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on Environmental Economics |
| By: | Pushpam Kumar; Uwe A. Schneider (Research unit Sustainability and Global Change) |
| Keywords: | agriculture, climate change |
| JEL: | Q54 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sgc:wpaper:155&r=env |
| By: | Uwe A. Schneider (Research unit Sustainability and Global Change); Juraj Balkovic; Stephane de Cara; Oskar Franklin; Steffen Fritz; Petr Havlik; Ingo Huck; Kerstin Jantke; A. Maarit I. Kallio; Florian Klaxner; Alexander Moiseyev; Michael Obersteiner; Chrystalyn Ivie Ramos; Christine Schleupner; Erwin Schmid; Dagmar Schwab; Ratislav Skalsky |
| Abstract: | Land use is a key factor to social wellbeing and has become a major component in political negotiations. This paper describes the mathematical structure of the European Forest and Agricultural Sector Optimization Model. The model represents simultaneously observed resource and technological heterogeneity, global commodity markets, and multiple environmental qualities. Land scarcity and land competition between traditional agriculture, forests, nature reserves, pastures, and bioenergy plantations is explicitly captured. Environmental change, technological progress, and policies can be investigated in parallel. The model is well-suited to estimate competitive economic potentials of land based mitigation, leakage, and synergies and trade-offs between multiple environmental objectives. |
| Keywords: | Land Use Change Optimization, Resource Scarcity, Market Competition, Welfare Maximization, Bottom-up Partial Equilibrium Analysis, Agricultural Externality Mitigation, Forest Dynamics, Global Change Adaptation, Environmental Policy Simulation, Integrated Assessment, Mathematical Programming, GAMS |
| JEL: | Q10 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sgc:wpaper:156&r=env |
| By: | Andrea Bigano; Jacqueline M. Hamilton; Richard S.J. Tol (Economic and Social Research Institute) |
| Keywords: | tourism, mediterranean, climate change |
| JEL: | L83 Q54 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sgc:wpaper:157&r=env |
| By: | J. Ram Pillarisetti (University of Brunei Darussalam); Jeroen C.J.M. van den Bergh (Autonomous University of Barcelona, ICREA, and VU University Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | What is a 'sustainable nation’ and how can we identify and rank ‘sustainable nations’? Are nations producing and consuming in a sustainable way? Aggregate indicators have been proposed to answer these questions. This paper quantitatively compares three aggregate indicators of sustainability: the World Bank’s ‘Genuine Savings’ measure, the ‘Ecological Footprint’ and the ‘Environmental Sustainability Index’. It is concluded that rankings of sustainable nations vary significantly among these indicators. Implications of this disagreement for analysis and policy are suggested. |
| Keywords: | Adjusted Net Savings; Ecological Debt; Ecological Footprint; Environmental Sustainability Index; Genuine Savings; Sustainability |
| JEL: | O1 Q2 Q28 F0 |
| Date: | 2008–01–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20080012&r=env |
| By: | M. Bruna Zolin (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Cà Foscari) |
| Abstract: | As it is well known, energy is essential for human activities. Despite the high level of technological progress, the increase of energy consumption, satisfied mainly by fossil fuels, raises a series of issues linked to the scarcity of oil reserves, and their growing cost, and to a delicate relationship (and dependence) with a restricted number of world regions and nations. A greater diversification of the energy supply is one of the solutions to solve these problems, especially in the field of renewable resources. Despite the fact that biofuels are still more expensive than fossil fuels, they present many advantages: they are not subject to a progressive exhaustion and their impact on the environment is very low, due to their inclusion in natural cycles. Among biofuels a relevant role is played by the biomass, a renewable resource, that is obtained from the fraction of products, waste and residues from agriculture, forestry and related industries, as well as the biodegradable fraction of industrial and municipal waste. This resource allows a relevant control of the greenhouse gas emission, a minor dependence from oil and gas resources and represents a way for the economic valorisation of local resources and a opportune utilisation of agricultural wastes. In this context, the aims of the paper are to highlight the opportunities and the bonds that the biomass utilisation involves, to analyse the main public policies adopted to boost a large-scale production and consumption, to measure the different degree of utilisation at national (Italy) and European levels and to draw future scenarios. Particular attention will be paid to the European policies starting from the 1992 reform process until nowadays, having in mind the shortage of cereals in the world market. Where possible and opportune, the situation of Italy and of the European union will be compared with that of India, mainly, as regards public decisions/programmes. The paper concludes with an analysis of the role that the biofuel production is expected to offer in terms of new opportunities to diversify income and employment in rural and marginal areas. |
