1,720,996 research outputs found
Criticality assessment of green materials: institutional quality, market concentration and recycling potential
Full text linkThe carbon transition and digitalization transformation are tied to a set of critical raw materials (CRM). Energy accumulators, renewable energy modules, and electronic devices all contain a certain amount of these. The versatility and utility of such elements come together with the limited number of countries where their extraction and refining take place. As the demand for these materials is growing globally, main concerns arise regarding the security of the production chain. Several works highlighted the risks associated with these materials without presenting clear interaction between such factors. This article presents a study over the three aspects showed: market concentration, institutional quality, and circularity. The approach will contain the presentation of the main characteristics of recyclability and the institutional status of exporters. A synthetic index is derived and plotted against the potential of recycling per material. In such a manner, we can group minerals according to sourcing vulnerability: one is coming from material recovery and the other via imports. An indicator calculated with a Cartesian distance method provides the synthesis of security versus safety. According to our findings, Electrical Vehicles carry the highest vulnerability for their main components in circularity and human rights violations. Ending remarks highlighted the limitations of our research, where possible interest for future research may lay
Municipal Solid Waste generation dynamics. Breaks and thresholds analysis in the Italian context
No full textMunicipal solid waste prevention represents a topical point in circular economy policies within the European Union. It is therefore paramount to assess its state of decoupling from economic activity. There is weak evidence from empirical research that Italy managed to achieve this structural change locally. Decoupling is not arising homogenously in the waste generation-income relationship in Italy over the last two decades. The heterogeneity in economic performances and waste policies could be an explanation. However, it is possible to find common patterns between decoupler against non-decoupler provinces. This paper involves panel data of 103 provinces during eighteen years (2001–2018) of Italian Provinces (NUTS3) to assess the drivers of structural changes in the income-waste relation. The innovation consists of the use of a threshold model to assess the minimal requirements of socio-economic performances to decouple economic activity to non-separated waste. The threshold point differs from the tipping point as it is always observable in the panel. Previous studies mostly estimated the latter involving panel data analysis. This often resulted in fallacious interpretation, especially due to spurious regressions. The observability is a relevant criterion, as several provinces have achieved the decoupling state. Results indicate that economic activity and tourist are relevant threshold variables in waste prevention. Both are sources of local financing; thus, it is probable that circular practices are dependent on the volume of potential expenditure rather than structural characteristics such as population density
Searching for a Carbon Laffer Curve: Estimates from the European Union Emissions Trading System
No full textCarbon prices have grown remarkably in the European Union (EU) Emissions Trading System (ETS) in recent years, raising distributional concerns. Revenues are expected to grow with higher carbon prices, thus providing resources to address distributional issues. Beyond a certain point, however, higher prices can discourage the purchase of allowances and ultimately reduce revenues, describing a Carbon Laffer Curve (CLC). We empirically investigate the CLC in the EU ETS between 2012 and 2021 using auction revenues at the country level. Results indicate that ETS revenues follow an inverted-U relationship in both the volume and the price of auctioned allowances, with an estimated optimal price between 86 and 125 euros
A selection bias approach in the circular economy context: The case of organic municipal solid waste in Italy
No full textOrganic waste is often indicative of the amount of food waste, and it primarily reflects the consumption habits of households. As underlined by the applicable principles of the Circular Economy (CE), prevention is always the first choice when dealing with waste but evaluating the prevention framework without considering the application of waste separation policies appears to be a complex task. Considering Italian municipal waste management, the implementation of separation policies has been delayed in several provinces. It is difficult to assess the effectiveness of prevention policies established by international and national authorities in this context. The lack of organic waste separation is registered as a missing value in datasets: such instances are often non-random. The research objective of this work is to assess whether economic activity affects organic waste generation and, once the selection bias has been investigated, try to assess the overall implications. Initial findings corroborate the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis under biased and unbiased estimations. The tipping point is relatively lower when the inverse Mills Ratio is considered, which is positive. Hence, an increase of the expected economic activity requirement could result in a cost that municipalities incur when delaying the enforcement of separation policies. The missing information undermines the potential feedback from practitioners and other stakeholders capable of steering expectations: the unobserved flows have to reach a certain level before being collected
Financial markets implications of the energy transition : carbon content of energy use in listed companies
Full text linkPublished online: 22 January 2024Decarbonization is often misunderstood in financial studies. Furthermore, its implications for investment opportunities and growth are even less known. The study investigates the link between energy indicators and Tobin’s Quotient (TQ) in listed companies globally, finding that the carbon content of energy presents a negative yet modest effect on financial performance. Furthermore, we investigated the effect carbon prices in compliance markets have on TQ for exempted and non-exempt firms, finding that Energy efficiency measures yield greater effects in the latter group. Conversely, it is also true that carbon prices marginally reduce TQ more in non-exempt firms. This implies that auction mechanisms create burdens that companies are eager to relinquish by reducing emissions. However, reducing GHG yields positive effects on TQ only as long as it results in energy efficiency improvements
