The Human Right to Water and Unconventional Energy

Access to water, in sufficient quantities and of sufficient quality is vital for human health. The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (in General Comment 15, drafted 2002) argued that access to water was a condition for the enjoyment of the right to an adequate standard of living, inextricably related to the right to the highest attainable standard of health, and thus a human right. On 28 July 2010 the United Nations General Assembly declared safe and clean drinking water and sanitation a human right essential to the full enjoyment of life and all other human rights. This paper charts the international legal development of the right to water and its relevance to discussions surrounding the growth of unconventional energy and its heavy reliance on water. We consider key data from the country with arguably the most mature and extensive industry, the USA, and highlight the implications for water usage and water rights. We conclude that, given the weight of testimony of local people from our research, along with data from scientific literature, non-governmental organization (NGO) and other policy reports, that the right to water for residents living near fracking sites is likely to be severely curtailed. Even so, from the data presented here, we argue that the major issue regarding water use is the shifting of the resource from society to industry and the demonstrable lack of supply-side price signal that would demand that the industry reduce or stabilize its water demand per unit of energy produced. Thus, in the US context alone, there is considerable evidence that the human right to water will be seriously undermined by the growth of the unconventional oil and gas industry, and given its spread around the globe this could soon become a global human rights issue

A Manual for the Economic Evaluation of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Technologies

This manual is a guide for analyzing the economics of energy efficiency and renewable energy (EE) technologies and projects. It is intended (1) to help analysts determine the appropriate approach or type of analysis and the appropriate level of detail and (2) to assist EE analysts in completing consistent analyses using standard assumptions and bases, when appropriate. Included are analytical techniques that are commonly required for the economic analysis of EE technologies and projects. The manual consists of six sections: Introduction, Fundamentals, Selection Criteria Guide, Economic Measures, Special Considerations for Conservation and Renewable Energy Systems, and References. A glossary and eight appendices are also included. Each section has a brief introductory statement, a presentation of necessary formulae, a discussion, and when appropriate, examples and descriptions of data and data availability. The objective of an economic analysis is to provide the information needed to make a judgment or a decision. The most complete analysis of an investment in a technology or a project requires the analysis of each year of the life of the investment, taking into account relevant direct costs, indirect and overhead costs, taxes, and returns on investment, plus any externalities, such as environmental impacts, that are relevant to the decision to be made. However, it is important to consider the purpose and scope of a particular analysis at the outset because this will prescribe the course to follow. The perspective of the analysis is important, often dictating the approach to be used. Also, the ultimate use of the results of an analysis will influence the level of detail undertaken. The decision-making criteria of the potential investor must also be considered

Challenges and solutions for N-of-1 design studies in health psychology

Theories of behaviour change and health behaviour change interventions are most often evaluated in between-person designs. However, behaviour change theories apply to individuals not groups and behavioural interventions ultimately aim to achieve within-person rather than between-group change. Within-person methodology, such as N-of-1 (also known as single case design), can circumvent this issue, though has multiple design-specific challenges. This paper provides a conceptual review of the challenges and potential solutions for undertaking N-of-1 studies in health psychology. Key challenges identified include participant adherence to within-person protocols, carry-over and slow onset effects, suitability of behaviour change techniques for evaluation in N-of-1 experimental studies, optimal allocation sequencing and blinding, calculating power/sample size, and choosing the most suitable analysis approach. Key solutions include involving users in study design, employing recent technologies for unobtrusive data collection and problem solving by design. Within-person designs share common methodological requirements with conventional between-person designs but require specific methodological considerations. N-of-1 evaluation designs are appropriate for many though not all types of interventions. A greater understanding of patterns of behaviours and factors influencing behaviour change at the within-person level is required to progress health psychology into a precision science

Evaluating a Proposed 20% National Renewable Portfolio Standard

This paper provides a preliminary analysis of the impacts of a proposed 20% national renewable portfolio standard (RPS) by 2021, which has been advanced in the U.S. Congress by Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico. The paper was prepared before the America Recovery and Reinvestment Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama on February 17, 2009, and thus does not consider important changes in renewable energy (RE) policy that need to be addressed in follow-on analysis. We use NREL's Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS) model to evaluate the impacts of the RPS requirements on the energy sector and consider design issues associated with renewable energy certificate (REC) trading markets

