Since the first period of the Kyoto Protocol, there has been a growing concern that the burden of reducing greenhouse gas emissions should not only be borne by developed countries, but developing countries as well. South Africa, as the 18th highest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world and highest in Africa, has a significant responsibility to reduce its emissions levels. The South African government is currently in the process of implementing a carbon tax for its short term response to climate change and considering the implementation of a carbon market as a medium to long term response to climate change. Both of these market based mechanisms are widely deemed effective in the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions by economists, however are also known to have negative social and economic implications upon an economy. This study identifies these implications and attempts to provide considerations on how to alleviate the implications through the most appropriate process of revenue recycling. The negative effects of Implementing a carbon tax or carbon market could be severe as and not limited to: a significant decline in GDP, a reduction in the standard of living for certain households, a fall in a country's exports and even an increase in poverty. South Africa's environmental and development policies place a strict precedence on the protection of the poor and the prevention of economic hardship induced by such policies. This places significant importance on the prevention of these externalities from occurring. A primary means of doing so is through the process of revenue recycling, however, certain channels of revenue recycling are by no means helpful, hence the most appropriate channel needs to be identified. The study carried out a multiple case study analysis on Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand and Norway, to determine what effects a carbon tax had on their economies and how these effects were mitigated through carbon tax revenue recycling. An additional analysis of the EU ETS was carried out to determine how the EU ETS was implemented and the controversies and concerns that arose during its implementation. The findings of this analysis were then compared to a number of South African economist’s case studies, and the most appropriate method of revenue recycling identified and possible solutions to the EU ETS controversies found. The study concludes that a food subsidy has the potential to provide positive effects on welfare employment and GDP; therefore could be considered to be the most appropriate method of revenue recycling. However, these effects are limited to be experienced only at low levels of a carbon tax, hence, short term in nature. The study therefore provides a further consideration that the use of multiple channels for revenue recycling needs to be explored that could provide stable longer term effects. In addition, in the implementation of a carbon market, the study concludes that government should consider using an auction approach in the initial allocation phase of an ETS and the use of a centralized registry for monitoring and controlling of information and transactions.

A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Johannesburg March 2018 / Poverty and environmental degradation are two serious challenges facing developing countries. The poor are often blamed for causing degradation, and degradation is assumed to worsen poverty. This relationship between the two has been referred to as the Poverty Environment Nexus (PEN). The PEN is known to be complex and multidimensional, and is surrounded by a number of theories and controversies. Although the co-occurrence of poverty and degradation has been well explored across the developing world, it has received modest attention in the literature especially on how wealth differentiation within these communities shapes the way in which local people conceptualise, experience, and cope with degradation. The intersection between the PEN and local environmental governance is also under-studied. This study addresses these knowledge gaps by investigating how household wealth status influences 1) local perceptions about woodland degradation, 2) household vulnerability to degradation, and 3) awareness and attitudes about local environmental governance, in three rural villages in Limpopo Province, South Africa. A mixed-methods approach was used, combining focus groups, a household survey (n=213), an individual survey (n=213) and key informant interviews. The influence of household wealth status score (derived from assets and income sources using Principal Component Analysis (PCA)) on individual perceptions, awareness, and attitudes, and household vulnerability to degradation, after controlling for confounding factors, was analysed statistically using multivariate logistic regression models. Focus groups and key informant interviews were useful for identifying themes and adding qualitative insights to the quantitative results. Perceptions: Woodland degradation was perceived both in terms of physical aspects, such as reduction in large trees, and experiential aspects, namely having to travel further to collect resources. The latter perception was influenced by wealth status. Perceived causes of degradation included environmental, socio-economic, and governance factors, and these perceptions were mostly associated with increasing wealth status. However, poorer respondents were more aware of their own household’s contribution to local degradation. For potential solutions, wealthier respondents focussed on using alternatives to harvested resources (such as other energy sources), while the poorer respondents focussed on reducing daily resource consumption. Vulnerability: Poorer households were more likely to use most of 13 woodland resources. Poorer households were thus more likely to report being impacted by degradation, especially by having to travel further to collect resources. Coping responses of the poor were typically inward-looking, focusing on modifying their natural resource use, such as by reducing quantities used or harvesting around other villages. By contrast, the wealthy were more outward-looking and focused on external coping mechanisms such as seeking employment and buying commercial alternatives from shops. The use of social capital to cope with degradation emerged as an important response strategy cross wealth status. Governance: Traditional authorities were widely recognised