Assessing the Feasibility of Global Long-Term Mitigation Scenarios

This study explores the critical notion of how feasible it is to achieve long-term mitigation goals to limit global temperature change. It uses a model inter-comparison of three integrated assessment models (TIAM-Grantham, MESSAGE-GLOBIOM and WITCH) harmonized for socio-economic growth drivers using one of the new shared socio-economic pathways (SSP2), to analyse multiple mitigation scenarios aimed at different temperature changes in 2100, in order to assess the model outputs against a range of indicators developed so as to systematically compare the feasibility across scenarios. These indicators include mitigation costs and carbon prices, rates of emissions reductions and energy efficiency improvements, rates of deployment of key low-carbon technologies, reliance on negative emissions, and stranding of power generation assets. The results highlight how much more challenging the 2 °C goal is, when compared to the 2.5–4 °C goals, across virtually all measures of feasibility. Any delay in mitigation or limitation in technology options also renders the 2 °C goal much less feasible across the economic and technical dimensions explored. Finally, a sensitivity analysis indicates that aiming for less than 2 °C is even less plausible, with significantly higher mitigation costs and faster carbon price increases, significantly faster decarbonization and zero-carbon technology deployment rates, earlier occurrence of very significant carbon capture and earlier onset of global net negative emissions. Such a systematic analysis allows a more in-depth consideration of what realistic level of long-term temperature changes can be achieved and what adaptation strategies are therefore required

Air quality and health implications of 1.5–2°C climate pathways under considerations of ageing population: A multi-model scenario analysis

Low-carbon pathways consistent with the 2°C and 1.5°C long-term climate goals defined in the Paris Agreement are likely to induce substantial co-benefits for air pollution and associated health impacts. In this analysis, using five global integrated assessment models, we quantify the emission reductions in key air pollutants resulting from the decarbonization of energy systems and the resulting changes in premature mortality attributed to the exposure to ambient concentrations of fine particulate matter. The emission reductions differ by sectors. Sulfur emissions are mainly reduced from power plants and industry, cuts in nitrogen oxides are dominated by the transport sector, and the largest abatement of primary fine particles is achieved in the residential sector. The analysis also shows that health benefits are the largest when policies addressing climate change mitigation and stringent air pollution controls are coordinated. We decompose the key factors that determine the extent of health co-benefits, focusing on Asia: changes in emissions, urbanization rates, population growth and ageing. Demographic processes, particularly due to ageing population, counteract in many regions the mortality reductions realized through lower emissions

XXV. mezinárodní kolokvium o regionálních vědách

Title in English: 25th International Colloquium on Regional Sciences: Conference proceedings The conference proceedings consists of papers presented at the 25th International Colloquium on Regional Sciences that was organized by Department of Regional Economics and Administration FEA MU. It contains 57 articles arranged by topic. The individual articles deal with e.g. socioeconomic disparities among regions, regional policy, territory attractiveness, tourism, or regional public administration

Rozvoj miest a jeho financovanie

The importance of cities in the economic system of the country is unquestionable. They group and attract a large number of economic actors and allow them to realize intense economic interactions between them. To offer long-term benefits for inhabitants and entrepreneurs and remain attractive for them, cities need to develop continuously. Ensuring the development of the city means to create and acquire resources to increase its capacity and use of the available potential. This article deals with the financial capacity of Slovak cities, which reflects their ability to ensure their development. The financial capacity of Slovak cities was investigated in time period 2009 – 2014. Investigated were all 138 Slovak cities and they were divided into three size groups: small cities with population up to 20 000 inhabitants, medium-sized cities with population between 20 001 and 50 000 inhabitants and large cities over 50 001 inhabitants. The evaluation of financial capacity was realized on six indicators: current account balance, capital account balance, total debt, debt service, immediate liquidity and net worth. The comparison of the calculated values of each group showed that the highest amount of resources allocate to their development the group of largest cities. On the other hand, that group has also the highest debt

