Indigenous Forests and Forest Sink Policy in New Zealand

This paper tackles the complex issue of how to include regenerating indigenous forest in a domestic carbon credit system. The paper specifically addresses New Zealand conditions but most of the issues and conclusions are relevant in any developed country with indigenous regrowth. The paper begins by defining the constraints that any sink policy must meet. I begin by discussing environmental integrity, and in particular measurement and monitoring, "human-induced" change, and permanence. I then outline the international rules as they stand and how these could be translated into domestic rules.forest, climate, emissions trading, Maori, Kyoto

Indigenous Forests and Forest Sink Policy in New Zealand

This paper tackles the complex issue of how to include regenerating indigenous forest in a domestic carbon credit system. The paper specifically addresses New Zealand conditions but most of the issues and conclusions are relevant in any developed country with indigenous regrowth. The paper begins by defining the constraints that any sink policy must meet. I begin by discussing environmental integrity, and in particular measurement and monitoring, “human-induced” change, and permanence. I then outline the international rules as they stand and how these could be translated into domestic rules.forest, climate, emissions trading, Mâori, Kyoto

Dairy Farm Management when Nutrient Runoff and Climate Emissions Count

We provide a theoretical framework and detailed bioeconomic simulations to examine privately and socially optimal dairy farm management in the presence of nutrient runoff and greenhouse gas emissions. Dairy farms produce milk by choosing herd size, diet, fertilization and land allocation between crops, as well as (discrete) manure storage and spreading technologies and the number of milking seasons. We show analytically that a critical radius emerges for the choice of land use between silage and cereal cultivation and fertilizer types (mineral and manure). Both privately and socially optimal manure application rates decrease with application distance. We characterize the optimal climate and water policy instruments for dairy farming. A detailed bioeconomic simulation model links farm management decisions with their impacts on climate and water quality. We numerically solve the social and private optima and the features of optimal climate and water policy instruments. We show that using only climate instruments provides considerable water co‐benefits, and in the same vein, the use of water quality instruments provides considerable climate co‐benefits. Climate policies lead to a reduction in herd size, as measures relating to manure management and spreading are relatively inefficient at reducing climate emissions. There is much more leeway for adapting to water policies than to climate policies, because dairy farms have multiple measures to reduce their nutrient loads.Peer reviewe

Energy Transition in Europe's Coal Regions : Issues for Regional Policy

Climate change is generating new pressures for transition in coal intensive regions. The 2016 Paris Climate Agreement has led to new strategies and targets for reducing climate emissions at EU and national levels. Decarbonisation of the energy sector is a vital component of these strategies. The EU aims to reduce climate emissions from the energy sector by at least 54 percent by 2030 (compared to 1990) and at least 93 percent by 2050. These targets imply a shift out of coal-mining and coal-fired power in coming decades. Coal transition requires regional policy intervention. Coal production and power stations are inevitably concentrated in particular places, and also typically become linked into other regional sectors and supply chains, as well as political, social and cultural networks, which support economic development but can also inhibit economic transition. Coal production in the Europe-30 is concentrated in specific regions in Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Romania. Germany and Poland together account for 54 percent of the EU’s coal-related climate emissions. EU Cohesion policy 2021-27 is expected to include a focus on the carbon-free economy, including energy transition. This could include support for coal transition regions e.g. through an Energy Transition Fund. Wider EU support is seen in the Coal Regions in Transition Platform, as well as in INTERREG and HORIZON projects. National regional policies are also targeting coal regions. Poland’s coal sector has seen major restructuring since 1990 but it remains an important regional employer. Poland is committed to meeting international targets on climate emissions and energy transition but also faces the need to ensure energy supply and regional employment. The Programme for Silesia supports a shift from traditional sectors such as coal towards future-oriented sectors. Germany is committed to the phasing-out of coal-fired power in order to meet climate targets. In 2019, the federal government agreed an ambitious programme of support for the transition of the remaining brown coal regions, with €40 billion of federal funding to 2038. Historic experiences of coal transition suggest the need for future policies to prioritise a long-term, well-funded and multi-faceted strategic approach, drawing on the participation of a wide range of stakeholders at multiple levels, and including efforts to generate new ideas, mobilise regional capacities and reconfigure social capital, as well as to involve local communities in transition

The Climate Gap: Inequalities in How Climate Change Hurts Americans & How to Close the Gap

