The case for climate policy typically is made on grounds of inter-generational equity, juxtaposing the environmental interests of future generations against the economic interests of those alive today, said Professor James K Boyce while delivering a Distinguished Lecture titled, “Distributional issues in Climate Policy” at the University of Hyderabad (UoH) on 3rd March 2015.
Further he stated that this framing of the problem ignores large present-day economic and health payoffs that climate policy can yield via (i) air quality co-benefits from reduced use of fossil fuels; and (ii) recycling of carbon rent created by policies that put a price on carbon emissions. Both pose issues of distributional equity within the present generation. Important distributional issues also arise in the allocation of investments in climate adaptation, added Professor Boyce who is a Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Prof. G. Nancharaiah, Dean, School of Economics (SoE) welcomed the speaker while Dr. G. Vijay, SoE introduced the guest. Prof. R Vijay, SoE proposed the vote of thanks.
Professor Boyce is the author of several books and journal articles including, Economics, the Environment and our Common wealth (Edward Elgar 2013), Investing in Peace: Aid and Conditionality After Civil Wars (Oxford University Press 2002), The Political Economy of the Environment (Edward Elgar 2002), The Philippines: The Political Economy of Growth and Impoverishment in the Marcos Era (Macmillan 1993), and Agrarian Impasse in Bengal: Institutional Constraints to Technological Change (Oxford University Press 1987), and co-author of A Quiet Violence: View From a Bangladesh Village (with Betsy Hartmann, Zed Press 1983). His current work focuses on strategies for combining poverty reduction with environmental protection, and on the relationship between economic policies and issues of war and peace.