Pinninti K. Rao Libri

After numerous scienti? c papers and books on most aspects of climate change and the design of pro-environmental policies (including some that suit some industrial lobby or another), is there relevance for another book and what is the purported role of this one? Is this yet another academic exercise or “much ado about nothing”? Do we have to bother designing green economic policies and incur transaction costs of this effort? Are there shortcomings of existing policies if we care to live “happily” on this planet? Is it not enough to care for the current generations so that the future generations can take care of themselves (or even be given the incentives for in- vations – for lack of fully provided resources)? What can “we” do about the green economic policies (and what are these anyway)? What trade-offs, if any, are re- vant in foregoing some bene? ts and in incurring some costs (not all of which can be expressed in monetary units)? What are the overarching objectives and priorities in the current context? What economic and other approaches are relevant for atta- ing the objectives? These are some of the questions the author re? ected in writing this book.

Improved understanding of the key role of financial aspects in the growth and development of economic systems is an important aspect of economic analysis. This first textbook on development finance provides a comprehensive coverage of this new area of economics. The book integrates relevant theoretical approaches and their policy applications. A unique perspective combines transaction cost economics and neoclassical economics. The author also treats important policy issues of national and international relevance. The roles of public and private finance, domestic and external finance, short-term and long-term capital flows, sovereign debt management features, country risk and other determinants of foreign direct investments, multilateral official development assistance and development of financial institutions are some of the topics examined in this book.

This text works to establish essential foundations and guidelines in the current process of providing strategies, mechanisms and resources for mitigating loss and damage from the adverse impacts of climate change and climate variability. This builds on the groundwork done by the UNFCCC and other entities to facilitate the processes at the international level, pursuing a pragmatic approach and the objective specification of relevant frameworks for further actions. The primary goal is the development of integrated approaches to the assessment and reduction of loss and damage due to climate change (including climate variability), encompassing both economic and legal dimensions. The publication is aimed at readers in top-level policymaking and strategy development on the national and international level, as well as academia.

This work offers a synthesis of the current approaches toward an integration of international trade and climate change, with a view to fostering potential improvements in policies and institutions affecting these. A number of pragmatic measures are proposed with reference to the WTO and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) regimes, which are expected to contribute toward enhanced climate change governance, as well as promoting international trade.