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on Environmental Economics |
| By: | Ian Gough |
| Abstract: | A framework is presented for thinking about state intervention in developed capitalist economies in two domains: social policy and environmental policy (and, within that, climate-change policy). Five drivers of welfare state development are identified, the ‘five Is’ of Industrialisation: Interests, Institutions, Ideas/Ideologies, and International Influences. Research applying this framework to the postwar development of welfare states in the OECD is summarised, distinguishing two periods: up to 1980, and from 1980 to 2008. How far this framework can contribute to understanding the rise and differential patterns of environmental governance and intervention across advanced capitalist states since 1970 is explored, before briefly comparing and contrasting the determinants of welfare states and environmental states, identifying common drivers in both domains and regime-specific drivers in each. The same framework is then applied to developments since 2008 and into the near future, sketching two potential configurations and speculating on the conditions for closer, more integrated ‘eco-welfare states’. |
| Keywords: | welfare state; environmental state; climate mitigation policy; social policy; comparative research |
| JEL: | N0 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:63153&r=all |
| By: | Curtis, John; Lynch, Muireann Á.; Zubiate, Laura |
| Abstract: | The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is a large-scale circulation pattern driving climate variability in north-western Europe. In recent years there has been an increasing deployment of wind-powered generation technology, i.e. wind farms, on electricity networks across Europe. As this deployment increases it is important to understand how climate variability will affect both wind powered and non-renewable power generation. This study extends the literature by assessing the impact of NAO, via wind-power generation, on carbon dioxide emissions from the wider electricity system. A Monte Carlo approach is used to model NAO phases, generate hourly wind speed time series data, electricity demand and fuel input data. A unit commitment, least-cost economic dispatch model is used to simulate an entire electricity system, modelled on the all-island Irish electricity system. Our results confirm that the NAO has a significant impact on monthly mean wind speeds, wind power output, and carbon dioxide emissions from the entire electricity system. The impact of NAO on emissions obviously depends on the level of wind penetration within an electricity system but our results indicate that emissions intensity within the Irish electricity system could vary by as much as 10% depending on the NAO phase within the next few years. The emissions intensity of the electricity system will vary with the NAO phase. |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp510&r=all |
| By: | Günther, Michael (Center for Mathematical Economics, Bielefeld University); Hellmann, Tim (Center for Mathematical Economics, Bielefeld University) |
| Abstract: | Increasing concerns about climate change have given rise to the formation of International Environmental Agreements (IEAs) as a possible solution to limit global pollution effects. In this paper, we study the stability of IEAs in a repeated game framework where we restrict to strategies which are simple and invariant to renegotiation. Our main contribution to the literature on IEAs is that we allow for heterogeneous patterns of pollution such that additional to a global effect of pollution there are local pollution effects represented by a network structure. We show that stable IEAs exist if the network structure is balanced. Too large asymmetries in the degree of local spillovers may however lead to non-existence of stable structures. The generality of our approach allows for several applications to general problems in the provision of public goods. |
| Keywords: | Coalition structures, Networks, International environmental agreements, Weak renegotiation-proofness |
| Date: | 2015–09–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bie:wpaper:545&r=all |
| By: | Anthony J. Webster; Richard H. Clarke |
| Abstract: | Climate change is widely expected to increase weather related damage and the insurance claims that result from it. This has the undesirable consequence of increasing insurance costs, in a way that is independent of a customer's contribution to the causes of climate change. This is unfortunate because insurance provides a financial mechanism that mitigates some of the consequences of climate change, allowing damage from increasingly frequent events to be repaired. We observe that the insurance industry could reclaim any increase in claims due to climate change, by increasing the insurance premiums on energy producers for example, without needing government intervention or a new tax. We argue that this insurance-led levy must acknowledge both present carbon emissions and a modern industry's carbon inheritance, that is, to recognise that fossil-fuel driven industrial growth has provided the innovations and conditions needed for modern civilisation to exist and develop. The increases in premiums would initially be small, and will require an event attribution (EA) methodology to determine their size. We propose that the levies can be phased in as the science of event attribution becomes sufficiently robust for each claim type, to ultimately provide a global insurance-led response to climate change. |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1509.01157&r=all |
| By: | Patricia S. Mesquita (IPC-IG); Marcel Bursztyn (IPC-IG); Hannah Wittman (IPC-IG) |
| Abstract: | Climate change and variability are among the main threats to socio-ecological sustainability in many semi-arid regions. High levels of social vulnerability in the northeast of Brazil make this region one of the most susceptible to the impacts of climate change in the country. Within the region, the state of Ceará is one of the most vulnerable to the foreseen climatic impacts (PBMC, 2013). The year 2012 was marked by a long and severe drought that affected millions of people, primarily due to the significant decrease in agricultural production yields and the death of cattle. |
| Keywords: | Climate Variability, Semi-arid Brazil, Food Insecurity, Agricultural Production, Adjustment, Perceived Changes |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:opager:260&r=all |
| By: | John P. Tang |
| Abstract: | National registries of toxic chemical emissions and facilities are increasingly used to raise public awareness of potential health hazards in local areas, but an unintended consequence may be the offshoring of production to less regulated countries. Using disaggregated U.S. trade data, this study examines the impact of registry listing on subsequent bilateral trade flows. Estimates from a difference-in-differences model indicate a significant shift toward imports from poorer countries following registry listing. Assuming that environmental protection is a normal good, this result suggests the emergence of pollution havens due to more stringent U.S. environmental regulation. |
