A Top-down and Bottom-up look at Emissions Abatement in Germany in response to the EU ETS

This paper uses top-down trend analysis and a bottom-up power sector model to define upper and lower boundaries on abatement in Germany in the first phase of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (2005-2007). Long-term trend analysis reveals the decoupling of economic activity and carbon emissions in Germany that has occurred since 1996 and has accelerated since 2005, in response to rising commodities prices, the introduction of a carbon trading, and other measures undertaken in Germany. Differing emission intensity trends and emissions counterfactuals are constructed using emissions, power generation, and macroeconomic data. Resulting top-down estimates set the upper bound of abatement in Phase I at 121.9 mn tons for all EU-ETS sectors and 56.7 mn tons for the power sector only. Using the tuned version of the model “E-simulate” a lower boundary of Phase I abatement is established at 13.2 million tons, based only on fuel switching in the power sector, which constitutes 61% of German ETS sector emissions. The paper characterizes abatement, critically discusses the underlying assumptions of the outcomes, and examines the impact of two main factors on power sector abatement, namely price and load.Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research

Designing a U.S. Market for CO2

Abstract and PDF report are also available on the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change website (http://globalchange.mit.edu/).In this paper we focus on one component of the cap-and-trade system: the markets that arise for trading allowances after they have been allocated or auctioned. The efficient functioning of the market is key to the success of cap-and-trade as a system. We review the performance of the EU CO2 market and the U.S. SO2 market and examine how the flexibility afforded by banking and borrowing, and the limitations on banking and borrowing, have impacted the evolution of price in both markets. While both markets have generally functioned well, certain episodes illustrate the importance of designing the rules to encourage liquidity in the market.The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support for this work provided by the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change through a consortium of industrial sponsors and Federal grants. This research was also supported by a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

Magmatism, serpentinization and life: Insights through drilling the Atlantis Massif (IODP Expedition 357)

IODP Expedition 357 used two seabed drills to core 17 shallow holes at 9 sites across Atlantis Massif ocean core complex (Mid-Atlantic Ridge 30°N). The goals of this expedition were to investigate serpentinization processes and microbial activity in the shallow subsurface of highly altered ultramafic and mafic sequences that have been uplifted to the seafloor along a major detachment fault zone. More than 57 m of core were recovered, with borehole penetration ranging from 1.3 to 16.4 meters below seafloor, and core recovery as high as 75% of total penetration in one borehole. The cores show highly heterogeneous rock types and alteration associated with changes in bulk rock chemistry that reflect multiple phases of magmatism, fluid-rock interaction and mass transfer within the detachment fault zone. Recovered ultramafic rocks are dominated by pervasively serpentinized harzburgite with intervals of serpentinized dunite and minor pyroxenite veins; gabbroic rocks occur as melt impregnations and veins. Dolerite intrusions and basaltic rocks represent the latest magmatic activity. The proportion of mafic rocks is volumetrically less than the amount of mafic rocks recovered previously by drilling the central dome of Atlantis Massif at IODP Site U1309. This suggests a different mode of melt accumulation in the mantle peridotites at the ridge-transform intersection and/or a tectonic transposition of rock types within a complex detachment fault zone. The cores revealed a high degree of serpentinization and metasomatic alteration dominated by talc-amphibole-chlorite overprinting. Metasomatism is most prevalent at contacts between ultramafic and mafic domains (gabbroic and/or doleritic intrusions) and points to channeled fluid flow and silica mobility during exhumation along the detachment fault. The presence of the mafic lenses within the serpentinites and their alteration to mechanically weak talc, serpentine and chlorite may also be critical in the development of the detachment fault zone and may aid in continued unroofing of the upper mantle peridotite/gabbro sequences. New technologies were also developed for the seabed drills to enable biogeochemical and microbiological characterization of the environment. An in situ sensor package and water sampling system recorded real-time variations in dissolved methane, oxygen, pH, oxidation reduction potential (Eh), and temperature and during drilling and sampled bottom water after drilling. Systematic excursions in these parameters together with elevated hydrogen and methane concentrations in post-drilling fluids provide evidence for active serpentinization at all sites. In addition, chemical tracers were delivered into the drilling fluids for contamination testing, and a borehole plug system was successfully deployed at some sites for future fluid sampling. A major achievement of IODP Expedition 357 was to obtain microbiological samples along a west–east profile, which will provide a better understanding of how microbial communities evolve as ultramafic and mafic rocks are altered and emplaced on the seafloor. Strict sampling handling protocols allowed for very low limits of microbial cell detection, and our results show that the Atlantis Massif subsurface contains a relatively low density of microbial life

Proceedings of the Symposium on the Non-Proliferation Experiment: Results and Implications for Test Ban Treaties, Rockville, Maryland, April 19-21, 1994

