Les comunitats epistèmiques en el procés de formació de polítiques ambientals : el cas del canvi climàtic a Espanya

Aquest projecte té per objectiu avaluar l'existència, la composició, el paper i l'evolució d'una comunitat epistèmica en les polítiques contra el canvi climàtic a Espanya. Més concretament, els objectius principals són explicar la seva influència sobre aquest procés així com quins han estat els resultats de la seva actuació, tant sobre les polítiques domèstiques del govern espanyol com de la seva postura adoptada a l'arena europea i internacional

Search for gravitational-lensing signatures in the full third observing run of the LIGO-Virgo network

Gravitational lensing by massive objects along the line of sight to the source causes distortions of gravitational wave-signals; such distortions may reveal information about fundamental physics, cosmology and astrophysics. In this work, we have extended the search for lensing signatures to all binary black hole events from the third observing run of the LIGO--Virgo network. We search for repeated signals from strong lensing by 1) performing targeted searches for subthreshold signals, 2) calculating the degree of overlap amongst the intrinsic parameters and sky location of pairs of signals, 3) comparing the similarities of the spectrograms amongst pairs of signals, and 4) performing dual-signal Bayesian analysis that takes into account selection effects and astrophysical knowledge. We also search for distortions to the gravitational waveform caused by 1) frequency-independent phase shifts in strongly lensed images, and 2) frequency-dependent modulation of the amplitude and phase due to point masses. None of these searches yields significant evidence for lensing. Finally, we use the non-detection of gravitational-wave lensing to constrain the lensing rate based on the latest merger-rate estimates and the fraction of dark matter composed of compact objects

Les comunitats epistèmiques en el procés de formació de polítiques ambientals: el cas del canvi climàtic a Espanya

Aquest projecte té per objectiu avaluar l’existència, la composició, el paper i l’evolució d’una comunitat epistèmica en les polítiques contra el canvi climàtic a Espanya. Més concretament, els objectius principals són explicar la seva influència sobre aquest procés així com quins han estat els resultats de la seva actuació, tant sobre les polítiques domèstiques del govern espanyol com de la seva postura adoptada a l’arena europea i internacional

Roadmap to Rebound: How to Address Rebound Effects from Resource Efficiency Policy

Increasing demand for resources has been met with a new wave of resource efficiency policies worldwide. Such policies are, however, vulnerable to rebound effects when increased resource efficiency leads to additional resource use via behavioural and systemic responses. Yet, the implications of policy-induced rebounds are mostly unknown since most studies have focused on costless and exogenous efficiency improvements that are not linked to any specific policy intervention. After reviewing the literature, we provide guidance for the analysis of policy-induced rebounds. With regards to scope and method design, we highlight the untapped potential of life cycle assessment (to capture trade-offs between life cycle stages and environmental pressures) and macro-economic modelling (to reveal economic consequences beyond supply chain effects). We also find striking asymmetries in research efforts, leaving knowledge gaps for key resource efficiency strategies targeting, among others, materials, water, land, biodiversity, and waste. Lastly, rebound effects generally focus on a single resource, usually energy, and much is ignored about their implications in the context of resource interlinkages. A better understanding of such cross-resource rebounds is key to design and to assess the effectiveness of emerging policy paradigms such as the resource nexus and the sustainable development goals

Data_Sheet_1_Does the Circular Economy Grow the Pie? The Case of Rebound Effects From Smartphone Reuse.XLSX

<p>The environmental benefits of the circular economy (CE) are often taken for granted. There are, however, reasons to believe that rebound effects may counteract such benefits by increasing overall consumption or “growing the pie.” In this study, we focus on two main rebound mechanisms: (1) imperfect substitution between “re-circulated” (recycled, reused, etc.) and new products and (2) re-spending due to economic savings. We use the case study of smartphone reuse in the US to quantify, for the first time, rebound effects from reuse. Using a combination of life cycle assessment, sales statistics, consumer surveying, consumer demand modeling, and environmentally-extended input-output analysis, we quantify the magnitude of this rebound effect for life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions. We find a rebound effect of 29% on average, with a range of 27–46% for specific smartphone models. Moreover, when exploring how rebound might play out in other regions and under different consumer behavior patterns, we find that rebound effects could be higher than 100% (backfire effect). In other words, we estimate that about one third, and potentially the entirety, of emission savings resulting from smartphone reuse could be lost due to the rebound effect. Our results thus suggest that there are grounds to challenge the premise that CE strategies, and reuse in particular, always reduce environmental burdens.</p

Do Methodological Choices in Environmental Modeling Bias Rebound Effects? A Case Study on Electric Cars

Improvements in resource efficiency often underperform because of rebound effects. Calculations of the size of rebound effects are subject to various types of bias, among which methodological choices have received particular attention. Modellers have primarily focused on choices related to changes in demand, however, choices related to modeling the environmental burdens from such changes have received less attention. In this study, we analyze choices in the environmental assessment methods (life cycle assessment (LCA) and hybrid LCA) and environmental input–output databases (E3IOT, Exiobase and WIOD) used as a source of bias. The analysis is done for a case study on battery electric and hydrogen cars in Europe. The results describe moderate rebound effects for both technologies in the short term. Additionally, long-run scenarios are calculated by simulating the total cost of ownership, which describe notable rebound effect sizesfrom 26 to 59% and from 18 to 28%, respectively, depending on the methodological choiceswith favorable economic conditions. Relevant sources of bias are found to be related to incomplete background systems, technology assumptions and sectorial aggregation. These findings highlight the importance of the method setup and of sensitivity analyses of choices related to environmental modeling in rebound effect assessments

Les comunitats epistèmiques en el procés de formació de polítiques ambientals : el cas del canvi climàtic a Espanya

Aquest projecte té per objectiu avaluar l'existència, la composició, el paper i l'evolució d'una comunitat epistèmica en les polítiques contra el canvi climàtic a Espanya. Més concretament, els objectius principals són explicar la seva influència sobre aquest procés així com quins han estat els resultats de la seva actuació, tant sobre les polítiques domèstiques del govern espanyol com de la seva postura adoptada a l'arena europea i internacional

Research data supporting “A holistic approach to the environmental evaluation of food waste prevention”

The microeconomic rebound effect consists of a direct and indirect effect: the direct effect is related to the additional demand for the product that has been subject to an efficiency improvement (i.e. additional demand for some categories of food, where the efficiency improvement is an increase in the ratio between the food purchased and consumed), whereas the indirect effect refers to the additional demand in all other consumption categories. Tables attached below includes multipliers that could be used to determine the rebound effect associated with UK household savings in the UK. Data provided below is presented in two formats: Exiobase and COICOP. The readership is advised to refer to the paper for more details about the methodology utilised to generate these multipliers.BBSRC [BB/J014540/1