This paper and associated presentation explores the economic phenomenon of the so called ‘resource curse’. We begin by defining the phrase and outlining the main individual ‘curses’ and their causes to give the reader a broad understanding of what is meant by the phrase. This is followed...

This Article explains how and why sustainable development emerged as a conceptual framework, the basic concepts or principles on which this framework is based, why sustainability is primarily a matter for domestic national governance, and why the United States needs to play a leading role in...

This paper explores whether increasing fossil fuel divestment commitments are related to thereduction of capital flows into the oil & gas sector, based on an analysis of syndicated lending, equity and bond underwriting across 33 countries from 2000 to 2015. We find that increasing oil & gas...

The commercial development of offshore methane hydrates will necessitate planning for accidental risk. Due to the unique risks and hazards associated with the development of offshore methane hydrates, it is unlikely that their development would be capable of beginning without some form of ex...

A potentially huge untapped resource of natural gas exists just offshore almost every coastal state in the world, the resource called methane hydrates. The opportunities for fiscal revenues, energy security, and freshwater resources will be attractive to many of those states; for many, the...

For effective mitigation of the current severe economic crisis, developing countries can seize real opportunities for cleaner growth, including low-carbon growth. While complex and long, the process of greening economies can and should be gradually piloted towards selected “poles of clean...

Developing countries rich in fossil-fuels face a unique challenge posed by climate change. They seek to extract fossil fuels at a time when the global community must reduce carbon emissions. Effective global climate policies and low carbon technologies will likely reduce the demand for fossil...

Despite the fact that “heavy skies” (gravioris caeli) have been identified and legally classified as a serious concern since ancient times, air pollution still leads to millions of avoidable deaths and significantly impacts the climate. Today more than ever, the protection of people and a...

Global regulations involving clean energy technologies have evolved in recent decades. Such evolution came as a result of technological disparities between the North and the South. Such regulatory changes came because of the failure of developed nations to assist developing countries in...

Using a global dataset of over 840,000 equity, bond and syndicated loan investment banking deals, we build the fossil fuel investment brokerage profile of financial centres worldwide between 2000 and 2018. We also study whether city-level fossil fuel divestment commitments and country level...