| Keywords: | pollution haven, environmental Kuznets curve, production offshoring, Toxics Release Inventory, pollution release and transfer register, Porter hypothesis |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:acb:cbeeco:2015-623&r=all |
| By: | F. Zagonari |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I develop an operational methodology to consistently compare alternative sustainability paradigms (weak sustainability [WS], strong sustainability [SS], a-growth [AG], and de-growth [DG]) and different assessment approaches (life-cycle assessment [LCA], cost-benefit analysis [CBA], and multi-criteria analysis [MCA]) within alternative relationship frameworks (economic general equilibrium [EGE] and ecosystem services [ESS]). The goal is to suggest different environmental interventions (e.g., projects vs. policies) for nature management and guide decisions to achieve nature conservation, defined here as reducing environmental pressures to preserve the future environment and its functioning over time. I then apply the methodology to 30 interdependent industries in Italy for three pollutants (greenhouse-effect gases, polluted rain, and air pollution) and four resources (water, minerals, fossil fuels, biomass) during two periods (from 1990 to 2007 and from 1990 to 2012). The industries were prioritised in terms of interventions to be taken to diminish pollution damage and resource depletion (e.g., fishing and non-energy mining for any sustainability paradigm), whereas sustainability paradigms are compared in terms of their likelihood (i.e., WS > AG = DG > SS), robustness (i.e., AG > SS > DG > WS), effectiveness (i.e., SS > AG > DG > WS), and feasibility (i.e., SS > DG > WS > AG). Proper assessment approaches for projects are finally identified for situations when policies are infeasible (e.g., LCA in WS and SS, MCA in DG and SS within ESS, CBA in WS and AG within EGE), by suggesting MCA in WS within ESS once ecological services are linked to sustainability criteria. |
| JEL: | O2 Q2 Q3 Q5 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bol:bodewp:wp1023&r=all |
| By: | Christoph Böhringer (Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre & ZenTra); Knut Einar Rosendahl (Norwegian University of Life Sciences, School of Economics and Business); Halvor Briseid Storrøsten (Statistics Norway, Oslo / Norway) |
| Abstract: | Unilateral climate policy induces carbon leakage through the relocation of emission-intensive and trade-exposed industries to regions with no or more lenient emission regulation. Both analytical and numerical studies suggest that emission pricing combined with border carbon adjustments may be a second-best instrument, and more cost-effective than output-based rebating, in which case domestic output is indirectly subsidized. No countries have so far imposed border carbon adjustments, while variants of output-based rebating have been implemented. In this paper we demonstrate that it is welfare improving for a region who has already implemented emission pricing along with output-based rebating for emission-intensive and trade-exposed goods to also introduce a consumption tax on these goods. Moreover, we show that combining output-based rebating with a consumption tax can be equivalent with border carbon adjustments. |
| Keywords: | Carbon leakage, output-based rebating, border carbon adjustments, consumption tax |
| JEL: | D61 H2 Q54 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zen:wpaper:54&r=all |
| By: | Jean-Denis Garon (ESG-UQAM, CESIfo and CIRPEE); Charles Séguin (ESG-UQAM and CIREQ) |
| Abstract: | We study the welfare effects of a revenue-neutral green tax reform in a federation. The reform consists of increasing a tax on a polluting input and reducing that on labor income. Households are fully mobile within the federation. Regions are unequally endowed with a nonrenewable natural resource. Resource rents are owned by regions and are redistributed to citizens on a residence basis, which generates a motive for inefficiently relocating to the resource-rich jurisdiction. Since the resource-poor region has a higher marginal product of labor than does the resource-rich region, the tax reform mitigates the scope of inefficient migration. This positive welfare effect may significantly reduce abatement costs of pollution and calls for higher environmental tax, as compared with a model where migration is assumed away. |
| Keywords: | Federalism, Environment, Taxation, Equalization, Mobility |
| JEL: | D62 H21 H23 H77 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fae:wpaper:2015.13&r=all |
| By: | Hashmat U. Khan (Department of Economics, Carleton University); Christopher R. Knittel (Massachusetts Institute of Technology); Konstantinos Metaxoglou (Department of Economics, Carleton University); Maya M. Papineau (Department of Economics, Carleton University) |
| Abstract: | Carbon dioxide emissions are highly correlated with cyclical fluctuations in the U.S. economy; they increase during booms and fall during busts. We examine this relationship focusing on the sources of business cycles identified using structural vector autoregression methodologies. Using data for 1973–2012, we find that emissions fall after unanticipated technology and investment shocks, as well as anticipated technology shocks. Emissions, however, increase after an anticipated investment shock. Our findings have two implications for the emerging literature that examines the optimality of environmental policy using dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models with unanticipated technology shocks. First, the assumption that unanticipated technology shocks cause carbon emissions to move with the business cycle has little support in the data both at the aggregate and the state-level. Second, identifying the shocks that explain procyclical carbon emissions is an important first step for crafting effective environmental policy over the business cycle—an anticipated investment shock is a candidate. |
| Keywords: | structural shocks, business cycles, carbon emissions, environment |
| JEL: | E32 Q58 Q54 |
| Date: | 2015–08–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:car:carecp:15-07&r=all |
| By: | A. Nam Tran (University of Missouri); David Lobell (Stanford University); Michael J. Roberts (University of Hawaii at Manoa); Wolfram Schlenker (Columbia University, National Bureau of Economic Research); Jarrod R. Welch (Charles River Associates) |
