643 research outputs found
Rosca Participation in Benin: a Commitment Issue
In the light of first-hand data from a Beninese urban household survey in Cotonou, we investigate several motives aiming to explain participation in Rotating Savings and Credit ASsociations. We provide anecdotal pieces of evidence, descriptive statistics, FIML regressions and matching estimates which tend to indicate that most individuals use their participation in a rosca as a device to commit themselves to save money and to deal with self-control problems.ROSCA, self-control, commitment device, Benin
Une stratégie de conservation axée sur la connectivité pour les Laurentides au Québec
La crise actuelle de perte de biodiversitĂ© est sans prĂ©cĂ©dent. Sans des actions concertĂ©es et avant-gardistes, les consĂ©quences pourraient sâavĂ©rer catastrophiques pour toutes les espĂšces vivantes sur terre incluant lâĂȘtre humain. La biodiversitĂ© est dâune importance capitale pour la fonctionnalitĂ© des Ă©cosystĂšmes et pour les biens et les services que ces derniers peuvent rendre. Lâune des principales causes de lâĂ©rosion de la biodiversitĂ© est la fragmentation du territoire. Afin de bonifier la connectivitĂ© sur un territoire, la crĂ©ation de rĂ©seaux Ă©cologiques composĂ©s de noyaux de conservation, de zones tampons et de corridors fauniques sâavĂšre une avenue intĂ©ressante et fort prometteuse. Plusieurs exemples de stratĂ©gies de conservation axĂ©es sur la connectivitĂ© existent au QuĂ©bec, aux Ătats-Unis et Ă travers le monde. Les engagements quĂ©bĂ©cois en matiĂšre dâaires protĂ©gĂ©es, sans ĂȘtre idĂ©aux, offrent plusieurs possibilitĂ©s dâenrichir la protection et la conservation de notre environnement. Le territoire des Laurentides au QuĂ©bec revĂȘt plusieurs caractĂ©ristiques qui en font un endroit privilĂ©giĂ© pour le dĂ©veloppement, entre autres, rĂ©sidentiel et industriel ainsi que les activitĂ©s rĂ©crĂ©otouristiques et forestiĂšres, etc. Cette situation induit une pression sur le territoire en le morcelant. Lâorganisme Ă but non lucratif Ăco-corridors laurentiens a pour mission la protection des milieux naturels dans les Laurentides. Il travaille Ă lâĂ©bauche dâune stratĂ©gie de conservation axĂ©e sur la connectivitĂ©. Lâobjectif premier de cet essai est de proposer un scĂ©nario qui rĂ©pondra aux prioritĂ©s quâĂco-corridor laurentiens sâest fixĂ©. La stratĂ©gie de conservation prĂ©sentĂ©e est un corridor faunique Ă pas japonais dans lâaxe nord-sud reliant le parc national dâOka au parc national du Mont-Tremblant. Afin de rĂ©aliser ce chantier ambitieux, certains outils informatiques en conservation Ă©cologique peuvent ĂȘtre utilisĂ©s et grandement faciliter le choix des emplacements Ă prioriser. DiffĂ©rents statuts de conservation et dâoptions dâacquisitions de propriĂ©tĂ©s doivent impĂ©rativement ĂȘtre considĂ©rĂ©s. La rĂ©habilitation de certains milieux et le franchissement dâinfrastructures routiĂšres sont aussi Ă analyser. Finalement, il est recommandĂ© que toutes les parties prenantes, lors de la crĂ©ation dâune stratĂ©gie de conservation, que ce soit lâorganisme Ăco-corridor laurentiens, le gouvernement du QuĂ©bec, les municipalitĂ©s, ou encore les citoyens, dĂ©ploient des efforts considĂ©rables et orientent leurs actions dans la mĂȘme direction. Ainsi, ce projet dâavant-garde pourrait en devenir un de sociĂ©tĂ© pour le QuĂ©bec, profitable autant Ă la population dâaujourdâhui quâĂ celle de demain
Is it all about Money? A Randomized Evaluations of the Impact of Insurance Literacy and Marketing Treatments on the Demand for Health Microinsurance in Senegal
In Senegal mutual health organizations (MHOs) have been present in the greater region of ThiĂšs for years. Despite their benefits, in some areas there remain low take-up rates. We offer an insurance literacy module, communicating the benefits from health microinsurance and the functioning of MHOs, to a randomly selected sample of households in the city of ThiĂšs. The effects of this training, and three cross-cutting marketing treatments, are evaluated using a randomized control trial. We find that the insurance literacy module has no impact, but that our marketing treatment has a significant effect on the take up decisions of households.community based health insurance scheme; Randomized control trials; Africa; Senegal
