Routledge Handbook of the Political Economy of the Environment

Featuring a stellar international cast list of leading and cutting-edge scholars, The Routledge Handbook of the Political Economy of the Environment presents the state of the art of the discipline that considers ecological issues and crises from a political economy perspective. This collective volume sheds new light on the effect of economic and power inequality on environmental dynamics and, conversely, on the economic and social impact of environmental dynamics.

The chapters gathered in this handbook make four original contributions to the field of political economy of the environment. First, they revisit essential concepts and methods of environmental economics in the light of their political economy. Second, they introduce readers to recent theoretical and empirical advances in key issues of political economy of the environment with a special focus on the relationship between inequality and environmental degradation, a nexus that has dramatically come into focus with the COVID crisis. Third, the authors of this handbook open the field to its critical global and regional dimensions: global issues, such as the environmental justice movement and inequality and climate change as well as regional issues such as agriculture systems, air pollution, natural resources appropriation and urban sustainability. Fourth and finally, the work shows how novel analysis can translate into new forms of public policy that require institutional reform and new policy tools. Ecosystems preservation, international climate negotiations and climate mitigation policies all have a strong distributional dimension that chapters point to. Pressing environmental policy such as carbon pricing and low-carbon and energy transitions entail numerous social issues that also need to be accounted for with new analytical and technological tools.

This handbook will be an invaluable reference, research and teaching tool for anyone interested in political economy approaches to environmental issues and ecological crises.

List of contents

(1) Introduction: Political Economy of the Environment in the Century of Ecological Crises   (2) Political Economy of the Environment: a look back and ahead   Part 1. Inequality and the Environment   A theoretical, empirical and historical framework   (3) The Sustainability-Justice Nexus   (4) A socio-metabolic perspective on (material) growth and inequality   (5) The history of environmental and energy economics through the lens of political economy   Global and Regional Political Economy of the Environment   (6) Global Environmental and Climate Justice Movements   (7) Global inequalities and climate change   (8) Natural disasters, poverty and inequality: new metrics for fairer policies   (9) Contracts and Dispossession: Agribusiness Venture Agreements in the Philippines   (10) Natural Resources, Climate Change and Inequality in Africa   (11) From Western Pennsylvania to the World: Environmental Injustice and the Ethane-to>Plastics Global Production Network   (12) Latin America Caught Between Inequality and Natural Capital Degradation: a view from macro and micro data   (13) Air quality co-benefits of climate mitigation in the European Union   (14) Designing Urban Sustainability: Environmental Justice in EU-Funded Projects   Part 2. From analysis to modelling and policy   From analysis to policy   (15) From the Welfare State to the Social-ecological State   (16) Promoting Justice in Global Climate Policies   (17) Carbon Pricing and Climate Justice   (18) Political economy of border carbon adjustment   (19) Political Economy of Forest Protection   Modelling and policy   (20) Informing the political economy of energy and climate transitions: modelling tools, pathways design frameworks and analytical challenges   (21) Diagnostics and Policy tools to measure and mitigate environmental health inequalities   (22) Building on the Right-to-Know: Data Interlinkage and Information Intermediation for Environmental and Corporate Regulation   (23) Conclusion: New frontiers in the political economy of the environment

About the author

Éloi Laurent is Senior Economist at OFCE/Sciences Po, France, Professor at the School of Management and Innovation at Sciences Po and Ponts ParisTech and a visiting professor at Stanford University, USA.
Klara Zwickl is Assistant Professor at the WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria.

Summary

Featuring a stellar international cast-list of leading and cutting-edge scholars, this book presents the state of the art of the discipline that considers ecological issues and crises from a political economy perspective.

Report

"Tackling the unprecedented challenges of the 21^st century will depend to a great extent on the social sciences we use to understand them and to suggest appropriate interventions. Yet the pre-eminent social science, economics, remains largely blind and uninterested regarding two of the most pressing challenges: the environment and inequality. This landmark volume tackles both of these gaps together and head on, introducing readers to a growing body of exciting work that aims to revolutionize economics, and thereby to tackle the grievous and daunting injustices of our age. A must-read for anyone interested in a deeper reconstruction of the economic ideas that have shaped our current crisis and how they can be transformed."

- David Tyfield, Professor of Sustainable Transitions and Political Economy, Lancaster University, UK

Product details

• Authors: Eloi Zwickl Laurent
• Assisted by: Éloi Laurent (Editor), Klara Zwickl (Editor)
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.05.2023
• EAN: 9781032058603
• ISBN: 978-1-0-3205860-3
• No. of pages: 380
• Series: Routledge International Handbooks
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; NATURE / Natural Resources, Environmental Management