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.