Constraining the total aerosol indirect effect in the LMDZ and ECHAM4 GCMs using MODIS satellite data
Aerosol indirect effects are considered to be the most uncertain yet important anthropogenic forcing of climate change. The goal of the present study is to reduce this uncertainty by constraining two different general circulation models (LMDZ and ECHAM4) with satellite data. We build a statistical relationship between cloud droplet number concentration
and the optical depth of the fine aerosol mode as a measure of the aerosol indirect effect using MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite data, and constrain the model parameterizations to match this relationship. We include here âempiricalâ formulations for the cloud albedo effect as well as parameterizations of the cloud lifetime effect. When fitting the model parameterizations to
the satellite data, consistently in both models, the radiative forcing by the combined aerosol indirect effect is reduced considerably, down to â0.5 and â0.3Wmâ2, for LMDZ and ECHAM4, respectively
Climate impacts of geoengineering marine stratocumulus clouds
Copyright © 2000 American Geophysical Union[1] Theoretical potential geoengineering solutions to the global warming problem have recently been proposed. Here, we present an idealized study of the climate response to deliberately seeding large-scale stratocumulus cloud decks in the North Pacific, South Pacific, and South Atlantic, thereby inducing cooling via aerosol indirect effects. Atmosphere-only, atmosphere/mixed-layer ocean, and fully coupled atmosphere/ocean versions of the Met Office Hadley Centre model are used to investigate the radiative forcing, climate efficacy, and regional response of temperature, precipitation, and net primary productivity to such geoengineering. The radiative forcing simulations indicate that, for our parameterization of aerosol indirect effects, up to 35% of the radiative forcing due to current levels of greenhouse gases could be offset by stratocumulus modification. Equilibrium simulations with the atmosphere/mixed-layer ocean model, wherein each of the three stratocumulus sheets is modified in turn, reveal that the most efficient cooling per unit radiative forcing occurs when the South Pacific stratocumulus sheet is modified. Transient coupled model simulations suggest that geoengineering all three stratocumulus areas delays the simulated global warming by about 25 years. These simulations also indicate that, while some areas experience increases in precipitation and net primary productivity, sharp decreases are simulated in South America, with particularly detrimental impacts on the Amazon rain forest. These results show that, while some areas benefit from geoengineering, there are significant areas where the response could be very detrimental with implications for the practical applicability of such a scheme
Aligning long-term climate mitigation with enhanced methane action
The Global Methane Pledge and other methane measures may potentially
undermine CO2 mitigation in certain countries, unless they are considered as
additional to the existing Nationally Determined Contributions to strengthen
overall greenhouse gas emission targets. Maintaining the progress on CO2
mitigation in the revision of Nationally Determined Contributions after the
first Global Stocktake, while pursuing the immediate benefits from methane
mitigation, is necessary to address climate change in the long-term
Usage des thermostats électroniques dans le marché résidentiel québécois : une analyse microéconomique
RĂ©cemment, les questions d'efficacitĂ© Ă©nergĂ©tique sont sur toutes les lĂšvres. Au QuĂ©bec, comme ailleurs, il a Ă©tĂ© proposĂ© que des gains substantiels pourraient ĂȘtre rĂ©alisĂ©s par l'usage rĂ©sidentiel de thermostats Ă©lectroniques pour le chauffage des locaux. La prĂ©sente Ă©tude vise Ă analyser l'usage de tels thermostats par la clientĂšle rĂ©sidentielle d'Hydro-QuĂ©bec Distribution. Une modĂ©lisation faisant appel Ă la thĂ©orie sur les choix discrets ainsi qu'Ă l'analyse conditionnelle de la demande est mise de l'avant pour y arriver. ParticuliĂšrement, nous procĂ©dons Ă une analyse comportementale s'articulant sur un modĂšle discret-continu faisant intervenir un modĂšle multinomial logit. De cette façon, nous corrigeons pour un biais important, le biais d'auto-sĂ©lection. La derniĂšre Ă©tape de notre modĂšle intĂšgre les rĂ©sultats du modĂšle discret-continu dans le but de faire ressortir l'impact de la composante chauffage sur la consommation totale annuelle d'Ă©lectricitĂ©
