Carbon Footprint Labeling Activities in the East Asia Summit Region: Spillover Effects to Less Developed Countries

Abstract: This paper discusses carbon footprint (CFP) labeling activities in the East Asia Summit (EAS) region with a focus on their spillover effects on less developed countries (LDCs). Due to increased and increasing economic integration, implementation of CFP labeling schemes in one country will have significant impact on others. The impact is particularly significant for LDCs in the EAS region because: the EAS production networks are highly integrated, which provide necessary condition for the spill-over effects to be generated; LDCs generally lack the capacity to measure and label CFP of their products; and exports from LDCs often produced by relatively small producers. However, the effective inclusion of LDCs in labeling schemes may offer more and cost-effective opportunities for carbon emission reductions. The presence of spillover effects means that countries that are implementing carbon labeling schemes need to take stakeholders outside of their boundaries into consideration. The disadvantages of LDCs can be reduced by well designed carbon labeling schemes, by innovative solutions to low cost data collection and certification, and by technical transfer, training and capacity building.

Harmonizing Biodiesel Fuel Standards in East Asia: Current Status, Challenges and Way Forward

Abstract: This paper discusses the development of and policy towards biodiesel fuel (BDF) in the East Asia Summit (EAS) Region (hereafter East Asia), with a focus on activities related to harmonizing BDF standards. It finds that the EAS countries have actively promoted the development of BDF for a variety of reasons. To minimize problems with engines arising from the use of BDF, most EAS countries have established their national BDF standards. However, these diverse standards cause barriers for BDF trade and act against the regional interest in maximizing benefits from BDF production and utilization. Therefore, the EAS policy makers decided to harmonize BDF standards, and a regional benchmark standard has been published. Through a comparative review of existing national standards against the benchmark, it finds that the harmonization is beneficial economically and environmentally, and is technically feasible but practically stalled due to the lack of political determination. Therefore, among a few policy implications, the key message to deliver is a call for political determination to implement the harmonization in the EAS region. Since harmonization of BDF standards has been tried in other regions, the findings of this paper may supplement the literature, enhance understanding of the EAS case, and provide lessons and implications that may be helpful in advancing similar harmonization elsewhere.

Energy Market Integration and Economic Convergence: Implications for East Asia

Energy Market Integration (EMI) has been pursued by East Asian countries in recent years, but how it could play a role in facilitating economic growth of countries in the region remains to be an empirical question. This paper uses the economic convergence analysis (including both the σ-convergence and β-convergence approaches) to examine the impact of EMI - measured by two newly constructed indexes (namely, the energy trade index and the energy market competition index) - at the country level, on dynamic economic growth path across countries, with a special interest to inform policy makings related to promoting EMI among East Asian countries. The result shows that a more integrated energy market may significantly reduce income disparity across countries and thus help poor countries to catch up with rich countries in economic development. Moreover, a comparison among the three regions including EU, NAFTA and EAS shows that EAS countries are more likely to achieve economic convergence along with the construction of EMI process. An important policy implication is that less developed countries in the EAS region can increase benefits from actively participating into the EMI process.

China's coal industry transformation: performance, challenges and prospects

This thesis examines the performance, challenges and prospects of the Chinese coal industry under transformation in the market transition period from 1993 to date. The term 'transformation' is used intentionally to distinguish it from 'transition', which is more commonly used. While issues arising from state-ownership are central in an economic transition, the tenn 'transformation' also takes into account the existence of China's other specific challenges including the many small scale mines, poor mining safety, and pressure on the industry's prospects resulting from increasingly stringent environmental regulations. ... Based on the results of empirical and quantitative analysis, several policy recommendations are proposed which include deepening market reforms of State-owned coal mines through privatisation or relinquishment of state ownership, changes of corporation governance and debt restructuring; and improving governance of small coal mining through improvement of the legal and fiscal frameworks and building of SCM's capacity. The participation of stakeholders is useful in the process of improving safety and regularising small coal mining. The formulation of industrial policies such as participating in the unemployment insurance system, promoting export liberalisation, strengthening mining consolidation, are also recommended. The thesis also argues that the policy of simply closing down mines in China is impractical and ineffective, and that a better alternative is to govern their development through regularisation. The thesis also outlines some directions for future research into the coal industry's transformation.Rio Tinto-ANU China Partnership, ANU-PKU exchange program, Vice-Chancellor's travel gran

