A discerning analysis of the future effects of climate
change on Russia, the major power most dependent on the fossil fuel
economy. Russia will be one of the countries most affected
by climate ...change. No major power is more economically dependent on
the export of hydrocarbons; at the same time, two-thirds of
Russia's territory lies in the arctic north, where melting
permafrost is already imposing growing damage. Climate change also
brings drought and floods to Russia's south, threatening the
country's agricultural exports. Thane Gustafson predicts that, over
the next thirty years, climate change will leave a dramatic imprint
on Russia. The decline of fossil fuel use is already underway, and
restrictions on hydrocarbons will only tighten, cutting fuel prices
and slashing Russia's export revenues. Yet Russia has no
substitutes for oil and gas revenues. The country is unprepared for
the worldwide transition to renewable energy, as Russian leaders
continue to invest the national wealth in oil and gas while
dismissing the promise of post-carbon technologies. Nor has the
state made efforts to offset the direct damage that climate change
will do inside the country. Optimists point to new
opportunities-higher temperatures could increase agricultural
yields, the melting of arctic ice may open year-round shipping
lanes in the far north, and Russia could become a global
nuclear-energy supplier. But the eventual post-Putin generation of
Russian leaders will nonetheless face enormous handicaps, as their
country finds itself weaker than at any time in the preceding
century. Lucid and thought-provoking, Klimat shows how
climate change is poised to alter the global order, potentially
toppling even great powers from their perches.
While decades of space ventures have led to significant technological advances, space activities have also brought increasing environmental problems. This book examines the current international ...legal regimes in space law and environmental law in order to ascertain their applicability and efficacy in addressing environmental threats in the space sector. The research suggests mechanisms which could improve environmental protection in the sector and strengthen the environmental element in space law. These mechanisms include a variety of norm-setting strategies used in international environmental management. Special attention is drawn to the potential of environmental impact assessment in the space sector and to dispute resolution procedures. Like other areas of human activities, the space sector should accommodate both economic interests and environmental protection in line with the principle of sustainable development.
Latin America and the Caribbean are increasingly experiencing the effects of climate change. Over the past two decades, the countries in the region have experienced as many as 1 350 natural disasters ...attributable to the climate, affecting more than 170 million people.We analysed climate risks in Latin America and the Caribbean, expanding the analysis to understand what these risks imply for the financial sector, particularly for banks. We conclude that the aggregate physical climate risk of the banking sector is the highest in the Caribbean while for transition risk the picture is more homogenous. Finally, we note that capital flows for climate projects in the Latin America and the Caribbean region have been lagging other regions in the world. Against the backdrop of considerable financing needs, the international financial community and public development banks have an important role to play to support both public and private green investments providing long-term, patient funding at affordable rates and sharing part of the risks.
Why are house prices in many advanced economies rising faster than incomes? What is the relationship between the financial system and the price of land? In this accessible but provocative guide to ...the economics of land and housing, the authors reveal how many of the key challenges facing modern economies, including housing crises, financial instability, and growing inequalities, are intimately tied to the land economy. Looking at the ways in which discussions of land have been routinely excluded from both housing policy and economic theory, Rethinking the Economics of Land and Housing argues that in order to tackle these increasingly pressing issues a major re-thinking by both politicians and economists is required. This is the first comprehensive guide to the role of land in the economy, making this an essential reference for students, scholars, policymakers, activists, and NGOs working on land issues.
Dealing with climate change means accepting tough tradeoffs: giving up certain energy sources, products, and conveniences, all of which have economic impacts. Politicians balk, but there are ...solutions. Roland Kupers turns to the new science of complexity to show how we can untangle a knotty global economy and start making progress.
A prominent authority on China's Belt and Road Initiative
reveals the global risks lurking within Beijing's project of the
century China's Belt and Road Initiative is the world's
most ambitious and ...misunderstood geoeconomic vision. To carry out
President Xi Jinping's flagship foreign-policy effort, China
promises to spend over one trillion dollars for new ports,
railways, fiber-optic cables, power plants, and other connections.
The plan touches more than one hundred and thirty countries and has
expanded into the Arctic, cyberspace, and even outer space. Beijing
says that it is promoting global development, but Washington warns
that it is charting a path to global dominance. Taking readers on a
journey to China's projects in Asia, Europe, and Africa, Jonathan
E. Hillman reveals how this grand vision is unfolding. As China
pushes beyond its borders and deep into dangerous territory, it is
repeating the mistakes of the great powers that came before it,
Hillman argues. If China succeeds, it will remake the world and
place itself at the center of everything. But Xi may be
overreaching: all roads do not yet lead to Beijing.
Labour in the 21st Century Stone, Katherine; Dagnino, Emanuele; Martínez, Silvia Fernández
2017, 2017-02-01
eBook
Several major transformations have characterized the world of work in recent years. Those transformations follow different patterns in different countries, yet their dynamics are so interrelated that ...it is often hard, if not impossible, to distinguish the causal relationships among them. Technological advances, globalization, old and new media, demographic changes, and new production and economic systems are all key factors acting on this ongoing transformation which is impacting both the world of work and society as a whole. In the spirit of Karl Polanyi, the well-known scholar who described the rise of market-based societies, we are led to wonder if we are witnessing a new "Great Transformation of Work", on such a scale that it might change the very meaning of work in our society, and even its anthropological connotations. Accordingly, this volume investigates and discusses the different aspects of this transformation from a comparative perspective. In order to propose better solutions to cope with these changes, it is necessary to analyze their ongoing dynamics. Lawmakers, unions, scholars and practitioners are all called to do their part in order to achieve the goals of sustainability and fairness of our economic systems.
Copublished with the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, this study asks if the European Union (EU) has the capacity or the will to counter antisemitism. The desire to ...counter antisemitism was a significant impetus toward the formation of the EU in the twentieth century and now prejudice against Jews threatens to subvert that goal in the twenty-first.The European Union, Antisemitism, and the Politics of Denialoffers an overview of the circumstances that obliged European political institutions to take action against antisemitism and considers the effectiveness of these interventions by considering two seemingly dissimilar EU states, Austria and Sweden.
This examination of the European Union's strategy for countering antisemitism discloses escalating prejudice within the EU in the aftermath of 9/11. R. Amy Elman contends that Europe's political actors have responded to the challenge and provocation of antisemitism with only sporadic rhetoric and inconsistent commitment; this halfhearted strategy for countering anti-Semitism exacerbates skepticism toward EU institutions and their commitment to equality and justice. This exposition of the insipid character of the EU's response simultaneously suggests alternatives that might mitigate the subtle and potentially devastating creep of antisemitism in Europe.
The author offers a new approach insofar as scholarly considerations of the EU's attempts to combat racism rarely focus on antisemitism, while scholarship on antisemitism rarely considers the political context of the European Union.
Post-Soviet social Collier, Stephen J
2011., 20110808, 2011, 2011-08-08
eBook
The Soviet Union created a unique form of urban modernity, developing institutions of social provisioning for hundreds of millions of people in small and medium-sized industrial cities spread across ...a vast territory. After the collapse of socialism these institutions were profoundly shaken--casualties, in the eyes of many observers, of market-oriented reforms associated with neoliberalism and the Washington Consensus. In Post-Soviet Social, Stephen Collier examines reform in Russia beyond the Washington Consensus. He turns attention from the noisy battles over stabilization and privatization during the 1990s to subsequent reforms that grapple with the mundane details of pipes, wires, bureaucratic routines, and budgetary formulas that made up the Soviet social state.
PDF
