Conference Agenda

Energy Crises, Policy Responses, and Distributional Effect\n\nNatalia Fabra, Center for Monetary and Financial Studies (CEMFI), Spain\nEnergy crises are becoming recurrent, requiring governments to understand the impact of their policy responses better. During the 2021–2023 crisis, most EU countries implemented costly downstream subsidies that strained public funds and distorted competition. Conversely, Spain and Portugal intervened in the wholesale market, decoupling electricity prices from gas. This \"Iberian solution\" significantly reduced consumer bills with minimal fiscal impact and positive distributional outcomes, albeit some distortion in electricity trade. This keynote will review analyses of these policy responses and examine preliminary evidence from the current crisis, where expanded renewable deployment is increasingly buffering economies against fossil fuel volatility. The discussion will highlight how policy design can harmonize economic efficiency with social equity during energy crisis periods.

Climate change is affecting vital parts of economies at local and global levels. Climate risks intensify, affecting productivity, prices, and unemployment, and posing challenges to economic growth and financial stability. In these circumstances, central banks have begun to incorporate transition and physical risks into their economic and financial stability analyses. This policy session brings together experts from different Central Banks to discuss climate regulatory policies for sustainable economies, future perspectives in climate policymaking, and the role of central banks in the global effort of transitioning to a green economy. The discussion will center around the following key questions:\n\n\nWhat is the role of Central Banks in climate regulation policies on the way to the net-zero goals?\nHow does climate change affect financial stability and monetary policy implementation, and what are the best-practice policies that help in preventing and circumventing those risks?\nWhat are the challenges and opportunities in financing the green transition?\n

From 2027, the European Union will introduce a dedicated emissions trading system for buildings, road transport and additional small-emitting sectors (often referred to as ETS-2). The new system will price carbon in heating and transport fuels upstream, with first auctions expected around 2027 and full compliance obligations from 2028. This will extend carbon pricing to a significant portion of household energy use and mobility, with potentially regressive effects unless revenues are carefully reinvested.\n\nTo cushion vulnerable groups and sustain political acceptability, the EU has established the Social Climate Fund (SCF) under Regulation (EU) 2023/955. The SCF will operate from 2026 to 2032 and is expected to mobilise at least €86.7 billion, combining EU resources and at least 25% national co-financing, primarily financed by revenues from ETS-2 allowance auctions. The Fund will support both targeted income support and structural investments (e.g. renovation, clean heating, low-carbon mobility) for vulnerable households, micro-enterprises and transport users.\n\nThis session addresses distributional incidence, inequality, energy poverty, and the design of public finance. It brings together:\n \n\nMicro-simulation and indicator-based analysis of who is “energy poor” in the EU and how different measurement choices (2M, M2, arrears, expenditure-based metrics, etc.) affect targeting.\nEvidence on ETS-2 impacts and revenue recycling from country case studies (with a focus on Poland, the biggest beneficiary of the Social Climate Fund).\nInsights from the Energy Poverty Advisory Hub (EPAH), the EU’s central platform on energy poverty, supporting local authorities with diagnosis tools, indicators and implementation guidance.\nA policy design perspective on Social Climate Plans and SCF implementation from the European Commission’s DG EMPL.\nA market and delivery perspective from the buildings sector, focusing on supply chains, financing, and implementation bottlenecks in scaling renovations and heating system upgrades.\n\n \nWe combine academic evidence, Commission analysis, advisory practice, and industry experience. The session aims to help environmental and resource economists engage with ETS-2 and the SCF as a policy laboratory for designing and evaluating distributional policies.