as important institutional structures for local woodland management. Awareness of relevant government agencies was relatively low. Poorer respondents were more aware of customary environmental laws and penalties, while wealthier respondents were more aware of those of government agencies. Wealth status also influenced attitudes about the benefits of the various institutions for managing local communal woodlands. It was widely agreed that local woodland governance could be improved by delegating more power to traditional authorities and communities, and improving monitoring by government agencies. These views were not influenced by wealth status Key insights from this study include: Even within poor communities, there is wealth differentiation in environmental perceptions that has consequences for addressing the poverty-environment nexus. The poor are hit by a “double whammy” when it comes to vulnerability to degradation – first, they are more at risk to impacts because they are more dependent on natural resources, and secondly, they are less able to adapt in ways which do not undermine human wellbeing or environmental sustainability. Despite their weaknesses, traditional governance structures and institutions have an important role to play in managing the poverty-environment nexus in common property systems, but they need support from government. / MT 2019

This dissertation includes three papers related to climate, resource use, and market applications for sustainable development in developed/developing countries. The first paper describes the development of a game-theoretic economic model investigating the linkages between credit and insurance markets for smallholder farmers, and how a new market tool (weather index insurance) may help to overcome credit constraints in rural financial markets of developing countries. The second paper extends consideration of agricultural climate-risk management to potential skill in predictions of late-season rainfall over monsoonal Indonesia, with the aim of better understanding: (i) forecast skill and risk in this region, and (ii) how forecast information may be better tied with financial market products, such as index insurance, to improve smallholder farmer incentives, decision-making, and livelihoods under climate risk. The third paper, in turn, looks at forest resource management in Canada, and what the application of new carbon constraints and a market for carbon would mean for investment, production decisions, and indicators of sustainable forest management in the Canadian boreal, both in respects to the management of the landscape (i.e. the forest resource), and the development of the forestry sector and forest-based communities.

One out of every three workers on the planet is employed in agriculture. Consequently, major changes to the way that agriculture is practiced will have outsized effects on society. This dissertation focuses on technology and climate change, two key variables that will exert increasing influence on the rural sector and broader patterns of economic development. While the implementation of new technologies to increase crop productivity will be essential in satisfying rising global food demand, shifts in global climate may undermine those productivity gains in terms of both agronomic and labor market output. Chapter 2 exploits a quasi-experimental research design to assess how crop productivity gains resulting from a new technology affect gender wage disparities in agricultural labor markets. Using high-frequency temperature data merged with nationally representative time use data from Indian workers, Chapter 3 estimates a labor supply response function to temperature shocks that informs projected labor market effects under climate change. Chapter 4 demonstrates that a very parsimonious statistical model offers accurate out-of-sample predictions and provides a discussion on modeling weather's role in agriculture and the current state of adaptation research.

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017. / This research study investigates how environmental tools such as Resource Efficiency and Cleaner Production (RECP) can contribute to sustaining and supporting economic growth in South Africa. Resource optimisation is crucial when considering the concept of sustainable development. It also contributes to addressing the challenges of global warming and climate change, which in turn threaten industrial growth and sustainability in the long term. The study places emphasis on the barriers that prevent industry from implementing RECP recommendations, and identifies opportunities that could potentially reposition businesses should they consider implementation. It also promotes other sustainability tools that are available through collaboration with international entities, and this could be of great benefit to the South African industry. Factors of unemployment and urbanisation restricts national growth to some degree, hence the study explores how RECP can contribute to job retention by introducing new resource optimisation methodologies for the manufacturing sector, Moreover, it examines the imbalance between the demand as well as limitations of these resources. Through the compilation of data collated from questionnaires completed by industry, government and civil society participants, this study looks at achieving a balance between environmental sustainability and growth. It also looks at aligning this balance with the integration of specific economic and environmental policies, which also includes social aspects. What comes through significantly in this research is the lack of awareness within industry in terms of RECP, as well as the importance of prioritising the uptake of environmental initiatives to ensure that industry is compliant with the stringent policies and legislation designed by government to drive the sustainability process. Consequently the study shows that communication between public and private sector, as well as the awareness raising and marketing of sustainability to consumers need to be improved. An analysis of the various government support mechanisms is conducted, in respect of how industry could potentially leverage growth and drive positive change within their businesses. In addition to RECP, emphasis is placed on other Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) initiatives and tools that could possibly entrench sustainable practices and help with their incorporation into their business strategies.

