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 green-house gas emissions. The Kyoto Protocol has not received support from the USA, and ratification has been delayed by Russia's reluctance to sign up- both in part because of its costs. Few European countries are on course to meet their own national targets. Nonetheless, even if fully implemented, the Kyoto Protocol would make little difference to the carbon concentrations in the atmosphere. In consequence, there is a search for 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 developed countries. This volume provides an overview of the economics 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.