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Conservation payments under uncertainty

Research article by on 10 Feb 2015

The decision of whether to retain forest or convert to another land use is affected by uncertainty over future land use returns. This paper examines the design of conservation payments to landowners under uncertainty. Payments are either indexed to the returns from deforestation (agriculture), or to a market value associated with forest nonuse benefits. Payment size depends on the degree of correlation between payments and agricultural returns, and their relative volatility. Market-based payments for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) are simulated for Brazilian soybean growers. Payments indexed to carbon prices are larger than those indexed to international soybean prices. (JEL Q23, Q24) read more »

Tailoring the visual communication of climate projections for local adaptation practitioners in Germany and the UK

Working paper by Susanne Lorenz, Piers Forster, Jouni Paavola, Suraje Dessai on 6 Feb 2015

Visualisations are widely used in the communication of climate projections. However their effectiveness has rarely been assessed amongst their target audience. Given recent calls to increase the usability of climate information through the tailoring of climate projections, it is imperative to assess the effectiveness of different visualisations. This paper explores the complexities of tailoring through […]

Why is socially-just climate change adaptation in sub-Saharan Africa so challenging? A review of barriers identified from empirical cases

Research article by Susannah Mary Sallu on 4 Feb 2015

To enhance understanding of the process of climate change adaptation and to facilitate the planning and implementation of socially-just adaptation strategies, deeper consideration of the factors that impede adaptation is required. In response, scholars have increasingly identified barriers to adaptation in the literature. But, despite this progress, knowledge of barriers that hamper adaptation in developing […]

Are corporate carbon management practices impacting on corporate carbon emissions?

Research article by Baran Doda, Caterina Gennaioli, Andy Gouldson, David Grover on 2 Feb 2015

This paper is the first large scale, quantitative study of the impact of corporate carbon management practices on corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Using data for 2009 and 2010 from the Carbon Disclosure Project survey, we find little compelling evidence that commonly adopted management practices are reducing emissions. read more »

Do international factors influence the passage of climate change legislation?

Research article by Sam Fankhauser, Caterina Gennaioli on 29 Jan 2015

The number of climate change laws in major economies has grown from less than 40 in 1997 to almost 500 at the end of 2013. The passage of these laws is influenced by both domestic and international factors. This paper reviews the main international factors, drawing on a powerful new dataset of climate legislation in 66 national jurisdictions. We find that the propensity to legislate on climate change is heavily influenced by the passage of similar laws elsewhere, suggesting a strong and so far under-appreciated role for international policy diffusion. read more »