THE ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF INCREASING THE IRISH CARBON TAX. ESRI RESEARCH SERIES NUMBER 79 OCTOBER 2018

This study investigates the economic and environmental impacts of increasing the current carbon tax in Ireland from C20 per tonne of CO2 to C25, C30, C35 and C40. For this purpose, an Energy Social Accounting Matrix (ESAM) is developed for Ireland with 33 activities, 39 commodities, and ten household groups based on disposable income. The ESAM reproduces the structure of the Irish economy including production sectors, households and the government and quantifies the nature of all existing economic transactions among the diverse economic agents. Furthermore, the ESAM includes the flows of energy and emissions, creating a framework that can examine how money as well as energy and emissions flows between production sectors, households and the government. In this way the carbon content of different products and different households’ consumption is estimated. The current carbon tax in Ireland stands at C20 per tonne of carbon and is levied to incentivise households and producers to reduce their use of carbon-intensive goods. The carbon tax is relatively low, however, and constitutes just 1.9 per cent of total taxes levied on commodities in Ireland. Carbon tax accounts for only 7.6 per cent of total excise duties levied on petrol and 14 per cent of all excise duties on diesel. Our results reveal that increases in the carbon tax affect the prices of diesel and petrol the most. A C5 increase will increase the prices of carbon commodities by on average 0.8 per cent, and a doubling of the carbon tax to C40 per tonne of CO2 will increase the prices of carbon commodities by on average 3.4 per cent. The diesel price is expected to increase the most due to an increase in the carbon tax, whereby a C25 tax would result in a 1.7 per cent increase in diesel prices. A C40 tax would result in a 7 per cent increase in diesel prices. Putting this into context, it can be noted that in 2018 alone consumers have faced much greater fluctuations in diesel prices. Consumers are accustomed to relatively large fluctuations in fuel prices and may not react to increases in prices, assuming prices will fall again. This makes it extremely important to communicate a clear commitment to an increasing carbon tax by the government

TECHNICAL DOCUMENTATION OF I3E MODEL VERSION 2. ESRI SURVEY AND STATISTICAL REPORT SERIES NUMBER 77 September 2019

This paper provides a technical description of the Ireland Environment, Energy and Economy (I3E) model. The I3E model is an intertemporal computable general equilibrium model with multiple firms, one representative household group, multiple commodities, government, enterprises, and rest of the world accounts. It describes the Irish economy in sectoral detail. This model includes a detailed description of energy inputs and concomitant greenhouse gas emissions and has been developed with the purpose of investigating the economic and environmental impacts of climate policies for Ireland

Marginally low mass ratio close binary system V1191 Cyg

In this study, we present photometric and spectroscopic variations of the extremely small mass ratio ($q\simeq 0.1$) late-type contact binary system \astrobj{V1191 Cyg}. The parameters for the hot and cooler companions have been determined as $M_\textrm{h}$ = 0.13 (1) $M_{\odot}$, $M_\textrm{c}$ = 1.29 (8) $M_{\odot}$, $R_\textrm{h}$ = 0.52 (15) $R_{\odot}$, $R_\textrm{c}$ = 1.31 (18) $R_{\odot}$, $L_\textrm{h}$ = 0.46 (25) $L_{\odot}$, $L_\textrm{c}$ = 2.71 (80) $L_{\odot}$, the separation of the components is $a$= 2.20(8) $R_{\odot}$ and the distance of the system is estimated as 278(31) pc. Analyses of the times of minima indicates a period increase of $\frac{dP}{dt}=1.3(1)\times 10^{-6}$ days/yr that reveals a very high mass transfer rate of $\frac{dM}{dt}=2.0(4)\times 10^{-7}$$M_{\odot}$/yr from the less massive component to the more massive one. New observations show that the depths of the minima of the light curve have been interchanged.Comment: Accepted for publication in New Astronomy, 16 pages, 2 figures, 4 table

Orthogonal Projections Based on Hyperbolic and Spherical n-Simplex

In this paper, orthogonal projection along a geodesic to the chosen k-plane is introduced using edge and Gram matrix of an n-simplex in hyperbolic or spherical n-space. The distance from a point to k-plane is obtained by the orthogonal projection. It is also given the perpendicular foots from a point to k-plane of hyperbolic and spherical n-space.Comment: 13 page