The Prospects for Coal: Global Experience and Implications for Energy Policy

This paper argues that coal and its industry is promising. It is found that the Western European (including the British) case has been misunderstood and the US case shows a developing coal industry under increasing levels of environmental pressure. The demonstration of the declining emissions intensity of coal provides an additional mean of reconciling the development of the coal industry with the environment. In the long term the enforcement of environmental regulations can benefit the coal industry in several ways, and the alternatives to coal are not yet available in a sufficiently large scale. Based on the positive prospects of coal, issues related to climate change, clean coal technology and energy policy are discussed.

ERIA Annex Office

Abstract: This paper uses the general method of moment (GMM) regression technique to estimate an cross-country energy demand function with a data set covering 71 countries over the period of 1965-2010. The estimated results show that rapid economic growth due to industrialization or urbanization tends to increase the energy consumption per capita, which in turn may generate a surge in the overall demand for energy. Economic growth also leads to lower price and income elasticities. However, energy market integration can help to reduce the energy demand pressure and to smooth the demand shock through decreasing the income elasticity and increasing the price elasticity in particular in the long run. This finding can be used to explain how cross-country institutional arrangement related to energy market may affect energy consumption patterns over the period of rapid economic growth and offer policy implications for East Asia, which is diversified in terms of development level

Global Uncertainty, Macroeconomic Activity and Commodity Price

We extend Jurado et al. (2015)’s forecast-error-based uncertainty measure to the international context, and construct a new measure of global uncertainty. We examine dynamic causal effects among global uncertainty and other global macroeconomic variables, and provide two important applications of our global uncertainty measure by linking it to the price formation mechanism of oil and international uncertainty spillover effects. We show that the well-documented relation between uncertainty and real activities is not only a regional issue, but also a global phenomenon. Global uncertainty also plays a key role in determining commodity prices, as well as driving business cycle fluctuations in a certain economy

Economic development, energy market integration and energy demand: Implications for East Asia

This paper uses a general method of moment regression technique to estimate an energy demand function with a dataset covering 71 countries between 1965 and 2010. The estimated results show that countries undergoing rapid economic growth may show relatively higher income and price elasticities in the long run. The higher income elasticities and lower price elasticity in the short run of rapid growing countries may impose pressure on energy demand in the domestic and international markets. Energy market integration can help to reduce such pressure by smoothing energy demand through lowering its income elasticity and creating a flexible energy market through increasing its price elasticity. These findings have important implications for forecasting energy demand and promoting international cooperation in East Asia

Global Uncertainty, Macroeconomic Activity and Commodity Price

We extend Jurado et al. (2015)’s forecast-error-based uncertainty measure to the international context, and construct a new measure of global uncertainty. We examine dynamic causal effects among global uncertainty and other global macroeconomic variables, and provide two important applications of our global uncertainty measure by linking it to the price formation mechanism of oil and international uncertainty spillover effects. We show that the well-documented relation between uncertainty and real activities is not only a regional issue, but also a global phenomenon. Global uncertainty also plays a key role in determining commodity prices, as well as driving business cycle fluctuations in a certain economy

A dataset of low-carbon energy transition index for Chinese cities 2003–2019

Cities are at the heart of climate change mitigation as they account for over 70% of global carbon emissions. However, cities vary in their energy systems and socioeconomic capacities to transition to renewable energy. To address this heterogeneity, this study proposes an Energy Transition Index (ETI) specifically designed for cities, and applies it to track the progress of energy transition in Chinese cities. The city-level ETI framework is based on the national ETI developed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and comprises two sub-indexes: the Energy System Performance sub-index, which evaluates the current status of cities’ energy systems in terms of energy transition, and the Transition Readiness sub-index, which assesses their socioeconomic capacity for future energy transition. The initial version of the dataset includes ETI and its sub-indexes for 282 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2019, with annual updates planned. The spatiotemporal data provided by the dataset facilitates research into the energy transition roadmap for different cities, which can help China achieve its energy transition goals