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Purpose – Emissions trading is often heralded as an efficient approach to environmental regulation. In the mid-90s Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), a Los Angeles-based advocacy organization, raised concerns that emissions trading in the South Coast Air Basin, the most polluted region in Southern California, would result in environmental injustice. The organizations concerns received mixed responses from regulators. Historical analysis is used to assess the clash between emissions trading and environmental justice (EJ).

Methodology/approach – Emissions trading and EJ arose side by side between the 1960s and the 1990s, yet they disagree on how to clean the air. Historical analysis of legal documents, presidential addresses, letters, working papers, reports, and the like offers a better understanding of the development of emissions trading and EJ, and their intersection in environmental policy.

Findings – Emissions trading was grafted onto Clean Air Act policies not inherently designed for their incorporation. As a result, emissions trading came into direct philosophical opposition with EJ as political pressures calling for both economically efficient antiregulatory-ism and environmental equity forced their intersection. Formally, regional and national government accepted EJ as part of law. However, in principle, emissions trading undermined this acceptance. As a result, CBE could not easily win or explicitly lose its battle against emissions trading.

Originality/value of paper – Previous work on the relationship between emissions trading and EJ tend to focus on legal analysis and normative implications of emissions trading. Putting emissions trading and environment justice into historical perspective helps to illuminate larger questions about EJ activism and policy. Also, as California, the United States, and Europe turn to emissions trading to combat not only air pollution but also climate change, important lessons can be learned from the histories and collision of emissions trading and EJ.

Carbon emission is one of the most important problems of today. In this framework, it is important for countries to take the necessary actions to solve this problem. Energy use is one of the most important causes of carbon emissions. Choosing fossil fuels in this process increases the carbon emission problem. Therefore, it is understood that countries should be more sensitive about energy types. In this context, renewable energy (RE) sources are recommended by experts. However, due to some problems of these energy types, it does not seem possible to meet all energy needs from these sources. It is thought that nuclear energy will produce a permanent solution to the carbon emission problem. In this context, it is recommended that the use of nuclear energy be put on the agenda by countries.

Using the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis as a theoretical framework and applying Estimated Generalised Least Square (EGLS) approach, this chapter examines the impact of energy consumption, economic growth, industrialisation and corruption on carbon dioxide emissions as well as finds out the causal relationship among them using panel data of 10 Asian economies over the period 1980–2019. Our empirical findings from EGLS model suggest that there exists an ongoing rising relationship between CO₂ emissions and economic growth both in the short-run and long-run which is opposing to what is claimed by the EKC hypothesis. Moreover, per capita CO₂ emissions rise positively with respect to increase in energy consumption, urbanisation, gradual industrialisation and growth in urban population in the long-run. Moreover, countries with adoption of more corruptive practices are found to have causing more environmental degradation through excessive emission of carbon dioxide in the long-run. The study also indicates the existence of unidirectional causalities running from carbon dioxide emission to energy consumption, from industrialisation and urban population growth to per capita CO₂ emissions, from industrialisation to GDP growth per capita and bidirectional causality between financial development and economic growth via GDP growth per capita. Therefore, these unidirectional causalities entail that CO₂ emission reduction or abatement measures can be applied without having any unpleasant effect on the real industrialisation, energy consumption and urbanisation in selected Asian countries.

This chapter investigates how international trade affects pollution using annual data from 34 Asian countries for the period 1970–2019. Following the work of Antweiler, Copeland, and Taylor (2001), the authors divide the impact into three effects – scale, technique, and composition effects. The scale of economic activity drives pollution demand. The technique effect reflects increased willingness to bear the costs of abating pollution as a country gets more prosperous because of increased international trade. International trade changes the composition of output in a country and therefore the level of pollution as different goods are produced with different pollution intensities. This is called the composition effect. This chapter measures pollution using carbon dioxide emissions (metric tons per capita) obtained from the United States Energy Information Administration. This study estimates a regression model that provides estimates of the magnitudes of trade’s impact on pollution as per the aforesaid three effects. The authors find that the scale and the composition effects of pollution are positive, but the technique effect is negative, and that the net effect is negative (international trade leads to a lower level of emission) when the underlying model is linear, but it is positive (international trade leads to a higher level of emission when non-linearities are considered).

