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	November 1997

UNU Nexions review

This book is a collection of papers that were presented at a UNU conference titled "Global Environment, Energy and Economic Development." The following issues from the conference are discussed in detail in the book:

• Carbon taxes may not be an effective way of reducing emissions.

• Technology can be used to slow environmental degradation. Developing countries can use this technology to leapfrog over developed-country mistakes. However, there are obstacles that prevent technology from being used to its fullest potential; these include distorted energy prices or society's failure to understand the extent of the problem. Politicians need to work towards removing these obstacles.

• Developing countries are using more energy and are increasingly adding to the world's environmental problems.

• More climate change and econometric models need to be developed and their results assessed carefully.

• Deforestation and desertification are serious problems that need to be dealt with.

The analyses contained in this book will be indispensable to experts and policy makers dealing with energy and sustainable-development issues.

Regional Mechanisms and International Security in Latin America
Edited by Olga Pellicer
UNU Press; 158 pages; $14.95

Many different ideas about security coexist in Latin America and the Caribbean. In fact, the whole region is now immersed in an interesting security debate that centers on the impossible-to-ignore role of the United States. Olga Pellicer focuses this debate into four topics. The first topic is post-Cold War security in the region. The second is a case study on the United Nations and its efforts to bring peace to Central America. The third is the problem of hemispheric security. And the fourth interprets recent decisions made by the UN Security Council from a Latin American point of view. Many diverse perspectives are offered on all four of these topics.

This book is the English edition of La seguridad internacional en América Latina y el Caribe: El debate contemporáneo.