Stuck in the jam? CO2 emissions and energy intensity in Mexico

Global emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) have been accelerating in recent decades. Moreover, since the year 2000 global emissions have been growing far more rapidly than the worst scenarios projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (Rogner et al., 2007, Raupach, et al., 2007). This growth has been driven by the expansion of activity in the world economy and the reversal of earlier declining trends in both the energy intensity of gross domestic product and the carbon intensity of energy (measured respectively, as energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product and the CO2 emissions per unit of total primary energy supply). According to the last report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), during the period 1970 to 2004 global emissions have risen as the combined effect of global income growth (77%) and global population growth (69%), which have surpassed the general decrease in energy intensity of GDP (-33%) and the almost null reduction in carbon intensity of energy (-2%). In other words, “declining carbon and energy intensities have been unable to offset income effects and population growth” at a global scale, rising consequently carbon emissions (Rogner et al., 2007, p. 107).CO2 emissions; energy intensity; environmental Kuznets curves

03-05 "Economic Reform, Energy, and Development: The Case of Mexican Manufacturing"

Given increasing concern over global climate change and national security there is a burgeoning interest in examining the relationship between economic growth and energy use in developed and developing countries. More specifically, de-linking energy use per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) has fast come to be seen as in the interests of national economies and the world as a whole. Recent attention has been paid to the dramatic decreases in the energy intensity of the Chinese economy, which fell by 55 percent between 1975 and 1995 (Sinton and Fridley, 2000). Do other developing economies follow similar trajectories?

Standardization Framework for Sustainability from Circular Economy 4.0

The circular economy (CE) is widely known as a way to implement and achieve sustainability, mainly due to its contribution towards the separation of biological and technical nutrients under cyclic industrial metabolism. The incorporation of the principles of the CE in the links of the value chain of the various sectors of the economy strives to ensure circularity, safety, and efficiency. The framework proposed is aligned with the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development regarding the orientation towards the mitigation and regeneration of the metabolic rift by considering a double perspective. Firstly, it strives to conceptualize the CE as a paradigm of sustainability. Its principles are established, and its techniques and tools are organized into two frameworks oriented towards causes (cradle to cradle) and effects (life cycle assessment), and these are structured under the three pillars of sustainability, for their projection within the proposed framework. Secondly, a framework is established to facilitate the implementation of the CE with the use of standards, which constitute the requirements, tools, and indicators to control each life cycle phase, and of key enabling technologies (KETs) that add circular value 4.0 to the socio-ecological transition

01-06 "The $6.1 Million Dollar Question"

What is the dollar value of saving a human life? Cost-benefit analysis of health and environmental regulation requires such a number, yet the concept raises numerous ethical and philosophical questions. There are good general reasons to reject the entire enterprise of monetizing life, and specific reasons to criticize the methods used to create such values. Valuations of life are most often based on analysis of the wage premium for risky jobs. Recent EPA analyses have relied on an extensive but dated database of wage-risk estimates, leading to an inflation-adjusted estimate of $6.1 million per life in 1999 dollars. A more appropriate interpretation of that database implies an estimate of at least$9-11 million. Some newer studies suggest much lower values - perhaps due to the weakened bargaining position of labor, a factor that has nothing to do with the value of environmental risk. The risk premium for working women is five times as great as for men, underscoring the impossibility of a "one size fits all" estimate of the value of a statistical life. Such values are not necessary for reasonable decision-making about how to reduce fatal risks.

Humour in the post-war press: short stories of Gloria Fuertes in the falangist magazine Maravillas

The Spanish civil war entailed an impasse in the development of press as a communication platform. In fact, its instrumentalization for propaganda purposes explains its role in the consolidation of the new State. So, in the newspaper network created around the Movimiento Nacional (National Movement), the children’s press occupied a predominant place due to its contribution to the education of future generations. So much so, that the strategical-ideological aims imposed by the regime coexisted in these platforms together with the collaboration of artists of prominent aesthetical level. Such is the case of Gloria Fuertes (1917-1998), who gave life in the magazine Maravillas, to very popular characters such as Coleta and Pelines to disseminate their short stories once more, back in the eighties, in three monographic books: Coleta, la poeta (1982), Coleta, payasa ¿qué pasa? (1983) and Pelines (1986). However, such protagonists, beyond constituting aesthetical projections of the writer as heteronyms, would end up becoming authentic icons of children’s imagery

