This book is an update of the 2006 book on Cost-Benefit Analysis and the Environment: Recent Developments (Pearce et al., 2006). It has been written by Giles Atkinson, Ben Groom and Susana Mourato of London School of Economics (LSE) and Nils Axel Braathen of the OECD Secretariat. It has benefitted from numerous comments and suggestions provided by Delegates to the Working Party on Integrating Environmental and Economic Policies under OECD’s Environment Policy Committee.
The original volume in 2006 arose as the product of a discussion between David Pearce and the OECD Secretariat. OECD has a distinguished history of pioneering economic analysis of environmental issues, including cost-benefit analysis and environmental valuation. However, prior to Pearce et al. (2006) there was no publication that brought together some of the recent developments in cost-benefit analysis, and, given its record, OECD seemed the right place to locate that original volume. We hope then that this new volume will prove to be as useful to academics and, just as importantly, practitioners, since cost-benefit analysis continues to be ever more widely practised and used.
The current volume has been substantially revised and rewritten to reflect further developments in cost-benefit analysis and the environment. This includes the addition of a number of new chapters. We are immensely grateful to OECD for the opportunity to revisit the 2006 volume as well as remaining deeply appreciative to Jean-Philippe Barde, formerly of the OECD Environment Directorate, for his crucial role in making that original volume happen. We would like to thank Nathalie Girouard and Shardul Agrawala of the OECD Secretariat for their guidance in the production of this work. We would also like to thank Joe Swierzbinski for his invaluable help with what remains Chapter 10 as well Mark Freeman and Daniel Fujiwara for comments on selected chapters. Thanks are also due to a number of those studying “Economic appraisal and valuation” at LSE for their help in proof-reading, and to Elvira Berrueta-Imaz, Janine Treves, Natasha Cline-Thomas, and Catherine Roch of the OECD Secretariat for their help in preparing the book manuscript. Any remaining errors are the responsibility of the authors, needless to say.
Finally, we remain especially indebted to the late David Pearce. David passed away suddenly prior to the publication of the original volume in 2005. He continues to be missed and remembered fondly by the current authors as an inspirational leader, mentor and towering figure in the field of environmental economics. We are then acutely aware of the debt that we owe to David and the heavy responsibility that we bear in preparing this current volume. We hope very much that David would have approved of our efforts and we humbly dedicate this volume to his memory.
Giles Atkinson, Nils Axel Braathen, Ben Groom and Susana Mourato