The Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE) is a

is aligned to a cumulative global model, and then merged to the model. Because different parts of the model are updated independently while there are errors in the registration, such an approachmay result in an inconsistent model. In this paper, we study the problem of consistent registration of multiple

and quantify the impacts on the environment, both in terms of resource use and emissions or wastes, of a product, process or policy. There are four stages of life cycle assessment: goal definition, inventory, impact assessment and improvement assessment. Impact assessment can be divided into three main parts

Climate Change in Vietnam ’ (Award No. L320253240) is gratefully acknowledged. Thanks are due to Kirstin Dow and Steve Wiggins for insightful comments, though they bear no responsibility for the errors or shortcomings in this final version. Thanks to participants at seminars at University

An earlier and longer version of this paper was examined as a dissertation in 2000, a compulsory component of UCL’s Environmental and Resource Economics MSc. Charles Palmer gratefully acknowledges Professor David Pearce (the dissertation supervisor) for guidance and advice. This work follows studies undertaken by the

The global climate regime, as represented by the Kyoto Protocol, may be on a collision course with the global trade policy regime, as represented by the WTO (World Trade Organization). Environmentalists fear that international trade will undercut efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions

I am grateful to Susan Subak for comments on an earlier draft of this paper. Sustainability is defined in terms of four overlapping positions, ranging from very weak to very strong sustainability. The core idea is of a non-declining capital stock (including natural capital) over generational time. Weak sustainability positions emphasise capital substitution possibilities and the power of technical process to mitigate resource depletion and pollution problems. Climate change and its associated risks and strong uncertainty are characterised by features which favour a strong sustainability approach incorporating the precautionary principle. Strong sustainability positions recognise constraints on substitution processes and incorporate ethical concerns such as intergenerational equity as a moral duty. Costbenefit analysis is moderated via safe minimum standards which set GHGs concentrations and emissions abatement targets

Tim Bending’s research has been possible through an ESRC postdoctoral fellowship. Critical development theory has understood development and global environmental management practice to be the expression of euro-centric discourse that constructs objects such as “development ” and “sustainability

of approach is that local properties are often not preserved at the global level. We present a general framework for using additional interface processes to model the environment for a component. These interface processes are typically much simpler than the full environment of the component. By composing a

In its restless metamorphosis, the environmental movement captures ideas and transforms them into principles, guidelines and points of leverage. Sustainability is one such idea, now being reinterpreted in the aftermath of the 1992 Rio Conference. So too is the precautionary principle. Like sustainability, the precautionary principle is neither a well defined principle nor a stable concept. It has become the repository for a jumble of adventurous beliefs that challenge the status quo of political power, ideology and civil rights. Neither concept has much coherence other than it is captured by the spirit that is challenging the authority of science, the hegemony of cost benefit analysis, the powerlessness of victims of environmental abuse, and the unimplemented ethics of intrinsic natural rights and inter-generational equity. It is because the mood of the times needs an organising idea that the precautionary principle is getting a fair wind. However, unless its advocates sharpen up their understanding of the term, the precautionary principle may not establish the influence it deserves. Its future looks promising but it is not