 As carbon markets scale toward trillion-dollar valuations and climate finance accelerates globally, the economic framework for comparing greenhouse gas abatement across different pollutants becomes increasingly critical. This session addresses a fundamental challenge in climate economics: how to establish theoretically-grounded and practically-implementable exchange rates between CO2 and superpollutants (methane, nitrous oxide, black carbon, and fluorinated gases) that maximize welfare benefits from climate investments.\n \nCurrent carbon markets predominantly rely on Global Warming Potential (GWP) metrics—a physical measure developed in the 1980s that compares warming effects over arbitrary time horizons. While GWP was innovative for its time, it fails to incorporate crucial economic factors including temporal damage functions, discounting, economic growth trajectories, adaptation dynamics, and distributional considerations. This omission leads to systematic misallocation of climate resources, with recent evidence suggesting methane abatement may be overvalued by 50-75% in current markets, representing billions in suboptimal climate investments.\n \nUpcoming research by Carleton, Costello, Fernández Intriago, Meng, and Stock (2026) formally introduces a new framework for an economically sound exchange rate, derived from the ratio of social costs (SCx/SCC). Their work demonstrates that for pollutants like methane, this economic ratio often diverges significantly from standard GWP multipliers depending on the discount rate and damage function convexity.\n \nThis session brings together leading environmental economists, policymakers, and carbon market practitioners to examine the theoretical foundations of SCx/SCC ratios and explore their application across three critical use cases: (1) social planner optimization for efficient resource allocation, (2) compliance market design and superpollutant integration, and (3) voluntary carbon market crediting standards. The presentations will demonstrate how these ratios can be implemented in each context while addressing practical challenges.\n \nThe timing is particularly urgent given three developments:\n \n1. Market Evolution: The EU-ETS is under review this year, California\'s cap-and-trade system is reviewing offset protocols, and voluntary carbon markets are experiencing unprecedented growth\n2. Policy Windows: International negotiations on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement are establishing global carbon credit frameworks that will shape markets for decades\n3. Investment Decisions: Major climate funds and corporate buyers are seeking science-based guidance for portfolio allocation across different greenhouse gas mitigation opportunities\n \nThis session directly addresses WCERE 2026\'s themes of market-based environmental policy instruments and climate economics, offering actionable insights for the critical 2025-2030 implementation period of global climate commitments.

Econometrics and data science have advanced empirical methods in many important ways. Causal inference techniques continue to improve; machine learning and AI have made and will continue to expand economists’ ability to explore and evaluate causal relationships. \n\nBut to the extent that much of our fields research has become focused on identifiable casual inference questions, is this work crowding out research that is grounded in economic theory and emphasizing public policy questions? There has been a proliferation of studies aimed at identifying the effect of X on Y but sometimes with little content on underlying mechanisms, economic or policy relevance, or reflections on the work’s value-added. Do these shifts have other implications or consequences we should be concerned about? \n\nAcademic researchers and PhD students, of course, need novel research results for publication and for professional success. A novel dataset can offer many possibilities for causal inference testing, whereas novel topics motivated by economics and policy questions may be more challenging to develop into publishable research. \n\nThe panelists in this session will offer their views on these fundamental and timely questions. The goal is a balanced and thoughtful exchange of perspective. Panelists will be encouraged to propose ways in which our profession can ensure that a proper balance can be achieved that maximizes the value and credibility of our discipline’s contributions. 

