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on Resource Economics |
| By: | Balboni, Clare; Shapiro, Joseph S |
| Abstract: | How do environmental goods and policies shape spatial patterns of economic activity? How will climate change modify these impacts over the coming decades? How do agglomeration, commuting, and other spatial forces and policies affect environmental quality? We distill theoretical and empirical research linking urban, regional, and spatial economics to the environment. We present stylized facts on spatial environmental economics, describe insights from canonical environmental models and spatial models, and discuss the building blocks for papers and the research frontier in enviro-spatial economics. Most enviro-spatial research remains bifurcated into either primarily environmental or spatial papers. Research is only beginning to realize potential insights from more closely combining spatial and environmental approaches. |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences |
| Date: | 2025–01–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:agrebk:qt15j5r23s |
| By: | Fahlén, Per (Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden); Henrekson, Magnus (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Nilsson, Mats (Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden) |
| Abstract: | We examine EU and UK plans for achieving a fossil-free energy system by 2050, centered on massive electrification and large-scale deployment of wind and solar power. Using empirical trends, cost analyses, and system-function assessments, we argue that current strategies underestimate real economic, technical, and social challenges. Three scenarios for meeting 2050 electricity demand are compared: full reliance on renewables; a 50/50 split between wind-solar and nuclear; predominantly nuclear. Evidence shows that higher shares of weather-dependent generation correlate with higher electricity prices, greater volatility, and increased system integration costs. High renewable shares require extensive backup, storage, and grid reinforcement, raising complexity and environmental impacts. Overlooked costs are highlighted: reduced capacity value, transmission expansion, balancing services, and social externalities. Sustainability must encompass environmental, economic, and social dimensions. A technologically diverse, dispatchable-power-based strategy—especially with expanded nuclear power— offers a more robust, cost-effective, and socially acceptable pathway to climate neutrality than a predominant reliance on intermittent renewables. |
| Keywords: | Climate change; Dispatchable electricity; Green transition; Mission-oriented policy; Renewable electricity; Rent seeking |
| JEL: | L26 L52 L70 O38 P11 Q48 Q58 |
| Date: | 2025–11–18 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1542 |
| By: | Azar, Christian; Johansson, Daniel; Pettersson, Susanne; Sterner, Thomas (Resources for the Future) |
| Abstract: | Aviation impacts the climate in several ways. In addition to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the combustion of jet fuel, there are also the climate impacts of nitrogen oxides, particles, water vapor, and condensation trails, or contrails, white cloudlike streaks sometimes visible in the sky. Out of the non-CO2 effects, contrails are the most important, and in terms of climate impacts, they are broadly comparable to the carbon dioxide emissions from aviation.How are contrails formed? How do they affect the climate? And what can be done to reduce them? In this paper, we try to answer these questions. |
| Date: | 2025–11–20 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:ibrief:ib-25-13 |