Suchergebnisse

This report summarises the main ideas, proposals, scientific achievements, consensus and conflicting issues that emerged at the Second EFIEA Policy Workshop, held at Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, Palazzo delle Stelline, Corso Magenta 63, Milan, Italy, March 4th-6th, 1999. EFIEA, the European Forum for Integrated Environmental Assessment, is a concerted action funded by the Environment and Climate Programme of the European Commission, Directorate-General XII (contract no. ENV4-CT97-0450). The two main objectives of the EFIEA are: (i) to improve the scientific quality of integrated environmental assessment; (ii) to strengthen the interaction between environmental science and policy-making. In addition, the EFIEA fosters co-operation between scientists and decision makers inside the European Union, communication and co-operation outside the EU, and investigation of IEA techniques. The Second EFIEA Policy Workshop was devoted to improving communication and stimulating co-operation between different stakeholders, policymakers and scientists on the most relevant climate policy issues.

The integration of environmental concerns into other policy areas is widely recognized as a key element to achieve sustainable development. It also represents a challenge for the environmental community, requiring not only a new approach to policy-making but also changes to existing policies and their implementation. This essential book presents a diverse set of perspectives and experiences on how to support sustainable development through the integration of environmental issues into various policy sectors. The authors examine existing research on environmental policy integration (EPI) at thre

This paper discusses methodological aspects of recent climate change damage studies. Assessing the total and/or marginal damage costs of environmental change is often difficult and it is certainly difficult in the case of climate change. A major obstacle is the uncertainty on the physical impacts of climate change, especially related to extreme events and so-called 'low-probability high-impact' scenarios. The subsequent transposition of physical impacts into monetary terms is also a delicate step, given that climate change impacts involve both market and non-market goods and services, covering health, environmental and social values, and that impacts may be distant in time and space. The complexity of climate change cost assessment thus involves several crucial dimensions, including non-market evaluation, risk and uncertainty, baseline definition, equity and discounting. The paper discusses these issues and stresses the importance of political perspectives in integrated assessment research.