Assessing latin@ public opinion on foreign affairs and its potential impact on the 2012 presidential election

As the Latin@ population of the United States grows and the “Sleeping Giant” is expected to play a more significant role in the nation’s elections and governance more attention must be paid to the factors influencing Latin@ public opinion and political behavior on a myriad of issues. While there is a growing literature addressing Latin@ partisanship and opinion on issues such as morality and social welfare programs, there is a dearth of information regarding their opinion on foreign affairs and policy outside of Latin America. We review the limited studies that exist examining Latin@ opinion on policy issues and then explain why this can and will matter in Latin@ voting behavior and finally, using data from the 2006 Pew Hispanic Center survey on Latin@s and Religion in the U.S., we explain how such factors as religion, country of origin and ideology influence Latin@ public opinion on foreign affairs demonstrating a need for much greater study in this area.A medida que la población latina de los Estados Unidos crece, se espera que el "gigante dormido" desempeñe un papel más importante en las elecciones presidenciales y el gobierno debe prestar más atención a los factores que influyen en la opinión pública latina y el comportamiento político de una gran variedad de temas. Si bien existe una bibliografía cada vez mayor para abordar el partidismo latina y opinión acerca de asuntos tales como la moralidad y programas de bienestar social, hay una escasez de información acerca de su opinión sobre los asuntos exteriores y la política exterior de América Latina. Examinamos los estudios limitados que existen en el examen de la opinión latina en temas de política y para luego explicar por qué esto puede y será importante en el comportamiento del voto latino y, por último, utilizando los datos de la encuesta de 2006 del Pew Hispanic Center sobre los latinos y la religión en los EE.UU., se explica cómo tales factores como la religión, país de origen y la ideología influyen en la opinión pública hispana en asuntos exteriores que demuestren una necesidad de un estudio mucho mayor en este área

Energy flows and greenhouses gases of EU (European Union) national breads using an LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) approach

Abstract Bread represents a staple food in many parts of the world including Europe. Depending on the region of origin and the respective cultural heritage bread is made with different ingredients and is consumed in various forms. This work consists of an environmental sustainability assessment of 21 different types of bread, representing a wide spectrum of typologies of such food consumed across the European Union, via a Life Cycle Assessment approach. The embedded energy and equivalent greenhouse gas emissions of each type of bread were estimated, from cradle to bakery gate, by considering a mass, a nutritional value and a price based functional unit. Overall, the results have highlighted the variability of the embedded energy and the equivalent GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions associated to the consumption of the 21 kinds of bread rooted in the cultural environment of 21 EU countries. When considering a functional unit of 1 kg of bread, the Cumulative Energy Demand results range from 9 MJ/kg to 32.9 MJ/kg. The Global Warming Potential indicator has a minimum value of 0.5 kgCO 2eq /kg and a maximum of 6.6 kgCO 2eq /kg. For a functional unit amounting to a 100 kcal provided by the consumption of bread, the Cumulative Energy Demand results vary from 0.33 MJ/100 kcal to 0.93 MJ/100 kcal whilst the Global Warming Potential indicator varies from 0.019 kgCO 2eq /100 kcal to 0.135 kgCO 2eq /100 kcal. For a functional unit amounting to the quantity of bread purchased with 1€ (weighted according to the purchasing price of each nation in the European Union), the Cumulative Energy Demand results vary from 1.197 MJ/€ to 3.708 MJ/€ whilst the Global Warming Potential indicator varies from 0.15 kgCO2 eq /€ to 0.376 kgCO2 eq /€. The study has pinpointed the importance of evaluating food, in terms of environmental sustainability, with more than one type of functional unit in order to account not only for the bread's nutritional purposes but also the need to satisfy social, cultural, hedonistic and other qualitative functions. Specifically, when using a mass based functional unit, the less impactful results involve bread types with simple recipes, based essentially on flour, yeast and water. By assessing the breads with an energy based functional unit, bread types which also contain vegetable oils and small amounts of animal based ingredients result as more carbon and energy friendly. The use of a price based functional unit indicates that the higher priced bread types, manufactured with more expensive ingredients that are produced in an environmentally efficient manner, are the more sustainable ones. Overall, for many types of bread, the energy consumption during the production phase, in particular the baking process, represents a hot spot and is dependent on the size and shape of the bread. Furthermore, the efficiency of ingredient production (in terms of material and energy use and in terms of the respective yields of each nation in the European Union), such as that of milk and flour, also influences the sustainability of the bread types

Renewable Energy Snapshots 2010

These Renewable Energy Snapshots are based on various data providers including grey data sources and tries to give an overview about the latest developments and trends in the different technologies. Due to the fact that unconsolidated data are used there is an uncertainty margin which should not be neglected. We have cross checked and validate the different data against each others, but do not take any responsibility about the use of these data.JRC.DDG.F.8-Renewable Energy (Ispra

Renewable Energy Snapshot 2013

Penetration and deployment of some key renewable energy sources in Europe is analysed on the basis of the latest available data and statistics.JRC.F.7-Renewable Energ

Snapshots of renewable energy developments in the European Union. Status in 2010 and progress in comparison with National Renewable Energy Action Plans.

