Should the EU climate policy framework be reformed?

Though to-date the European Union (EU) has played the most significant leadership role in international negotiations to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the emission-reducing performance of individual EU Member states has for many been less than stellar. Several EU15 Member states continue to raise rather than lower emissions. Analysing the most successful policy instruments, this paper argues EU policy efforts could benefit from three important innovations. The following strategies – the adoption of an EU-wide FIT (feed-in tariff), an EU-wide carbon tax and more flexibility in the trading of carbon credits – could significantly improve emission reductions, their relative cost-efficiency and spread burden-sharing more evenly across technologies and Member states. This raises important questions, both about the effectiveness of EU and Kyoto-style commitments, as well as the EU Emission Trading Scheme (ETS). The commitment strategy, and in particular the EU ETS mechanism, have had the smallest impact on emission reductions. The proposed set of strategies could make a far greater contribution to future EU efforts and potentially lock in the impressive progress already made. Such a policy shift, if successful, would also greatly enhance the EU’s already significant credibility and bargaining power in international climate negotiations.EU climate policy, Climate change mitigation, Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency, Carbon Taxes

Weighting the politics of the environment in the new Europe

EU membership imposes significant environmental pressures on the New Member states (NMS’s). This paper questions whether top down imposition of EU environmental regulation is the best strategy for the environmental problems of Central and Eastern Europe. While the emissions ’ record has greatly improved, it remains un-clear how much of this is directly related to EU membership. Sig-nificant costs are attached to fulfilling EU environmental criteria while remarkably smaller amounts of funding come attached to the EU membership agreement. Top-down imposition of environmental objectives may divert attention from local, regional and state level environmental needs, preferences and priorities. Accepting the man-tle of EU environmental policy means adopting a policy structure that, in many ways, is dominated by the interests and priorities of the large and more advanced EU Member states. The findings of this paper have significant implications for the lobbying activities of the NMS’s, for the weighting of the pollution burden in the New Europe and for future constitutional debates

Market correctives, market palliatives and the new politics of European industrial and regional development

This paper argues that the New Economy paradigm and the interests of the more advanced EU Member states dominate current thinking on EU industrial and regional policy. European integration is driving a political economy of regionalism that—far more than traditional divisions between labour and capital—decisively defines the contours of “economic interests” in the New Europe and has the most significant impact on EU, national and subnational policy approaches. The New Economy paradigm is driving a radical shift in EU policy from cohesion or redistribution toward innova-tion promotion and affects distributional struggles at the EU, national and subnational levels. This shift has important implications for future EU in-dustrial and regional development policy goals. On the one hand, shifting strategies pose significant challenges at the national and subnational levels. While political decentralization dominates current discourse, national gov-ernments—in particular perhaps in the New Member states (NMS’s)—are more likely to favour centralized control over national and regional spend-ing priorities. On the other hand, seemingly at the expense of the NMS’s, the increasing concentration of EU funding on a large number of less ad-vanced economies is eroding the policy’s traditional support basis

Galaxy pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey - XII: The fuelling mechanism of low excitation radio-loud AGN

We investigate whether the fuelling of low excitation radio galaxies (LERGs) is linked to major galaxy interactions. Our study utilizes a sample of 10,800 spectroscopic galaxy pairs and 97 post-mergers selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey with matches to multi-wavelength datasets. The LERG fraction amongst interacting galaxies is a factor of 3.5 higher than that of a control sample matched in local galaxy density, redshift and stellar mass. However, the LERG excess in pairs does not depend on projected separation and remains elevated out to at least 500 kpc, suggesting that major mergers are not their main fuelling channel. In order to identify the primary fuelling mechanism of LERGs, we compile samples of control galaxies that are matched in various host galaxy and environmental properties. The LERG excess is reduced, but not completely removed, when halo mass or D4000 are included in the matching parameters. However, when BOTH M_halo and D4000 are matched, there is no LERG excess and the 1.4 GHz luminosities (which trace jet mechanical power) are consistent between the pairs and control. In contrast, the excess of optical and mid-IR selected AGN in galaxy pairs is unchanged when the additional matching parameters are implemented. Our results suggest that whilst major interactions may trigger optically and mid-IR selected AGN, the gas which fuels the LERGs has two secular origins: one associated with the large scale environment, such as accretion from the surrounding medium or minor mergers, plus an internal stellar mechanism, such as winds from evolved stars.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters; 5 page

Ecological Art: Art with a Purpose

Ecological art is purposeful and often prescriptive: the actions and directions intended by the artists for activists to undertake often are clearly represented. Yet, ecological art has been no more successful than, for example, targeted scientific research, deposits on returnable bottles, or land-protection campaigns at slowing global warming, reducing the amount of waste we generate every day, or halting the ongoing sixth mass extinction in the history of the Earth. Here, we consider the idea that prescriptive ecological art provides insufficient mental space for creative reflection about future scenarios of, and responses to, environmental change. We ask whether, by presenting a limited range of possibilities in ecological art, we limit the range of options that viewers consider in deciding on possible actions that they could take to slow or halt environmental decline. We conclude by asking how we artists and scientists can best engage diverse audiences in critically thinking about, and taking action to mitigate, environmental change. These questions and issues are addressed through a discussion of two of our recent ecological art installations: Hemlock Hospice and Warming Warning

Star Formation History in Barred Spiral Galaxies. AGN Feedback

We present a numerical study of the impact of AGN accretion and feedback on the star formation history of barred disc galaxies. Our goal is to determine whether the effect of feedback is positive (enhanced star formation) or negative (quenched star formation), and to what extent. We performed a series of 12 hydrodynamical simulations of disc galaxies, 10 barred and 2 unbarred, with various initial gas fractions and AGN feedback prescriptions. In barred galaxies, gas is driven toward the centre of the galaxy and causes a starburst, followed by a slow decay, while in unbarred galaxies the SFR increases slowly and steadily. AGN feedback suppresses star formation near the central black hole. Gas is pushed away from the black hole, and collides head-on with inflowing gas, forming a dense ring at a finite radius where star formation is enhanced. We conclude that both negative and positive feedback are present, and these effects mostly cancel out. There is no net quenching or enhancement in star formation, but rather a displacement of the star formation sites to larger radii. In unbarred galaxies, where the density of the central gas is lower, quenching of star formation near the black hole is more efficient, and enhancement of star formation at larger radii is less efficient. As a result, negative feedback dominates. Lowering the gas fraction reduces the star formation rate at all radii, whether or not there is a bar or an AGN.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA