Human economies and ecosystems form a coupled system coevolving in time and space, since human economies use ecosystems services and at the same time affect ecosystems through their production and consumption activities. The study of the interactions between human economies and ecosystems is...

In October 2010, a group of leading thinkers on environmental policy met at the Sustainable Consumption Institute at the University of Manchester for a conference in honour of Nobel Laureate Tom Schelling. This column presents a 10-point guideline for climate change policy co-authored by 26...

We couple a spatially homogeneous energy balance climate model with an economic growth model which incorporates two potential policies against climate change: mitigation, which is the traditional policy, and geoengineering. We analyze the optimal policy mix of geoengineering and mitigation in...

We couple a one-dimensional energy balance climate model with heat transportation across latitudes, with an economic growth model. We derive temperature and damage distributions across locations and optimal taxes on fossil fuels which, in contrast to zero-dimensional Integrated Assessment...

The West African state of Côte d’Ivoire has an area of 322,465 square kilometers, with a coastline of 540 kilometers along the Gulf of Guinea. It shares borders with Liberia in the southwest, Guinea in the northwest, Mali and Burkina Faso in the north, and Ghana in the east. The southern part...

Benin covers a land area of 114,763 square kilometers and occupies a long stretch of land perpendicular to the coast of the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa. It is bordered on the north by Burkina Faso and the Republic of Niger, on the east by the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and on the west by the...

Climate variability is a reality that is affecting rural livelihoods in West Africa today and presenting a growing challenge in the region, as in many other parts of the African continent and elsewhere. Climate change will have far-reaching consequences for the poor and marginalized groups among...

Our purpose in this chapter is to help policymakers and researchers better understand and anticipate the likely impacts of climate change on agriculture and on vulnerable households in Nigeria. We do this by reviewing current data on agriculture and economic development, modeling anticipated...

Agriculture is the major source of livelihood for the majority of West Africans. The agricultural sector employs 60 percent of the active labor force but contributes only 35 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). The disparity between contribution to GDP and share of population means that many...