The sustainable management of the environment has emerged as a major conceptual and policy challenge. In this thesis, I discuss both general theoretical considerations and aspects of a striking and important case study. In chapters 1-4, I study the dynamics of collective decisions on long-term investments in public goods, in situations in which different stake-holders disagree on the relative valuation of short-term costs and future benefits. The discussion is inspired by climate change economics but is general. Chapters 5-8 discuss aspects of the depletion of groundwater in India, one of the most dramatic resource sustainability crisis in the world, and analyze empirically the implications for irrigation, in terms of sustainability, efficiency and reliability.

Variability is inherent to any living system, and adaptation, or changing one's behavior in response to variability, is an important way to reduce or eliminate possible adverse consequences of change. Adaptation is particularly important to consider in the face of contemporary climate change, as individuals and communities may be able to adapt their behavior in response to weather variability and reduce or possibly eliminate predicted adverse impacts. To gain a more mechanistic understanding of which factors may lead to enhanced adaptive capacity of individuals and communities to future change, this dissertation uses a multi-disciplinary and multi-scale approach to broadly examine which social, economic, biophysical, and perceptional factors are associated with agricultural adaptation to current weather variability. The results from this dissertation generally show how adapting agricultural practices, like changing cropping patterns or increasing irrigation, can reduce the vulnerability of farmers to weather variability. Importantly, however, we show that adaptation is not simply about adopting appropriate technical solutions like sowing weather-appropriate crops or irrigating optimally, it is also about the complex set of economic, social, and perceptional factors that influence farmer decision-making and adaptive capacity. A global literature review highlights important biases and gaps in our current knowledge about climate change adaptation research in the agricultural sector. Based on these findings, we offer recommendations for future research that may result in a more process-based understanding of adaptation, including conducting multi-disciplinary studies that simultaneously consider the social, economic, biophysical, and perceptional factors that are associated with adaptation, and understanding how weather variability and change influence well-being to more accurately identify which individuals, households, or communities are best able to adapt. Using these recommendations, we design a case study that examines how farmers alter their cropping strategies in response to monsoon variability in Gujarat, India. Much of our research is focused on India given that over 50% of the nation practices smallholder agriculture and is particularly sensitive to climate variability and change. Through this work, we find that farmers altered their cropping decisions in response to a delayed monsoon onset, by increasing irrigation, switching crop type, and/or delaying crop sowing, and these strategies, particularly increasing irrigation, were adaptive considering yield and profit in the year of our study. These results highlight the importance of considering farmer behavior and decision-making in models that estimate future weather and climate impacts on agricultural production. While household-level surveys allow one to assess individual-level decision-making, they are difficult to implement over large spatial and temporal scales. Thus we develop a remote sensing algorithm that quantifies cropped area of smallholder farms over large spatial and temporal scales using readily-available MODIS imagery. Given the importance of irrigation as an adaptation strategy, we link these cropped area maps with rainfall and irrigation data at the village scale across all of India to assess the relative impact of different types of irrigation (e.g. groundwater versus canal) on winter cropped area and its sensitivity to rainfall variability. Overall, we find that deep well irrigation is both associated with the greatest amount of winter cropped area, and is also the least sensitive to monsoon and winter rainfall variability. However, the relative benefit of deep well irrigation varies across India, with the largest benefits seen in the regions that are facing the greatest levels of groundwater depletion. This work highlights the critical importance of groundwater for agriculture in India, and suggests that future work should identify ways to use groundwater more efficiently, increase the recharge rate of groundwater, or improve the performance of canal irrigation in order to maintain similar levels of production in the face of climate variability and change over the upcoming decades. While this dissertation focuses on agricultural adaptation to weather variability, the methods and implications derived from this dissertation are applicable more broadly to the study of resilience and adaptive capacity of social-ecological systems to global environmental change. In a rapidly changing global system, using a multi-disciplinary, multi-scale, and coupled systems approach similar to the one employed in this dissertation will help better understand and identify possible ways to enhance the ability of societies to adapt to global environmental change.

