy. In light of the radical uncertainty in relation to the dynamics of CRFR, the timing of policy action is of the essence. The paper, in particular, explores the merits and challenges associated with a precautionary approach to tackling the systemic effects of CRFR. Finally, it discusses the role that Central Banks can and should play in the transition to a low-carbon economy, both within the confines and in fulfilment of their price and financial stability mandates.

This paper aims to analyze the matter concerning the challenges and issues in promoting “Eco-Patenting: A techno-legal weapon to mitigate climate change”. The paper broadly covers and attempts to answer the prominent questions like, what encourages green technology transfer? What is the impact of green technology on climate change? Does IP law inhibit technology transfer? What role do patents play in encouraging green technology innovation? How can compulsory licensing be used in green technology? Further, it also discusses the requirement of the de-blocking provisions and the generous experimental use clause in patent laws for encouraging improvements and know-how transfer in green technology. Furthermore, the paper elaborates on the importance of invoking compulsory licensing provisions in developing countries for ESTs in light of public health and welfare. Also, the paper mentions the use of the proposed “modified” international exhaustion principle to maintain a balance between the interest of innovators and public needs. The author proposes to build an environment in developing countries like India that can resolve the issues of climate change using the model of Eco-patenting without prejudicing the rights and interests of innovators. [enter Abstract Body]

Lithuanian Abstract: Apžvalgoje pristatoma klimato kaitos samprata: procesas, pagrindinės priežastys ir lemiantys veiksniai, numanomi padariniai. Darbe apžvelgiamas anglies ciklas ir technologinės galimybės paveikti anglies dvideginio kiekį atmosferoje, kovos su klimato kaita priemonės, įskaitant technologines priemones, tokias kaip neigiamų islakų technologijos. Darbas parengtas remiantis pastarųjų metų pasaulio mokslininkų tyrimų rezultatais, publikuotais aukstos mokslinės vertės leidiniuose. English Abstract: In the overview, the concept of climate change is presented: the process, main contributing factors, foreseeable consequences. The carbon cycle as well as technological abilities to influence atmospheric carbon, political and technological measures to combat climate change, including negative emission technologies, are overviewed in the paper. The paper is based on recent findings published in globally acclaimed scientific publications.

The present paper focuses on the emerging human rights-based climate change litigation legal movement and proposes an ECHR law-based litigation route that can be used, along with European and national constitutional law arguments, in national courts of states that participate in the ECHR system, in order to legally oblige governments to effectively reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Starting from the first major successful climate change litigation case, Urgenda, where the claimants managed to convince the Dutch courts (including the Supreme Court) that excessive greenhouse gas emissions are capable of jeopardizing citizens’ right to life and right to private and family life, this paper aims to contribute to the success of climate change litigation throughout Europe, by providing a legal strategy that mainly draws inspiration from the Urgenda case and indicates how climate change litigation claims can be brought before the national courts of every state that forms part of the ECHR system. By analyzing how Urgenda utilized the Strasbourg court case-law on Articles 2 and 8 ECHR in order to bring climate cases under their protective scope, the actual significance of the ECHR law in climate change litigation will be defined, along with the added value that the Urgenda ruling and its line of reasoning offers to prospective climate change litigants in state-parties of the ECHR system. At the same time, the transferability possibilities of the Urgenda claim will be presented. Lastly, the perspectives of climate litigation in Greece will be discussed, by indicating a specific legal route that Greek NGOs could follow in order to oblige the state to adopt a more ambitious climate policy.

The aim of this piece is to assess whether and to what extent the European Union can be considered a world leader in stimulating the development of international climate change standards through a variety of international organizations and processes as a way of spurring necessary international cooperation. It will argue that given slow progress towards an effective global response to the climate change challenge through multilateral cooperation, the EU has been trying to develop climate change standards internally or in cooperation with third countries, arguably in order to promote the acceptance of such standards by the competent international organizations, or at least create a critical mass of countries engaging in climate action (minilateralism). The paper will conclude by considering the legitimacy issues arising from this multi-faceted strategy of the EU in promoting international climate change standards.

