The global community has to act collectively to halt climate change. But such collective action must take into account the development needs of the least developed countries (LDCs), which are likely to be hit earliest and hardest by climate change. The priority of such countries remains poverty...

One of the most controversial areas of economics is the practice of discounting: attaching a lower weight to future costs and benefits than present costs and benefits. Discounting appears to offend notions of sustainable development and the interests of future generations. Recent advances in the...

Any comparison of the costs and benefits of climate change is dominated by the chosen discount rate. But, although the Stern Review emphasises the ethical nature of the parameters entering into its choice of a relatively low discount rate, its discussion of the ‘pure time...