大量學術文獻指出氣候變化是毫不含糊地由持續增加的人為溫室氣體排放所造成。其中，二氧化碳排放（碳排放）是最為重要的溫室氣體排放。碳排放和經濟發展之間的密切關係亦受到廣泛肯定。碳排放和收入之間的關係引起了研究人員的極大興趣。學者們對該關係的環境庫茲涅茨曲線（一個倒U形曲線）的有效性持有不同的觀點，該曲線之有效性的討論可以分為兩部分，即時間和空間（國家）的尺度。 / 在這項研究中，首先以描述性統計研究碳排放量的變化，其中包括排放總量，人均排放量和碳強度三個指標。然後，透過雙對數和二次雙對數回歸模型進一步研究這三項指標和各經濟發展指標的關係（經濟發展指標包括總量和人均國內生產總值，貿易值和產業值）。結果指出國內生產總值可以很好地解釋碳排放之變化。根據1970年到2007年的數據，排放總量和國內生產總值總量在雙對數回歸模型中呈現顯著的線性關係。同樣在雙對數回歸模型中，人均排放量和人均國內生產總值之間的關係則從顯著線性變成顯著二次（倒U形曲線），從而支持環境庫茲涅茨曲線理論。碳強度和人均國內生產總值之間的關係是顯著的倒U形曲線。所有研究國家的回歸結果指出，發達國家在經濟增長的同時，已經減少排放總量及人均量，而發展中國家沒有減少。大多數發達國家在碳強度和人均國內生產總值的關係上呈現顯著的負相關，而發展中國家在碳強度和人均國內生產總值之間的關係上比例平均。在一般情況下，其他因素如貿易值和產業值解釋碳排放變化之能力較國內生產總值差。較特別的結果是由於製造、礦業和公用事業產業值屬於高碳密集性，該產業能很好地解釋碳排放的變化，所以為該產業的度身訂造之減排控制是必要的。 / 進一步說，發展中國家之間的差異仍然很大。透過層次聚類法，所有國家基於排放水平可分成11個類。其中，第11類主要包括發達國家，擁有極高的排放總量，非常高的人均排放量和中等的碳強度。與此同時，第4類主要包括發展中國家，亦有非常高的總排放量，中等的人均排放量和極高的碳強度。美國和中國，分別為第11類和第4類的案例研究，這兩國能有效地幫助了解碳排放和經濟發展之相互關係。其他集群則代表不同的經濟發展階段。聚類分析的結果可作為未來國際氣候變化政策建設的參考。 / Wealth of scholarly reviewed literatures indicates that climate change is unequivocally caused by the continual increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions. Carbon dioxide emissions remain to be of upmost importance among all GHGs emissions. It is widely accepted that close relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and economic development exists. The relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and income, in particular, has aroused much research interests. Researchers have polarizing views on the validity of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), an inverted U-shaped curve of that relationship. The ground of argumentation for the validity of EKC can be also divided into two parts, namely temporal and spatial (national) extents. / In this research, variations in three indicators of carbon dioxide emissions, including total emissions, per capita emissions and carbon intensity (CI), are firstly examined by descriptive statistics. Next, double-log and quadratic double-log regression models are employed to study the relationship between these three indicators and indicators of economic development (including the total and per capita GDP, trade values and sectoral values). Results show that GDP has high explanatory power for the large variation of emissions. By using the data from 1970 to 2007, the relationship between total emissions and total GDP is significantly linear in double-log regression models. The relationship between per capita emissions and per capita GDP has changed from linear to quadratic (inverted U-shaped), which supports the EKC. The relationship between CI and per capita GDP is significant in an inverted U-shaped curve. Regression results in each country indicate that developed countries have reduced total and per capita emissions in parallel with economic growth while developing countries have not. Majority of developed countries have negative relationship between CI and per capita GDP; whereas their counterparts have even proportion in the relationships. Other explanatory factors, like trade values and sectoral values, in general, have lower explanatory power than GDP. Surprisingly, results indicated that manufacturing, mining and utility (MMU) sector yields very high explanatory power for the variation of carbon dioxide emissions due to the sector’s high carbon-intensive nature. Tailor-made control on this sector is necessary for emissions abatement. / Furthermore, as the variation within developing countries is still large, countries are classified into clusters on the basis of their levels of emissions by Hierarchical Cluster Analysis. Eleven clusters are formed. Among all, cluster 11, comprised of mostly developed countries, yields extremely high total emissions, very high per capita emissions and medium CI. Meanwhile, cluster 4, made of mostly developing countries, have very high total emissions, medium per capita emissions and extremely high CI. The USA and China, case studies of clusters 11 and 4 respectively, have provided insight for the interactive relationship between emissions and economic development. Remaining clusters represent different stages of economic development. The results of the clustering can serve as a reference for the construction of future climate change policy. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Wong, Wai Fung. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 273-280). