The European Commission's Proposal for a Financial Transactions Tax: A Critical Assessment

A financial activities tax (FAT) and a financial transactions tax (FTT) are the main alternative ways of recouping some of the public money used to bail out the financial sector after the great crisis of 2007–08. In preparing a common proposal for the European Union, the European Commission initially appeared to favour the FAT, but then swung its weight behind the FTT in late 2011. Its rationale was that in addition to generating revenue, this tax could also help to stabilize the financial markets by curbing excessive speculative trading. This article takes a different position. Its central argument is that the FTT would amplify rather than dampen market instability by interfering with the functions of important financial institutions. Its chief conclusion is that the FAT is superior to the FTT

Concentrations of organic contaminants in industrial and municipal bioresources recycled in agriculture in the UK

Many types of bioresource materials are recycled in agriculture for soil improvement and as bedding materials for livestock and have potential for transfer into plant and animal foods. Representative types of industrial and municipal bioresources were selected to assess the extent of organic chemical contamination, including: (i) land applied materials: treated sewage sludge biosolids), meat and bone meal ash (MBMA), poultry litter ash (PLA), paper sludge ash (PSA) and compost-like-output (CLO), and (ii) bedding materials: recycled waste wood (RWW), dried paper sludge (DPS), paper sludge ash (PSA) and shredded cardboard. The materials generally contained lower concentrations of polychlorinated dibenzo-pdioxins/dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) relative to earlier reports, indicating the decline in environmental emissions of these established contaminants. However, concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) remain elevated in biosolids samples from urban catchments. Polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins/dibenzofurans (PBDD/Fs) were present in larger amounts in biosolids and CLO compared to their chlorinated counterparts and hence are of potentially greater significance in contemporary materials. The presence of non-ortho-polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in DPS was probably due to non-legacy sources of PCBs in paper production. Emerging flame retardant compounds, including: decabromodiphenylethane (DBDPE)and organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs), were detected in several of the materials. The profile of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) depended on the type of waste category; perfluoroundecanoic acid (PFUnDA) was the most significant PFAS for DPS, whereas perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) was dominant in biosolids and CLO. The concentrations of polychlorinated alkanes (PCAs) and di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) were generally much larger than the other contaminants measured, indicating that there are major anthropogenic sources of these potentially hazardous chemicals entering the environment. The study results suggest that continued vigilance is required to control emissions and sources of these contaminants to support the beneficial use of secondary bioresource materials

Water accounting for stressed river basins based on water resources management models

[EN] Water planning and the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) represent the best way to help decision makers to identify and choose the most adequate alternatives among other possible ones. The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting for Water (SEEA-W) is displayed as a tool for the building of water balances in a river basin, providing a standard approach to achieve comparability of the results between different territories. The target of this paper is to present the building up of a tool that enables the combined use of hydrological models and water resources models to fill in the SEEA-W tables. At every step of the modelling chain, we are capable to build the asset accounts and the physical water supply and use tables according to SEEA-W approach along with an estimation of the water services costs. The case study is the Jucar River Basin District (RBD), located in the eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula in Spain which as in other many Mediterranean basins is currently water-stressed. To guide this work we have used PATRICAL model in combination with AQUATOOL Decision Support System (DSS). The results indicate that for the average year the total use of water in the district amounts to 15,143 hm3/year, being the Total Water Renewable Water Resources 3909 hm3/year. On the other hand, the water service costs in Jucar RBD amounts to 1634 million per year at constant 2012 prices. It is noteworthy that 9% of these costs correspond to non-conventional resources, such as desalinated water, reused water and water transferred from other regions.The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments, suggestions and positive feedback. All remaining errors, however, are solely the responsibility of the authors. We would also like to express our gratitude to the Jucar River Basin Authority – Confederación Hidrográfica del Júcar (Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment) for providing data to develop this study. The authors wish to thank the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for its financial support through the NUTEGES project (CGL2012-34978). We also value the support provided by the European Community's Seventh Framework Program in financing the projects ENHANCE (FP7-ENV2012, 308438) and IMPREX (H2020-WATER-2014-2015, 641811).Pedro Monzonís, M.; Solera Solera, A.; Ferrer Polo, FJ.; Andreu Álvarez, J.; Estrela Monreal, T. (2016). Water accounting for stressed river basins based on water resources management models. The Science of The Total Environment. 565:181-190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.04.161S18119056

How certain are greenhouse gas reductions from bioenergy? Life cycle assessment and uncertainty analysis of wood pellet-to-electricity supply chains from forest residues

Climate change and energy policies often encourage bioenergy as a sustainable greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction option. Recent research has raised concerns about the climate change impacts of bioenergy as heterogeneous pathways of producing and converting biomass, indirect impacts, uncertainties within the bioenergy supply chains and evaluation methods generate large variation in emission profiles. This research examines the combustion of wood pellets from forest residues to generate electricity and considers uncertainties related to GHG emissions arising at different points within the supply chain. Different supply chain pathways were investigated by using life cycle assessment (LCA) to analyse the emissions and sensitivity analysis was used to identify the most significant factors influencing the overall GHG balance. The calculations showed in the best case results in GHG reductions of 83% compared to coal-fired electricity generation. When parameters such as different drying fuels, storage emission, dry matter losses and feedstock market changes were included the bioenergy emission profiles showed strong variation with up to 73% higher GHG emissions compared to coal. The impact of methane emissions during storage has shown to be particularly significant regarding uncertainty and increases in emissions. Investigation and management of losses and emissions during storage is therefore key to ensuring significant GHG reductions from biomass

