Environmental economics

prefLabel
  • environmental economics
definition
  • A recognized field of specialization in the discipline of Economics that embraces the issues of pollution control and environment protection, in which costs and benefits are difficult or impossible to estimate, much of the subject matter falling outside the competitive market system. Yet, it is an area in which immense common property resources need to be allocated sensibly to the overall public good. The subject is also very much concerned with ways and means to achieve this sensible allocation such as emission and effluent charges, user charges for the treatment or disposal of waste, environmental taxes, product charges, deposit refunds, tradeable pollution rights, performance bonds, natural resource accounting, and the economic implications of sustainable development.
inScheme
broader
Abstract from DBPedia
    Environmental economics is a sub-field of economics concerned with environmental issues. It has become a widely studied subject due to growing environmental concerns in the twenty-first century. Environmental economics "undertakes theoretical or empirical studies of the economic effects of national or local environmental policies around the world. ... Particular issues include the costs and benefits of alternative environmental policies to deal with air pollution, water quality, toxic substances, solid waste, and global warming." Environmental economics is distinguished from ecological economics in that ecological economics emphasizes the economy as a subsystem of the ecosystem with its focus upon preserving natural capital. One survey of German economists found that ecological and environmental economics are different schools of economic thought, with ecological economists emphasizing "strong" sustainability and rejecting the proposition that human-made ("physical") capital can substitute for natural capital.

    環境経済学(かんきょうけいざいがく、英: environmental economics)は環境問題を扱う経済学の一分野である。具体的課題としては、地球温暖化対策、廃棄物処理とリサイクル、森林破壊、生物多様性の保全などを扱った研究が多い。既存の経済学を前提として、環境問題に対してその応用分析を行う「環境の経済学」と、環境問題によって既存の経済学の枠組み自体が問い直されているという認識に基づく「環境と経済の学」に大別できる。

    (Source: http://dbpedia.org/resource/Environmental_economics)