Global climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our times and in order to tackle this carbon emissions need to be mitigated. China and India have recently become some of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters. Transitions to low carbon energy, for reducing emissions that lead to climate change, are therefore an urgent priority for China and India and at a global level.This is the first book focusing on low carbon energy transitions for emerging economies such as Chi...

This book explores the complex relationship between energy and development and discusses the core issues and concepts surrounding this growing area of research and policy.In the field of energy and development, the world faces two major challenges: (1) Providing energy access to the roughly one billion people worldwide who do not have access to electricity and the nearly three billion people worldwide who do not have access to clean cooking fuels; (2) achieving socioeconomic develo...

In recent years, both Chinese overseas investment and hydropower development have been topics of increasing interest and research, with Chinese actors acting as financiers, developers, builders and sub-contractors.Chinese Hydropower Development in Africa and Asia explores the governance and socio-economic implications of large Chinese dams’ development in low- and middle-income countries in Asia and Africa and asks how these big infrastructure projects promote sustainable ...

Why is the World Bank so successful? How has it gained power even at moments in history when it seemed likely to fall? This pathbreaking book is the first close examination of the inner workings of the Bank, the foundations of its achievements, its propensity for intensifying the problems it intends to cure, and its remarkable ability to tame criticism and extend its own reach.Michael Goldman takes us inside World Bank headquarters in Washington, D.C., and then to Bank project site...

The last two years have seen a huge amount of academic, policy-making and media interest in the increasingly contentious issue of land grabbing - the large-scale acquisition of land in the global South. It is a phenomenon against which locals seem defenceless, and one about which multilateral organizations, such as the World Bank, as well as civil-society organizations and action NGOs have become increasingly vocal.This in-depth and empirically diverse volume - taking in case studi...

Why has the world been unable to address global warming? Science policy expert Roger Pielke, Jr., says it's not the fault of those who reject the Kyoto Protocol, but those who support it, and the magical thinking that the agreement represents. In The Climate Fix, Pielke offers a way to repair climate policy, shifting the debate away from meaningless targets and toward a revolution in how the world's economy is powered, while de-fanging the venomous politics surrounding the crisis....

The Burning Question reveals climate change to be the most fascinating scientific, political and social puzzle in history. It shows that carbon emissions are still accelerating upwards, following an exponential curve that goes back centuries. One reason is that saving energy is like squeezing a balloon: reductions in one place lead to increases elsewhere. Another reason is that clean energy sources don't in themselves slow the rate of fossil fuel extraction.Tackling global...

"We are now so abusing the Earth that it may rise and move back to the hot state it was in fifty-five million years ago, and if it does, most of us, and our descendants, will die."-James Lovelock, leading climate expert and author of The Revenge of Gaia"I don't see why people are so worried about global warming destroying the planet - peak oil will take care of that."-Matthew Simmons, energy investment banker and author of Tw...

After 3 years of historic reforms, Myanmar has entered a pivotal stage in its socioeconomic development. Natural, cultural, and demographic advantages are positioning the country for long-term success, but many challenges and potential pitfalls lie ahead. This publication examines how to leverage the opportunities and offers solutions to the challenges. For Myanmar to achieve its economic transition, considerable investments will have to be made in infrastructure and developing human capit...

If environmental protection is costly, how much should we spend on pollution control? Is it worth reducing pollution to zero, or should we accept some level of pollution because of the economic benefits associated with it? How can we assess the benefits that people get from a less-polluted atmosphere? In broad terms, environmental economics looks at how economic activity and policy affect the environment in which we live. Some production generates pollution, such as power station emissions...

The authors investigate well-known concerns in natural resource management in Africa while focusing on the capacity dimension of the problems. They examine dynamics of leadership, governance, criminality, structural transformation, as well as emerging issues such as green growth.

The failure of the Copenhagen climate conference in December 2009 revealed major flaws in the way the world's policymakers have attempted to prevent dangerous levels of increases in global temperatures. The expert authors in this specially commissioned collection focus on the likely costs and benefits of a very wide range of policy options, including geo-engineering, mitigation of CO2, methane and 'black carbon', expanding forest, research and development of low-carbon energy and encouragi...