News feedsClimate Change Economics
Climate Change Economics work with and develop economic tools for climate change action that improve the welfare of the poor and vulnerable while supporting sustainable development and the environment
About this project
Background
In light of the emerging consensus on the need to tackle the economic structures at the heart of climate change, it is increasingly being said that that this is the ‘decade of the environmental economist’. Such enthusiasm should not be squandered by partial solutions or political gain, and the economics used must address sustainable development and equity considerations.
It is recognised that many environmental problems such as climate change, pollution, land degradation and biodiversity loss are in part the result of market failures. These market failures are present in most sectors of the economy, from primary production such as agriculture, forestry, and extractive industries to manufacturing and tourism. Customers, government agencies, retailers, companies and middlemen taking decisions about market purchases are seldom affected directly.
Compounding this, indirectly, the market rarely incorporates true costs of environmental or social externalities. Thus, the incentives need realigning to ensure positive sustainable development outcomes.
Dates
2008-2011
Aims
We work with and develop economic tools for climate change action that improve the welfare of the poor and vulnerable while supporting sustainable development and the environment. We work on adaptation audits, climate standards, equity audits and carbon finance.
Contact
Downloads and links
Publications
Development, trade and carbon reduction: Designing coexistence to promote development. Working Paper no. 315, Overseas Development Institute, February 2010. Jodie Keane, James MacGregor, Sheila Page, Leo Peskett and Vera Thorstensen
Rural agriculture and climate change in low income countries: Challenges and opportunities. Food Ethics Council Newsletter 4(4), December 2009. Saleemul Huq and James MacGregor.
Fair Miles: recharting the food miles map. A pocketbook. IIED and Oxfam, December 2009. Kelly Chi, James MacGregor and Richard King.
Road to recovery: mapping a sustainable economy. Commonwealth Foundation, November 2009. See also IIED press release: Mapping a sustainable economy.
Climate action shouldn't target poor famers. Comment is Free, The Guardian (UK), 16 October 2009.
Cultivating success: the need to climate-proof Tanzanian agriculture. IIED Sustainable Development Opinion. Muyeye Chambwera and James MacGregor.
Due South blog. IIED staff including Tom Birch and James MacGregor blogging on the impact of the global recession on developing nations.
Links
Recent presentations
Climate change and policy in Africa: identifying needs and opportunities. Presentation and session at ‘Africa 2010: The Key Challenges’ organised by DFID/ FCO/ GSK/ Rockefeller Foundation at Wilton Park, Sussex, UK. 5 February 2010. Presentation by Muyeye Chambwera and James MacGregor.
REDD and the international perspective. Presentation at ‘Pro-Poor REDD Project launch’ organised by SNV and IIED at Sammy Hotel, Dalat City, Vietnam. Presentation by James MacGregor and Essam Mohammed.
REDD benefits and benefit distribution. Presentation at ‘Pro-Poor REDD Project launch’ organised by SNV and IIED at Sammy Hotel, Dalat City, Vietnam. Presentation by James MacGregor and Essam Mohammed.
Developing standards to address global sustainable development. Presentation at ‘Climate change, trade and standardisation – in a development perspective’, Swedish Standards Institute, Stockholm, 21 November 2009. Presentation by James MacGregor.
Mitigation Technology and Policy: From strategy to deployment - likely social and economic effects. Presentation at ‘Parliamentary Seminar on Climate Change Mitigation’ organised by AWEPA at Mbabane, Swaziland, 3-4 November 2009. Presentation by Tom Birch.
Climate change science and policy in Africa: a policy response. Presentation at ‘Africa Climate Change Discussion’. The Grantham Institute, Imperial College. 28 October 2009. Presentation by James MacGregor.
Climate change and developing countries. Presentation at ‘Trade and Climate change’ organised by ICTSD at COP15, Copenhagen. Presentation by James MacGregor.
Challenging free trade: Embodied carbon and the development agenda. Presentation at ‘Trade and climate regimes: a course for co-existence’, organised by ODI at World Meteorological Organisation, Geneva, 2 December 2009. ppt. Presentation by James MacGregor.
Embodied carbon in agricultural trade from developing countries. Presentation at ‘Climate change and international agricultural trade rules’ organised by ICTSD, Geneva, Switzerland, 1 October 2009. Presentation by James MacGregor and Tom Birch.
Counting the socioeconomic cost of climate change in developing countries. Presentation at ‘Caribsave Partners and Donors’ Symposium on Climate Change, Tourism and Livelihoods’, orgnaised by Caribsave at Merton College, Oxford. July 2009. Presentation by James MacGregor.
Counting the Cost of Climate Change in Developing Countries: Application to sub-Saharan African countries . Presentation at ‘The Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change’. 2/3 April 2009, FEEM. Presentation by James MacGregor.
Counting the cost of climate change in developing countries: application to sub-Saharan African countries. Presentation at ‘envecon 2009’ organised by UKNEE, 2/3 March 2009. Presentation by Muyeye Chambwera and James MacGregor.
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