The political economy of decarbonisation: exploring the dynamics of South Africa’s electricity sector

South Africa’s coal-dominated electricity sector, a key feature of the country’s minerals-energy complex, is in crisis and subject to change. This offers potential opportunities for decarbonisation. Despite positive examples of decarbonisation in South Africa’s electricity sector, such as a procurement programme for renewable energy, there are structural path dependencies linked to coal-fired generation and security of supply. Decarbonisation goes far beyond what is technologically or even economically feasible, to encompass a complexity of political, social and economic factors. Meanwhile, decision-making in electricity is highly politicised and lack of transparency and power struggles in the policy sphere pose key challenges. Such power struggles are reflected in national debates over which technologies should be prioritised and the institutional arrangements that should facilitate them

Russian manufacturing and the threat of ‘Dutch disease’: a comparison of competitiveness developments in Russian and Ukrainian industry

This paper examines the development of Russian industry in comparison with that of Ukrainian industry during 1995–2004 in an effort to ascertain to what extent, if any, Russian manufacturing showed signs of succumbing to ‘Dutch disease’. Ukraine and Russia began the market transition with broadly similar institutions, industrial structures and levels of technology, and the economic reforms implemented in the two countries were also similar, although Ukraine was reckoned to lag behind Russia in many areas. The main difference between them is Russia’s far greater resource wealth. It follows that differences in industrial development since 1991 may to some degree be attributable to differences in initial natural resource endowments. In short, Ukraine could provide a rough approximation of how a resource-poor Russia might have developed over the transition

Quantity and quality of China's water from demand perspectives

China is confronted with an unprecedented water crisis regarding its quantity and quality. In this study, we quantified the dynamics of China's embodied water use and chemical oxygen demand (COD) discharge from 2010 to 2015. The analysis was conducted with the latest available water use data across sectors in primary, secondary and tertiary industries and input-output models. The results showed that (1) China's water crisis was alleviated under urbanisation. Urban consumption occupied the largest percentages (over 30%) of embodied water use and COD discharge, but embodied water intensities in urban consumption were far lower than those in rural consumption. (2) The 'new normal' phase witnessed the optimisation of China's water use structures. Embodied water use in light-manufacturing and tertiary sectors increased while those in heavy-manufacturing sectors (except chemicals and transport equipment) dropped. (3) Transformation of China's international market brought positive effects on its domestic water use. China's water use (116-80 billion tonnes (Bts))9 and COD discharge (3.95-2.22 million tonnes (Mts)) embodied in export tremendously decreased while its total export values (11-25 trillion CNY) soared. Furthermore, embodied water use and COD discharge in relatively low-end sectors, such as textile, started to transfer from international to domestic markets when a part of China's production activities had been relocated to other developing countries

Privatization with Government Control: Evidence from the Russian Oil Sector

Governments that privatize state industries often retain control over key distribution assets. While there are many examples of this form of partial privatization, to our knowledge there are no substantial quantitative studies of how governments use their control under these circumstances. In this paper we argue that the Russian government privatization of the oil sector during 1994-2003 is a useful case study because the federal government privatized oil production but retained monopoly control rights over the transport of crude onto world markets. Based on a simple analysis of the costs and benefits of control and ownership, we argue that that in these circumstances the federal government would use its control over transport capacity to provide privileged access to those companies over which it has influence. We find that in 2003 this is indeed the case and that this system detracted from economic efficiency. In particular, private and regionally owned companies had to be much more productive than companies over which the federal government (the state) had influence to receive comparable access to world markets; state-influence companies had preferential access to routes with more capacity; and, the allocation of route capacity was sensitive to transport costs only in the state-influence sector.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57206/1/wp826 .pd

Security of Energy Supply: Comparing Scenarios From a European Perspective

This paper compares different results from a set of energy scenarios produced by international energy experts, in order to analyze projections on increasing European external energy dependence and vulnerability. Comparison among different scenarios constitutes the basis of a critical review of existing energy security policies, suggesting alternative or complementary future actions. According to the analysis, the main risks and negative impacts in the long term could be the increasing risk of collusion among exporters due to growing dependence of industrialized countries and insufficient diversification; and a risk of demand/supply imbalance, with consequent instability for exporting regions due to insufficient demand, and lack of infrastructures due to insufficient supply. Cooperation with exporting countries enhancing investments in production capacity, and with developing countries in order to reinforce negotiation capacity of energy importing countries seem to be the most effective policies at international level.Energy security, Energy scenarios, Oil and natural gas markets

Tourism Immiserization: Fact or Fiction?

