Energy taxes can produce substantial environmental and revenue benefits and are an important component of countries’ fiscal systems. Although the principle that these taxes should reflect global warming, air pollution, road congestion, and other adverse environmental impacts of energy use is well established, there has been little previous work providing guidance on how countries can put this principle into practice. This book develops a practical methodology, and associated tools, to show how the major environmental damages from energy can be quantified for different countries and used to design the efficient set of energy taxes. The results, which are illustrated for more than 150 countries, suggest there is pervasive mispricing of energy across developed and developing countries alike with much at stake in policy reform. At a global level, implementing efficient energy prices would reduce carbon emissions by an estimated 23 percent and fossil-fuel air pollution deaths by 63 percent, while raising revenues (badly needed for fiscal consolidation and reducing other burdensome taxes) averaging 2.6 percent of GDP.
The success of international efforts to manage climate change depends on the participation of emerging economies. This book uses a comparative study of two of the most important, India and South Africa, to reveal new insights into managing climate change on a global scale.
The book provides a unique in-depth analysis of how these two countries are dealing with climate change at both national and province levels, from India’s advances in solar and wind energy development to South Africa’s efforts to introduce a carbon tax. Using the innovative theoretical framework of climate knowledge systems, it explores how people in India and South Africa engage with one other, learn and act by forming communities of practice. The book identifies the drivers and barriers of climate governance, showing how different forms of scientific, technological, normative and pragmatic knowledge can aid climate governance and analysing how the underlying mind-set that guides climate action in these countries is changing.
Domestic climate policies and the actual environmental performance differ between emerging economies. Using a fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), this paper tests the influence of the domestic green industry, the ratio of fossil fuels to financial power, the international negotiating position, and the environmental civil society in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Mexico, and South Africa. A bad ratio of domestic fossil fuel production to financial power and a weak environmental civil society are a sufficient condition for weak climate policy performance. A weak domestic green industry combined with a weak influence of the negotiations only explains some of the cases.
The emerging concept of Green Jobs has yet to be clearly defined. This study uses critical discourse analysis and framing theory to analyse the meaning of Green Jobs claims, and their representation and transformation. Based on an analysis of print media from 1999 to 2009 and supporting policy documents, five predominant frames were identified in Green Jobs discourse: Environment–Economy Bridge, Green Entrepreneurship, Nascent Industry Creation, Internal Industry Transformation, and Structural Adjustment. Coverage of Green Jobs discourse has sharply increased since 2008. Although the term remains loosely defined and is employed in multiple ways, it is predominantly used as a strategic link between the recession and climate change policy. The fractured framing used in Green Jobs discourse hinders its uptake as a meaningful concept informing job creation, greening of industry, and sustainable development policy. Media, policymakers and advocacy groups should clarify the underlying definition when using the term.
In a continent that is starved for energy and infrastructure, it is an enigma that India’s markets for energy efficiency have yet to take off. The authors of the report spent several months researching and debating this issue with stakeholders in India and around the world.
This report is the results of joint research by a team from the World Bank and the Development Research Center of China’s State Council which was established to address the challenges and opportunities of urbanization in China and to help China forge a new model of urbanization. The report takes as its point of departure the conviction that China's urbanization can become more efficient, inclusive, and sustainable. However, it stresses that achieving this vision will require strong support from both government and the markets for policy reforms in a number of area.