Emerging green innovation platforms. A comparative study on bioenergy policies in Emilia-Romagna and Norway

Bioenergy and rural development are increasingly under political focus. Bioenergy development is considered as a tool to deal with the climate change and rural areas crisis. The European Directive 2009/28/CE has set the goals for bioenergy production, and the Regulation 1698/2005 on rural development links the improving of conditions in rural areas to renewable energy production. Rural areas are the source of raw materials and the place to set bioenergy installations, while the new activity could provide rural citizens with new jobs and green energy. This policy context is understood in the view of other three main European policies, namely the regional, climate change and green growth and the innovation policies. Rural development is deeply tied to the former that points at rural regions as the ones to be stronger supported. The innovation policy engages regions in an effort to strengthen innovation policies and learning by interacting throughout the European Area. The focus of the thesis is on Italy and further on Emilia-Romagna, as one of the most developed Italian regions. Emilia-Romagna is compared with Norway, a non- European Union country that has a different administrative and policy structure, but one that is nevertheless influenced by EU policies through the ETA. Within the two main case studies, I considered individual case studies to find out the practices and the links between the two core policy areas. The results have been framed and assessed through the regional innovation systems theory, in order to explain how the bioenergy system and rural development are fostered in Emilia-Romagna and Norway. The main findings show two different policy frameworks and how they affect the development of the bioenergy and rural areas. Emilia-Romagna has a confused situation and a difficult confrontation between rural citizens, bioenergy investors and local governments, but the sector is still more developed than in Norway. Moreover the feed in tariff is fostering single random investments. By contrast, Norwegian policy framework is more easily accessible, the investments are more locally-based and there is no national feed-in-tariff. Thus, the actors cooperate more in order to invest in a bioenergy activity, while rural communities seem to experience positive local return in terms of new jobs and energy prices

Operational expenditures model for renewable plant

In this dissertation, system identification methods are applied to characterize the dynamic components behavior of a renewable plant (Hydro – Solar – Wind-Geothermal). First, the relevant factors that are explicative of our models are extracted, to after use Markov Chain and Monte-Carlo simulations to get the more suitable algorithm-based models to optimize the operation cost (or other operative parameters) along the life span of the plant (even under the life time extension mode) we set up the Lost Production Factor (LPF) as an output,. This model will help to better operate the plants by using diagnostics-prognostics, condition monitoring, forecast and predictions, and control design (design to cost). It will help choose the best technologies for the plants and operate the already existing ones in the most profitable way. The application examples are motivated by real-world engineering challenges with renewable Plants under one of the large utilities in the world. The ISO 55000 series Standards are used as a guide, in order to be able to get the proper certification if needed in the future

Carbon markets and the production of climate change: Appropriating, commodifying and capitalising nature

This thesis evaluates the efficacy of carbon markets by assessing the impacts of the EU ETS and its links with the Kyoto Protocol’s flexibility mechanisms, the CDM and JI, on the socio-ecological, economic and political dimensions of climate change. The analysis of the relationship between the causes of climate change and the pollution movements, financial practices and policy debates that constitute these markets is developed by progressively introducing Marxist conceptions of the appropriation, commodification and capitalisation of nature, which organises the thesis in to three parts. The first part develops a critical understanding of the social relations, institutions and actors that produce climate change by appropriating carbon in capitalist economies. Mapping the organisation of capital and carbon to create a database of companies in the EU ETS reveals a concentration and centralisation of emissions among a relatively small number of publicly and privately owned corporations and large-scale power and manufacturing plants. The second part considers the processes that equalise differentiated relationships between installations and emissions, and offset projects and emissions reductions, in commodity form. Case studies of carbon allowance and credit networks associated with energy utilities RWE and E.ON illustrate the potential for the largest polluters to exploit unevenness in the production of climate change by trading transformative for marginal climate actions. The final part examines dynamics of accumulation and contestation in carbon markets in terms of the extent to which the capitalisation of carbon can support the expanded reproduction of capitalism. The crisis of the carbon market accumulation strategy and consolidation of the EU ETS in contestation over its reform are explained as outcomes of the contradictions faced by states in managing marketised environmental policy. Overall, the thesis argues that the EU ETS and its links with the Kyoto mechanisms have worked to entrench the production of climate change, necessitating a more efficacious and democratic approach to climate policy that directly targets the biggest corporate and state polluters

