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The paper seeks out to investigate how varying degree of convexity of climate change damage function affect economic output and the dynamic response of macroeconomic variables to shocks under different environmental policy regimes. In an economy featuring nominal rigidities and monopolistically competitive firms together with climate change mitigation policy and firm abatement effort, the results show that the choice of damage function affects long-term growth of the economy and the performance of climate mitigation policy. A highly convex climate damage function has a significant contractionary effect on economic output and by extension consumption and private investment. This result stands irrespective of the environmental policy put in place. The impact of exogenous shocks on the macroeconomic variables is higher than the degree of convexity of the damage function. Cap-and-trade policy compresses the response of macroeconomic variables to these shocks, irrespective of curvature of the damage function. The results are robust to different calibrations of the climate damage functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing tendency for policy makers to frame climate change action in terms of non-climate benefits, raising important empirical questions regarding the utility of such approaches. Across three studies we explore whether (and when) non-climate frames can lead to greater support for climate policy relative to climate frames. In Study 1 we framed a car-use reduction policy in relation to climate change or public health and showed that non-climate frames can stimulate greater support for climate policy. Study 2 explored frame relevance as a potential boundary condition to the efficacy of non-climate frames. Study 3 found that attempts to frame climate policy in relation to non-climate issues that affect participants personally can fail if that issue is not seen as being sufficiently relevant. We suggest that non-climate frames can be an effective tool in stimulating support for climate policy, however greater consideration of the key mechanisms is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is a complex and cross-cutting issue in Nepal that needs joint initiatives and efforts from all sectors at all levels to minimize its impacts. The government has developed climate policies, plans and frameworks - NAPA, National Climate Change Policy, LAPA and now in the process of developing National Adaptation Plans (NAPs). This paper has explored the views and experiences of climate experts in Nepal on the state of climate policies, its interlinkages, roles and responsibilities of ministries and departments, important factors to be considered and subjective indicators for effective implementation of policies. Altogether 30 experts responded the questionnaire sent via the email, LinkedIn and Skype Interview. The experiences of the experts' ranges from 2 to 30 years in the field representing governmental and non-governmental sectors including media and independent experts. The policies in Nepal are progressing in a more strategic direction with national and local priorities. LAPA is the framework to address the local climatic issues originated in Nepal. However, lack of clarity on roles and responsibilities and coordination among the ministries, departments and clear mechanisms for implementation of these policies, lack of sensitization and decentralization and delegation of finance and technologies and the capacity of the stakeholders are the major challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the evolution of the new environmental policy of the European Union in the context of the efforts undertaken to moderate the negative effects of climate change. It describes all the activities in the European Union designed to implement new tools of the EU environmental policy, such as low carbon economy technologies, tools that improve the efficiency of managing the limited natural resources, the environmentally friendly transport package, etc. All of them are aimed at laying the foundations of the circular economy, which may also be referred to as a closed-loop economy, i.e., an economy that does not generate excessive waste and whereby any waste becomes a resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As dangerous climate change looms, decision-makers are increasingly realising that societies will need to adapt to this threat as well as mitigate against it. Green infrastructure (GI) is increasingly seen as an ideal climate change adaptation policy response. However, with this research the authors identify a number of crucial knowledge gaps within GI and, consequently, call for caution and for a concerted effort to understand the concept and what it can really deliver. GI has risen to prominence in a range of policy areas in large part due to its perceived ability to produce multiple benefits simultaneously, termed ‘multifunctionality’. This characteristic strengthens the political appeal of the policy in question at a time when environmental issues have slipped down political agendas. Multifunctionality, however, brings its own set of new challenges that should be evaluated fully before the policy is implemented. This research takes important first steps to developing a critical understanding of what is achievable within GI's capacity. It focuses on one of GI's single objectives, namely climate change adaptation, to focus the analysis of how current obstacles in applying GI's multifunctionality could lead to the ineffective delivery of its objective. By drawing on expert opinion from government officials and representatives from the private, non-government organisation (NGO) and academic sectors, this research questions GI's ability to be effectively ‘multifunctional’ with an inconsistent definition at its core, deficiencies in its understanding and conflicts within its governance. In light of these observations, the authors then reflect on the judiciousness of applying GI to achieve the other objectives it has also been charged with delivering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Current global climate policy architecture does not aim at stabilizing the greenhouse gases concentration in the atmosphere that may achieve the proclaimed 2°C guard rail. An alternative approach that targets on limiting the global cumulative emission to accomplish such an outcome is put forward by German Advisory Board of Global Change (WBGU). This research work further elaborates the approach and its flexibility instrument i.e. carbon trading. As the approach visualises sharing of the carbon budget (750Gt CO2) equally to every human being (2.7t CO2 per capita), India is the country with largest tradable surplus reflecting its low emission per capita and large population. The research work further analyzes the emission profile of rural India and the significance of its future emission pathways within the proposed framework. It also shows how low carbon development in India can assist in cost effective decarbonization of industrialized countries and mitigation of climate change, given a global climate treaty based on the WBGU approach. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper provides (for the nonspecialist) a highly streamlined discussion of the main issues, and controversies, in the design of climate mitigation policy. The first part of the paper discusses how much action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the global level is efficient under both the cost-effectiveness and welfare-maximizing paradigms. We then discuss various issues in the implementation of domestic emissions control policy, instrument choice, and incentives for technological innovation. Finally, we discuss alternative policy architectures at the international level. (JEL Q54, Q58) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper reviews existing policy responses to rapid climate change and examines possible assumptions that underpin those responses. The analysis demonstrates that current policy responses to rapid climate change make unwarranted epistemological and ethical assumptions. Specifically, we argue that the assumptions about the possibility of predicting the climate system including tipping points linked to utilitarian ethical assumptions in the form of cost–benefit analysis are open to contestation and should be subject to global public debate. The paper considers alternative normative approaches and briefly proposes complementary policy responses. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Midcentury targets have been proposed as a guide to climate change policy that can link long-term goals to shorter-term actions. However no explicit mitigation analyses have been carried out of the relationship between midcentury conditions and longer-term outcomes. Here we use an integrated assessment modeling framework with a detailed representation of the energy sector to examine the dependence of climate change outcomes in 2100 on emissions levels, atmospheric concentrations, and technology characteristics in 2050. We find that midcentury conditions are crucial determinants of longer-term climate outcomes, and we identify feasibility thresholds describing conditions that must be met by midcentury to keep particular long-term options open. For example, to preserve the technical feasibility of a 50% likelihood of keeping global average temperature at <2°C above preindustrial in 2100, global emissions must be reduced by about 20% below 2000 levels by 2050. Results are sensitive to several assumptions, including the nature of future socio-economic development. In a scenario with high demand for energy and land, being below 2°C with 50% likelihood requires a 50% reduction in emissions below 2000 levels by 2050, which is only barely feasible with known technologies in that scenario. Results suggest that a greater focus on midcentury targets could facilitate the development of policies that preserve potentially desirable long-term options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with Robert O. Keohane, professor of international affairs at Princeton University in New Jersey, is presented. When asked about the most pressing environmental problems, he expresses that climate change may have irreversible global damage. He cites the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer as the environmental policy reform he admires the most.