De-branching, too-much-branching, and cost of debt of SMEs in Slovakia

We investigate nonlinear effects of bank branch saturation on SMEs' cost of debt at regional level in Slovakia over the period 2013-2019. We adopt the two-step approach by first constructing model of bank branch localization, and then analyzing effects of positive and negative deviations from the equilibrium level. We observe negative effect of debranching, but report no effect of positive increase in deviations from equilibrium level on SMEs' cost of debt. The most affected firms are middle-sized, domestically owned, operating in low-tech industries, and with better creditworthiness. Bank market characteristics also tend to matter for pricing of firm's debt.Web of Scienc

Ľudský kapitál a lokálny ekonomický rast na Slovensku

Modern growth theories consider human capital as an important factor of economic growth. Cities play an important role in the production and concentration of human capital play. On their territories are located educational institutions such as universities or colleges that provide opportunities for economic actors to increase their education. They also create a space for the emergence and rapid spread of spill overs that spread inside and also outside of their territories. This article aims to examine the role of human capital in local economic growth in Slovak Republic. All 79 Slovak districts were examined and the observed time period was between the years of 2001 and 2015. For discovering the influence of the factor of human capital on the local economic growth a regression analysis was used. The main result is that the selected factor of human capital (represented by the growth index of inhabitants with tertiary education) had a positive and statistically significant influence on the economic growth of Slovakia’s districts (represented by the growth index of wages)

Growth of City Regions and Bank Branch Localization

Current research in regional science focuses on the relationships between production factors and their impact on the overall product of cities, as well as topics dealing with the contribution of different city sizes to the economic growth. However, the ongoing process of international financialization tightly linked to access to finance gains on importance as the financial sector serves as a conduit for capital transformation in space. This article examines the economic growth of Slovak city regions and estimates the effect of access to finance measured by bank branches availability in these regions, once controlling for the standard impact of production factors. We construct non-overlapping three 5-years periods panel for more than 60 Slovak urban regions and combine it with data on bank branches localization on the county level and for major domestic commercial banks. The standard Cobb-Douglas production function is utilized with regional output calculated for firms with more than 20 employees and measures of physical and quantity and quality of human capital as conditioning variables. The characteristics of individual banks with bank branches located inside the city regions are included in order to investigate quality effect of financialization process. In order to control for time-invariant region-specific effect we use fixed effect panel model. Potential endogeneity issue between regional productivity and bank branch localization is addressed by the use of IV-2SLS estimator

Changes in knowledge strategies under the COVID-19 pandemic A tale of European coworking spaces

the present chapter addresses a research gap by exploring whether and how the collaborative communities represented by CSs tried to maintain viable knowledge strategies even during the COVID-19 pandemic. This goal is achieved through an analysis of selected European CSs practicing knowledge sharing and R&D activities. The methodology consists of semi-structured interviews with CSs managers in two time periods: 2017 and 2021. In sum, the rationale of the research is to frst stress the diferences and similarities in knowledge strategies that CS managers have developed and implemented regularly during the pandemic. The second objective is to show how the managers have reinvented practices to keep collaborative communities and knowledge transfer viable in the (post-) COVID-19 world. We recognize that these strategies may be unique based on the size and structure of CSs, following their intrinsic fexibility and knowledge-intensive interactions

Air quality and health implications of 1.5 °c-2 °c climate pathways under considerations of ageing population

Low-carbon pathways consistent with the 2 °C and 1.5 °C long-term climate goals defined in the Paris Agreement are likely to induce substantial co-benefits for air pollution and associated health impacts. In this analysis, using five global integrated assessment models, we quantify the emission reductions in key air pollutants resulting from the decarbonization of energy systems and the resulting changes in premature mortality attributed to the exposure to ambient concentrations of fine particulate matter. The emission reductions differ by sectors. Sulfur emissions are mainly reduced from power plants and industry, cuts in nitrogen oxides are dominated by the transport sector, and the largest abatement of primary fine particles is achieved in the residential sector. The analysis also shows that health benefits are the largest when policies addressing climate change mitigation and stringent air pollution controls are coordinated. We decompose the key factors that determine the extent of health co-benefits, focusing on Asia: changes in emissions, urbanization rates, population growth and ageing. Demographic processes, particularly due to ageing population, counteract in many regions the mortality reductions realized through lower emissions