Climate of the Middle

This Open Access book presents a multidisciplinary perspective to increase our understanding of climate policies that are rooted in the natural moral inclinations of people, families and firms. Which policies prevent a widening gap between higher and lower educated people? Which policy instruments are there, and how could they be used? What is the role of free entrepreneurship?

In this book, academics from different fields have brought together their knowledge and expertise to reflect on the following three questions:

1. How are the polarised positions on climate change of different groups related to their moral outlook, world view, tradition, cultural norms and values?
2. What is a good distribution of responsibilities between firms, households and the government relating to climate change?
3. What are possible avenues where the climate policies are a natural extension of moral inclinations of families and firms, such as the stewardship for the natural environment and the climate?

This book will be of interest to policy and decision-makers, students of social and behavioural sciences, and those interested climate change policies and how this effects our lives

Illuminates the diverse roles of, and attitudes to, climate change over a spectrum of scholarly disciplines Presents a multidisciplinary perspective on climate change policies Discusses the distribution of responsibilities relating to climate change

Auteur

Arjen Siegmann is research asssociate at the CDA Research Institute ("Wetenschappelijk Instituut voor het CDA"), associate professor of finance at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and member of the executive board of the Wilfried Martens Centre for Economic Studies. He has written reports on long-term unemployment, the housing market and fiscal policy. In common projects with the Martens Centre and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, he has edited two books on the Middle Class in Europe. His academic research and teaching focuses on financial markets and institutions. He has been a council member at the city of Amstelveen, a researcher at the Netherlands Central Bank (DNB) and an advisor on strategic model development at Abn Amro Bank.

Contenu

Introduction into the project with the Martens Centre (policy institute of the European People's Party) about climate change.

1. Policing or policies: Warming the middle class to the climate (Introduction)

Arjen Siegmann, VU Amsterdam, NL

2. Perceptions of catastrophic risks

Wouter Botzen, VU Amsterdam, NL

3. Determinants of belief in climate change.

David Leiser, Ben-Gurion University of Negev, Israel & Pascal Wagner-Egger, University of Fribourg, Germany

4. Apollo projects as amplification strategies

Hans von Storch, University of Hamburg, Germany

5. Redefining the concept of profit in view of the circular economy

Jan Gooijer, VU Amsterdam, NL

6. Follow the Joy. Looking for a better opponent to face greed in the fight for the Earth

Karl Kepler

7. Sharing the waste: Shared responsibility of firms and government in recycling

Sytske Wijnsma, University of Cambridge, UK

8. The green challenge for central banks and households

Dirk Schoenmaker, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, NL

9. The long and dark shadow of (some) white swans

Francisco Estrada, Boston University, USA