Italian urban tourism predictions using the holiday Climate Index
No full textThe tourism sector is a source of sustenance for local communities, a driver of fiscal revenues and a way to connect local sites to international guests. Its dependence on climate change exposes it to chronic risks such as slowly varying climate patterns. In this paper, we predicted tourism intensity (as the number of beds per square kilometres) according to three Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) at the municipal level in Italy: 2.6, 4.5 and 8.5. We first estimated a statistical model of tourism intensity using the Holiday Climate Index (HCI) and other drivers. Then, we used the prediction of beds per Km2 to infer changes between 2004 and 2050 according to each RCP scenario of the HCI. We find complex heterogeneous patterns in exposure and a moderate positive effect in the RCP2.6 scenario. However, delayed (RCP4.5) or no climate policy at all (RCP8.5) scenarios present dire consequences for the tourism sector
Material governance and circularity policies: How waste policies and innovation affect household appliances' accumulation
No full textThis paper investigates the macro-economic drivers of accumulation and recycling of material capital from in-use Stock of a class of durable goods: Electrical and Electronic Equipment. This category is relevant for the European policy's objectives for its content of critical raw materials and its relevance in the Digital Agenda. A theoretical model and empirical estimations over a EU27 + UK national panel are developed to understand the optimal dynamic of accumulation, innovation, and recycling. The former is growth models supporting a theory of stock accumulation and stock diversity. This framework is used to delineate possible biases of the empirical analysis, which is made throughout a panel data model estimation. The panel uses weight per capita and Shannon concentration index as target variables to address the Environmental Kuznets Curve. Dummies proxied the Waste Packages of 2008 and 2012 to control for breaks. The results show the high significance of the panel data model within each Stratum of EU states. Waste policies are strongly correlated to increasing EEE material accumulation rather than a reduction ceteris paribus. Socio-economic variables are generally significant, with evidence of economic activity decoupling EEE stock. Lastly, the increase in average durability is positively correlated to material accumulation
Estimating total potential material recovery from EEE in EU28
No full textIn this paper we explored the recycling potential across EU28 of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE). This category embodies the commodities that require electricity in order to function. Per capita rate of EEE varies from less than 150 Kg to more than 2 tons in 2018. Economic intensity of this stock is overall decreasing and it is currently near to zero. EEE are composed by a wide range of materials, comprehending valuables ones as gold and rare ones as antimony. We calculated the potential recovery rate of 16 materials from this category. Using inflow-driven analysis, we estimated the potential value for both in-use stock and waste flows. We defined this rate artificial ore grade (AOG), given recycling as mining of the anthroposphere. Using the same dataset, we estimated the composition of EEE for the same materials and compared the results with other studies. Results show that in-use stock AOG is decreasing over time, possibly due to com-position change of EEE. Nevertheless, potential recovery from these 16 materials accounts to almost 15% of EEE weight in richer countries. Similar results occur for waste AOG. The only two materials that face an increase in rate are iron and chlorine: respectively 0.08%–0.1% and 0.0013%–0.0015% stock-waste. Heavy equipment seems to be the richest category due to size effect. We finally compared the in-use material stock contained within EEE and the rest of anthroposphere. The total weight of EEE is residual compared to total in-use stock. Our results show that high recovery potential is paired with low material consumption compared to the rest of economy. This is a good sign for material footprint, but negative for the volume of recycled materials
Waste recycling and yardstick competition among Italian provinces after the EU Waste Framework Directive
No full textRecycling and the recovery of waste are crucial waste management strategies. In light of the new European Union (EU) circular economy approach, these strategies remain core pillars of a competitive and sustainable waste value chain. Local governments have an important role in controlling and checking the implementation of waste management policies. We study the spatial determinants of waste recovery using a dataset of 102 Italian provinces from 2001 to 2014. To induce a possible source of exogenous variation, we exploit the political cycle of the provinces to isolate the impact of waste recovery in neighbouring provinces on its own province’s waste recovery. We find that after the transposition of the 2008 EU Waste Framework Directive, provinces mimic their own neighbours in the separate collection of waste aimed at recycling and recovery. This effect is more pronounced during pre-electoral years than non-pre-electoral ones, and fully guided by provinces where the president can run for re-election
Waste management and Italian provinces: Why pay more for less?
No full textThis work investigates the role of waste treatment methods and separation policies in explaining the Total Waste Management Costs (TWMC) at NUTS 3 level, Italy, between 2015 and 2018. In this context, northern provinces generally have high efficiency and circularity, while central and southern provinces lag behind. It is unclear how much of the difference is motivated by socioeconomic factors and how much by political entrenchment in low circularity policies. Panel data models have been estimated using provincial and regional fixed effects targeting TWMC as the dependent variable. Two main independent variables are considered as drivers. One is a composite policy indicator that gives higher weight to circular methods and waste-to-energy treatments. Lower weights have been given to increase landfill, generic incineration, and biological and mixed treatments. The second independent variable is the ratio between separated waste and total municipal waste flow. The estimations' results indicate that the composite indicator of circular policies reduces TWMC while separation policies increase them. Furthermore, it is estimated that provinces need to improve their composite performance significantly to offset the cost increases derived by separation policies. Thus, perseverance in pursuing an incomplete circular policy might be a driver of TWMC at the local level
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