Environmental Policy and Technical Change: A Comparison of the Technological Impact of Policy Instruments (New Horizons in Environmental Economics series)

Environmental Policy and Technical Change assesses the impact of environmental policy on technical change in cleaner technology. It focuses in particular on the possibility of inducing radical change in technology - a topic that is likely to move to the centre of the policy debate as people discover that incremental changes are not enough to achieve environmental sustainability.

This innovative book sheds new light on the relationship between clean technology and environmental policy. It adopts an approach which combines a balance of both theoretical models of innovation and diffusion with empirical case studies. Dr Kemp examines policies such as subsidies, tradeable quotas, pollution taxes and emission standards in how they affect technical choices. Suggestions are offered on how environmental policies may be (re)designed towards the efficient conservation of environmental qualities by encouraging innovation in environmental benign technology.

This important book will be essential reading for both researchers and environmental economists concerned with environmental policy and technical innovation.

René Kemp, UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University, The Netherlands