Edward Elgar Publishing The Political Economy of Sustainable Development: Policy Instruments and Market Mechanisms

Since the Rio 'Earth' Summit of 1992, sustainable development has become the major policy response to tackling global environmental degradation, from climate change, to loss of biodiversity, and deforestation. Market instruments such as emissions trading, payments for ecosystem services, and timber certification have become the main mechanisms for financing the sustainable management of the earth's natural resources. Yet how effective are they - and do they help the planet, and developing countries, or merely uphold the economic status quo? This book investigates these important questions.Providing a comprehensive analysis and the latest research on sustainable development, the authors compare the divergent approaches to emissions trading. Included is a detailed investigation into illegal logging and the effectiveness of policy responses, with an evaluation of different forest certification schemes. Integral to the book are interviews and opinions of the key stakeholders in the political economy of sustainable development.This uniquely comprehensive analysis of the governance quality of different sustainable development mechanisms, unprecedented in its panorama of comparative case studies, is essential reading for all those in the policy, academic and non-governmental communities. Review 'Inaction on climate change and sustainable development is not an option. But we also do not have the luxury of time and resources for wasted efforts and ineffective actions. This book cuts through the political wrangling and the policy morass to identify interventions that can make a real difference. It is a refreshing deep dive into the relative merits of key policy instruments and market mechanisms for tackling our most intractable sustainability challenges. If you want to make informed - rather than conformed - decisions on sustainable development policy, this is the book for you. The UN Sustainable Development Goals may give us the Why and the What for creating a better future. This book gives us the How.' --- Wayne Visser, Author of Sustainable Frontiers and Director of Kaleidoscope Futures'An in depth and critical interrogation of the politics of sustainable development and how policies in pursuit of this often elusive ideal are formulated, implemented and financed. Timothy Cadman and colleagues have provided an incisive tour de force that pays particular attention to private sector environmental governance as an institutional form that exists beyond governments.' --- David Humphreys, The Open University, UK About the Author Timothy Cadman, Institute for Ethics, Governance and Law, Griffith University, Australia, Lauren Eastwood, State University of New York at Plattsburgh, US, Federico Lopez-Casero Michaelis, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Japan, Tek Narayan Maraseni, University of Southern Queensland, Australia, Jamie Pittock, Australian National University, Australia and Tapan Sarker, Griffith Business School and Griffith Asia Institute, Australia