Aspects of sustainability and design engineering for the production of interconnected smart food packaging

In the present work, the problem of food wastage and the concept of sustainability are studied. An analysis of Life Cycle Assessment as a tool and of the innovative concept of Cradle to Cradle is also carried out, together with an exhaustive comparison of these two approaches. Based on these concepts, an integrated methodology is proposed for the design of interconnected smart products. The smart packaging systems currently available are studied theoretically and a practical case is analysed using the proposed methodology through the design and Life Cycle Assessment of a smart interconnected container that is able to detect the ethylene emitted by climacteric fruit, thereby minimizing food wastage. For the case under study, a major impact is observed of the selected plastics in the resources category, and of the smart system in the human health category

Conceptual Framework for the Use of Building Information Modeling in Engineering Education

The objective of this paper is to present a critical literature review of the Building Information Modelling (BIM) methodologyandtoanalyzewhetherBIMcanbeconsideredaVirtualLearningEnvironment.Aconceptualframeworkis proposed for using BIM in a university context. A search of documents was carried out in the Core Collection of Web of Science; it was restricted to the last five years (2013–2017). A total of 95 documents were analyzed; all documents were written in English and peer reviewed. BIM meets all the characteristics of Virtual Learning Environments. The proposed framework has three dimensions (competencies, pedagogical approach and level of integration).It allows for the planning and analysis of future experiences of teaching BIM in a university context.Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain and AEI/FEDER, UE Projects EDU2016-77007-RRegional Government of Extremadura (Spain) IB 16068Regional Government of Extremadura (Spain) GR1800

Energy innovation in Latin America: R&D effort, deployment, and capability accumulation

Ibero-America, just as the rest of the world, faces an increasing urgency to transform existing energy systems. In the past, incentives to develop energy systems were induced mainly by changes in demand (derived from industrialization and urbanization) and by price shocks in fuels. Diversification of energy sources followed a growing need of use of particular energy forms. For developing countries, innovating in energy systems meant fundamentally gaining control over natural resources and moving away from primary, export-oriented enclaves into industrial integration, as well as improving energy security. Today, however, environmental constraints and the pressing need to reduce energy poverty forge additional challenges and set new directions to change the ways in which we use and produce energy. Improving current technologies along the same trajectory is simply not enough. Fundamental changes must take place in our economic systems in order to combine energy efficiency with low-carbon, sustainable energy sources, for which new abilities and solutions need to be targeted.energy innovation; Latin America

Distributed lightning monitoring: an affordable proposal

In theaters and the filmmaking industry, video streams, images, audio streams and scalar data are commonly used. In these fields, one of the most important magnitudes to be collected and controlled is the light intensity in different scene spots. So, it is extremely important to be able to deploy a network of light sensors which are usually integrated in a more general Wireless Multimedia Sensor Network (WMSN). If many light measurements have to be acquired, the simpler and cheaper the sensor, the more affordable theWMSN will be. In this paper we propose the use of a set of very cheap light sensors (photodiodes) and to spectrally and directionally correct their measurements using mathematical methods. A real testing of the proposed solution has been accomplished, obtaining quite accurate light measurements. Testing results are also presented throughout the paper.Telefonica Chair "Intelligence in Networks" of the University of Seville (Spain

01-07 "Dirt is in the Eye of the Beholder: The World Bank Air Pollution Intensities for Mexico"

This paper identifies a number of errors and inconsistencies in a series of air pollution intensities for Mexico that were recently created by the World Bank. Because these data are being used to conduct public policy analysis and advice for Mexico and countries at similar levels of development, knowledge of the limits of these data is of utmost importance. In addition to identifying the problems with these data, this paper makes a series of adjustments to offer a corrected dataset. These newly corrected data are available on the World Bank's New Ideas in Pollution Regulation (NIPR) web page.