Toward an economics of stewardship: the case of climate

Standard neo-classical approaches to long-term environmental problems such as climate change are unsatisfactory in relying on discounting, in assuming an at least latent utilitarianism, and relying on the measure of Gross Domestic Product. A framework built around trusteeship/stewardship is set forth and advanced as a superior approach, and its implications for climate stability drawn. It is within a just emerging economics of stewardship that the tools of neo-classical economics can help in finding the path to climate stability. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.