Tourism plays a major part in the development strategies of both developing and developed countries because of the alleged potential of generating foreign exchange, economic growth and welfare enhancement (Sinclair and Stabler, 1997; Sinclair, 1988). Consequently, in several countries a considerable amount of resources is allocated to further promote the tourism sector in a hope of reaping more economic benefits. However, it is still debatable whether tourism is beneficial for the tourist-receiving country or not. While empirical studies (Adams and Parmenter, 1994; Zhou et al., 1996, Baaijens et al., 1998; Blake, 2000; Blake et. al., 2003; Dwyer et al., 2003), argue that tourism expansion is beneficial to the economy, theoretical studies (Copeland, 1991; Chen and Devereux, 1999; Hazari and Nowak, 2003; Hazari et al., 2003; Nowak et al., 2003) posit that tourism expansion can be immiserizing. This paper critically reviews the theoretical and empirical literature to identify the sources via which tourism expansion can benefit or harm the economy. The issues are then empirically investigated using a CGE model for Mauritius to identify the conditions under which tourism expansion can be immiserizing.Tourism, Immiserization, Welfare, Economic growth

Effective Tax Rates in Transition

The paper addresses the question of effective tax rates for Russian economic sectors in transition. It presents a detailed account of fiscal environment for 1995 and compares statutory obligations with reported tax liabilities. The paper finds that taxation did not contribute to recession, as some observors believed at the time. It extends research by questioning the role that inflation played distorting revenue structure. When the costs of intermediate inputs are adjusted for inflation, many sectors have negative residual revenue, which is indicative of recession. Yet, modeling tax changes to correct the situation does not produce positive results, for the tax share in the cost structure of many sectors is small and cannot compensate for inflationhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39762/3/wp378.pd

Реструктуризація ринку електроенергії в контексті трансформаційних процесів і ціноутворення

The study introduces several most significant empirical and analytical findings covering the issue of electricity restructuring. In this regard, it detailes the dataset on electricity framework in order to investigate tendencies and the main challenges in the market structure following the regulation and deregulation processes of the electricity sector, as well as the consequences for pricing. The purpose of the study is to analyze key aspects of the restructuring of electric energy markets in order to determine the main challenges related to justification of the optimal structure of the industry with this framework, as well as to establish the dependence between reforms, structural transformations and price volatility in the energy market. It should be noted that deregulation and restructuring of energy companies have been determined by the transition to competitive relations and made it possible to solve significant problems in different fields of activity, including tariffs, participants’ interests, energy efficiency, etc. Consequently, reforming of the energy market structural components should be comprehensively implemented, in order to avoid fragmentary imbalances and the impact of price distortions on the participants of the electricity market.Дослідження спрямовано на формування ключових практичних і аналітичних висновків, що стосуються проблем реструктуризації електроенергетики. Для цього виявлено найбільш значущі структурні особливості функціонування електроенергетичного ринку, що дозволило висвітлити деякі існуючі тенденції і основні проблеми в структурі енергоринку, пов'язані з процесами регулювання і дерегулювання, а також проаналізувати вплив трансформаційних процесів на встановлення цін на електроенергію, на прикладі ринку електричної енергії України, що перебуває у стадії реформування. Результати дослідження отримані із застосуванням методів порівняння, ретроспективного і аналізу, методів узагальнення і систематизації, а також методів кореляційного і регресійного аналізу. Проведений аналіз предмета дослідження дозволяє зробити висновок, що дерегулювання і реструктуризація енергетичних компаній були визначені в якості переходу до конкурентних відносин і дозволили вирішити значні проблеми в різних сферах господарювання. Отже, реформа структурних складових енергоринку має здійснюватися комплексно, для уникнення фрагментарних диспропорцій і впливу цінових спотворень для функціонування учасників ринку електроенергії

Market-based Options for Security of Energy Supply

Energy market liberalization and international economic interdependence have affected governments’ ability to react to security of supply challenges. On the other side, whereas in the past security of supply was largely seen as a national responsibility, the frame of reference has increasingly become the EU in which liberation increases security of supply mainly by increasing the number of markets participants and improving the flexibility of energy systems. In this logic, security of supply becomes a risk management strategy with a strong inclination towards cost effectiveness, involving both the supply and the demand side. Security of supply has two major components that interrelate: cost and risk. This paper focus the attention on costs in the attempt to develop a market compatible approach geared towards security of supply.Energy supply, Market-based options

Managing Water Shortages in the Western Electricity Grids

British Columbia’s electricity grid is comprised primarily of hydroelectric generating assets. The ability to store water in reservoirs is a significant advantage for the province allowing it to import from Alberta when prices are favourable. Alberta, has a heavily fossil-fuel based electricity portfolio, but has seen substantial growth in its wind energy capacity. However this variable energy technology impacts the province’s grid operations. Wind energy is both variable and uncertainty. However, wind energy in Alberta can be stored via BC’s reservoir systems. In this paper, we examine the extent that drought impacts the both overall operating costs as well as the cost of reducing CO2 emissions. We model the Alberta and BC interconnected grids varying both the impact of the drought and the transmission capacity between the provinces. We determine that storing wind energy leads to an overall cost reduction and that emission costs are between $20 and$60 per tonne of CO2.Wind power, carbon costs, electrical grids, mathematical programming