This thematic session aims at discussing relevant research topics in the context of the transition to carbon neutrality, in the context of the Ocean. The goal is to discuss possible research avenues that may contribute to a more environmentally friendly transition, by integrating ecosystem valuation and natural-capital accounting into economic decision-making, capitalizing on Portugal’ exceptional geographical location and the maritime area under Portugal’s sovereignty representing almost the terrestrial area of EU.\n \nA) Global climate regulation service provided by deep-sea ecosystem services/the deep ocean/the ocean. \nThe ocean offers humanity several vital ecosystem services, namely global climate regulation services. Coastal and marine ecosystems sequester and store CO2 - widely referred to as Blue Carbon - thus helping to reduce the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. It is estimated that, since 1850, the global ocean has sequestered c. ¼ of total anthropogenic emissions, and between 2014 and 2023 about c. 2.9 +- 0.4 GtC/year. This process relies on the ocean carbon pump, which has two key components: the biological pump, where marine organisms transfer carbon to the seabed through the food web, and the physical pump, which moves carbon-rich waters into the deep ocean, particularly in polar regions where cold temperatures enhance CO₂ absorption.\n \nOne pressing but still widely unanswered methodological question is how to value this service, especially in deep-sea environments. Some authors have used carbon market prices to assess its economic value. However, it is widely recognized that market values are a clear underestimation of the social cost of carbon (SCC). Besides, as SCC estimates are marginal values they should not be used to assess the value of the carbon stored at a given time T, but, instead, to estimate the value of one ton of carbon sequestered at T over its residence time.\n \nSince the estimation of the carbon absorbed by the ocean encompasses important challenges, the goal of this session is to contribute to this discussion, advancing research in the field.\n \nB) Natural Capital Accounting\nThe Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) develops a framework that systematically measures and reports on natural capital stocks and flows. For sustainability purposes, there is a need to develop national natural-capital accounts that capture both land and marine ecosystems. Portugal’s forthcoming Ocean Natural Capital Accounting (2026) as set by the Portuguese Government illustrates how national initiatives can pioneer valuation and policy design, an essential step to ensure a more equitable and sustainable transition. Importantly, with careful natural capital accounting, it is possible to better understand the “true” value of the environmental impacts of development, which in turn impact on decarbonization, deforestation, and migration patterns. Accounting for the condition of natural ecosystems and assessing their economic value in a systematic way is key to transform Portugal’s Ocean Economy into a Blue Bioeconomy.\n \nC) Blue Economy\nCoastal and marine ecosystems, such as seagrass meadows, salt marshes, and mangroves, are particularly effective at sequestering carbon, often referred to as “blue carbon”. Protecting these habitats is key to fight against global warming, as they not only capture carbon but also support marine biodiversity and provide vital ecosystem services. Portugal’s Atlantic geography offers a frontier for offshore renewables, green shipping, aquaculture, and coastal resilience. The blue economy can link energy, logistics, finance, and environmental stewardship. The large coastal area hosts many of those activities which could contribute to a more sustainable transition in those fields also improving the livelihood of local populations. However, this requires a consistent, updatable, regulatory framework with strict monitoring and enforceable rules, that identifies both the possible areas where economic activity can take place (e.g., fisheries, aquaculture, touristic activities, surfing, ports, wind offshore installations), and under what conditions, and those that should be preserved (e.g., coastal Natural Parks and Marine Protected Areas), avoiding possible conflicts. This is the role of Marine Spatial Planning. Under these conditions, and for public policy purposes, it will be interesting to study the possible development of a voluntary Blue Carbon Credit market that either (i) avoid or reduce GHGs emissions, or (ii) remove or sequester those emissions, while ensuring additionality, for cost-effectiveness (or efficiency) purposes. Further offshore, on the continental shelf, carbon stocks are also not well quantified or understood. Despite recent controversy over whether human activities such as trawling can impact carbon stocks and contribute to carbon emissions, there is little empirical scientific research on the impacts of trawling on carbon dynamics, and sedimentary carbon stocks. Also, the quantitative contribution of marine animals (such as whales and fish) to Blue Carbon is also uncertain. Moreover, continental shelf systems are under increasing anthropogenic impacts, from fisheries and dredging activities, to installation and decommissioning of energy structures, such as wind turbines. Yet, the impact on carbon stocks and sequestration is largely unknown. This makes it challenging to value the carbon, particularly for environmental economic and carbon credit accounting. As in coastal Blue Carbon ecosystems, some of the carbon sequestered may originate from land, not classifying as Blue Carbon.

Emerging economies are at the center of the global energy transition, facing the challenge of reshaping investment patterns and energy systems while sustaining high GDP growth. This session examines the economic impacts of these transitions, focusing on GDP growth, investment constraints, and financing structures. By showcasing how macroeconomic modeling and open-source tools can support public policy-making, the session provides a forum for discussion between policy-makers and academia to design transition pathways that are both economically viable and socially acceptable.

