De betalingsbereidheid van de Vlaming voor het behoud van bouwkundig en landschappelijk erfgoed

De betalingsbereidheid van de Vlaming voor het behoud van bouwkundig en landschappelijk erfgoe

Farmres' Perceived Cost of Land Use restrictions: A Simulated Purchasing Decision Using Dscrete Choice Experiments

This paper reports on the findings from discrete choice experiments designed to estimate farmers’ perceived costs of land use restrictions, i.e. crop restrictions, additional fertilizing restrictions, and usage restrictions, as opposed to having no such restrictions. To this end, hypothetical land purchasing decisions were simulated based on the information about productivity, lot size, distance to other land, driving time to home, land use restrictions, and price. Farmers from the Campine area (Belgium) were invited to participate in the survey as the agricultural land in this region still faces the effects of historical heavy metal contamination resulting in crop restrictions. For identical pieces of land, we estimate the perceived cost, calculated as a change in the consumer surplus due to having a land use restriction, to be about 46,000 €/ha for the crop restriction, 50,000 €/ha for the usage restriction, and 70,000 €/ha for the fertilizing restrictions

Social influence and reduction of animal protein consumption among young adults:Insights from a socio-psychological model

Studying the drivers of animal protein consumption (APC), beyond just meat consumption, is of great importance as reducing APC has a high potential to mitigate climate change and other environmental issues. One known determinant of food behavior is the social environment. However, in pro-environmental literature, social contacts' influence on meat consumption is often limited to normative influence (social norms). Moreover, when social influence on other pro-environmental food behavior is examined, only the direct association without possibly underlying mechanisms and mostly short-term behaviors rather than usual dietary patterns are addressed. This study addresses these gaps by examining the pathways of mechanisms behind the influence of perceived APC reduction behavior by close social contacts on behavior - in our case self-reported APC behavior (social influence) among young adults (age 18–35). We propose a conceptual model that integrates traditional social influence theories from communication science and social psychological theories and considers social contacts' behavior an antecedent of TPB and NAM constructs. Cross-sectional survey data, including egocentric network data, were collected in January 2022 through an online citizen panel among 204 young adults. The results of Partial Least Squares – Structural Equation Modeling suggest that social contacts' perceived APC reduction behavior influences multiple psychological constructs beyond social norms (awareness of consequences, perceived behavioral control, social norms, and attitude) simultaneously. All constructs except for social norms are internalized into a personal norm, which then leads to an increased intention to reduce APC and a decreased self-reported APC. Altogether, our study identified mechanisms behind social influence, which can also be applied to other behaviors. Leveraging close social contacts may be a promising pathway for policy and changemakers to stimulate the internalization of psychological constructs related to APC reduction.</p

Economic and environmental multi-objective optimisation to evaluate the impact of belgian policy on solar power and electric vehicles

This research uses multi-objective optimisation to determine the optimal mixture of energy and transportation technologies, while optimising economic and environmental impacts. We demonstrate the added value of using multi-objective mixed integer linear programming (MOMILP) considering economies of scale versus using continuous multi-objective linear programming assuming average cost intervals. This paper uses an improved version to solve MOMILPs exactly. To differentiate optimal solutions with and without subsidies, the impact of policy on the Pareto frontier is assessed. We distinguish between minimising economic life cycle costs (complete rationality) and required investments (bounded rationality). The approach is illustrated using a Belgian company with demands for electricity and transport. Electricity technologies are solar photovoltaics and the grid; transportation includes internal combustion engine vehicles, grid powered battery electric vehicles (BEVs), and solarpowered BEVs. The impact of grid powered BEVs to reduce GHG emissions is limited, yet they are less costly than solar panels to decrease emissions. Current policy measures are found to be properly targeting rational investors who consider life cycle costs, while private (potentially bounded rational) investors often focus on required investments only

The future of organic photovoltaic solar cells as a direct power source for consumer electronics

As the search for marketable photovoltaic solar cells continues, organic photovoltaic (OPV) solar cells have been identified as a technology with many attractive features for commercialization. Most photovoltaic technologies on the market today were improved in the consumer electronics market segment. A similar evolution has been envisioned for OPV. Hence this paper investigates consumer preferences for solar cells directly powering consumer electronics. Choice experiments were designed and responses were collected using a random sample of 300 individuals from the Flemish region (northern part of Belgium). Results allow for computation of attribute importance, willingness to pay (WTP), and simulation of theoretical market share. These measures point towards OPV being able to reach considerable market share in the long run, bearing in mind that efforts are first needed in elevating OPV’s efficiency and lifetime as they most determine consumers’ preferences. Price is found to be the least important product characteristic for OPV solar cells to be incorporated in consumer electronics devices. We therefore warn against generalizing attributes’ importance across the bound- aries of market segments.status: publishe

Economic and Environmental Performances of Small-Scale Rural PV Solar Projects under the Clean Development Mechanism: The Case of Cambodia

The two core objectives of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) are cost-effective emission reduction and sustainable development. Despite the potential to contribute to both objectives, solar projects play a negligible role under the CDM. In this research, the greenhouse gas mitigation cost is used to evaluate the economic and environmental performances of small-scale rural photovoltaic solar projects. In particular, we compare the use of absolute and relative mitigation costs to evaluate the attractiveness of these projects under the CDM. We encourage the use of relative mitigation costs, implying consideration of baseline costs that render the projects profitable. Results of the mitigation cost analysis are dependent on the baseline chosen. To overcome this drawback, we complement the analysis with a multi-objective optimization approach, which allows quantifying the trade-off between economic and environmental performances of the optimal technologies without requiring a baseline