This collection of essays addresses one of the greatest challenges facing the world today-the problem of environmental degradation.	With contributions by leading economists from across the world, this book establishes the complex nature of the problem and demonstrates that there is no straightforward link between the state of the environment and economic development. Some of the papers included in the volume criticize the well-known and influential Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis, which very clearly relates the problem of pollution to economic development, from both the theoretical and empirical points of view. Although the EKC may pass the test with respect to some of the 'local' pollutants, it usually fails with respect to 'global' pollutants. Other papers in the book take up the problem of such 'global' pollutants as 'greenhouse gasses' (GHG), and discuss the present and future of the Kyoto Protocol in particular as a mechanism to deal with this problem.	The book also examines the policy of free trade and its impact on the environment of developing economies, as well as the question of compatibility between the absence of intra-generational altruism and the notion of sustainable development. Finally, the book looks at the problem of the depletion of non-renewable natural resources and the ways of reducing or stopping such depletion in some cases, and developing alternatives to some resources such as petroleum.	A timely and important book that will interest economists, environmentalists and policymakers.

Economic Development, Climate Change, and the Environment PDF

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