MCA4climate: A Practical Framework for Planning Pro-Development Climate Policy

MCA4climate is a major new UNEP initiative providing 1 Introduction practical assistance to governments in preparing their climate change mitigation and adaptation plans and strategies. It aims to help governments, particularly in developing countries, identify policies and measures that are low cost, environmentally effective and consistent with national development goals. It does this by providing a structured approach to assessing and prioritizing climate-policy options, while taking into consideration associated social, economic, environmental and institutional costs and benefits. In doing so, it seeks to counter the widely held perception that tackling climate change is costly, highlight the potential developmental benefits of addressing climate change and encourage action to that end

Assessing climate change mitigation technology interventions by international institutions

Contains fulltext : 142206.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Ranking customers for marketing actions with a two-stage Bayesian cluster and Pareto/NBD models

Modelling customer behaviour to predict their future purchase frequency and value is crucial when selecting customers for marketing activities. The profitability of a customer and their risk of inactivity are two important factors in this selection process. These indicators can be obtained using the well-known Pareto/NBD model. Here we cluster customers based on their purchase frequency and value over a given period before applying the Pareto/NBD model to each cluster. This initial cluster model provides the customer purchase value and improves the predictive accuracy of the Pareto/NBD parameters by using similar individuals when fitting the data. Finally, taking the outputs from both models, the initial cluster and Pareto/NBD, we present some recommendations to classify customers into interpretable groups and facilitate their prioritisation for marketing activities. To illustrate the methodology, this paper uses a database with sales from a beauty products wholesaler.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Greening Investor-State Dispute Settlement

Climate change poses serious threats to human society. Climate change is already affecting our environment and thus, many aspects of human and economic activity. Among the challenges ahead, governments will need to more actively adopt regulatory policies given the international obligations in this area, such as the Paris Agreement, as well as promote green private investment as a means toward unlocking sustainable growth. How can international investment law be adapted and modernized to respond to these challenges? In this Essay, we summarize a comprehensive set of innovations that could be included in International Investment Agreements to address international obligations regarding climate change. Our discussion, based on a Green Treaty Model, first stresses the role of balanced obligations for investors and host countries, and then focuses on dispute settlement. We conclude by explaining how the current process of reform under the auspices of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law can be used for a more ambitious transformation of international investment; a transformation in which investment treaties can act as catalysts for green foreign direct investment necessary to reverse the momentum for climate change already built into the atmosphere