The Evolving Economics of Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in Developing Economies: Integrating the Social Cost of Carbon into Policy and Practice
Submission deadline: 30 June 2026
This special issue seeks to address this critical gap by exploring the evolving economics of climate change mitigation and adaptation in the context of developing economies, with a particular focus on integrating the social cost of carbon (SCC) into national and regional policymaking.
Guest editors:
Boqiang Lin, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
Chair Professor, School of Management
2007 Changjiang Scholar Distinguished Professor of Ministry of Education of China
Dean, China Institute for Studies in Energy PolicyEmail: bqlin@xmu.edu.cn
https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=rthhT3QAAAAJ&hl=en
https://cicep.xmu.edu.cn/info/1033/1533.htm
Anna Min Du, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, UK
Associate Professor in Finance, The Business School
Email: a.du@napier.ac.uk
https://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-1715-8774
https://www.napier.ac.uk/people/anna-du
Date posted
24 February 2025
The Evolving Economics of Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in Developing Economies: Integrating the Social Cost of Carbon into Policy and Practice
Submission deadline: 30 June 2026
This special issue seeks to address this critical gap by exploring the evolving economics of climate change mitigation and adaptation in the context of developing economies, with a particular focus on integrating the social cost of carbon (SCC) into national and regional policymaking.
Guest editors:
Boqiang Lin, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
Chair Professor, School of Management
2007 Changjiang Scholar Distinguished Professor of Ministry of Education of China
Dean, China Institute for Studies in Energy PolicyEmail: bqlin@xmu.edu.cnhttps://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=rthhT3QAAAAJ&hl=en
https://cicep.xmu.edu.cn/info/1033/1533.htm
Anna Min Du, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, UK
Associate Professor in Finance, The Business School
Email: a.du@napier.ac.uk
https://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-1715-8774
https://www.napier.ac.uk/people/anna-du
Special issue information:
Developing economies—encompassing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and small island nations—face disproportionate risks from climate change due to heightened vulnerabilities and limited adaptive capacities. Despite this, the economic frameworks, models, and cost assessments driving global climate policy often reflect assumptions and parameters more relevant to industrialized nations. This special issue seeks to address this critical gap by exploring the evolving economics of climate change mitigation and adaptation in the context of developing economies, with a particular focus on integrating the social cost of carbon (SCC) into national and regional policymaking. The integration of SCC with climate mitigation and adaptation strategies is central to understanding the broader economic impacts of climate change.
Climate change is an unprecedented global challenge, but its economic consequences are unevenly distributed, with developing economies bearing a disproportionate share of the costs. These regions are often more vulnerable to climate-related hazards due to their geographic exposure, economic reliance on climate-sensitive sectors (e.g., agriculture, fisheries, and natural resources), and limited adaptive capacity. Despite these vulnerabilities, the current landscape of climate economics is dominated by models, metrics, and policy tools designed primarily with high-income countries in mind.
While extensive research exists on climate mitigation and adaptation strategies in industrialized nations, there is a critical knowledge gap regarding how these strategies can be effectively designed, implemented, and evaluated in developing economies. For instance, Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs)—which are central to global climate policy discussions—often rely on assumptions that do not reflect the socio-economic realities, institutional capacities, and environmental vulnerabilities of developing regions (Tol, 2024). This special issue seeks to adapt and refine these models to improve their relevance and applicability.
The Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) is a key metric used to quantify the economic damages associated with a metric ton of CO₂ emissions. While SCC estimates are widely used to inform climate policies such as carbon pricing and emissions trading systems, these estimates often lack regional differentiation, failing to capture the nuanced impacts of climate change on developing economies. Emerging studies suggest that country-specific SCC estimates are necessary to ensure equitable and effective climate policies (Tol. 2019; Tol, 2023). This special issue aims to explore methodological advancements that can produce more accurate, context-specific SCC values for developing economies, which can directly influence climate finance, adaptation strategies, and policy design.
Climate policy debates often treat mitigation and adaptation as separate domains. However, in developing economies, where resources are limited, an integrated approach is essential. For example, investments in renewable energy not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions but also enhance energy security, create jobs, and reduce vulnerability to volatile fossil fuel markets (Lin & Liu, 2024). Similarly, carbon pricing mechanisms, when effectively designed, can drive mitigation while generating revenue that can be reinvested in adaptation measures (Lin & Wesseh, 2020; Lin, & Li, 2021).
Climate change is fundamentally an issue of equity and justice. Developing economies have contributed the least to historical greenhouse gas emissions but face the most severe consequences. This raises critical questions about fairness in climate finance, differentiated responsibilities, and the ethical dimensions of discounting future climate impacts in economic models (Tol, 2024). By focusing on these issues, the special issue will contribute to the growing discourse on climate justice, emphasizing the need for economic frameworks that account for historical emissions, vulnerability, and adaptive capacity.
The special issue is particular interested in, but not limited to, the following topics:
Cost-benefit analysis of renewable energy, land-use changes, deforestation reduction.
Financial mechanisms, cost-effectiveness of adaptation, economics of loss and damage.
Modelling economic risks from extreme weather, sea-level rise, climate hazards.
Enhancing models with regional data, socio-economic dynamics, policy diversity.
Methodological challenges, empirical case studies for developing nations.
Intergenerational equity, discount rate variations for developing economies.
Addressing data gaps, uncertainty in SCC estimates, equity considerations.
SCC’s role in carbon pricing, emissions trading, fiscal reforms in climate policy.
Distributional impacts of climate policies between countries and within, along the lines of income, ethnicity, gender, and religion.
Economics of climate finance, green bonds, international aid, carbon markets.
Tackling data limitations, improving climate economic modelling.
Non-western views on climate policy (e.g., Islamic finance, Buddhist economics).
Estimates of the willingness to pay for climate policy.
Proposed timeline:
Open for submissions: July 1, 2025
Submission Deadline: June 30, 2026
Manuscript submission information:
Authors should prepare their manuscript in line with author guidelines of Energy Economics, available online.
Papers for the special issue should be submitted through the Energy Economics submission system: Editorial Manager®
When submitting, please ensure that you select the special issue called ‘VSI: Social cost of carbon.’
Submissions to this SI must be in line with the scope of the SI and are subject to a regular peer-review process. Submission that are not within the scope of the SI are desk-rejected. Furthermore, the high publication standards of Energy Economics, both in novelty and quality of the submitted papers, apply to this special issue.
Please be aware that the journal's standard policy on submission fees applies to this special issue.
References:
Tol, R. S. J. (2024). A meta-analysis of the total economic impact of climate change. Energy Policy, 185, 113922.
Tol, R. S. J. (2023). Social cost of carbon estimates have increased over time. Nature Climate Change, 13, 532-536.
Tol, R. S. J. (2019). A social cost of carbon for (almost) every country. Energy Economics, 83, 555–566.
Lin, B., & Liu, Y. (2024). Global carbon neutrality and China's contribution: The impact of international carbon market policies on China's photovoltaic product exports. Energy Policy, 193, 114299.
Lin, B., & Li, Z. (2021). Does natural gas pricing reform establish an effective mechanism in China? A policy evaluation perspective. Applied Energy, 282, 116205.
Lin, B., & Wesseh Jr., P. K. (2020). On the economics of carbon pricing: Insights from econometric modelling with industry-level data. Energy Economics, 86, 104678.