The rapid diffusion of electric vehicles (EVs) represents both a cornerstone and a challenge in the global transition toward decarbonized transport systems. A central bottleneck to EV adoption and efficient utilization is the availability, reliability, and pricing of charging infrastructure. This session brings together four cutting-edge empirical and theoretical studies that examine the economics of EV charging infrastructure from complementary perspectives—consumer behavior, market coordination, congestion management, and dynamic pricing.\n \nBy integrating insights from applied microeconomics, industrial organization, and energy policy, this session aims to illuminate how market design and policy interventions can shape investment incentives, manage externalities, and improve user experience in the emerging EV ecosystem. Collectively, the papers contribute to understanding how charging networks can be efficiently expanded and operated to support electrification at scale.

As climate change and variability intensify, irrigation has become an essential adaptation strategy for smallholder farmers to mitigate production risks (Koundouri et al., 2006; Xie et al., 2014; Zaveri et al., 2020). Irrigated agriculture plays a fundamental role in the sustainability of rural livelihoods (Hussain & Hanjra 2004; Domenech & Ringler 2013), but it also exerts significant pressure on energy systems and groundwater reserves (Shah, 2009; Foster & Perry, 2010). Indeed, the energy-irrigation nexus presents a dual economic and environmental challenge: fossil-fuel-dependent (diesel) pumping is increasingly expensive and causing local and climate-damaging pollution, often acting as a barrier to expansion (Jeuland et al., 2025). At the same time, while subsidized electricity can lower costs, it often leads to unsustainable groundwater extraction (Badiani et al., 2012; Fishman et al., 2015;). Across developing countries, farmers thus increasingly face a critical energy transition—shifting from diesel to grid electricity, solar-powered irrigation, and pricing reforms—that is reshaping net returns, water use behavior, and climate adaptation outcomes (Burney et al., 2010; Shah, 2023). Understanding the economic, environmental, and institutional implications of this transition is central to environmental and resource economics (IRENA & FAO, 2021; Mukherji, 2022).\n \nThis thematic session brings together empirical studies from Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia that examine the economics of irrigation energy choices and policies through the lens of returns to agriculture, energy demand, resource sustainability, and resilience. The papers are united by a common focus on the water–energy–food nexus and employ rigorous empirical and mixed-method approaches to analyze farmer behavior, technology adoption, and policy design.\n \n By integrating evidence across diverse contexts, the session enhances understanding of how energy transitions in irrigated agriculture influence economic outcomes, environmental externalities, and climate adaptation—core themes of WCERE 2026. The session relates directly to conference topics on energy, climate change, environmental regulation, development, and the water–energy–food nexus.

