A comparative study of selected Asian countries on carbon emission with respect to different trade and climate changes mitigation policy scenarios

In this study we look at the case of China, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam, and consider the following questions: (i) how to measure the impacts of trade and economic activities on the levels of CO2 emissions, (ii) how to measure the impacts of current climate change policies on trade and economic activities, (iii) how to improve on existing policies to better achieve the targets of economic growth while also contributing to the objectives of climate change mitigation. A general equilibrium model is used to conduct some simulations of a business as usual (BaU) and also some climate change and policy scenarios.Climate change, CO2 emissions, Energy intensity, Emission intensity, Mitigation policies

Review of Analytical Tools for Assessing Trade and Climaite Change Linkages

In this paper, the authors briefly refer to the essential elements underlying the theoretical linkages between trade, economic development, and climate change and review the analytical tools which are used to describe these linkages.Climate Changes, Trade Linkages, CGE

Impact Assessment of Emissions Stabilization Scenarios with and without Induced Technological Change

The main aim of this paper is to investigate quantitatively the economic impacts of emissions stabilization scenarios with and without the inclusion of induced technological change (ITC). Improved technological innovations are triggered by increased R&D expenditures that advance energy efficiencies. Model results show that induced technological changes due to increased investment in R&D reduce compliance costs. Although R&D expenditures compete with other investment expenditures, we find that increased R&D expenditures improve energy efficiency which substantially lowers abatement costs. Without the inclusion of induced technological change, emissions targets are primarily reached by declines in production, resulting in overall welfare reductions. With the inclusion of induced technological changes, emissions mitigations can result in fewer production and GDP drawbacks.Impact assessment of climate policy; Technological change

Adaptive Response Modeling Using GIS, Blog 5

Student blog posts from the Great VCU Bike Race Book

WIATEC: A World Integrated Assessment Model of Global Trade Environment and Climate Change

This paper describes the structure of the World Integrated Assessment model of global Trade, Environmental, and Climate change (WIATEC).The model consists of a multi-regional multi-sectoral core CGE model linked to a climate model. The core CGE is based on an existing global trade and environment model called GTAP-E (Truong, 1999; Burniaux and Truong, 2002). A suite of different and interchangeable 'modules' are then built around this 'core' to enable the model to be able to handle a range of different policy issues such as CO2 emissions, abatement, trading, non-CO2 (CH4 and N2O) emissions, land use land use change and forestry (LULUCF) activities, and changing technologies in the electricity generation sector. The approach which uses a core model structure with different additional modules built around this core structure allows the overall model to be flexible and can be adapted to a range of different policy issues. We illustrate the usefulness of this approach in a policy experiment which looks at the interaction between emissions trading scheme and the promotion of renewable energy targets in the European Union climate policy.Integrated Assessment Model, Technological Change, Climate Policy

Social Considerations for the Freshman 15

For most college student going through their freshman year of college, many say the during your first year of college you will gain a significant amount of weight due to a multitude of factors or “The Freshman 15”. The goal of this study is the measure factors that may or may not contribute to fluctuation with a student’s weight. In this study we measure the following factors that may contribute to This hypothesis: hours of sleep, measurement of physical activity, distance from home, nutrition, stress level, financial status, and Sex and see how these factors correlate to the “Freshman 15”. The results of this study show that out of all the factors that were measurable in the survey that the three most prominent factors involved nutrition, physical activity, and distance from home. The other measurable factors that influences ones’ metabolic rate also had influential roles in weight shifts but were not as consistent as the three mentioned above. In conclusion, the “The Freshman 15”, is correlated by these primary factors: nutrition, physical activity, and distance

A Flexible Global Warming Index for Use in an Integrated Approach to Climate Change Assessment

Global Warming Potential (GWP) is an index used to measure the relative accumulated radiative effect of a tonne of greenhouse gas (GHG) compared to that of a 'reference' gas (CO2). Due to the different lifetimes of the GHGs, the GWPs are often measured over a fixed and long period of time (usually 20, 100, or 500 years). The disadvantage of this time-approach is that the index may give a good indication of the relative average effect of each GHG or total radiative forcing over the chosen time horizon, but it may not describe accurately the marginal contribution of each GHG to the overall climate change at a particular point in time, and conditional on a particular climate change policy scenario which is being considered. In this paper, we propose an alternative approach which measures the relative contribution of each GHG to total radiative forcing more accurately and in accordance with the current policy context being considered. We suggest the use of a marginal global warming potential (MGWP) rather than the existing (total or cumulative) GWP index. The MGWP can be calculated accurately and endogenously within a climate model. This is then linked to the marginal abatement cost (MAC) of the gas, estimated within an economic model linked to the climate model. In this way the balancing of the benefits and costs associated with the reduction of a unit of emission of the GHG can be achieved more accurately. We illustrate the use of the new approach in an illustrative experiment, using a multi-sector multi-gas and multi-regional computable general equilibrium economic model (GTAP-E) coupled with a reduced form climate change model (ICLIPS Climate Model, or ICM). The results show that the new approach can significantly improve on the existing method of measuring the trade-offs between different GHGs in their contribution to a climate change objective.