Difficult heritage and children’s summer camps of Fascist Italy

The Fascist regime helped itself to a diverse collection of children’s institutions, including summer camps, or colonie, which it put its stamp of ownership on, expanded, and adapted into a tool for indoctrination of youth under the guise of benevolent welfare. This research focuses on the legacy of the colonie built during the years of the Fascist regime whose current situations include demolition, abandonment, ruination, continuing use, and unfinished and successful renovations. The research explores how these spaces have fared over the years since they were established, and speculates as to what the future may hold for them as the problematic and ambiguous heritage of a totalitarian regime. The study is conducted through investigations into their past, present circumstances and speculative futures. Research methods include studies of primary and secondary texts, walking, photographic practice, and appropriation and reuse of archival and other imagery. The research is framed within concepts of heterotopia and difficult heritage, which it uses to expose ambiguities in representations of the colonie system, alongside an intrinsic ‘fuzziness’ in the Fascist regime’s ideology. The practical outcome of the research and practice comprises a set of photographic images and representations in the form of a photobook, in which ambiguities and contradictions are revealed through juxtapositions and sequences of images and the spaces between them. A nuanced approach allowed for understandings of the regime’s attitude towards the health and indoctrination of youth to emerge. The research concludes that consequences of Fascism’s appropriation of the colonie system are complex and multifaceted. Scholars acknowledge that further research is needed, and this study makes a contribution towards situating the architecture and memory of former Fascist colonia as heritage worth preserving, irrespective of inherent difficulties

Inward and Outward FDI Country Profiles, Second Edition

This second edition contains a series of 77 standardized country profiles dealing with the inward and outward foreign direct investment (FDI) performance of 40 economies. The profiles have been peer-reviewed by a global network of experts. The publication is intended to contribute to the analysis of trends in foreign direct investment and policy issues related to them. More specifically, the individual profiles discuss FDI trends and developments (country-level developments, the corporate players); effects of the recent global crises; and the policy scene. Each profile contains a standard set of tables, including on FDI stocks and flows, sectoral and geographical FDI distributions, the largest M&As and greenfield investments, the principal foreign affiliates (for inward FDI), and the principal multinational enterprises (for outward FDI). The standardized template used to produce the profiles allows cross-country comparisons. The volume is meant to be a reference tool for anyone interested in foreign direct investment

Conflict of norms in European Union law and the legal reasoning of the European Court of Justice

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This thesis examines the topic of conflict of norms in European Union (EU) law and the legal reasoning of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), arguing that the framework of conflict of norms provides conceptual insight into justification and the role of value choices in legal reasoning. After examining the theory of conflict of norms, which seems to have been relatively under-studied generally and especially in EU law, it examines three particular aspects of norm conflict resolution in the legal reasoning of the ECJ and EU law: conflict of interpretative norms, especially the opposition between conserving and innovative interpretation; conflicts of human rights norms, looking in particular at the idea of a hierarchy of rights and of specificationism in the articulation of rights; and conflicts of competence norms. It concludes that the scope exists for a fuller justification of the choice of norms in the legal reasoning of the ECJ and generally in EU law and offers a perspective on how the values articulated by the EU suggest particular approaches to norm conflict resolution by the ECJ in its decision-making in these fields, in particular, a greater resort to lex specialis and originalist or historical interpretation, in contrast to its current method.Department of Education and Learning of Northern Ireland (2005-2008); Scholarship from the Modern Law Review (2006-2008); Waiver of fees by Brunel Universit

Firm-level political risk and corporate credit default swap spreads : Evidence from Europe