Climate change is expected to continue and worsen over the rest of the century, which will bring with it increases in average temperatures, extreme weather, sea level rise, and increases in the risk and magnitude of hurricanes, wildfires, and other natural disasters. A growing literature has shown that that climate change could have a significant and persistent effect on the economy (e.g., Dell et al. 2012; Burke et al. 2015; Deryugina and Hsiang 2017; Burke and Tanutama 2019; Colacito et al. 2019; Henseler and Schumacher 2019; Nath, 2020; Kahn et al. 2021; Kumar and Khanna 2019; Bastien-Olvera et al. 2022; Nath et al. 2024). This empirical evidence is important because even small changes in the rate of economic growth can accumulate into large economic impacts over time. Casey et al. (2023) estimate a relationship between total factor productivity (TFP) and historical temperature and precipitation levels that differ by country. The authors simulate a TFP growth path based on future temperature projections to estimate future GDP per capita damages using a Solow growth model. Their results suggest that temperature affects the level of TFP but not the long-run growth rate of TFP.\n \nThough the literature is more mixed, there is also a body of work that has investigated the effects of hurricanes and other natural disasters on long-term economic growth (e.g., Hsiang and Jina, 2014, 2015; Newell et al. 2021; Kalkuhl and Wenz 2020). Hallegate and Ghil (2008) find that flexibility in how investment can respond to natural disasters may be particularly important when predicting the magnitude of productivity loss as well as the persistence of macroeconomic effects over time.\n \nGovernments have increasingly become interested in better understanding the macroeconomic effects of increasing climate risk to facilitate better budget and resilience planning. Central banks are starting to think about how climate risk affects the financial system through effects on asset value and default risk. Many of these exercises have focused on the short run, but there are equally important questions when thinking about longer timescales.\n \nWhen moving beyond shorter timespans, CGE models provide a natural starting framework to think about the channels through which climate change risk could affect the macroeconomy. The recent National Academies Roundtable on Macroeconomics and Climate-related Risks and Opportunities points out that there is a research gap on how to best accommodate the unique characteristics of climate risks within economic modeling frameworks to better understand their macroeconomic implications.\n \nThis session includes papers that leverage CGE modeling frameworks to glean insights into the important channels through which climate risk might manifest in the macroeconomy. The CGE models vary in their focus (U.S. vs global); expectations (perfect foresight vs adaptive or recursive dynamic); household and regional heterogeneity; and ability to capture short-run stickiness in capital or labor markets. Each of the modeling groups explore scenarios predicated on 1) a “top-down” that relates changes in climatic conditions (e.g., temperature and precipitation) to total factor productivity (TFP) using the outcomes of the econometric model in Casey et al. (2023) 2) a top-down TFP approach augmented to include a measure of increased capital destruction due to changes in natural disasters and extreme weather via effects on the depreciation rate, and, when possible, 3) a “bottom-up” _damage pathways approach that relates changes in climatic conditions to effects on specific inputs. Careful\nthought is given to the ways in which climate change risk may persist and accumulate in the economy over time.

Climate change increasingly shapes human migration patterns worldwide by undermining livelihoods, economic productivity, human security, and health. Yet migration is neither a universal nor an automatic response to climatic risks: while some populations move, others remain immobile for various reasons. This session examines climate change as a driver of both migration and immobility, drawing on novel data, innovative methods, and complementary theoretical and empirical perspectives. The five studies in the session span global to local scales and combine subnational econometric analyses, macro-level projections, and micro-level causal studies of household responses to environmental shocks. Together, they show how climatic stressors interact with economic conditions, conflict, inequality, and policy interventions to shape mobility outcomes. The contributions jointly address not only whether climate change affects migration, but also under which conditions migration emerges, when it is constrained, and who is most affected. By linking structural forces, individual aspirations, and the role of resources and social protection, the session offers an integrated perspective on climate-induced mobility and immobility with direct relevance for research and policy. 

This session centers on a unified theme: biodiversity and environmental systems as economically valuable yet insufficiently priced assets, and the role of policy and economic activity in shaping their benefits and damages. Three papers quantify the economic value generated by biodiversity and ecosystem services—through pollination by bees, pest control by migratory birds, and species diversity of urban trees— demonstrating that biological diversity directly contributes to productivity, amenity values, and welfare, even though these benefits are largely outside markets. Two complementary papers examine the consequences of policy and development choices when such environmental values are not fully internalized. One documents how largescale overseas development projects lead to losses in vegetation, air quality, and biodiversity with global welfare costs, while the other shows that environmentally hazardous production in the animal fur trade generates substantial human health damages and cross-border externalities. Together, the five papers offer a coherent empirical account of how biodiversity and environmental quality create economic value, how that value is eroded by uninternalized externalities, and why coordinated policy interventions are central to aligning economic activity with ecological and human wellbeing.

Climate policies are increasingly implemented in a global economy characterised by heterogeneous climate ambition, trade fragmentation, and the emergence of border measures such as the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). While these policies aim to reduce emissions and limit carbon leakage, they also reshape international trade patterns, competitiveness, and comparative advantage in complex and interrelated ways. This session examines how different climate policy regimes, ranging from global mitigation pathways to regional decarbonisation strategies, affect trade flows, production structures, and regional and sectoral economic adjustment costs across countries and sectors. Using state-of-the-art global general equilibrium and energy-system modelling frameworks, the papers collectively shed light on the macroeconomic, sectoral, and distributional trade implications of climate ambition under varying degrees of international coordination. 