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese. / ABSTRACT --- p.i / 摘錄 --- p.iii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.iv / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.v / LIST OF TABLES --- p.x / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.xix / LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS --- p.xxiv / Chapter CHAPTER ONE: --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- EFFECTS OF CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS ON CLIMATE CHANGE --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- VARIATION IN CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS AMONG COUNTRIES IN TERMS OF THREE INDICATORS: TOTAL AMOUNT, PER CAPITA AMOUNT AND CARBON INTENSITY (CI) --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3 --- RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT --- p.6 / Chapter 1.4 --- RESEARCH QUESTIONS --- p.8 / Chapter 1.5 --- RESEARCH OBJECTIVES --- p.8 / Chapter 1.6 --- SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY --- p.9 / Chapter 1.7 --- ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS --- p.10 / Chapter CHAPTER TWO: --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.12 / Chapter 2.1 --- CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS --- p.12 / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Definitions of carbon dioxide emissions --- p.12 / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Estimation of carbon dioxide emissions --- p.13 / Chapter 2.1.3 --- Importance of carbon dioxide emissions in the context of climate change --- p.15 / Chapter 2.2 --- ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT --- p.19 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Concept and different stages of economic development --- p.19 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Indicators of economic development among all countries --- p.20 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Economic development since 1970 in major countries --- p.23 / Chapter 2.3 --- PAST STUDIES ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT --- p.30 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- Relationship between emissions and income expressed by GDP --- p.30 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- Relationship between emissions and international trade expressed by export and import values --- p.38 / Chapter 2.3.3 --- Relationship between emissions and sectoral composition expressed by sectoral values --- p.43 / Chapter 2.4 --- RESEARCH GAPS IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT --- p.44 / Chapter 2.4.1 --- Identification of relationship between emissions and economic development --- p.44 / Chapter 2.4.2 --- Classification of countries based on the amount of carbon dioxide emissions --- p.46 / Chapter 2.4.3 --- Research plan for this study --- p.47 / Chapter 2.5 --- SUMMARY OF THE LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.48 / Chapter CHAPTER THREE: --- CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK, DATA SOURCE AND METHODOLOGY --- p.49 / Chapter 3.1 --- INTRODUCTION OF THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK --- p.49 / Chapter 3.2 --- RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS UNDER THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK --- p.50 / Chapter 3.3 --- INTRODUCTION TO THE INDICATORS OF THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK --- p.51 / Chapter 3.4 --- RELATIONSHIPS AMONG THE COMPONENTS --- p.53 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- Relationship between income and carbon dioxide emissions --- p.53 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- Relationship between international trade and carbon dioxide emissions --- p.54 / Chapter 3.4.3 --- Relationship between sectoral composition and carbon dioxide emissions --- p.54 / Chapter 3.5 --- EXAMINATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP IN SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL EXTENT --- p.54 / Chapter 3.6 --- DATA SOURCE --- p.57 / Chapter 3.6.1 --- Data source for the indicators of economic development and population --- p.57 / Chapter 3.6.2 --- Data source for the indicators of carbon dioxide emissions --- p.58 / Chapter 3.7 --- METHODOLOGY --- p.59 / Chapter 3.7.1 --- Variables used in the research --- p.59 / Chapter 3.7.2 --- Methodology used in the