Given the industrialized world¿s historical dependence on fossil fuel-based energy resources and the now-realized perils of moving beyond the earth¿s carbon budget, this book explores the myriad challenges of climate change and in reaching a low-carbon economy. Reconciling the medium-term competing, yet frequently complementary, needs for transition policies, the book provides guidelines for complex and often conflicting climate policy tasks.The book presents empirical trends in the use of carbon-emitting resources and evaluates market-driven short-termism and its adverse impact on resource use and the environment; it emphasizes a medium-term macroeconomic perspective for the transition.The authors attempt a paradigm shift towards a framework of sustainable macroeconomics. They survey relevant historical models, conduct empirical and numerical analyses ofthe climate change-relevant dynamic models, provide empirical illustrations, and evaluate diverse policy options and implementations together with their historical evolution.New analytical issues are also considered, e.g., strategic behavior in the energy and resource sectors, energy competition and the dynamics of market shares in new energy technology, and supporting policies for dealing with the tipping points encountered in climate change.The authors suggest a multitude of market-based strategies and public fiscal, monetary, and financial policies, and longer-run planning for resource extraction -all suitable for driving sustainable growth and a transformation of the energy sector.The book also examines the multiple delaying forces slowing the transition to a low-carbon economy; these typically arise from short-termism, lock-ins, irreversibility, leakages, non-cooperative games, and other political strategies. Thus, they explain the snail¿s pace evolution of current national and global climate policies.The book will appeal to scholars and students of economics and environmental science. It is also relevant for policymakers and practitioners in multilateral institutions, research institutions as well as governments and ministries of countries interested in alternative energy sources, climate economists, and those who study the implementation of sustainable and low carbon-based policies.

Presents empirical trends in carbon-emitting resource use

Chapter 1 - Introduction.- Chapter 2 -Sustainable Growth, Welfare and Short-termism.- Chapter 3 - Non-Sustainable Growth, Resource Extraction, and Boom-Bust Cycles.- Chapter 4 - Fossil Fuel Resources, Environment and Climate Change.- Chapter 5 - Limits on the Extraction of Fossil Fuels,- Chapter 6 - Fossil Fuel Resource Depletion, Backstop Technology, and Renewable Energy.- Chapter 7 - Transition to a Low Carbon Energy System.- Chapter 8 - The Private Sector - Energy Transitions and Financial Market.- Chapter 9 - The Public Sector - Energy Transition and Fiscal and Monetary Policies.- Chapter 10 - Delaying Forces and Climate Negotiation - Games, Lock-ins, Leakages, and Tipping Points.- Chapter 11 - Climate Risks, Sustainable Finance, and Climate Policy.- Chapter 12 - Concluding Remarks.