| Abstract: | Some predict that climate change will decrease average crop yield and increase yield variability. While the first effect, as well as possible adaption strategies, have been studied extensively, the second is less well understood and the topic of this paper. A unique feature of commodity crops is that they can be stored between periods, thereby allowing storage to smooth production shocks across time. We pair a rational competitive storage model with a statistical analysis linking global production of the four major commodity crops (maize, wheat, rice and soybeans) and climate forecasts from 16 global climate models. The rational storage model predicts a doubling of average storage levels by 2050, slightly raising average prices to cover higher storage losses, but at the same significantly reducing price variability compared to a storage rule that is optimal under past yield distributions. Storage market responses to future yield variability greatly mitigate potential welfare losses of greater production volatility. |
| Date: | 2015–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hai:wpaper:201512&r=all |
| By: | Patricia S. Mesquita (IPC-IG); Marcel Bursztyn (IPC-IG) |
| Abstract: | Besides tackling socio-economic vulnerabilities, social protection interventions can be an important tool in the field of climate change adaptation (Davies et al., 2008). Social protection programmes foster adaptive capacities through improvements in socio-economic variables (e.g. education, health etc.) but, on the other hand, can also be disrupted by climate change and variability. Nonetheless, not much attention has been paid to the impacts of climate or other environmental issues on the implementation and functioning of these strategies. Specifically for regions that are characterised by significant climatic variability (e.g. semi-arid regions), current shocks can serve as lessons for better planning and implementation of social protection programmes in the face of climate change.(…) |
| Keywords: | Impacts, Climate Variability, Food Acquisition Programmes, Brazilian Semi-arid Region |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:opager:282&r=all |
| By: | Bernold, Elizabeth; Ancev, Tiho; Baltaduonis, Rimvydas |
| Abstract: | Incentive-based policies, such as emissions taxes and emissions permit trading schemes, are increasingly used to regulate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in many jurisdictions around the world. Taxes impose a fixed price on emissions, whereas under tradable permit schemes prices emerge in the secondary permit market. The delayed price discovery under tradable permit schemes creates uncertainty about the future cost of compliance that liable emitters will face. To mitigate this uncertainty, some jurisdictions, including Australia, have designed policies to regulate GHG emissions that commence with an emissions tax that is in force for several years, subsequently transforming into a tradable permit scheme. This paper examines the effects that this type of staged transition – from no regulation to a regulation by an emissions tax, to a regulation by tradable permits – has on several criteria of interest: abatement investment, quantity of emissions, permit prices and overall regulation efficiency. The effects of the regulation that employs an intertemporal mix of policy instruments are compared to the effects observable under regulation using single policy instrument: a tax only, and a tradable permit only regulation. Economics experiments in a laboratory were used to study economic behavior under these three types of regulation. The findings suggest that a regulation based on a staged transition from a tax to a tradable permit scheme results in more socially desirable outcomes on a range of criteria when compared to a regulation based solely on tradable permits. |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:syd:wpaper:2015-17&r=all |
| By: | Matias Piaggio (Instituto de Economia, Universidad de la Republica, Montevideo); Emilio Padilla (Department of Applied Economics, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona); Carolina Roman (Environment for Development, Centro Agronomico Tropical de Investigacion y Educación, Turrialba) |
| Abstract: | The long-run relationship between carbon dioxide emissions from energy use and economic activity level is estimated for Uruguay between 1882 and 2010. We apply cointegration techniques and estimate a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) for testing whether these variables are endogenous over the long-rung while also considering the short-run dynamics. The economic productive structure, the degree of openness, and the share of clean sources on total energy supply are also considered as explanatory variables. The results show that there exists a linear relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and per capita economic activity level. Moreover, emissions increase jointly with the industrial sector participation in total output, as a consequence of the intensity of this activity in the consumption of energy from fossil fuels sources. The degree of openness is inversely related with carbon dioxide emissions. This is so because the periods of major opening were based on primary inputs exports, lower in energy intensity than industrial products. The changes in carbon dioxide emission are inversely related to the variation in the share of clean sources on total energy supply. Finally, all the variables included in the cointegration vector are endogenous, adjusting together to the deviations from the long-run relationship. As a consequence of the above, economic growth appears to be not enough for diminishing Uruguayan emissions in the long-run. Changes in the energy matrix should be encouraged, and emissions reduction should come not by energy constraints but by the development of clean sources or energy use efficiency improvements, given the impact of energy on economic activity level. |
| JEL: | Q43 C32 Q56 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uab:wprdea:wpdea1506&r=all |
| By: | George Marbuah (Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences); Ing-Marie Gren (Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses the issue of whether or not social capital explains per capita CO2 emissions dynamics in Swedish counties in an augmented environmental Kuznets curve framework. By accounting for issues of endogeneity in the presence of dynamic and spatial effects using geo-referenced emissions data, we show that per capita carbon emissions in a county matters for other counties and that net of economic, demographic and environmental factors, social capital has the potential to reduce carbon emissions in Sweden albeit less robustly. We test two different social capital constructs; trust in government and environmental engagement. Specifically, trust in the government inures to the reduction in CO2 emissions. Membership and engagement in environmental organisations reduces CO2 emissions only through its interaction with per capita income or trust. The implication of our estimates suggest that investment geared toward increasing the stock of social capital could inure to re ductions in CO2 emissions in addition to climate policy instruments in Sweden. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Kuznets curve, Social capital, CO2 emissions, Spatial panel analysis, Sweden |
| JEL: | C23 Q53 Q56 Z13 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fae:wpaper:2015.14&r=all |
