"The Paris Agreement is a monumental triumph for people and our planet" (UN News Centre, 2015). Statements, like this one from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, represent the global excitement shortly after the acceptance of the Paris Agreement and describe the outcome of the COP21 in December...

The success of global climate policies over the coming decades depends on the diffusion of 'green' technologies. This requires that international environmental agreements (IEAs) and trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPs) interact productively.Using a simple and tractable model, we...

International environmental agreements have been and are negotiated to facilitate mitigation efforts on climate change. To avoid severe impacts, global cooperation is required as the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions represents a global public good. However, free-riding incentives impede the...

The research conducted at the Research Department "Environmental and Resource Economics, Environmental Management" at ZEW provides a better understanding of environmental policy instruments, national sensitivities, and strategies for overcoming the impediments to global climate policy. The...

Kurz vor dem anstehenden Klimagipfel äußert sich Angela Merkel in der Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung wie folgt: "Zu Recht wird von Regierungen und Politikern erwartet, daß sie nicht länger die Augen vor erdrückenden wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen verschließen, daß der...

Die Klimakonferenz in Paris im Dezember 2015 wird jene Weichenstellung in der internationalen Klimapolitik vollziehen, die sich anlässlich der gescheiterten Klimakonferenz in Kopenhagen im Dezember 2009 erstmals abzeichnete.

International climate negotiations take place in a setting where uncertainties regarding the impacts of climate change are very large. In this paper, we examine the influence of increasing the probability and impact of large climate change damages, also known as the 'fat tail', on the formation...

Schellnhuber, Direktor des Potsdam-Instituts für Klimafolgenforschung, international renommierter Klimaexperte (in 7. Auflage, mit S. Rahmstorf: "Der Klimawandel", ID-A 16/12), zieht (selbst-)kritisch Bilanz seines Forscherlebens. Eindrucksvoll appelliert er mit ethischen Vorstellungen von...

Forgotten promises : neglected environmental provisions of the NAFTA and the North American agreement on environmental cooperation / Geoffrey Garver -- Should citizens expect procedural justice in nonadversarial processes? spotlighting the regression of the citizen submission process from NAAEC...

"Grüne Ökonomie", das klingt gut, bedeutet es doch die Einbeziehung der Natur und ihrer Belange in die Wirtschaft. In diesem von der Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung herausgegebenen Buch wird jedoch hinterfragt, wie das Konzept aussieht, das sich hinter diesem auch von internationalen Akteuren wie...

The basic model of the literature on self-enforcing international environmental agreements is a model of autarkic countries. We extend that model by international trade and investigate its impact on the performance of "Nash" coalitions and on their stability, in particular, in a general...

Global warming caused by accumulation of emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) is a public bad, addressing which requires collective action by all the countries of the world. Under the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), most countries have negotiated the Kyoto Protocol for GHG...