Marine policies increasingly rely on economic instruments, alternative livelihoods, and institutional innovations to reconcile biodiversity conservation with human well-being. In the Eastern Tropical Pacific, a region spanning from Mexico to Peru and characterized by highly productive yet fragile marine ecosystems, such approaches are being implemented at scale in tourism-intensive and fisheries-dependent economies. Despite their widespread adoption, evidence on their socioeconomic performance, distributional impacts, and long-term sustainability remains mixed. \n\nThis thematic session brings together five new empirical studies that assess how natural capital accounting, alternative livelihoods, conservation finance mechanisms, and community-based management influence stakeholders’ behavior, extraction decisions, and ecological and social outcomes in marine protected areas. Using quasi-experimental methods, national and ecosystem accounting, and revealed and stated preference analysis, the contributions evaluate the effectiveness of widely promoted conservation strategies. Rather than assuming automatic win–win outcomes, the papers show how conservation impacts depend on relative prices, market conditions, institutional settings, and the allocation of conservation benefits, with important implications for effective management, policy acceptability and sustainability of marine ecosystems. \n\nOverall, the session advances understanding of when and how marine conservation policies can align economic development with ecological sustainability. Applied in the Galapagos Islands (Ecuador), the Peruvian coast, and Baja California Sur (Mexico), the studies offer insights for the effective management of natural capital in other biodiversity-rich regions worldwide. \n\nThe session is jointly organized by Red-MOPTO, a regional network of socioeconomic research for marine conservation in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, and the Latin American Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (LAERE). 

Land use in Portugal and Spain faces intertwined challenges of water scarcity and ecosystem preservation and restoration. This session examines these issues from an individual perspective, highlighting implications for policies that can generate mutual benefits across both countries.

This session examines how housing markets and residential mobility respond to increasing climate risks, and how they are shaped by public policies. The four papers study flood, wildfire and heat-related risks in European contexts and focus on adaptation versus inertia. They study whether housing markets and housing market development enable adaptation to increased climate risks and can be used to identify adaptation efforts following extreme climate events or whether housing market policy create lock-in through tenure structures, insurance pooling or rent control. All papers combine rich micro-level data with quasiexperimental methods and structural modeling to show that climate events reshapes housing markets without inducing large population relocation, and that policy design critically mediates these outcomes. The session highlights key trade-offs between affordability, insurance coverage, redistribution, and efficient spatial adjustment to increasing climate risk in a warming world.

Climate change adaptation is an urgent and multidimensional challenge across Mediterranean countries, which are among the most exposed globally to rising temperatures, water scarcity, coastal risks, agricultural stress and ecosystem degradation. The Mediterranean represents a unique “laboratory” of institutional diversity, socioeconomic heterogeneity and policy experimentation, spanning EU Member States, neighboring countries and regions with markedly different governance capacities. This session will explore how adaptation responses are being designed and implemented across key sectors, with particular attention to economic incentives, governance arrangements and distributional consequences. By bringing together leading scholars and practitioners from across the Mediterranean, the session aims to identify common challenges, successful strategies and persistent gaps in adaptation policy, and to draw lessons that are relevant both within the region and for other climate-vulnerable contexts worldwide. The session can be of interest to many non-Mediterranean environmental and resource economists as well, as it engages with core analytical themes such as the valuation of climate impacts, the design of policy instruments under uncertainty, strategic interactions in adaptation, and the integration of adaptation into natural resource management and long-term development pathways. 

Environmental Economics as a field has seen a substantial growth and increasing policy-relevance over the last decades. This panel brings together editors from leading journals in environmental economics to discuss current publication trends, profiles of the respective journals and editorial expectations. Specifically targeted towards early-career researchers seeking to publish their work, the panel offers insights into navigating the publication and review process and positioning research for high-impact outlets. The panel will provide the opportunity to discuss the peer review process in a collegial environment, offering different perspectives. One discussion point is the approach that each journal is taking to the challenge of AI use by authors and reviewers. 

