446 research outputs found
A general equilibrium analysis of demand side management programs under the clean development mechanism of the kyoto protocol
No full textThis paper analyzes the economic and environmental consequences of a potential demand side management program in Thailand using a general equilibrium model. The program considers replacement of less efficient electrical appliances in the household sector with more efficient counterparts. The study further examines changes in the economic and environmental effects of the program if it is implemented under the clean development mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol, which provides carbon subsidies to the program. The study finds that the demand side management program would increase economic welfare if the ratio of unit costof electricity savings to price of electricity is 0.4 or lower even in the absence of the clean development mechanism. If the program's ratio of unit cost of electricity savings to price of electricity is greater than 0.4, registration of the program under the clean development mechanism would be needed to achieve positive welfare impacts. The level of welfare impacts would, however, depend on the price of carbon credits the program generates. For a given level of welfare impacts, the registration of the demand side management program under the clean development mechanism would increase the volume of emission reductions.Energy Production and Transportation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Environment and Energy Efficiency,Energy and Environment
Biofuels and climate change mitigation : a CGE analysis incorporating land-use change
No full textThe question of whether biofuels help mitigate climate change has attracted much debate in the literature. Using a global computable general equilibrium model that explicitly represents land-use change impacts due to the expansion of biofuels, this study attempts to shed some light on this question. The study shows that if biofuel mandates and targets currently announced by more than 40 countries around the world are implemented by 2020 using crop feedstocks, and if both forests and pasture lands are used to meet the new land demands for biofuel expansion, this would cause a net increase of greenhouse gas emissions released to the atmosphere until 2043, since the cumulative greenhouse gas emissions released through land-use change would exceed the reduction of emissions due to replacement of gasoline and diesel until then. However, if the use of forest lands is avoided by channeling only pasture lands to meet the demand for new lands, a net increase of cumulative greenhouse gas emissions would occur but would cease by 2021, only a year after the assumed full implementation of the mandates and targets. The study also shows, contrary to common perceptions, that the rate of deforestation does not increase with the rate of biofuel expansion; instead, the marginal rate of deforestation and corresponding land-use emissions decrease even if the production of biofuels increases.Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases,Climate Change Economics,Energy and Environment,Environment and Energy Efficiency,Climate Change and Environment
World oil price and biofuels : a general equilibrium analysis
No full textThe price of oil could play a significant role in influencing the expansion of biofuels. However, this issue has not been fully investigated yet in the literature. Using a global computable general equilibrium model, this study analyzes the impact of oil price on biofuel expansion, and subsequently, on food supply. The study shows that a 65 percent increase in oil price in 2020 from the 2009 level would increase the global biofuel penetration to 5.4 percent in 2020 from 2.4 percent in 2009. A doubling of oil price in 2020 from its baseline level, or a 230 percent increase from the 2009 level, would increase the global biofuel penetration in 2020 to 12.6 percent. The penetration of biofuels is highly sensitive to the substitution possibility between biofuels and their fossil fuel counterparts. The study also shows that aggregate agricultural output drops due to an oil price increase, but the drop is small in major biofuel producing countries as the expansion of biofuels would partially offset the negative impacts of the oil price increase on agricultural outputs. An increase in oil price would reduce global food supply through direct impacts as well as through diversion of food commodities and cropland toward the production of biofuels.Energy Production and Transportation,Climate Change Economics,Markets and Market Access,Renewable Energy,Food&Beverage Industry
Photobiological hydrogen production and artificial photosynthesis for clean energy: from bio to nanotechnologies
No full textGlobal energy demand is increasing rapidly and
due to intensive consumption of different forms of fuels,
there are increasing concerns over the reduction in readily
available conventional energy resources. Because of the
deleterious atmospheric effects of fossil fuels and the
uncertainties of future energy supplies, there is a surge of
interest to find environmentally friendly alternative energy
sources. Hydrogen (H2) has attracted worldwide attention
as a secondary energy carrier, since it is the lightest carbonneutral
fuel rich in energy per unit mass and easy to store.
Several methods and technologies have been developed for
H2 production, but none of them are able to replace the
traditional combustion fuel used in automobiles so far.