By now, virtually all Americans concur that climate change is real, and could pose devastating consequences for our nation and our children. Equally real is the "Climate Gap" -- the sometimes hidden and often-unequal impact climate change will have on people of color and the poor in the United States. This report helps to document the Climate Gap, connecting the dots between research on heat waves, air quality, and other challenges associated with climate change. But we do more than point out an urgent problem; we also explore how we might best combine efforts to both solve climate change and close the Climate Gap -- including an appendix focused on California's global warming policy and a special accompanying analysis of the federal-level American Clean Energy Security Act

Revisiting the role of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto protocol in the fight against emissions from international civil aviation

The issue of Climate Change emanating from increasing climate emissions and the need for reduction of aviation emission are part of the prominent sustainable environmental rights issues facing the world. The United Nations Conference of Parties (COP24) in Poland in 2018 held under the auspices of UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol declared that Climate Change is at the crossroad and ended with a general global consensus of limiting emission below 2o Celcius by the year 2020. However, a lot of issues have been raised on why the global increase in discharge of aviation emission has continued despite the activities of UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol at reducing global atmospheric emissions that cause climate change and other environmental degradations like flood, hurricane, draught and diseases. This paper assesses the contributions of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and Kyoto Protocol to global reduction of aviation emission with a view to providing distinct information that will further assist policy makers on a lasting solution tothe problem of aviation emission. Using doctrinal research method, the paper concludes that even though both the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol laid the foundation for International law on reduction of aviation emission, they have not made a satisfactory contribution to reduction of aviation emission. Keywords: Assessment, UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol, Global Climate Emissions, Civil Aviation, Aviation Emissio

Buffalo Niagara at the Crossroads: How State Energy Policies can Lead Western New York to a Green, Prosperous, and Just Future

Buffalo Niagara stands at a climate crossroads. Looking down one road, we can see a chance to rebuild impoverished neighborhoods with quality jobs, green affordable housing, community-owned renewable energy, urban farms, and community gardens, building on the highly successful example of the Green Development Zone on the city’s West Side. Looking down another road, we can see an inequitable region made even more unjust and vulnerable by climate change impacts such as heat waves, extreme weather events, and governments too overwhelmed with emergency response to provide quality services to their residents. Which road we travel will depend in part on the new energy policies that New York State is in the process of creating. With thoughtful legislation and regulation, we have a narrow window of opportunity to move rapidly toward clean energy and to make sure, in the transition, that our most vulnerable workers and residents gain, rather than lose, from the new economy that is rising around our eyes

Contested modelling

We suggest that the role and function of expert computational modelling in real-world decision-making needs scrutiny and practices need to change. We discuss some empirical and theory-based improvements to the coupling of the modelling process and the real world, including social and behavioural processes, which we have expressed as a set of questions that we believe need to be answered by all projects engaged in such modelling.  These are based on a systems analysis of four research initiatives, covering different scales and timeframes, and addressing the complexity of intervention in a sustainability context. Our proposed improvements require new approaches for analysing the relationship between a project’s models and its publics.  They reflect what we believe is a necessary and beneficial dialogue between the realms of expert scientific modelling and systems thinking.  This paper is an attempt to start that process, itself reflecting a robust dialogue between two practitioners sat within differing traditions, puzzling how to integrate perspectives and achieve wider participation in researching this problem space.&nbsp

Comparing efficiency of health systems across industrialized countries: a panel analysis.

BackgroundRankings from the World Health Organization (WHO) place the US health care system as one of the least efficient among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Researchers have questioned this, noting simplistic or inappropriate methodologies, poor measurement choice, and poor control variables. Our objective is to re-visit this question by using newer modeling techniques and a large panel of OECD data.MethodsWe primarily use the OECD Health Data for 25 OECD countries. We compare results from stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) and fixed effects models. We estimate total life expectancy as well as life expectancy at age 60. We explore a combination of control variables reflecting health care resources, health behaviors, and economic and environmental factors.ResultsThe US never ranks higher than fifth out of all 36 models, but is also never the very last ranked country though it was close in several models. The SFA estimation approach produces the most consistent lead country, but the remaining countries did not maintain a steady rank.DiscussionOur study sheds light on the fragility of health system rankings by using a large panel and applying the latest efficiency modeling techniques. The rankings are not robust to different statistical approaches, nor to variable inclusion decisions.ConclusionsFuture international comparisons should employ a range of methodologies to generate a more nuanced portrait of health care system efficiency