| By: | Zhu Liu; Dabo Guan; Wei Wei; Steven J. Davis; Philippe Ciais; Jin Bai; Shushi Peng; Qiang Zhang; Klaus Hubacek; Gregg Marland; Robert J. Andres; Douglas Crawford-Brown; Jintai Lin; Hongyan Zhao; Chaopeng Hong; Thomas A. Boden; Kuishuang Feng; Glen P. Peters; Fengming Xi; Junguo Liu; Yuan Li; Yu Zhao; Ning Zeng; Kebin He |
| Abstract: | Nearly three-quarters of the growth in global carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and cement production between 2010 and 2012 occurred in China1, 2. Yet estimates of Chinese emissions remain subject to large uncertainty; inventories of China?s total fossil fuel carbon emissions in 2008 differ by 0.3 gigatonnes of carbon, or 15 per cent1, 3, 4,5. The primary sources of this uncertainty are conflicting estimates of energy consumption and emission factors, the latter being uncertain because of very few actual measurements representative of the mix of Chinese fuels. Here we re-evaluate China?s carbon emissions using updated and harmonized energy consumption and clinker production data and two new and comprehensive sets of measured emission factors for Chinese coal. We find that total energy consumption in China was 10 per cent higher in 2000?2012 than the value reported by China?s national statistics6, that emission factors for Chinese coal are on average 40 per cent lower than the default values recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change7, and that emissions from China?s cement production are 45 per cent less than recent estimates1, 4. Altogether, our revised estimate of China?s CO2emissions from fossil fuel combustion and cement production is 2.49 gigatonnes of carbon (2 standard deviations = ±7.3 per cent) in 2013, which is 14 per cent lower than the emissions reported by other prominent inventories1, 4, 8. Over the full period 2000 to 2013, our revised estimates are 2.9 gigatonnes of carbon less than previous estimates of China?s cumulative carbon emissions1, 4. Our findings suggest that overestimation of China?s emissions in 2000?2013 may be larger than China?s estimated total forest sink in 1990?2007 (2.66 gigatonnes of carbon)9 or China?s land carbon sink in 2000?2009 (2.6 gigatonnes of carbon)10. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qsh:wpaper:317656&r=all |
| By: | José M. Belbute (Department of Economics, University of Évora, Portugal); Alfredo Marvão Pereira (Department of Economics, The College of William and Mary) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we use an ARFIMA approach to measure the degree of fractional integration of aggregate world CO2 emissions and its five components - coal, oil, gas, cement, and gas flaring. We find that all variables are stationary and mean reverting, but exhibit long-term memory. With aggregate CO2 emissions as a reference, our results suggest that both coal and oil combustion emissions have the weakest degree of long-range dependence, while emissions from gas, and gas flaring have the strongest. With evidence of long memory, we conclude that transitory policy shocks are likely to have long-lasting effects. Although the effects of any active policy on CO2 emissions take longer to disappear, they preserve their temporary nature. Accordingly, permanent effects on CO2 emissions require a more permanent policy stance. In this context, if one were to rely only on testing for stationarity and non-stationarity, one would likely conclude in favor of non-stationarity, and therefore that even transitory policy shocks have permanent effects. Our fractional integration analysis highlights that this is not the case. |
| Keywords: | CO2 emissions, Long memory, ARFIMA model |
| JEL: | C22 O13 Q41 |
| Date: | 2015–08–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwm:wpaper:165&r=all |
| By: | Victor Court; Pierre-André Jouvet; Frédéric Lantz |
| Abstract: | Due to their initial lack of emphasis on energy and natural resources, exogenous and endogenous growth models have suffered the same critic regarding the limits to economic growth imposed by finite Earth resources. Thus, various optimal control models that incorporate energy or natural resources have been developed during the last decades. However, in all these models the importance of the Energy Return On Energy Investment (EROI) has never been raised. The EROI is the ratio of the quantity of energy delivered by a given process to the quantity of energy consumed in this same process. Hence, the EROI is a measure of the accessibility of a resource, meaning that the higher the EROI the greater the amount of net energy delivered to society in order to support economic growth. The present article build a bridge upon the vacuum lying between the different literatures related to endogenous economic growth, the EROI and the necessary transition from nonrenewable to renewable energy. We provide an endogenous economic growth model subject to the physical limits of the real world (i.e. fossil and renewable energy production costs have functional forms that respect physical constraints). The model is able to reproduce (based on world data) an increasing reliance on fossil fuels from an early renewable era and the subsequent inevitable transition towards complete renewable energy that human will have to deal with in a not-too-far future. Through simulation we define the conditions for having a smooth transition from fossil to renewable energy and we study in which circumstances this transition can have negative impacts on economic growth (peak followed by a degrowth phase). In such cases, the implementation of a carbon tax can partially smooth this unfortunate dynamics depending on the ways of use of the carbon tax income. |
| Keywords: | Endogenous economic growth, net energy, EROI, energy transition. |
| JEL: | C6 O4 Q3 Q4 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cec:wpaper:1507&r=all |
| By: | Ezequiel Cabezon; Leni Hunter; Patrizia Tumbarello; Kazuaki Washimi; Yiqun Wu |
| Abstract: | Natural disasters and climate change are interrelated macro-critical issues affecting all Pacific small states to varying degrees. In addition to their devastating human costs, these events damage growth prospects and worsen countries’ fiscal positions. This is the first cross-country IMF study assessing the impact of natural disasters on growth in the Pacific islands as a group. A panel VAR analysis suggests that, for damage and losses equivalent to 1 percent of GDP, growth drops by 0.7 percentage point in the year of the disaster. We also find that, during 1980-2014, trend growth was 0.7 percentage point lower than it would have been without natural disasters. The paper also discusses a multi-pillar framework to enhance resilience to natural disasters at the national, regional, and multilateral levels and the importance of enhancing countries’ risk-management capacities. It highlights how this approach can provide a more strategic and less ad hoc framework for strengthening both ex ante and ex post resilience and what role the IMF can play. |
