Climate Change and Carbon Markets: Late or Too Late?

This book offers an accessible introduction to climate change science and a comprehensive description and assessment of market and financial tools to combat the effects of climate change. The opening three chapters focus upon science. Chapter One is devoted to understanding the basics of climatology and the scenarios forecast by scientists contributing to the UN s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Chapter Two focuses upon the alternative pathways to meeting the Paris Agreement goals as discerned by the over 700 scientists contributing to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Chapter 3 is a highly critical analysis of how different schools of economists have used a damage function to estimate the long-term costs of climate change, and more recent attempts to recognise the value of nature as an environmental benefit for future generations. Chapters 4-6 examine policies to combat climate change. Chapter 4 looks in some depth at public policies adopted by leading economies, covering China, the EU, India, Singapore, the UK and the USA. The role of a carbon tax and alternatives are examined. Chapter 5 is devoted to a history and analysis of the voluntary carbon market (VCM) sector and the role of carbon credits. It not only highlights the weaknesses, but examines the possibility that public sector regulation could be used to increase the credibility of voluntary carbon market transactions. The chapter also examines the available technologies for carbon dioxide removal. Chapter 6 is devoted to green finance and provides a critical review of the UN model that relies upon public capital catalysing private investment in green projects, a model that is failing the Global South where the majority of Green House Gases (GHG) actually arise. Globally, there is an annual green finance gap of over USD1 trillion. Chapter 7 concludes with an assessment of where present policies fall short, notwithstanding the withdrawal of the USA for the Paris Agreement, and in particular places emphasis on the need to combat GHG emissions where they most frequently occur, in the Global South. The author calls for the creation of an International Green Bank, issuing green bonds supported by the world s leading economies, with China and India playing leading roles, and with an exclusive focus on emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) before it is too late.

List of contents

Chapter 1: The Science of Climate Change.- Chapter 2: Pathways to Net Zero.- Chapter 3: Economics of Climate Change.- Chapter 4: State Policies towards Green House Gases.- Chapter 5: Voluntary Carbon Markets.- Chapter 6:  Green Finance.- Chapter 7: Ways Forward.

About the author

Dr John Ure
is an economist who now devotes his research to the pressing issues of climate change, global warming and environmental protection. During the 1990s he was Associate Professor at the University of Hong Kong, and previously Senior Lecturer at the University of East London, UK. While at HKU he was also director of the Technology Research Project (TRP) with the main focus of his research and publication (including two books on Telecoms in Asia) being on the digitalisation and spread of telecommunications across the Asia Pacific region, and its role in economic and social development. In the 2000s he founded a research consultancy in Singapore, and in 2024 lived in California to focus upon research and writing on the UN sustainable development goals, and then specifically on the challenges of climate change and carbon abatement. Hence this book which provides a wide-ranging and comprehensive deep dive into the probabilistic nature of climate change models, the pathways towards carbon abatement, the economics of climate change, public and private approaches to policies and carbon markets, and crucially, the financing of carbon abatement projects and the global need for a redirection of policies, including the need for an International Green Bank focused exclusively upon the Global South. He now lives with his wife in Hong Kong and in the Philippines where he continues his research and consultancy work. 

Summary

This book offers an accessible introduction to climate change science and a comprehensive description and assessment of market and financial tools to combat the effects of climate change. The opening three chapters focus upon science. Chapter One is devoted to understanding the basics of climatology and the scenarios forecast by scientists contributing to the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Chapter Two focuses upon the alternative pathways to meeting the Paris Agreement goals as discerned by the over 700 scientists contributing to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Chapter 3 is a highly critical analysis of how different schools of economists have used a ‘damage function’ to estimate the long-term costs of climate change, and more recent attempts to recognise the value of nature as an environmental benefit for future generations.
 
Chapters 4-6 examine policies to combat climate change. Chapter 4 looks in some depth at public policies adopted by leading economies, covering China, the EU, India, Singapore, the UK and the USA. The role of a carbon tax and alternatives are examined. Chapter 5 is devoted to a history and analysis of the voluntary carbon market (VCM) sector and the role of carbon credits. It not only highlights the weaknesses, but examines the possibility that public sector regulation could be used to increase the credibility of voluntary carbon market transactions. The chapter also examines the available technologies for carbon dioxide removal. Chapter 6 is devoted to ‘green finance’ and provides a critical review of the UN model that relies upon public capital catalysing private investment in green projects, a model that is failing the Global South where the majority of Green House Gases (GHG) actually arise. Globally, there is an annual green finance gap of over USD1 trillion.
 
Chapter 7 concludes with an assessment of where present policies fall short, notwithstanding the withdrawal of the USA for the Paris Agreement, and in particular places emphasis on the need to combat GHG emissions where they most frequently occur, in the Global South. The author calls for the creation of an International Green Bank, issuing green bonds supported by the world’s leading economies, with China and India playing leading roles, and with an exclusive focus on emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) before it is too late.

Product details

• Authors: John Ure
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 24.01.2026
• EAN: 9783032076182
• ISBN: 978-3-0-3207618-2
• No. of pages: 269
• Illustrations: XXV, 269 p. 43 illus., 42 illus. in color.
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Geosciences > Miscellaneous; Nachhaltigkeit, Sustainability, Climate Change, Behavioral Finance, Verhaltensökonomie, Energiewirtschaft und Versorgungsunternehmen, Biodiversity, IPCC, Paris Agreement, Resource and Environmental Economics, Climate Sciences, Finanzenwesen und Finanzindustrie, Climate sceptics, Emissions trading systems, Cap and trade