The Impact of Insurance Literacy and Marketing Treatments on the Demand for Health Microinsurance in Senegal: A Randomised Evaluation
Mutual health organisations have been present in Senegal for years. Despite their benefits, in most areas take-up rates remain low. Using randomised controlled trials, we evaluate the effect of an insurance literacy module, communicating the benefits and functioning of health microinsurance, as well as three cross-cutting marketing treatments. The results from our various marketing treatments indicate a positive and significant effect on health insurance adoption, particularly for poor households, increasing take-up by around 35-40%. The insurance literacy module does not seem to have a positive impact on take-up decisions. We attempt to provide different contextual reasons for this result
Regional climate engineering by radiation management: prerequisites and prospects
Radiationmanagement (RM), as an option to engineer the climate, is highly controversial and suffers from a number of ethical and regulatory concerns, usually studied in the context of the objective to mitigate the global mean temperature. In this article, we discuss the idea that RM can be differentiated and scaled in several dimensions with potential objectives being to influence a certain climate parameter in a specific region. Some short-lived climate forcers (e.g., tropospheric aerosols) exhibit strong geographical and temporal variability, potentially leading to limited-area climate responses. Marine cloud brightening and thinning or dissolution of cirrus clouds could be operated at a rather local scale. It is therefore conceivable that such schemes could be applied with the objective to influence the climate at a regional scale. From a governance perspective, it is desirable to avoid any substantial climate effects of regional RM outside the target region. This, however, could prove impossible for a sustained, long-term RM. In turn, regional RM during limited time periods could prove more feasible without effects beyond the target area. It may be attractive as it potentially provides the opportunity to target the suppression of some extreme events such as heat waves. Research is needed on the traceability of regional RM, for example, using detection and attribution methods. Incentives and implications of regional RM need to be examined, and new governance options have to be conceived
Causes of irregularities in trends of global mean surface temperature since the late 19th century
The time series of monthly global mean surface temperature (GST) since 1891 is successfully reconstructed from known natural and anthropogenic forcing factors, including internal climate variability, using a multiple regression technique. Comparisons are made with the performance of 40 CMIP5 models in predicting GST. The relative contributions of the various forcing factors to GST changes vary in time, but most of the warming since 1891 is found to be attributable to the net influence of increasing greenhouse gases and anthropogenic aerosols. Separate statistically independent analyses are also carried out for three periods of GST slowdown (1896â1910, 1941â1975, and 1998â2013 and subperiods); two periods of strong warming (1911â1940 and 1976â1997) are also analyzed. A reduction in total incident solar radiation forcing played a significant cooling role over 2001â2010. The only serious disagreements between the reconstructions and observations occur during the Second World War, especially in the period 1944â1945, when observed near-worldwide sea surface temperatures (SSTs) may be significantly warm-biased. In contrast, reconstructions of near-worldwide SSTs were rather warmer than those observed between about 1907 and 1910. However, the generally high reconstruction accuracy shows that known external and internal forcing factors explain all the main variations in GST between 1891 and 2015, allowing for our current understanding of their uncertainties. Accordingly, no important additional factors are needed to explain the two main warming and three main slowdown periods during this epoch
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