| Keywords: | Emergency assistance;Cross country analysis;Climatic changes;Disaster aid;Fund role;Pacific Island Countries;Pacific Islands;Risk management;Small states;natural disasters, climate change, panel VAR, disaster risk management, disasters, disaster, natural disaster, damage, Environment and Growth, International Monetary Arrangements and Institutions, |
| Date: | 2015–06–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:15/125&r=all |
| By: | Michael Brock (University of East Anglia) |
| Abstract: | This study elicits the values associated with deer-culling and forest management in the UK using choice experiments. Whilst intentions- based choice theories provide improved predictions relative to standard economic models, these still fail to fully capture people's true decision-making. These results suggest an importance to appreciating procedure, consequence and ethics in order to derive realistic conjectures over our preferences for actions which involve moral or 'sacred' values. This work also emphasises the necessity to consider context-specifics when investigating ethically contentious topics. Under an environmental setting, we explore how 'nature connectivity' (or engagement with the natural world) may influence how easily we can achieve sustainable ecological or economic objectives. |
| Keywords: | intentions, doctrine of double effect, choice experiment, nature connectivity, local wildlife valuation |
| JEL: | Q26 Q57 H42 C35 D63 D71 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uea:wcbess:15-06&r=all |
| By: | David Coady; Ian W.H. Parry; Louis Sears; Baoping Shang |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a comprehensive, updated picture of energy subsidies at the global and regional levels. It focuses on the broad notion of post-tax energy subsidies, which arise when consumer prices are below supply costs plus a tax to reflect environmental damage and an additional tax applied to all consumption goods to raise government revenues. Post-tax energy subsidies are dramatically higher than previously estimated, and are projected to remain high. These subsidies primarily reflect under-pricing from a domestic (rather than global) perspective, so even unilateral price reform is in countries’ own interests. The potential fiscal, environmental and welfare impacts of energy subsidy reform are substantial. |
| Keywords: | Environment;energy subsidies, efficient taxation, deadweight loss, revenue, subsidies, tax, vehicle, traffic, subsidy, Demand and Supply, Government Policy, |
| Date: | 2015–05–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:15/105&r=all |
| By: | Kenneth Baldwin; Bruce Chapman; Umbu Raya |
| Abstract: | Rooftop solar systems have two major benefits: a reduction of carbon emissions (a public good) and future energy bill savings for consumers. However, the availability of solar energy systems to low-income households is constrained by access to finance for the initial investment cost, an issue which could potentially be addressed with the use of income contingent loans (ICLs). By applying unconditional quantile econometric methods to HILDA income data we illustrate that for a $10,000 loan for home owners ICLs can be used with little or no cost to government to help finance the next one million solar energy devices. |
| Keywords: | income contingent loans, solar energy |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:acb:cbeeco:2015-627&r=all |
| By: | Kaliappa KALIRAJAN (Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University, Australia); Kazi Arif Uz ZAMAN (Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University, Australia); Gaminiratne WIJESEKERE (Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University, Australia) |
| Abstract: | The ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Blueprint adopted in 2009 incorporated ‘Ensuring Environmental Sustainability’ as one of its six broader characteristics. A midterm review (MTR) was carried out to evaluate the progress and effectiveness of the implementation activities both at the national level and for ASEAN as a whole. In this context, the objective of this study is to analyse the performance of natural resources management (NRM), which is crucial in ensuring environmental sustainability, of each ASEAN member country based on the MTR. Drawing on the review, an analytical framework is proposed to measure the performance of NRM with appropriate adjustments, relevant modifications, directions for the future, and corresponding way forward, whilst exploring opportunities for member countries and other countries in the Asian region. Some guidelines on time-bound short- and long-run action plans are suggested. A particular attention in this study is paid to developing some standardised concrete indicators or benchmarks that may be used for measuring the NRM activities within a common framework for all ASEAN countries. |
| Keywords: | : Natural resources management, ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community, Environmental sustainability, bottom-up approach, Sustainable consumption and production |
| JEL: | O13 Q01 Q28 Q5 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:era:wpaper:dp-2015-59&r=all |
| By: | Franco, Daniele; Luiselli, Luca |
| Abstract: | The estimation of wetlands’ non-use values to build up a total economic evaluation can be based on stated preference methods, which derives from the standard economic model that assumes a rational assessment of the consequence of preferences on personal utility. The paper describes the citizens’ shared ecological knowledge (SEK) of wetlands functions. It descibes SEK nature, SEK relation with the official knowledge, the relation between the motivations outlined by SEK and those expected by the standard economic model. The results demonstrate that economic preferences are driven by multiple motivations well rooted in the SEK’s social nature, and not by simply consequential motivations. In this case study, social knowledge of wetlands' ecological functions is proportionally related to people's living proximity to those wetlands. Unexpectedly, SEK of historically well-known and critically important services like hydraulic and hydrologic services has also been diminishing. Furthermore, there is a partial or clear-cut separation between official knowledge and SEK on crucial aspects like wetlands’ climate change role. This approach helps to construct a motivational framework to derive values that are useful as long as they allow accounting for a complex socio-cultural capital in the public decision making process. |
| Keywords: | Wetlands; ecosystem services; ecological functions; public goods; multiple motivation analyses; environmental awareness; perceived utility |
| JEL: | Q5 Q57 Z1 Z13 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:66496&r=all |
| By: | Béatrice Allirol (CRET-LOG - Centre de Recherche sur le Transport et la Logistique - Université de la Méditerranée - Aix-Marseille 2 - AMU - Aix-Marseille Université); Pascal Dumontier (CNRS, IAE Grenoble - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises - Grenoble - Grenoble 2 UPMF - Université Pierre Mendès France, CERAG - Centre d'études et de recherches appliquées à la gestion - Grenoble 2 UPMF - Université Pierre Mendès France - CNRS) |
