ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a practical introduction to the economics of climate change's effects on animal health and animal health's effects on climate change. This chapter introduces the framework of animal health economics and explains the core principles of economic welfare analysis and nonmarket valuation. It then uses these basic economic concepts to explore three main aspects of the relationship between climate change and human economic activities – the impacts of climate change on human economic activities, the adaptation of human economic activities in response to climate change, and measures taken by human economic activities to mitigate climate change, primarily through abatement of greenhouse gasses. The economic issues of animal health involved in each of these three aspects are examined in greater detail for each of three broad categories of animal populations: livestock, companion animals, and wildlife. The chapter concludes with considerations of how economics can inform animal health responses to climate change.