Net versus combinatory effects of firm and industry antecedents of sales growth

This study examines antecedents of sales growth using a two-step mixed-method approach including analyses of net effects and combinatory effects. Based on a sample of 453 respondents from manufacturing and service firms, this article shows how the combination of structural equation modeling (SEM) and fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) provides more detailed insights into the causal patterns of factors to explain sales growth. This article contributes to the extant literature by highlighting fsQCA as a useful method to analyze complex causality (specifically combinatory effects of antecedent conditions) and by discussing options regarding how this approach can be used to complement findings from conventional causal data analysis procedures that analyze net effects

Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS)

The Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS) is a deterministic optimization model of the deployment of electric power generation technologies and transmission infrastructure throughout the contiguous United States into the future. The model, developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Strategic Energy Analysis Center, is designed to analyze the critical energy issues in the electric sector, especially with respect to potential energy policies, such as clean energy and renewable energy standards or carbon restrictions. ReEDS provides a detailed treatment of electricity-generating and electrical storage technologies and specifically addresses a variety of issues related to renewable energy technologies, including accessibility and cost of transmission, regional quality of renewable resources, seasonal and diurnal generation profiles, variability of wind and solar power, and the influence of variability on the reliability of the electrical grid. ReEDS addresses these issues through a highly discretized regional structure, explicit statistical treatment of the variability in wind and solar output over time, and consideration of ancillary services' requirements and costs

Conflicts around Germany’s Energiewende: Discourse patterns of citizens’ initiatives

Especially since the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe (2011), Germany has expanded its renewably sourced energies. Nuclear power is to be phased out by 2022. What is central to federal policy is the expansion of wind-generated energy. Plans for new wind farms have, however, faced opposition. And the transportation of electricity from the windy north to the high-use south entails an expansion of the existing power grid, which also provokes conflict. The article scrutinises dominant patterns of discourse on these issues. Based on current discourse theory, the research sheds light on the argumentative power of citizens’ initiatives with respect to nature conservation, landscape, health and economics

Sediment Characteristics and Methane Ebullition in Three Subarctic Lakes

Ebullition (bubbling) from climate‐sensitive northern lakes remains an unconstrained source of atmospheric methane (CH4). Although the focus of many recent studies, ebullition is rarely linked to the physical characteristics of lakes. In this study we analyze the sediments of subarctic postglacial lakes and investigate how sediment properties relate to the large spatial variation in CH4 bubble flux, quantified over multiple years using bubble traps. The results show that the sediments from our lakes are rich in total organic carbon, containing 37 kg/m3 on average. This number is roughly 40% higher than the average for yedoma deposits, which have been identified as high CH4 emitters. However, the quantity of total organic carbon is not a useful indicator of high emissions from the study lakes. Neither is the amount of CH4 in the sediment a reliable measure of ebullition potential. Instead, our data point to coarse detritus, partly from buried submerged aquatic vegetation and redeposited peat as spatial controls on fluxes, often in combination with previously established effects of incoming solar radiation and water depth. The results once again highlight the climate sensitivity of northern lakes, indicating that biological responses to warmer waters and increased energy input and heating of organic sediments during longer ice‐free seasons can substantially alter future CH4 emissions

Agricultural Turns, Geographical Turns: Retrospect and Prospect.

It is accepted that British rural geography has actively engaged with the ‘cultural turn’, leading to a resurgence of research within the sub-discipline. However, a reading of recent reviews suggests that the cultural turn has largely, if not completely, bypassed those geographers interested in the agricultural sector. Farming centred engagements with notions of culture have been relatively limited compared with those concerned with the non-agricultural aspects of rural space. Indeed, agricultural geography represents something of an awkward case in the context of the disciplinary turn to culture, a situation that demands further exposition. In seeking explanation, it becomes evident that research on the farm sector is more culturally informed than initially appears. This paper argues that there have been both interesting and important engagements between agricultural geography and cultural perspectives over the past decade. The paper elaborates four specific areas of research which provide evidence for concern about the ‘culture’ within agriculture. The future contribution that culturally informed perspectives in geographical research can bring to agricultural issues is outlined by way of conclusion