The Durban Climate Conference agreed on the creation of a new market-based mechanism under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and to consider the establishment of an overall framework for various mitigation approaches, including opportunities for using markets (“Framework”). This development is taking place against the background of increasing numbers of parties developing market mechanisms outside the UNFCCC. The creation of such a Framework is therefore of high political significance, as it should ensure on the one hand that new market-based mechanisms contribute to global climate change mitigation and to achievement of targets and on the other hand that different market-based approaches can be integrated in a global carbon market. As yet there is little clarity as to the roles and design of such a framework. This paper contributes to the debate by discussing and evaluating inter alia several design options, and explores how the various options could be implemented and how they interrelate. The paper concludes that a strong central oversight at the level of the UNFCCC is probably the only option that could reassure the vast majority of UNFCCC Parties that the environmental integrity of new market-based mechanisms is in fact ensured. This does, however, not exclude that some reasonable balance may be struck between centralisation and flexibility

Recent updates on the United Kingdom’s strategies on climate change devoted scant attention to Brexit. Based on this, one could imagine that Brexit will have little impact on the UK’s policies for climate change mitigation. This paper presents the results of qualitative research that coupled comprehensive literature review with data collected through a survey involving 100 relevant UK and non-UK stakeholders, demonstrating the existence of deep links between Brexit and the future of UK climate strategies. Focusing on possible Brexit impacts on the UK’s programmes for mitigating emissions, as well as on its impacts on domestic low-carbon electricity production, this paper aims to raise awareness on a subject to which little attention has been paid to date. In doing so, this paper focuses on the direct impacts of Brexit, yet also identifies possible correlations with the international Paris Agreement on Climate Change. As a result, this paper shows that Brexit is creating significant risks and uncertainties, which may challenge the roots of UK efforts against climate change. Yet, we also discuss how, once linked to the Paris Agreement, Brexit may lead to unexplored but significant opportunities for the future of UK climate and energy strategies.

There is widespread agreement among economists – and a diverse set of other policy analysts – that at least in the long run, an economy-wide carbon pricing system will be an essential element of any national policy that can achieve meaningful reductions of CO2 emissions cost-effectively in the United States. There is less agreement, however, among economists and others in the policy community regarding the choice of specific carbon-pricing policy instrument, with some supporting carbon taxes and others favoring cap and trade mechanisms. This prompts two important questions. How do the two major approaches to carbon pricing compare on relevant dimensions, including but not limited to efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and distributional equity? And which of the two approaches is more likely to be adopted in the future in the United States? This paper addresses these questions by drawing on both normative and positive theories of policy instrument choice as they apply to U.S. climate change policy, and draws extensively on relevant empirical evidence. The paper concludes with a look at the path ahead, including an assessment of how the two carbon-pricing instruments can be made more politically acceptable.

Climate change threatens the supply of vital, life-sustaining resources, creating shortages that will last longer and occur more frequently than in the past. Extreme weather and changed precipitation patterns will disrupt water and food supplies for some very large and populous regions throughout the world, and electricity supply for regions dependent upon hydropower. This paper explores the dynamics of how climate-induced shortages could induce hoarding of these resources, exacerbating economic inequality and creating the potential for civil unrest. Hoarding takes place when expectations form that prices will be higher or availability will be lower in the future (or both). This paper sets forth a two-period, two-agent model of hoarding, in which one agent is able to bid up the price of some good that is elastic at high quantities, but inelastic at low quantities. Hoarding is both socially and privately inefficient, but if climate change renders the supply of vital resources uncertain or volatile (or both), then hoarding becomes a rational course of action for those who can afford it. For those that cannot afford it, welfare losses in the inelastic region of demand are likely to be very high.

This paper demonstrates that index funds and index providers have agency and thus responsibility for the companies contained within their financial products. As a growing number of institutional asset owners are divesting from coal assets, index funds are becoming the holders of last resort. The common wisdom has it that index funds cannot sell out of individual stock holdings. They have a “voice” but no ability to “exit.” This paper investigates the relationship between index providers and index funds and finds the traditional understanding that index investors cannot sell to be false. Instead an increasing prevalence of index investors switching both indices and index providers is noted. Such changes provide investors with the opportunity to exclude specific stocks. This paper therefore suggests a number of solutions for index funds to reduce the carbon intensity of their funds, such as switching the indices their funds employ, discontinuing niche ETFs that are carbon intensive, reducing fees on low-carbon investments, or making use of their financial clout as index providers’ biggest customers to advocate for selective index amendments. Adding the threat of exit will increase the power of voice. Doing so will ensure, that rather than functioning as insulators from sustainability pressures, they act as conductors.