The Current Climate and Energy Policy in the EU and in Switzerland

This working paper is to discuss policy instruments which would, in principle, lend themselves for a scale-up of employer-led incentive schemes. Given that such an implementation requires financial transfers, our focus is on project-based CO2-markets and direct subsidy schemes to end-consumers. Up to the present, only Switzerland has implemented a credit-based emissions trading scheme on the domestic level. While, currently, the Swiss regime does not provide for a potential pooling of small-scale reductions, extending the scheme accordingly would engender only low additional cost. Other eligible regulations are dominated rather by state-set incentives, like subsidies, directly provided to households. Such schemes would be suitable for a pass-through via the employer. Yet, such a redirection of subsidies via firms seems to be more difficult to be implemented from a political and legal perspective. Still, these programmes provide solid support for the presumption that financial transfers provided within an employer-led incentive scheme can considerably speed up switches toward the use of “greener” technologies within households

Kapitel 24. Theorien des Wandels und der Gestaltung von Strukturen

Abschnitt 5 nimmt eine Bestandsaufnahme von Theorien vor, die in einem weiten Sinne Wandel untersuchen. „Theorien des Wandels“ ist ein Überbegriff für all diejenigen Theorien, die helfen, aktuelle Dynamiken der Klimakrise zu verstehen und sowohl die stattfindenden als auch die notwendigen Transformationen zu fassen

Kapitel 2: Perspektiven zur Analyse und Gestaltung von Strukturen für ein klimafreundliches Leben

Kapitel 2 systematisiert entlang von vier Perspektiven in den Sozialwissenschaften weit verbreitete Theorien zur Analyse und Gestaltung von Strukturen klimafreundlichen Lebens. Das Kapitel möchte Leser_innen des Berichts bewusst machen, mit wie grundlegend unterschiedlichen Zugängen Forscher_innen Strukturen klimafreundlichen Lebens analysieren. Dies ist wichtig, um zu verstehen, dass es nie nur eine, sondern immer mehrere Perspektiven auf Strukturen klimafreundlichen Lebens gibt. Dieses Bewusstsein hilft, die Komplexität der Sozialwissenschaften und damit die Komplexität der Aufgabe – Strukturen für ein klimafreundliches Leben zu gestalten – zu erfassen. Unterschiedliche Zugänge zu sehen, bedeutet auch, ein besseres Verständnis von konfligierenden Problemdiagnosen, Zielhorizonten und Gestaltungsoptionen zu entwickeln und – idealerweise – damit umgehen zu können

Artificial Modulation of the Gating Behavior of a K+ Channel in a KvAP-DNA Chimera

We present experiments where the gating behavior of a voltage-gated ion channel is modulated by artificial ligand binding. We construct a channel-DNA chimera with the KvAP potassium channel reconstituted in an artificial membrane. The channel is functional and the single channel ion conductivity unperturbed by the presence of the DNA. However, the channel opening probability vs. bias voltage, i.e., the gating, can be shifted considerably by the electrostatic force between the charges on the DNA and the voltage sensing domain of the protein. Different hybridization states of the chimera DNA thus lead to different response curves of the channel

Restricted Coasean Bargaining

We investigate the efficiency of Coasean bargaining when restrictions are placed on the set of feasible bargaining outcomes. When property rights are costly to (defend) appropriate, we find bargaining restrictions may be Pareto superior to unconstrained voluntary exchange. Under cost uncertainty over the externality, we show an efficient configuration of restrictions must balance the potential reduction in appropriation costs with the possibility of allocatively inefficient bargaining restrictions. For cases where the restrictions are contested, we show conditions for the continuing existence of welfare improvements