Valuing Climate Change Mitigation in Coastal Environments Exposed to Extreme Natural Hazards: A choice experiment simulated for different time horizons

This paper contributes to the limited literature of monetary valuation of the effects of natural hazards. In particular, we focus on natural hazards caused by climate change and measure willingness to pay (WTP) to avoid relevant environmental and health risks in coastal environments. We also allow short, medium and long term for the effects of mitigation measures, in order to investigate differences and/or similarities in people’s WTP for these different time horizons. A choice experiment is used and implemented in Stantander, Spain, a coastal region that faces a number of significant challenges due to climate change: (a) vulnerability to marine dynamics, with effects on its beaches (and their role as focal locations for social and touristic activities) as well as built environment and businesses, (b) loss of marine biodiversity and (c) increase in exposure to medusas and other dangerous and alien species present on the beaches, which result to restriction of bathing activities due to health risks. Finally, the empirical results from this paper provide useful insights with regards to the development of optimal (economically efficient, socially acceptable and environmentally sound) risk insurance schemes against extreme natural hazards.