Environment

Local interactions and network structures are key features of many environmental problems. Despite, the critical importance of networks on environmental issues, network theory has been neglected in environmental economics literature. However, the inherent nature of environmental economics, that deal with a great number of non-market interactions, provide a convincing argument of why networks could give a new insight in this literature. For example, the pattern of adoption and the speed of diffusion of green technologies are likely to depend on the network of social connections. Within the context of international environmental cooperation, the complexity of multiple issue negotiation may involve non-transitive relations which can be modelled as a network. Furthermore, many common pool resource problems are characterized by a multiplicity of sources and users. The strategic decisions of which source to use can be described as the formation of a link, while the decision of how much to extract can be modelled as local interaction on the network. Network theory can thus provide new insights for both theorists and practitioners dealing with environmental problems.