Environmental economics: Integrating climate governance, natural capital, environmental justice, and circularity
Environmental economics must reconcile economic efficiency, ecological integrity, and social equity, yet research on climate policy, natural capital, environmental justice, and resource management remains fragmented. This Perspective connects four research domains—climate governance and carbon pricing, natural capital and ecosystem service valuation, environmental justice and just transition, and circular economy and resource efficiency—through externality internalization, ecological valuation, distributional equity, and resource transformation. The synthesis highlights the complementary roles of market instruments, ecological accounting, equity analysis, and life-cycle approaches, while recognizing their institutional and methodological limitations. Monetary valuation cannot fully capture ecological integrity, and resource efficiency does not necessarily reduce absolute environmental pressures. Integrating ecological conditions, economic incentives, and distributional outcomes a...