Environmental Assessments: Scenarios, Modelling and Policy

In this authoritative book, leading international experts examine the use of scenario analyses and modelling in environmental assessments, highlighting their potential uses in making evidence-based decisions to address the risks and adverse impacts of rapid environmental change such as global warming and the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services.

In addition to theoretical and conceptual issues, contributors analyse the latest research on the applications of scenarios and models, and discuss the opportunities and challenges in using them for policy relevant research and action. Chapters include in-depth case studies from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North and South America as well as those with a global or regional focus, providing a comprehensive review of the available tools and frameworks for conducting environmental assessments in diverse contexts. This book offers a roadmap for strengthening the science policy interface for environmental decision-making.

Environmental Assessments will be crucial reading for scholars, postgraduate students, practitioners and policy makers working in ecological economics and ecology, biodiversity and ecosystem services, climate change and natural resources. It will be particularly useful for those working for international and intergovernmental agencies, national governments, businesses and NGOs looking to make informed decisions about responses to environmental change.

Edited by K.N. Ninan, Chairperson, Centre for Economics, Environment and Society, Bangalore, India, and Lead Author, Working Group III, Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Geneva, Switzerland with a foreword by Anne Larigauderie, Executive Secretary, Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), United Nations, Bonn, Germany