| Abstract: | GRI offers an international reference to firm’s stakeholders interested in social and environmental disclosures. However these disclosures target first and foremost investors, especially for listed firms. The environmental disclosure scores of 120 randomly selected European companies help us determine how their disclosures capture environmental information useful to all stakeholders (GRI scores) or to investors only (EFFAS scores). Our results show that GRI scores are to a large extent driven by the firm’s exposure to environmental risks. In contrast, EFFAS scores are driven by shareholding dispersion and, therefore, pressures exerted by investors. This suggests that environmental disclosures respond to a logic of environmental legitimacy when investors’ pressure is weak. Otherwise they aim to satisfy investors’ expectations. |
| Abstract: | Référence internationale en matière de reporting extra financier le GRI s’adresse à tous les partenaires de l’entreprise. Les investisseurs sont toutefois les destinataires privilégiés du reporting environnemental, surtout si l’entreprise est cotée. Les scores de divulgation environnementale de 120 entreprises européennes nous permettent de déterminer comment les entreprises cotées répondent aux prescriptions du GRI qui reflètent les attentes de l’ensemble des parties prenantes de l’entreprise et à celles de l’EFFAS qui reflètent les attentes des seuls investisseurs. Nos résultats montrent que les déterminants des scores de divulgation GRI différent des déterminants des scores EFFAS au sens où seuls les scores GRI sont sensibles à l’exposition environnementale de l’entreprise. Les scores EFFAS dépendent quant à eux de la pression des investisseurs. Il apparaît donc que les divulgations environnementales répondent à une logique de légitimité environnementale lorsque la pression des investisseurs est faible. Elles visent prioritairement à satisfaire les investisseurs dans le cas contraire. |
| Date: | 2015–05–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01188541&r=all |
| By: | ISHIKAWA Tomoko |
| Abstract: | The upsurge of investment treaties and cases of investment arbitration demonstrates the dramatic growth of foreign investment laws in the past few decades. Also, due to the ongoing negotiation of the "mega" free trade agreements, this field of law has received an increasing amount of recognition. This recognition, however, is accompanied by a growing concern over whether investment arbitration has reduced the scope for state regulation. A major source of concern is the lack of consistency between arbitral tribunals in balancing investment protection against the public interests of host states. Against this background, this paper addresses the question of how to properly balance the interests of foreign investors against environmental concerns, focusing on the remedy phase of legal disputes. It is argued that there are cases where, even if the host state is found to have breached investment protection obligations, the awarding of full compensation is inappropriate, and this applies to those that involve difficult balancing between public interest such as environmental protection, and the protection of foreign investment. Based on these considerations, this paper proposes that the precautionary principle and the polluter pays principle—widely accepted international environmental principles—may provide other grounds for awarding partial compensation. |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:15107&r=all |
| By: | Singh, K.M.; Shahi, Brajesh |
| Abstract: | Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) is the technology which is water, labour and energy efficient along with eco-friendly characteristics. Flooded rice is a major source of methane emission, while the use of nitrogen fertilizers produces nitrous oxide; both are greenhouse gases linked to global warming. The dominant method of rice establishment is transplanting in the rice-wheat growing areas of the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP). However, rising labour costs for establishing a nursery, puddling fields, and transplanting have increased costs for transplanting in the region. Direct seeding of rice was a common practice before green revolution in India and is becoming popular once again because of its potential to save water and labour. However, high weed infestation is the major bottleneck in DSR, especially in dry field conditions and, availability of several nutrients including N, P, S and micronutrients such as Zn and Fe, is likely to be a constraint. Extension activities can play very important role in popularisation of DSR, which includes training, demonstration of DSR in farmer’s field, on farm trial related to various potential problems faced by farmers and exposure visit of farmers to field. Coordination is also required within the different disciplines/specializations, between institutions and departments as well as functional areas like research, extension and training along with people’s participation and new thrust on participatory research and development to bring farmers in the framework of interactions at all levels. With the increase in prices of inputs and low rice prices, rice production does not provide farmers with high income. Rice food security needs clear national policy that allows right investment in all phases of rice development. There must be right policies on input availability, output marketing and prices. The following paper tries to look into the issues affecting DSR adoption and suggests extension strategies to popularise it. |
| Keywords: | Direct seeded rice, Extension strategies, Climate change |
| JEL: | Q16 Q20 Q56 |
| Date: | 2015–09–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:66486&r=all |
| By: | Alexis Ngantchou (Département de Finance et Comptabilité-FSEGA - Université de Douala) |
| Abstract: | The current question of the sustainable development is on the base of numerous problems which invite most of the fields of knowledge to reconsider as well their object of study as their philosophic foundation. Because he is just like the society an image of which he owes paradoxically of (re) produce, accounting is particularly concerned by this question. Because, of its capacity to inform in a context marked at the same time by the complexity of the facts to be treated, and by a diversity of expectations and parties to be satisfied, will depend at least partially, his legitimacy in the future. This communication underlines the tendency of reporting of commitment to employees and environmental to inform by statistical indicators and sometimes in a narrative way, so reporting without the accounts. The difficulty passing statistical indicators in a monetary evaluation, the rigidity of certain conventions and the basic premises of the traditional accounting model, are identified as being able to explain this difference between the social and environmental reporting, and the reporting of social and environmental accounting. The necessity of widening certain conventions and especially, the necessity of "re-basing" the company are suggested as essential milestones of an update of the traditional accounting model. |
