Browse by title

Over the past two decades, China has become an economic powerhouse. However, as the world’s largest producer of CO2 emissions, the scale and seriousness of China’s environmental problems are clearly evident. This pioneering book provides an economic analysis of the significant environmental and energy problems facing China in the 21st century.

Faced with intensified environmental degradation and decreased agricultural land productivity, the Chinese government has sought policy interventions to reverse both of these negative trends. Among the policy instruments is the Conversion of Cropland to Forest and Grassland Program (CCFGP) that aims to change the pattern of agricultural land use in 25 provinces and autonomous regions across China. This book provides the most comprehensive assessment of the CCFGP undertaken to date. It allows the consideration of fundamental questions pertaining to the sustainability of the land use changes brought about by the CCFGP, its cost effectiveness and the prospects for policy evolution. Contributions from a wide range of economists and scientists in the book provide policymakers in the Chinese government with relevant information with which to pursue more effectively agro-environmental goals.

This book examines China’s record of oil and gas development, its refining capacity, and energy prospects. The authors conclude that there are no fundamental reasons for anxiety about China’s demands on the world energy economy, but they emphasize that its energy future will depend critically on a continuation of reform and internationalization. China and the Global Energy Crisis is a concise but detailed study of these issues.

Through in-depth case studies of local communities in four distinct coastal areas in Southern Thailand, the authors are able to assess objectively the underlying economic causes, and consequences, of mangrove deforestation due to the expansion of shrimp farms.