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on Resource Economics |
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Issue of 2023‒01‒30
five papers chosen by |
| By: | Christophe Bonneuil (CRH (UMR 8558 CNRS / EHESS) - Centre de Recherches Historiques (CRH) _ Unité Mixte de Recherches (UMR 8558 CNRS / EHESS) - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Pierre-Louis Choquet (CSO - Centre de sociologie des organisations (Sciences Po, CNRS) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Benjamin Franta (Stanford University) |
| Abstract: | Building upon recent work on other major fossil fuel companies, we report new archival research and primary source interviews describing how Total responded to evolving climate science and policy in the last 50 years. We show that Total personnel received warnings of the potential for catastrophic global warming from its products by 1971, became more fully informed of the issue in the 1980s, began promoting doubt regarding the scientific basis for global warming by the late 1980s, and ultimately settled on a position in the late 1990s of publicly accepting climate science while promoting policy delay or policies peripheral to fossil fuel control. Additionally, we find that Exxon, through the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA), coordinated an international campaign to dispute climate science and weaken international climate policy, beginning in the 1980s. This represents one of the first longitudinal studies of a major fossil fuel company's responses to global warming to the present, describing historical stages of awareness, preparation, denial, and delay. |
| Keywords: | Oil industry, Climate change, Global warming, Agnotology, Denial, Public relations |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:spmain:halshs-03390521&r=res |
| By: | Rainald Borck; Philipp Schrauth |
| Abstract: | We use worldwide satellite data to analyse how population size and density affect urban pollution. We find that density significantly increases pollution exposure. Looking only at urban areas, we find that population size affects exposure more than density. Moreover, the effect is driven mostly by population commuting to core cities rather than the core city population itself. We analyse heterogeneity by geography and income levels. By and large, the influence of population on pol-lution is greatest in Asia and middle-income countries. A counterfactual simulation shows that PM2.5 exposure would fall by up to 36% and NO2 exposure up to 53% if within countries population size were equalized across all cities. |
| Keywords: | population density, air pollution, gridded data |
| JEL: | Q53 R12 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10171&r=res |
| By: | Jonathon M. Becker (Department of Economics and Business, Colorado School of Mines); Jared C. Carbone (Department of Economics and Business, Colorado School of Mines); Andreas Loeschel (Ruhr University Bochum) |
| Abstract: | We explore the ability of unilateral climate policies to induce innovation and diffusion of technology and its impacts on carbon leakage. We consider both energy-saving and carbon-saving (end-of-pipe) technologies, such as carbon capture and storage (CCS). To do so, we combine a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of North-South trade with assumptions about R&D-based technological change to simulate counterfactual climate policies in the North. We model both a carbon tax and a carbon tariff levied on imports from South to North. Both policies drive an increase in R&D in carbon-saving technologies which comes primarily at the expense of investment in other sectors. Carbon-saving technology allows the North to meet its carbon reduction target without abating as much fossil fuel use, leaving demand and international prices for fossil fuels closer to pre-policy levels. Reduced R&D in energy and energy-intensive sectors raises the cost of production in these sectors. Both effects mitigate carbon leakage in the South. Technology diffusion to the South has a modest effect on leakage under the carbon tax. It leads to somewhat larger reductions in leakage when the cap is paired with carbon tariffs, as the tariffs provide an incentive for the South to adopt carbon-saving technologies developed in the North. |
| Keywords: | induced innovation, R&D, carbon leakage, carbon tariffs, carbon tax, carbon cap, technology diffusion, knowledge spillovers, computable general equilibrium |
| JEL: | C68 F10 O30 Q43 Q55 |
| Date: | 2022–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mns:wpaper:wp202204&r=res |
| By: | Burgess, Robin (Dept of Economics, LSE); Greenstone, Michael (Dept of Economics, University of Chicago); Ryan, Nicholas (Dept of Economics, Yale University); Sudarshan, Anant (Department of Economics, University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | Falling off-grid solar prices and an expanding grid are revolutionizing choices for nearly a billion people without electricity. Using experimental price variation, we estimate demand for all electricity sources in Bihar, India, during a four-year period when electrification leapt from 27% to 64%. We find that: (i) household surplus from electrification increased five-fold; (ii) both solar and the grid boost electrification but households gain more surplus from the grid; (iii) grid investments and subsidies strongly reduce demand for off-grid solar. When we extend the model to eight African countries where grid infrastructure is weaker and subsidies lower we find that off-grid solar often provides higher surplus than the grid. JEL Codes: O13 ; Q41 ; Q21 ; C93 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1445&r=res |
| By: | Yicong Lin (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Hanno Reuvers (Erasmus University Rotterdam) |
| Abstract: | The environmental Kuznets curve predicts an inverted U-shaped relationship between air pollution and economic growth. Current analyses frequently employ models that restrict nonlinearities in the data to be explained by economic growth only. We propose a Global Trend Augmented Cointegrating Polynomial Regression (GTACPR) to allow for nonlinearities in time and economic growth. The theoretical properties of the GTACPR are established. Empirically, a single global trend accurately captures all nonlinearities for all the countries studied, leading to a linear relationship between GDP and CO2. This suggests that the environmental improvement of the last years is due to factors different from GDP. |
| JEL: | C12 C13 C32 Q56 |
| Date: | 2022–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20220092&r=res |