Environmental consequences of natural resource exploitation often entail threats of future occurrences of detrimental abrupt events rather than (or in addition to) inflicting a damage gradually. The possibility of abrupt occurrence of climate-change related calamities is a case in mind. The...

Every year from 2000 to 2010, our planet lost native forests roughly the size of Costa Rica (FAO 2010). This rapid deforestation has dramatically changed the chemical composition of the world’s atmosphere, the level of biodiversity, and the presence of vegetation key to maintaining watershed...

The appropriation of climate change knowledge may be a very important factor for promoting radical changes towards sustainable development. By studying three sets of actors, the science community, the media and the political community, the author reveals how climate change knowledge and politics...

The intended goal of this paper is to expand the IDB's current disaster policy in the area of human-driven disasters. This paper explores and expands on the definition and scope of "human-driven" disasters in order to strengthen the policy in its present area of "unexpected" disasters. This...

This report looks specifically at the full array of public policies promoting investment in the renewable energy sector, and discusses their impact on plant entry into the market, with the support of case studies focusing on Germany, the U.S.A. and Australia. It examines differing risk/return...

For the nations of Latin America and the Caribbean to respond effectively to the Climate Change challenge, they need to be able to understand what the impacts of Climate Change may be for each country and the extent of each country's contribution to the problem before they can define and...

This document (Cancún COP-16) represents a coordinated effort among several institutions and organizations in the Latin America and the Caribbean region to present the results of a joint reflection on the issue of water-based adaptation to climate change as part of a Regional Policy Dialog...

Technological innovation can lower the cost of achieving environmental objectives. As such, understanding the linkages between environmental policy and technological innovation in achieving environmental objectives is important. This is particularly true in the area of climate change, where the...