| Abstract: | La question actuelle du développement durable est à la base de nombreuses problématiques qui invitent la plupart des champs de connaissances à reconsidérer aussi bien leur objet d'étude que leur fondement philosophique. Parce qu'elle est à l'image de la société dont elle se doit paradoxalement de (re)produire une image, la comptabilité est particulièrement concernée par cette question. Car, de sa capacité à informer dans un contexte marqué à la fois par la complexité des faits à traiter et par une grande diversité des attentes et des parties à satisfaire, dépendra au moins en partie sa légitimité dans l'avenir. Cette communication souligne la tendance marquée des reporting d'engagement social et environnemental à informer par des indicateurs statistiques et parfois de façon narrative, rendant ainsi compte sans les comptes. La difficulté à passer des indicateurs statistiques à une évaluation monétaire, la rigidité de certaines conventions et des postulats de base du modèle comptable traditionnel, sont identifiées comme pouvant expliquer cette différence entre le reporting d'engagement social et environnemental, et le reporting de comptabilité sociale et environnementale. La nécessité d'élargir certaines conventions et surtout, la nécessité de « refonder » l'entreprise sont suggérées comme jalons essentiels d'une mise à jour du modèle comptable traditionnel. |
| Date: | 2015–05–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01188842&r=all |
| By: | Mohammed H. Alemu (Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen); Søren B. Olsen (Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen); Suzanne E. Vedel (Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen); Kennedy O. Pambo (Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology); Victor O. Owino (International Atomic Energy Agency) |
| Abstract: | Edible insects are receiving substantial attention because of their potential as a significant future food source of high nutritional value and with important environmental benefits. As a result, there is a focus on the supply side to establish and optimize the insect production sector and develop the value chain. However, as the ultimate success of a product development depends on consumers' product judgement and acceptance, acquiring information about potential demand is of paramount importance for policy advice. In this paper, we aim to give a first insight into the potential demand for termite-based food products (TBFPs) in Kenya. We assess the demand in terms of consumer preferences and willingness to pay using a stated choice experiment method. A novel feature of this paper is that it focuses on how the termites should be presented and introduced, either as whole or processed, in a typical daily meal in order to increase consumer acceptance. Results from the latent class model reveal that consumers prefer and are willing to pay more for TBFPs with high nutritional value and when they are recommended by officials. In addition, results show that high to a very high food safety control levels of the TBFPs are valued positively by most consumers. |
| Keywords: | Stated Choice Experiment; Edible insects; Latent class model; Termite-based food products; WTP |
| JEL: | D12 Q11 Q13 Q18 Q54 Q56 |
| Date: | 2015–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:foi:wpaper:2015_10&r=all |
| By: | Paul Cashin; Kamiar Mohaddes; Mehdi Raissi |
| Abstract: | This paper employs a dynamic multi-country framework to analyze the international macroeconomic transmission of El Niño weather shocks. This framework comprises 21 country/region-specific models, estimated over the period 1979Q2 to 2013Q1, and accounts for not only direct exposures of countries to El Niño shocks but also indirect effects through thirdmarkets. We contribute to the climate-macroeconomy literature by exploiting exogenous variation in El Niño weather events over time, and their impact on different regions crosssectionally, to causatively identify the effects of El Niño shocks on growth, inflation, energy and non-fuel commodity prices. The results show that there are considerable heterogeneities in the responses of different countries to El Niño shocks. While Australia, Chile, Indonesia, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa face a short-lived fall in economic activity in response to an El Niño shock, for other countries (including the United States and European region), an El Niño occurrence has a growth-enhancing effect. Furthermore, most countries in our sample experience short-run inflationary pressures as both energy and non-fuel commodity prices increase. Given these findings, macroeconomic policy formulation should take into consideration the likelihood and effects of El Niño weather episodes. |
| Date: | 2015–04–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:15/89&r=all |
| By: | Van Hecken, Gert; Bastiaensen, Johan; Windey, Catherine |
| Abstract: | This paper offers a review and analysis of the key issues and different perspectives in the Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) debate. We discuss how the current debate has to a certain degree moved beyond ‘neoliberal’ vs. ‘non-neoliberal’ discussions, instead recognizing the variegated ways in which this policy tool plays out in the field. We argue, however, that despite this progress PES research remains weakly theorized in social and political terms, resulting in only superficial understanding of the role of culture, agency, social diversity and power relations in the shaping of PES institutions and their outcomes. Building on insights from other fields and disciplines in the social sciences –in particular critical institutionalism, social anthropology and political ecology-, we subject some of the common assumptions underlying mainstream and alternative conceptualizations of PES and identify the main issues that, we believe, deserve more attention in future research. More specifically, we explore three key challenges in current PES research related to the tendency (1) to assume that institutions can be designed in order to make them ‘fit’ specific human-nature problems; (2) to oversimplify culture and social diversity through the apolitical concept of ‘social capital’; and (3)to conceptualize human agency, collective action, and institutional change through either overly-rational or overlystructuralist models. We argue that an expanded actor-oriented, socially-informed and powersensitive conceptualization of PES can help generate novel insights in the power geographies underlying institutional logics, and thus the complex ways in which PES policies are shaped and experienced in the field. |