Extensively modified and renovated methods and technologies
are required to introduce H2 as an alternative efficient,
clean, and cost-effective future fuel. Among several
emerging renewable energy technologies, photobiological
H2 production by oxygenic photosynthetic microbes such
as green algae and cyanobacteria or by artificial photosynthesis
has attracted significant interest. In this short
review, we summarize the recent progress and challenges
in H2-based energy production by means of biological and
artificial photosynthesis routes.112151sciescopu
Impacts of policy instruments to reduce congestion and emissions from urban transportation : the case of Sao Paulo, Brazil
No full textThis study examines impacts on net social benefits or economic welfare of alternative policy instruments for reducing traffic congestion and atmospheric emissions in São Paulo, Brazil. The study shows that expanding road networks, subsidizing public transit, and improving automobile fuel economy may not be as effective as suggested by economic theories because these policies could cause significant rebound effects. Although pricing instruments such as congestion tolls and fuel taxes would certainly reduce congestion and emissions, the optimal level of these instruments would steeply increase the monetary cost of travel per trip and are therefore politically difficult to implement. However, a noticeable finding is that even smaller tolls, which are more likely to be politically acceptable, have substantial benefits in terms of reducing congestion and emissions. Among the various policy instruments examined in the study, the most socially preferable policy option for São Paulo would be to introduce a mix of congestion toll and fuel taxes on automobiles and use the revenues to improve public transit systems.Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Climate Change Economics,Roads&Highways,Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases,Transport and Environment
A Reinforcement Learning Approach for User Preference-aware Energy Sharing Systems
No full textEnergy Sharing Systems (ESS) are envisioned to be the future of power systems. In these systems, consumers equipped with renewable energy generation capabilities are able to participate in an energy market to sell their energy. This paper proposes an ESS that, differently from previous works, takes into account the consumers’ preference, engagement, and bounded rationality. The problem of maximizing the energy exchange while considering such user modeling is formulated and shown to be NP-Hard. To learn the user behavior, two heuristics are proposed: a Reinforcement Learning-based algorithm, which provides a bounded regret, and a more computationally efficient heuristic, named BPT-K, with guaranteed termination and correctness. A comprehensive experimental analysis is conducted against state-of-the-art solutions using realistic datasets. Results show that including user modeling and learning provides significant performance improvements compared to state-of-the-art approaches. Specifically, the proposed algorithms result in 25% higher efficiency and 27% more transferred energy. Furthermore, the learning algorithms converge to a value less than 5% of the optimal solution in less than 3 months of learning
Re-democratising Nepal: transitional justice and the erosion of judicial independence
No full textFor more than a decade, Nepal has been undergoing a process of re-democratisation, its third transition to democracy since the 1950s. Among the key pillars of the new democratic regime has been the establishment of constitutionally guaranteed judicial independence. Focusing on the role of the Supreme Court in defining, overseeing, and adjudicating Nepal's transitional justice process, this article considers the extent to which judicial independence and empowerment have been achieved in Nepal's ongoing democratic transition. It argues that despite institutional measures designed to protect judicial independence and efforts by members of the Supreme Court to exercise independence in their judgments, Nepal's re-democratisation process has seen the erosion of judicial independence. In doing so, the article provides new insights into the relationship between institutional judicial independence and judicial empowerment during transitions to democracy, and highlights a significant area of concern for the achievement of democratic consolidation in Nepal.No Full Tex
Lock-in effects of road expansion on CO2 emissions : results from a core-periphery model of Beijing
No full textIn the urban planning literature, it is frequently explicitly asserted or strongly implied that ongoing urban sprawl and decentralization can lead to development patterns that are unsustainable in the long run. One manifestation of such an outcome is that if extensive road investments occur, urban sprawl and decentralization are advanced and locked-in, making subsequent investments in public transit less effective in reducing vehicle kilometers traveled by car, gasoline use and carbon dioxide emissions. Using a simple core-periphery model of Beijing, the authors numerically assess this effect. The analysis confirms that improving the transit travel time in Beijing’s core would reduce the city’s overall carbon dioxide emissions, whereas the opposite would be the case if peripheral road capacity were expanded. This effect is robust to perturbations in the model’s calibrated parameters. In particular, the effect persists for a wide range of assumptions about how location choice depends on travel time and a wide range of assumptions about other aspects of consumer preferences.Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Roads&Highways,Energy and Environment,Environment and Energy Efficiency,Economic Theory&Research,Urban Transport
Invisible in life and death: Visibilising the deaths of female Nepali migrant domestic workers and the struggles of their families
No full textName of Contributors: Sulochana Khanal, Pooja Bishwakarma, Sangita Nepali, Dil Kumari Budha Magar, Rusha Bhandari, Kalpana Chaudhary, Kamala Khadka Budha Magar, Srijana Timilsina, Chandika Mohara, Anupma Pokharel, and Sunita MainaliCollaborating Institutions: Brunel University of London, WOREC, and Sunita FoundationExecutive Summary In this report, we offer an urgent examination of the deaths of female Nepali migrant domestic workers abroad and the consequences for their families. Drawing on 17 cases across multiple districts in Nepal, we foreground the voices of bereaved family members and argue that Nepal’s migration industry systemically fails its most vulnerable citizens – women from Dalit, janajati, and low-income backgrounds. At the heart of this pilot feminist research is an important question: What happens when the state that benefits from migrant women’s labour disowns them in death?Brunel University of London via Brunel Research Initiative and Enterprise Fund (BRIEF Award) – 2024-25
The role of revenue recycling schemes in environmental tax selection : a general equilibrium analysis
No full textThis study examines the roles of revenue recycling schemes for the selection of alternative tax instruments (i.e., carbon-, sulphur-, energy- and output-tax) to reduce CO2 emissions to a specified level in Thailand. A static, single period, multi-sectoral computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the Thai economy has been developed for this purpose. This study finds that the selection of a tax instrument to reduce CO2 emissions would be significantly influenced by the scheme to recycle the tax revenue to the economy. If the tax revenue is recycled to finance cuts in the existing labour or indirect tax rates, carbon tax would be more efficient than the sulphur-, energy- and output-taxes to reduce CO2 emissions. On the other hand, if the tax revenue is recycled to households through a lump-sum transfer, sulphur and carbon taxes would be more efficient than energy and output taxes. The ranking between the sulphur and carbon taxes under the lump sum transfer scheme depends on substitution possibility of fossil fuels. Sulphur tax is found superior over carbon tax at the higher substitution possibility between fossil fuels; the reverse is found true at the lower substitution possibility. In all schemes of revenue recycling considered, the output tax is found to be the most costly (i.e., in welfare terms) despite the fact that it generates two to three times higher revenue than the other tax instruments.Environmental Economics&Policies,Taxation&Subsidies,Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Energy Production and Transportation,Debt Markets
- …
