Handbook on Energy and Climate Change (ed. R. Fouquet) - Book review
Published 25 March 2014
Introduction
The volume on the economics of energy and climate change comprises 32 contributions by a variety of top experts from academic institutions and think-tanks in the US, UK and other European countries. The driving idea behind assembling the volume seems to have been in providing a disciplinary outlook and reflecting on the recent trends and major ideas in climate change economics in the energy sector.
Knowledge of the economic aspects of climate-energy nexus is critically important because the energy sector - through the production and combustion of coal, oil, and natural gas - is responsible for about 60% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions are growing every year setting the world on the path to a dangerous long-term temperature increase of 3.4°C and more.
In the international policy arena, attention to economic aspects of climate change was raised and solidified by the much-discussed Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change published in 2006. The production of disciplinary research has indeed increased dramatically in the first decade of the 21st century, as explained by the editor of the book Roger Fouquet. He claims however that the most recent research has primarily focused on refining and applying older concepts while new “blockbuster” ideas are necessary to accelerate low-carbon transition in the energy sector.
Handbook on Energy and Climate Change. Edited by Roger Fouquet, Principal Research Fellow, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics, UK. Edward Elgar, 2013.