This report presents a snapshot of the use of renewable energy in the European Union in 2010, the progress and the deviations from the targets set in the National Renewable Energy Action Plans. The report describe the developments in the overall contribution of renewable energy in each Member State since 2005 according to their first Progress Reports, the progress made in the use of each renewable energy source and their share in heating and cooling, electricity and in transport sector.JRC.F.7-Renewable Energ

Renewable Energy Progress in EU 27 (2005-2020)

The report present the combined analysis of EU 27 National Renewable Energy Action Plans and Progress Reports to identify the 2005-2010 and 2010-2020 trends of the renewable energy development in three main sectors: Electricity, Heating/Cooling and Transport. The planned development of these sectors and each renewable technology in EU 27 is compared with the actual development achieved in the same time span and the expected trend to reach 2020 target is compared with the planned one.JRC.F.7-Renewable Energ

Sustainable use of biomass in residential sector

In the framework of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR), biomass burning for heat production in households has emerged as a major issue where a better balance between “decarbonisation” benefits and negative impacts on air quality, the environment and human health is needed. This report provides a synthesis of the current knowledge, leading the reader from problem formulation, to impact analysis and suggested solutions, both from the technical and regulatory points of view.JRC.C.5-Air and Climat

The Effects of Increased Demand for Biofuels Feedstocks on the World Agricultural Markets and Areas - Outcomes of a Workshop 10-11 February 2010, Ispra (Italy)

This study is performed under request of DG CLIMA, in support to the preparation of the policy proposal on the assessment of the effects of Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC). Agro-economic models are used to provide estimates of how much cropland area increases in response to an increase in crop demand, but they often differ in their structure (i.e. partial or full equilibrium, agro-economic, bioenergy and biophysical models etc), in the input parameters, baseline and scenarios studied. The European Commission (EC) is debating internally how to address ILUC emissions in biofuels legislation. Legislators need to understand how ILUC differs between biofuels from different feedstocks and regions. In fact, if ILUC emissions are to be added to direct emissions in legislation, they need to be quantitatively assessed for all biofuels/feedstocks. Anyway, to compare model results it is necessary at least to compare the results vs. baseline per unit quantity of biofuel. For these reasons the JRC proposed to carry out a survey of marginal calculations from various models/methods developed by the relevant consortia in EU and US, to compare results from marginal shocks along the lines of recommended common scenarios discussed with the involved experts: A marginal extra ethanol demand in EU B marginal extra biodiesel demand in EU C marginal extra ethanol demand in US D marginal extra palm oil demand in EU (for biodiesel or pure plant oil use) For modelling the GHG efficiency of different feedstock, the experts agreed that the extra biofuels scenarios should optimally be marginal increases in demand for different biofuels-feedstock in different regions. These results would be relatively easy to compare between scenarios. Results of this survey were discussed during a workshop organized by the JRC in Ispra on 10th and 11th of February 2010, and this report presents the outcomes of the workshop, highlighting the main results of the studies and key points raised in the concluding discussion.JRC.DDG.F.8-Renewable Energy (Ispra

Thermodynamic modeling of hydrogen refueling for heavy-duty fuel cell buses and comparison with aggregated real data

Abstract The foreseen uptake of hydrogen mobility is a fundamental step towards the decarbonization of the transport sector. Under such premises, both refueling infrastructure and vehicles should be deployed together with improved refueling protocols. Several studies focus on refueling the light-duty vehicles with 10 kgH2 up to 700 bar, however less known effort is reported for refueling heavy-duty vehicles with 30–40 kgH2 at 350 bar. The present study illustrates the application of a lumped model to a fuel cell bus tank-to-tank refueling event, tailored upon the real data acquired in the 3Emotion Project. The evolution of the main refueling quantities, such as pressure, temperature, and mass flow, are predicted dynamically throughout the refueling process, as a function of the operating parameters, within the safety limits imposed by SAE J2601/2 technical standard. The results show to refuel the vehicle tank from half to full capacity with an Average Pressure Ramp Rate (APRR) equal to 0.03 MPa/s are needed about 10 min. Furthermore, it is found that the effect of varying the initial vehicle tank pressure is more significant than changing the ambient temperature on the refueling performances. In conclusion, the analysis of the effect of different APRR, from 0.03 to 0.1 MPa/s, indicate that is possible to safely reduce the duration of half-to-full refueling by 62% increasing the APRR value from 0.03 to 0.08 MPa/s

The Economic Impact and Carbon Footprint Dependence of Energy Management Strategies in Hydrogen-Based Microgrids

This paper presents an economic impact analysis and carbon footprint study of a hydrogen-based microgrid. The economic impact is evaluated with respect to investment costs, operation and maintenance (O&M) costs, as well as savings, taking into account two different energy management strategies (EMSs): a hydrogen-based priority strategy and a battery-based priority strategy. The research was carried out in a real microgrid located at the University of Huelva, in southwestern Spain. The results (which can be extrapolated to microgrids with a similar architecture) show that, although both strategies have the same initial investment costs (EUR 52,339.78), at the end of the microgrid lifespan, the hydrogen-based strategy requires higher replacement costs (EUR 74,177.4 vs. 17,537.88) and operation and maintenance costs (EUR 35,254.03 vs. 34,877.08), however, it provides better annual savings (EUR 36,753.05 vs. 36,282.58) and a lower carbon footprint (98.15% vs. 95.73% CO2 savings) than the battery-based strategy. Furthermore, in a scenario where CO2 emission prices are increasing, the hydrogen-based strategy will bring even higher annual cost savings in the coming years.This research was funded by the Spanish Government, grant (1) Ref: PID2020-116616RBC31 and grant (2) Ref: RED2022-134588-T REDGENERA