The increasing threat of global warming and climate change has been a major worldwide concern for more than two decades. As the achievement of sustainable economic growth has gradually become a major global concern both policy makers and researchers have given considerable attention over the years on the link among energy consumption, emissions and economic growth. In this study, following a solovian growth structure, the authors assume that the aggregate output depends on the stock of physical as well as human capital and energy or power. Depending on the sources, the energy can be categorised into cleaner input generated from renewable sources and a dirty input extracted from non-renewable resources having by-products like pollution. This study finds that less-developed countries (LDCs) failing to afford sufficient access to clean energy which in turn has deleterious impact on the human capital which cascades into low level of production, low saving and low per capita output forming a vicious loop. On the other side, the developed nations are better poised with access to clean energy and this is what is reflected in having larger reserve of human capital yielding higher production, higher income, higher saving and higher per capita capital stock in a circular process. This hence posits a clinching picturing divergence in per capital output and income between developed and less-developed nation mediated through degree of access to clean energy and thereof, the capacity to control emission. The convergence situation between the developed and the less-developed nations shows that each ends up with the relative energy mix below the threshold and it is not desirous for the world as a whole. In case of per capita emission, the divergence situation with the global level of emission is bit ambiguous.

We all understand the everlasting harmful effects of pollution. A larger proportion of this pollution gets generated from industrial units due to use of backward technologies along with intentional or unintentional economic policies that has allowed such industries to grow over the years. Many of these industries are poor, in many cases, they do not have the ability to install abatement technologies or use emission-free green technologies for their huge cost. In many cases, they do not do so intentionally just to enjoy higher profit and due to faulty planning. But, the pollution generated from such industries makes us all suffer, especially those who live in those industrial areas. They are more exposed to the emission directly. Again, growing consensus among people about pollution has increased the consumption of eco-friendly, less-polluting products which could have a wide-ranging impact on the production techniques and can force the producers to change their production techniques, In this chapter, by applying contingent valuation method (CVM), the authors have looked to capture how far people of two very renowned industrial belts in West Bengal, Howrah and Barrackpore, are willing to contribute to the reduction of such emission level by consuming eco-friendly products and paying the emitting producers to force them to adopt pollution-free technology. The authors have applied close-ended dichotomous choice (DC) bidding technique by using logit regression and have also applied open-ended bidding process by using ordinary least square (OLS) method. In both cases, the authors have found the mean willingness to pay (WTP) is quite high which shows that people are very much willing to move towards using eco-friendly goods and technologies.

To examine the role of new aeronautical technologies in improving commercial aviation’s environmental performance.

Reviews the environmental improvements that may be conferred through the adoption of alternative aviation fuels and new airframe, engine and navigation technologies.

Although aeronautical technologies have evolved considerably since the earliest days of powered flight, the aviation industry is now reaching a point of diminishing returns as growing global consumer demand for air transport outstrips incremental improvements in environmental efficiency. The chapter describes some of the technological interventions that are being pursued to improve aviation’s environmental performance and discusses the extent to which these innovations will help to deliver a more sustainable aviation industry.

World has started to observe important level of global warming fostered by the industrial growth which resulted in the increase in CO₂ emissions and in the environmental pollution (e.g. water and air) affecting total factor productivity growth. Energy is vital for all industries and their growth. Energy generation and energy intensiveness affect carbon emissions. Energy generation relies on water as water is a vital input to the energy generation. Furthermore, water supply is affected by the energy supply and energy dependence. Water is at the core of the industrial growth. It is vital for all productions. Water scarcity problem is becoming more severe due to the climate change. Some regions and countries are more vulnerable to the water scarcity. Middle East countries face significant water scarcity problem. Among these countries Jordan stands out as one of the most vulnerable countries with respect to water scarcity. This chapter emphasises the importance of green and sustainable total factor productivity. Despite of their recent water policies, Jordan started to experience adverse consequences of severe water scarcity problem. The dependence of and relationship between energy and water are vital pillars of economic growth. There is carbon trade-off in their supply. For this reason, conservation capital policies can affect productivity and efficiency. Middle East has scarce water resources and can be affected due to the climate change. Jordan faces most water scarcity among Middle East Countries. This chapter aims to investigate the interaction between industrial growth and climate change as well as their effects to Jordan’s water resources and economy. Furthermore, this chapter emphasises water scarcity problem and water policies in Jordan. This chapter provides recommendations for preventing environmental degradation and mitigating water scarcity problem of Jordan so that its industrial growth can be sustained and its economic growth can become more resilient to the climate change. This chapter is expected to be useful to academics, policy makers, and politics in the relevant field.