Environmental Economics
Environmental Economics involves the use of economic methods in the evaluation of environmental issues, including natural resource exploitation.
Issues such as the definition of subsidies for renewable energy, “getting the prices right” in the setting of environmental taxes, the efficient use of natural resources and the establishment of an effective regime for climate change mitigation are all key issues that have interested researchers in Bath.
Research focus
- Green Accounting
- Valuation of Environmental and Health Damages
- Natural Resources
- Sustainable Agriculture
- Climate Change
Research activity
Our research cluster has been at the forefront of efforts within Europe to integrate environmental issues into standard national accounts of the environment.
Projects for the European Commission have included the Greensense, where standard welfare-based green accounting techniques are linked with work on sustainability standards, to allow for a better inclusion of sustainability issues within decision making. The ongoing INSTREAM project aims to build on this work.
Other areas of environmental research include analysis of energy systems, environmental regulation and valuation of the environment. Researchers at Bath are heavily involved in the ExternE series of projects, aiming to get the prices right for policy in Europe.
A recent grant from the Economics and Social Research Council (ESRC) provides funding to investigate recycling behaviour. The group is active in the International Centre for Sustainable Energy and the Environment (I-SEE) and has strong links across the University, with joint grants with Engineering, Management and Maths. In particular, there is major involvement in the Engineering and Physical Research Council (EPSRC) Supergen projects on highly distributed power systems, now renewed until 2013.