The available scientific evidence shows that the climate system of the Earth is warming rapidly due to human activities, and that related natural disasters, such as heatwaves, heavy rainfall, strong storms, droughts and wildfires have become more frequent or intense in recent decades. Also, observed increases in climate-related disasters have induced an immense toll in human fatalities and enormous direct economic losses (DELs). Additionally, attribution studies increasingly show that human-induced global warming has amplified the likelihood or severity of many major events; and, according to recent reports on climate adaptation, disasters fueled by climate change are already worse than scientists originally predicted.\n \nResearch findings also indicate that exposure and vulnerability are the main factors determining the impact of climate induced natural disasters. Exposure is expected to increase because, heatwaves will increase in frequency, duration and intensity under all warming scenarios; and extreme precipitation events will become more frequent and more intense across most mid-latitude and moist tropical regions, implying more severe flash floods, river flooding, urban flooding and landslides in mountainous regions, especially in Asia, Europe, East Africa, South America, and parts of North America. Moreover, with high confidence, in many regions, hotter, drier conditions and longer drought cycles will increase fire risk and burned areas, with strongest projected increases in western North America, Mediterranean basin, southwestern South America, Australia and Southern Africa. Regarding Tropical Cyclones (hurricanes, typhoons), with medium to high confidence, the strongest storms (category 4–5) will become more intense, and a higher proportion of storms will reach extreme intensity; moreover, with high confidence, associated rainfalls will increase substantially; and, even when the frequency of global storms may stay the same or decrease, their intensity will reach extreme strength, with higher destructive potential. Changes of Sea-Level Rise and Coastal Risks are projected and indicate that, with very high confidence, rising sea level will increase frequency of coastal flooding, storm surge impacts and saltwater intrusions. Even small Sea-Level Rise increments matter, because a storm surge currently occurring once every 100 years may become annual at +2 °C warming in many coastal regions.\n \nOn the other hand, research findings have also indicated that economic development tends to be associated with fewer human deaths from climate-related disasters but rising direct economic losses. This points to possible policy avenues to reduce vulnerability to natural disasters.\n \nClimate disasters are not only environmental events — they are economic shocks. Therefore, economic policy is central to shaping whether societies become increasingly vulnerable or increasingly resilient.\n \nUsually, natural hazards are interconnected and therefore need to be managed jointly to avoid more severe impacts. This creates additional challenges for designing policies that reduce exposure and vulnerability, especially when the hazards amplify or reinforce one another.\n \nAnalyzing and discussing economic and social policies to reduce vulnerability and exposure to climate-change-induced natural disasters could lead to large social and economic gains in the future. To environmental or natural resource economists this theme represents not only an extremely relevant issue due to the theoretical and practical questions that remain to be answered to improve government and private policies currently used. Also designing and implementing new and more efficient economic policies is essential because they are possibly the only tools capable of correcting market failures behind climate change, mobilizing investment for adaptation and mitigation, protecting vulnerable populations, maintaining macroeconomic stability after disasters, creating incentives for innovation and resilience, coordinating multi-sectoral responses, and ensuring development is sustainable under rising climate risks.

Presented by: Francisca Carvalho, Timberlake Consultants\n\nThis special session will introduce Timberlake Consultants and its work in supporting researchers, institutions, and professionals through specialist training, consultancy, and advanced analytical tools. The session will highlight Timberlake’s upcoming training courses, including programmes in econometrics, climate economics, sustainable finance, AI analytics, and applied data science. It will also include a short demonstration in Stata, showing how the software can support empirical research, data management, and reproducible analysis.\nThe aim is to provide participants with a practical overview of how Timberlake combines software expertise, academic training, and consultancy support to help researchers strengthen their quantitative and analytical work.