Climate-Change Policy

The threat posed by climate change has not yet been matched by international agreements and economic policies that can deliver sharp reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions. Although the Kyoto Protocol has now been ratified by Russia and hence come into legal effect, the USA, China, and Indiaare all outside its emissions caps. Few European countries are on course to meet their own national targets, and even if fully implemented, it is widely acknowledged that the Kyoto Protocol would make little difference to the carbon concentrations in the atmosphere. In consequence, there is a searchfor a post-Kyoto framework, new institutions, and new economic policies to spread the costs and meet them in an economically efficient way. Carbon taxes and emissions trading are, in particular, being established in a number of developing countries. This volume provides an accessible overview of theeconomics of climate change, the policy options, and the scope for making significant carbon reductions.

Dieter Helm is an economist specialising in utilities, infrastructure, regulation and the environment, and concentrates on the energy, water and transport sectors in the UK and Europe. He is currently Fellow in Economics, New College, Oxford and holds a number of advisory board appointments, including the Prime Minister's Council for Science and Technology, the DEFRA Economic Academic Panel (Chair), the DTI Sustainable Energy Panel Advisory Board and the Ministeral Task Force on Sustainable Development.