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the relationship between firm-level political risk and European corporate credit default swap spreads. Existing theory models political risk as a mostly systematic type of risk which induces a non-diversifiable effect on asset prices. This notion is challenged by recent studies which find that the incidence of political risk varies considerably across individual firms, suggesting that firm-level political risk is a potentially significant phenomenon. The majority of previous research regarding the influence of political risk on credit default swap spreads has examined the US market using measures which represent aggregate political risk. This thesis provides a new perspective by focusing on the European credit default swap market and utilizing a novel measure of firm-level political risk. The empirical analysis is conducted using a panel sample which consists of 3374 quarterly observations for 132 firms over the period beginning in the first quarter of 2008 and ending in the second quarter of 2019. The methodological approach is based on a fixed effects panel regression model in which the credit default swap spread is used as the dependent variable and the firm-level political risk measure is used as the main independent variable of interest. Additional firm-specific and market-level control variables are used to isolate the effect of other factors which influence credit default swap spreads. The fixed effects specification will also alleviate the potential omitted variable bias by capturing the effect of unobserved firm characteristics and market-wide trends which vary over time. The results show that firm-level political risk has a statistically significant positive effect on credit default swap spreads. The significant positive effect is retained when the analysis considers firm-level political risk associated with various political topics, although the evidence is not statistically or economically meaningful enough to assert that the effect is distinctly heterogenous across different political topics. The results also suggest that firm-level political risk has a persistent quality as the effect that it induces in the credit default swap market is realized with a delay. This thesis does not find that firm-level political risk has pronounced interaction effects with the credit default swap spreads of firms which belong to politically sensitive industries. Additional robustness tests confirm that the effect of firm-level political risk is not subsumed when political sentiment and aggregate political risk related to the domestic European market are taken into consideration.Tutkielman tarkoituksena on tarkastella yritystason poliittisen riskin ja eurooppalaisten yritysten luottoriskinvaihtosopimusten hintojen välistä suhdetta. Olemassa oleva teoria kuvaa poliittista riskiä pääosin systemaattisena riskinä, jonka vaikutusta rahoitusvälineiden hintoihin ei ole mahdollista hajauttaa. Viimeaikaisten tutkimusten mukaan poliittisen riskin ilmaantuvuus vaihtelee huomattavasti yksittäisten yritysten välillä viitaten siihen, että yritystason poliittinen riski on mahdollisesti merkittävä ilmiö. Suurin osa aikaisemmista tutkimuksista on tutkinut poliittisen riskin vaikutusta luottoriskinvaihtosopimusten hintoihin Yhdysvaltojen markkinoilla käyttäen aggregaattitason poliittista riskiä kuvaavia mittareita. Tämä tutkielma tarjoaa uuden näkökulman keskittymällä Euroopan luottoriskinvaihtosopimusmarkkinoihin ja hyödyntämällä uutta yritystason poliittista riskiä kuvaavaa mittaria. Empiirisessä analyysissa käytetty aineisto koostuu 132 yrityksestä ja kattaa yhteensä 3374 kvartaalitason havaintoa aikavälillä, joka alkaa vuoden 2008 ensimmäisestä kvartaalista ja päättyy vuoden 2019 toiseen kvartaaliin. Tutkielman metodologia perustuu kiinteiden vaikutusten paneeliregressiomalliin, jonka selitettävänä muuttujana käytetään luottoriskinvaihto-sopimuksen hintaa ja keskeisenä selittävänä muuttujana yritystason poliittisen riskin mittaria. Aineistoon sisältyvät yrityskohtaiset ja markkinatason kontrollimuuttujat eristävät luottoriskinvaihtosopimusten hintoja määrittävien muiden tekijöiden vaikutukset. Regressiomallin kiinteät vaikutukset korjaavat myös mahdollista puuttuvien muuttujien harhaa ottamalla huomioon havaitsemattomien yrityskohtaisten ominaispiirteiden ja ajan myötä muuttuvien markkinatason trendien vaikutukset. Tutkielman tulokset osoittavat, että yritystason poliittisella riskillä on tilastollisesti merkittävä positiivinen vaikutus luottoriskinvaihtosopimusten hintoihin. Poliittisella riskillä on pitkittynyt vaikutus, joka realisoituu viiveellä luottoriskinvaihtosopimusten markkinoilla. Tulokset näyttävät myös, että tilastollisesti merkittävä positiivinen vaikutus on havaittavissa käytettäessä aihekohtaisia yritystason poliittisen riskin mittareita. Tulosten perusteella ei ole kuitenkaan mahdollista todeta, että erilaisten poliittisten aiheiden vaikutusten välillä olisi huomattavia eroja. Tämän lisäksi poliittisesti herkillä toimialoilla olevien yritysten luottoriskinvaihtosopimusten hinnat eivät reagoi voimakkaammin yritystason poliittiseen riskiin. Täydentävät robustisuustestit osoittavat, että yritystason poliittisen riskin vaikutuksen tilastollinen ja taloudellinen merkitsevyys säilyy ennallaan, kun poliittinen sentimentti ja Euroopan kotimarkkinoita koskeva aggregaattitason poliittinen riski otetaan huomioon