To address a critical verification issue for the current Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and for a possible future Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), the Department of Energy sought to measure certain differences between an underground nuclear test and a chemical test in the same geology, so that other explosions could be identified. This was done in a field experiment code-named the NonProliferation Experiment (NPE).This comprehensive experiment was designed to determine the signatures of chemical explosions for a broad range of phenomena for comparison with those of previous nuclear tests. If significant differences can be measured, then these measures can be used to discriminate between the two types of explosions. In addition, when these differences are understood, large chemical explosions can be used to seismically calibrate regions to discriminate earthquakes from explosions. Toward this end, on-site and off-site measurements of transient phenomena were made, and on-site measurements of residual effects are in progress.Perhaps the most striking result was that the source function for the chemical explosion was identical to that of a nuclear one of about twice the yield. These proceedings provide more detailed results of the experiment

Perilaku prokrastinasi mahasiswa Fakultas Psikologi ditinjau dari pengambilan keputusan

Perilaku prokrastinasi merupakan sebuah bentuk perilaku penundaan dalam melakukan tugas yang dikerjakan. Perilaku penundaan yang dilakukan dengan tujuan untuk memperoleh tingkat kenyamanan tertentu dalam melakukan tugas tersebut. Perilaku ini berhubungan hampir dengan semua bentuk pekerjaan, salah satunya adalah mahasiswa. Steel memberikan gambaran bahwa perilaku prokrastinasi merupakan sebuah bentuk perilaku yang didasari oleh kesadaran penuh pelaku prokrastinasi. Dengan sadar akan konsekuensi negatif yang mungkin muncul sebagai akibat dari melakukan penundaan tersebut, maka tindakan penundaan lahir sebagai sebuah bentuk perilaku tetap. Kesadaran penuh dari pelaku prokrastinasi merupakan salah satu bentuk dari proses pengambilan keputusan yang dijabarkan oleh Siagian sebagai pendekatan sistematis sesuai dengan problematika masalah yang dihadapi. Dengan dasar inilah, peneliti tertarik untuk mengetahui apakah ada hubungan antara Perilaku prokrastinasi mahasiswa Fakultas Psikologi UKWMS dengan proses pengambilan keputusan. Subjek penelitian adalah 97 mahasiswa Fakultas Psikologi Unika Widya Mandala Surabaya. Subjek diambil dengan menggunakan metode incidental. Data diambil dengan mengunakan dua skala yaitu skala perilaku prokrastinasi dan skala pengambilan keputusan. Teknik analisa data menggunakan teknik analisa data product moment dari Pearson. Hasil analisa menunjukan koefisien korelasi sebesar -0.371 dengan p = 0.000 (p < 0.05). Dengan demikian, hasil penelitian menunjukan bahwa ada hubungan yang negatif antara perilaku prokrastinasi dengan pengambilan keputusan, dimana semain tinggi tingkat kecenderungan perilaku prokrastinasi mahasiswa, maka semakin buruk kualitas dari pengambilan keputusan mahasiswa tersebut. Sebaliknya semakin rendah tingkat perilaku prokrastinasi seorang mahasiswa, maka semakin baik pula pengambilan keputusan yang dibuatnya. Sumbangan efektif variabel pengambilan keputusan terhadap variabel perilaku prokrastinasi sebesar 13.76%. Sedangkan sebanyak 86.24% merupakan faktor lain yang mempengaruhi individu dalam melakukan periaku prokrastinasi

The Seven Sisters Hydrothermal System: First Record of Shallow Hybrid Mineralization Hosted in Mafic Volcaniclasts on the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge

We document the discovery of an active, shallow, seafloor hydrothermal system (known as the Seven Sisters Vent Field) hosted in mafic volcaniclasts at a mid-ocean ridge setting. The vent field is located at the southern part of the Arctic mid-ocean ridge where it lies on top of a flat-topped volcano at ~130 m depth. Up to 200 °C phase-separating fluids vent from summit depressions in the volcano, and from pinnacle-like edifices on top of large hydrothermal mounds. The hydrothermal mineralization at Seven Sisters manifests as a replacement of mafic volcaniclasts, as direct intraclast precipitation from the hydrothermal fluid, and as elemental sulfur deposition within orifices. Barite is ubiquitous, and is sequentially replaced by pyrite, which is the first sulfide to form, followed by Zn-Cu-Pb-Ag bearing sulfides, sulfosalts, and silica. The mineralized rocks at Seven Sisters contain highly anomalous concentrations of ‘epithermal suite’ elements such as Tl, As, Sb and Hg, with secondary alteration assemblages including silica and dickite. Vent fluids have a pH of ~5 and are Ba and metal depleted. Relatively high dissolved Si (~7.6 mmol/L Si) combined with low (0.2–0.4) Fe/Mn suggest high-temperature reactions at ~150 bar. A δ13C value of −5.4‰ in CO2 dominated fluids denotes magmatic degassing from a relatively undegassed reservoir. Furthermore, low CH4 and H2 (<0.026 mmol/kg and <0.009 mmol/kg, respectively) and 3He/4He of ~8.3 R/Racorr support a MORB-like, sediment-free fluid signature from an upper mantle source. Sulfide and secondary alteration mineralogy, fluid and gas chemistry, as well as δ34S and 87Sr/86Sr values in barite and pyrite indicate that mineralization at Seven Sisters is sustained by the input of magmatic fluids with minimal seawater contribution. 226Ra/Ba radiometric dating of the barite suggests that this hydrothermal system has been active for at least 4670 ± 60 yr