research --- p.60 / Chapter 3.8 --- SUMMURY OF THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK, DATA SOURCE AND METHODOLOGY --- p.63 / Chapter CHAPTER FOUR: --- VARIATIONS IN THE LEVELS OF INDICATORS OF CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS AND INDICATORS OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT --- p.65 / Chapter 4.1 --- VARIATIONS IN CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS, POPULATION AND GDP --- p.65 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- Variation in total carbon dioxide emissions --- p.65 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- Variation in total population --- p.72 / Chapter 4.1.3 --- Variation in total GDP --- p.75 / Chapter 4.1.4 --- Variation in per capita carbon dioxide emissions --- p.79 / Chapter 4.1.5 --- Variation in per capita GDP --- p.83 / Chapter 4.1.6 --- Variation in CI --- p.87 / Chapter 4.2 --- VARIATIONS IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE VALUES AND SECTORAL VALUES --- p.91 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Variation in total export values --- p.91 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Variation in total import values --- p.94 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Variation in per capita export values --- p.96 / Chapter 4.2.4 --- Variation in per capita import values --- p.99 / Chapter 4.2.5 --- Variation in trade balance --- p.102 / Chapter 4.2.6 --- Variation in total sectoral values --- p.104 / Chapter 4.2.7 --- Variation in per capita sectoral values --- p.106 / Chapter 4.2.8 --- Variation in sectoral composition --- p.107 / Chapter 4.3 --- SUMMARY ON THE VARIATIONS IN THE LEVELS OF INDICATORS OF CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS AND INDICATORS OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT --- p.109 / Chapter CHAPTER FIVE: --- RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN INDICATORS OF CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS AND INDICATORS OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT --- p.112 / Chapter 5.1 --- RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS AND INCOME IN TERMS OF TOTAL AMOUNT, PER CAPITA AMOUNT AND CARBON INTENSITY --- p.112 / Chapter 5.1.1 --- Relationship between total carbon dioxide emissions and total GDP --- p.112 / Chapter 5.1.2 --- Relationship between per capita carbon dioxide emissions and per capita GDP --- p.123 / Chapter 5.1.3 --- Relationship between CI and per capita GDP --- p.133 / Chapter 5.2 --- RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN TERMS OF TOTAL AMOUNT, PER CAPITA AMOUNT AND CARBON INTENSITY --- p.142 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- Relationship between total carbon dioxide emissions and total values of exports and imports --- p.142 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Relationship between per capita carbon dioxide emissions and per capita values of exports and imports --- p.146 / Chapter 5.2.3 --- Relationship between CI and per capita values of exports and imports . --- p.151 / Chapter 5.3 --- RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS AND SECTORAL COMPOSITION IN TERMS OF TOTAL AMOUNT, PER CAPITA AMOUNT AND CARBON INTENSITY --- p.157 / Chapter 5.3.1 --- Relationship between of total carbon dioxide emissions and total values of six sectors --- p.157 / Chapter 5.3.2 --- Relationship between per capita carbon dioxide emissions and per capita values of six sectors --- p.160 / Chapter 5.3.3 --- Relationship between CI and per capita values of six sectors --- p.163 / Chapter 5.3.4 --- Relationship between indicators of carbon dioxide emissions and ratios of sectoral values to the sum of all sectors --- p.165 / Chapter 5.4 --- SUMMARY ON THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN INDICATORS OF CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS AND INDICATORS OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT --- p.168 / Chapter CHAPTER SIX: --- CLASSIFICATION OF COUNTRIES BASED ON THE LEVELS OF TOTAL CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS, PER CAPITA CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS AND CARBON INTENSITY --- p.171 / Chapter 6.1 --- CORRELATION ANALYSIS BETWEEN TOTAL EMISSIONS, PER CAPITA EMISSIONS AND CARBON INTENSITY --- p.171 / Chapter 6.2 --- MEMBERSHIP OF COUNTRIES AND BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF EACH CLUSTER --- p.173 / Chapter 6.2.1 --- Result of Hierarchical Cluster Analysis and membership of countries --- p.173 / Chapter 6.2.2 --- Characteristics of each cluster in terms of carbon dioxide emissions --- p.176 / Chapter 6.2.3 --- Characteristics of each cluster in terms of GDP (indicator of economic development) --- p.180 / Chapter 6.3 --- IN-DEPTH EXAMINATION OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF EACH CLUSTER --- p.184 / Chapter 6.3.1 --- Clusters with extremely high to very high total emissions: clusters 11 and 4 --- p.185 / Chapter 6.3.2 --- Clusters with high total emissions: clusters 8, 10 and 3 --- p.211 / Chapter 6.3.3 --- Clusters with medium to low total emissions: clusters 9, 2 and 1 --- p.230 / Chapter 6.3.4 --- Clusters with very low to extremely low total emissions: clusters 5, 6 and 7 --- p.247 / Chapter 6.4 --- SUMMARY OF THE RESULTS --- p.263 / Chapter CHAPTER SEVEN: --- CONCLUSION --- p.267 / Chapter 7.1 --- MAJOR FINDINGS OF THE RESEARCH --- p.267 / Chapter 7.2 --- IMPLICATIONS OF THE RESEARCH --- p.270 / Chapter 7.3 --- LIMITATIONS OF THE RESEACH --- p.271 / Chapter 7.4 --- RECOMMENDATION FOR FUTURE RESEARCH --- p.272 / REFERENCES --- p.273 / APPENDICES --- p.281

Climate change is a major environmental threat and likely one of the most important challenges of our time. In particular, climate extremes –such as heat waves– can have a significant negative effect on society. Yet, many impacts of climate change are poorly understood and binding international climate change agreements are notoriously hard to reach. This work deals with the economics of climate change in three separate essays. The first one introduces a new methodology to estimate the impacts of climate extremes on public health. The second utilizes this methodology to assess the impacts of several climate change scenarios on Europe. The third explores a way to increase cooperation on climate change mitigation policies through explicit communication of the uncertainty of future climate change impacts. In general, human mortality shows an oscillatory pattern on top of a nonlinear trend. It tends to be highest in winter and lowest in summer. The nonlinear trend follows changes in health policies, economic growth rates, and other institutional factors. The first essays shows that singular spectrum analysis can be used for the estimation of this base rate mortality and thus allows to isolate the impacts of climate extremes on human mortality. This methodology is an improvement over approaches based on fixed effects or classic spectral analysis. It makes it possible to extend climate impact analysis to regions and countries for which there are no detailed data from hospital records as only coarse monthly data on mortality are needed. The danger of climate change lies not necessarily in the shift in average temperatures, but more so the increase in frequency of extreme heat events. Yet, while heat waves become more common, cold spells become less frequent. As both types of extreme temperature events increase human morbidity and mortality, the net effect of this shift is unknown. The second essay finds that a scenario of moderate warming can have a positive net effect on some European countries, creating winners and losers. In contrast –severe warming as a result of failed climate change mitigation policies– affects all examined European countries in a negative way. There would be no winners, just losers. As a result of the uncertainty associated with it, climate change poses a different challenge than other social dilemma situations: The negative effects of climate change do not necessarily take place incrementally. While this should be a focal point for policy makers, the costs of climate change tend to be presented within an expected utility framework. Yet, the potential behavioral reactions to this uncertainty are –so far– neither explored nor accounted for in game-theoretic models of climate coalition building. The third essay finds that cooperation in a public goods game can be increased when the uncertainty is communicated explicitly. This means that uncertainty should not be hidden behind expected costs and benefits, but rather be acknowledged when the goal is to form a climate change mitigation agreement.

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