| Keywords: | Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES); neoliberal conservation; power; critical institutionalism; institutional bricolage; agency; environmental governance |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iob:dpaper:2015005&r=all |
| By: | Soliman, Ibrahim |
| Abstract: | Sustainable agricultural development seeks not only to preserve and maintain natural resources, but also to develop them, as future generations would have much more demand quantity-wise and quality-wise for agricultural and food products. Such goals should ensure a balance with the development of livelihoods enjoyed by the individuals concerned. Livelihood should not be restricted to an indicator of sufficient income levels but should also include public health concerns and education standards. The objective of this study was therefore to diagnose the challenges facing sustainable agricultural development in Egypt. The analysis examined six dimensions: trade trends with an emphasis on agricultural trade; rural poverty indicators and causes; degradation of agricultural resources (soil and irrigation water); agricultural labor employment in relation to migration and the technological packages adopted; public health criteria; and education indicators. The final section was allocated for a profile of the strategy towards rural development. The deficit in the trade balance showed an increase due to the deterioration of Egyptian exports in the world market, in particular the EU, due to the impacts of non-tariff barriers. Inequalities and rural poverty showed the extent of the unequal distribution of agricultural resources. They also demonstrated whether or not income generated from agriculture was capable of alleviating poverty in small-scale farming households and whether or not poverty in rural Egypt runs deeper than in urban areas. The appraisal of the degradation in natural resources focused on agricultural land and irrigation water. Whereas the agricultural land resources analysis concerned social and economic attitudes as well as the deterioration in soil fertility and quality, the analysis dealt with the types of quantitative and qualitative waste in irrigation water resources. Worrying demographic issues were examined via migration trends and unemployment indicators as well as through the labor force and employment by sector. Public health indicators showed that the imbalance between access to piped water and the sanitation network in rural regions was the worst of all Egyptian regions. While piped water reached 97 % of rural households, only one-third of them have access to the sanitation network and only 13 % of rural households in Upper Egypt had access to sanitation in 2008. The public health indicators recorded 30 beds and 13 doctors for every 10,000 citizens in major cities, there were fewer than 20 beds and 2 doctors per 10,000 citizens in rural towns. Surprisingly, there is a higher ratio of nurses to doctors in rural regions than in urban regions in Egypt. This implies a lack of doctors in rural regions and the preference of rural women to work as nurses in the vicinity of their home villages for social reasons, in particular the fact that other employment opportunities in rural areas for women are rare. Literacy rate estimates would appear to show that the lowest literacy rate is in rural Upper Egypt at about 57 % and that the highest rate is in urban Lower Egypt at around 79 %. The literacy gap between rural and urban areas in Egypt nevertheless fell from 45 % in 1995 to less than 21 % in 2010. The study was concluded with the definition of a profile for a strategy aimed at rural development in Egypt including a proposed program to alleviate poverty. |
| Keywords: | Egypt, Development Economics, Supply Chain Management, sustainable agricultural development |
| JEL: | O13 Q14 Q18 |
| Date: | 2015–06–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:66443&r=all |
| By: | Ariane Cassoli Alvarenga (IPC-IG); Ana Rosa Soares (IPC-IG); Lívia Maria da Costa Nogueira (IPC-IG) |
| Abstract: | From 27 April to 22 May 2015 the National Evaluation Capacities (NEC) Community of Practice (COP), with support from the UNDP International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) and the UNDP Independent Evaluation Office (IEO), promoted an online discussion3 linked to the upcoming NEC conference in Bangkok, on How the 2015 NEC Conference in Bangkok: Blending Evaluation Principles with Development Practices can enhance national evaluation capacities and help to develop and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The following is a series of key ideas shared by participants. (…) |
| Keywords: | NEC, Conference, Bangkok, National Evaluation Capacities, Sustainable Development Goals |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:opager:299&r=all |
| By: | Patricia S. Mesquita (IPC-IG); Marcel Bursztyn (IPC-IG) |
| Abstract: | Principalement utilisés dans la lutte contre la vulnérabilité socio-économique, les programmes de protection sociale peuvent également constituer un précieux outil dadaptation au changement climatique (Davies et al., 2008). Si ces programmes promeuvent la capacité dadaptation par le biais de lamélioration des variables socio-économiques (telles que léducation, la santé, etc.), ils peuvent toutefois se trouver affectés par le changement climatique et la variation du climat. On ne prête pourtant guère attention à limpact du climat et dautres phénomènes environnementaux sur la mise en Å“uvre et le fonctionnement de ces stratégies, alors quil serait possible de tirer des leçons des chocs actuels en vue daméliorer la planification et la mise en Å“uvre des programmes de protection sociale face au changement climatique, en particulier dans les régions caractérisées par une forte variabilité climatique (comme par exemple les régions semi-arides). |
| Keywords: | impact, variabilité du climat, programmes d’acquisition d’aliments, leçons, région semi-aride brésilienne |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:opfran:282&r=all |
| By: | Sergei Suarez Dillon Soares (IPC-IG); Rafael Guerreiro Osório (IPC-IG) |
| Abstract: | "The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be seen as the latest incarnation of a movement that started with the launch of the first Human Development Report (HDR) in 1990. Long before the first HDR, many thinkers had already strongly argued that GDP size and growth should not be considered the sole yardstick of development. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the HDR and its companion, the Human Development Index (HDI), played a great role in mainstreaming the notion that development should result in better lives for people, something which GDP sheds little light upon. Although we surely cannot establish how much, it is fair to consider that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) benefited from the consensus, quickly formed in the international community, over the people-centric notion of human development." (...) |
| Keywords: | Sustainable Development Goals |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipc:opager:277&r=all |