| Keywords: | Biomass energy, rural and marginal areas, energy public policies |
| JEL: | O13 P28 Q18 Q41 Q42 Q48 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2008_03&r=env |
| By: | KOBAYASHI Keiichiro |
| Abstract: | This paper theoretically examines an imaginary monetary regime in which the private provision of global public goods that reduce greenhouse gases ("emissions reducers," e.g., forests) is enhanced and the public goods are held in the private sector as monetary assets. We consider a monetary regime where the government or the central bank makes public goods a means of payment by committing itself to conversion of emissions reducer into cash (and probably by adopting appropriate banking regulations). Using a simple cash-in-advance setting, we show that the monetary regime internalizes the externality of public goods by endowing them with a private function as a means of payment. In the monetary regime, private agents buy and hold emissions reducers voluntarily, and the government need not impose caps on emissions nor pay any costs for public goods provision. Moreover, in an economic boom when greenhouse gas emissions increase, emissions reducers may also increase automatically. Due to the network externalities of money, emissions reducers may become used as money internationally and thus the international free-rider problem may be mitigated. Our results imply that the monetary regime may be a promising extension of existing policy plans for global warming. |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:08004&r=env |
| By: | Amitrajeet A. Batabyal (Rochester Institute of Technology); Peter Nijkamp (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | Various plants and resources such as orchards are vulnerable to the detrimental effects of successful invasions by alien animal or plant species. To outline an appropriate policy response, we first use renewal theory to construct a stochastic model of optimal orchard management in the presence of a deleterious alien species. Next, we derive the orchard manager’s long run expected cost (LREC) of orchard management per unit time. Finally, we show that when confronted with a successful biological invasion, the optimal number of trees that need to be removed and replanted in order to keep the orchard under study sustainable in the long run minimizes the LREC function mentioned above. |
| Keywords: | Alien Species; Long Run Expected Cost; Orchard Management; Uncertainty |
| JEL: | Q24 C44 |
| Date: | 2007–11–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20070085&r=env |
| By: | Gábor Hunya (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Waltraut Urban (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw) |
| Abstract: | Part 1 of the report provides an overview of the position of energy-intensive industries in Romania as compared to other Central and East European economies. The industries identified as particularly 'energy-intensive' are the paper industry, the chemical, the non-metallic mineral products and the basic metals industries. The countries selected for benchmarking are the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Bulgaria. The comparison includes production, employment, productivity and investment including foreign direct investment in the respective branches. Part 2 presents a more detailed analysis of the most energy-intensive sub-branches (pulp & paper, basic chemicals, glass, ceramics, cement, iron & steel and aluminium) focusing on major performance indicators such as value added and foreign trade developments; also included is information on the ownership structure, status of modernization, compliance with the acquis and the further demand for restructuring. Part 3 points out the demand for and possibilities of policy support for the energy-intensive branches in Romania with a view to EU membership. A special focus is on sectoral issues (steel and basic chemicals), energy pricing (electricity, gas), regional, labour market and environmental issues. |
| Keywords: | Romania, energy intensity, industrial policy, foreign trade, competitiveness |
| JEL: | L1 L52 L61 L65 H32 Q43 Q48 Q58 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wii:rpaper:rr:339&r=env |