Compilation of a panel of informative single nucleotide polymorphisms for bovine identification in the Northern Irish cattle population

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Animal identification is pivotal in governmental agricultural policy, enabling the management of subsidy payments, movement of livestock, test scheduling and control of disease. Advances in bovine genomics have made it possible to utilise inherent genetic variability to uniquely identify individual animals by DNA profiling, much as has been achieved with humans over the past 20 years. A DNA profiling test based on bi-allelic single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers would offer considerable advantages over current short tandem repeat (STR) based industry standard tests, in that it would be easier to analyse and interpret. In this study, a panel of 51 genome-wide SNPs were genotyped across panels of semen DNA from 6 common breeds for the purposes of ascertaining allelic frequency. For SNPs on the same chromosome, the extent of linkage disequilbrium was determined from genotype data by Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm. Minimum probabilities of unique identification were determined for each breed panel. The usefulness of this SNP panel was ascertained by comparison to the current bovine STR Stockmarks II assay. A statistically representative random sampling of bovine animals from across Northern Ireland was assembled for the purposes of determining the population allele frequency for these STR loci and subsequently, the minimal probability of unique identification they conferred in sampled bovine animals from Northern Ireland.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>6 SNPs exhibiting a minor allele frequency of less than 0.2 in more than 3 of the breed panels were excluded. 2 Further SNPs were found to reside in coding areas of the cattle genome and were excluded from the final panel. The remaining 43 SNPs exhibited genotype frequencies which were in Hardy Weinberg Equilibrium. SNPs on the same chromosome were observed to have no significant linkage disequilibrium/allelic association. Minimal probabilities of uniquely identifying individual animals from each of the breeds were obtained and were observed to be superior to those conferred by the industry standard STR assay.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The 43 SNPs characterised herein may constitute a starting point for the development of a SNP based DNA identification test for European cattle.</p

Exploring marine ecosystems with elementary school Portuguese children: inquiry-based project activities focused on ‘real-life’ contexts

The purpose of the study was to investigate how young students engage in an inquirybased project driven by real-life contexts. Elementary school children were engaged in a small inquiry project centred on marine biodiversity and species adaptations. All activities included the exploration of an out-of-school setting as a learning context. A total of 49 students and 2 teachers were involved in the activities. The research methods included observation, document analysis and content analysis of the answers to a questionnaire and an interview. The results revealed that most of the students acquired scientific knowledge related to biological diversity and adaptations to habitat. Moreover, students progressively demonstrate greater autonomy, argumentative ability and decision-making. One implication of the present study is that elementary science curriculum could be better managed with inquiry projectbased activities that explore different types of resources and out-of-school settings.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Impacts of land use change to short rotation forestry for bioenergy on soil greenhouse gas emissions and soil carbon

Short Rotation Forestry (SRF) for bioenergy could be used to meet biomass requirements and contribute to achieving renewable energy targets. As an important source of biomass it is important to gain an understanding of the implications of large-scale application of SRF on the soil-atmosphere greenhouse gas (GHG) exchange. This study examined the effects of land use change (LUC) from grassland to SRF on soil fluxes of methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2), and the important drivers in action. Examining soils from a range of sites across the UK, CO2 emission potentials were reduced under SRF with differences between coniferous and broadleaved transitions; these changes were found to be related to changes in soil pH and microbial biomass. However, there were limited effects of SRF tree species type on CH4 and N2O fluxes. A detailed study at an experimental SRF site over 16 months demonstrated a reduction in CH4 and net CO2 emissions from soils under SRF and revealed intriguing temporal dynamics of N2O under Sitka spruce and common alder. A significant proportion of the variation in soil N2O fluxes was attributed to differences between tree species, water table depth, spatial effects, and their interactions. The effects of microtopography (ridges, troughs, flats), and its interactions with water table depth on soil GHG fluxes under different tree species was tested using mesocosm cores collected in the field. Microtopography did not significantly affect soil GHG fluxes but trends suggested that considering this spatial factor in sampling regimes could be important. N2O fluxes from Sitka spruce soils did not respond to water table depth manipulation in the laboratory suggesting that they may also be determined by tree-driven nitrogen (N) availability, with other research showing N deposition to be higher in coniferous plantations. An N addition experiment lead to increased N2O emissions with greatest relative response in the Sitka spruce soils. Overall, LUC from rough grassland to SRF resulted in a reduction in soil CH4 emissions, increased N2O emissions and a reduction or no change in net CO2 emissions. These changes in emissions were influenced both directly and indirectly by tree species type with Sitka spruce having the greatest effect on N2O in particular, thus highlighting the importance of considering soil N2O emissions in any life cycle analysis or GHG budgets of LUC to SRF for bioenergy. This research can help inform decisions around SRF tree species selection in future large-scale bioenergy planting