scholarly journals Financial innovation and climate change: the case of renewable energy certificates and the role of the GATS

2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 439-460
Author(s):  
PANAGIOTIS DELIMATSIS

AbstractEnergy has come to the forefront of the public debate in the past decade for two main reasons: the first relates to the lack of a secure, continuous, and unconditional energy supply in the importing countries, mostly developed and transition economies, which are still dependent on non-renewable carbon-based fossil fuels. The second reason is that uncontrolled production, distribution, and use of conventional energy may lead to environmental degradation and global warming. Renewable energy certificates (RECs) are instruments that allow countries to promote energy generation from renewables and form part of domestic policies aimed at climate change mitigation and adaptation. Since RECs can be traded in secondary markets, this paper discusses issues raised by the nature of and the trade in RECs which can be of concern for the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the multilateral regulation of trade in financial services, notably in the case where World Trade Organisation (WTO) Members undertook sweeping commitments in financial services which equally apply to trade in RECs.

2017 ◽  
pp. 745-755
Author(s):  
Silu Bhochhibhoya ◽  
Ramesh Kumar Maskey ◽  
Sanjaya Nath Khanal

Climate change is a global scale crisis with drastic effects on higher altitudes. Ice melting and its corresponding impacts on mountain ecosystems are just some of the most directly visible signals of global warming. Increased rate of energy consumption, emissions along with ever growing tourist inflow in such areas has a high impact on this phenomenon. Particulate matter, Carbon Dioxide and Methane are some of the chief emissions in such areas with negative impact on the environment. Since burning of fossil fuels is one of the main root causes of cclimate change, its risk mitigation and adaptation depends greatly on energy conservation and the use of renewable energy technologies. Well insulated energy – efficient building construction method and the increased use of renewable energy sources could be the key solution. Reduction of dung-cakes and kerosene for space heating would decrease the greenhouse gas emissions as well as black carbons and particulate matters and improves the indoor living conditions. Energy efficient technologies including the building of traditional Sherpa houses could be the best practice to reduce the impact of climate change in high altitudes. This paper is primarily concerned with testing the thermal properties of insulating tiles made of locally available materials as well as to establish a correlation between energy consumption patterns in different building types with respective CO2 emissions.Subsequently, the positive attributes of such energy conserving design in relation to climate change adaptation is ascertained.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward John Roy Clarke ◽  
Anna Klas ◽  
Joshua Stevenson ◽  
Emily Jane Kothe

Climate change is a politically-polarised issue, with conservatives less likely than liberals to perceive it as human-caused and consequential. Furthermore, they are less likely to support mitigation and adaptation policies needed to reduce its impacts. This study aimed to examine whether John Oliver’s “A Mathematically Representative Climate Change Debate” clip on his program Last Week Tonight polarised or depolarised a politically-diverse audience on climate policy support and behavioural intentions. One hundred and fifty-nine participants, recruited via Amazon MTurk (94 female, 64 male, one gender unspecified, Mage = 51.07, SDage = 16.35), were presented with either John Oliver’s climate change consensus clip, or a humorous video unrelated to climate change. Although the climate change consensus clip did not reduce polarisation (or increase it) relative to a control on mitigation policy support, it resulted in hyperpolarisation on support for adaptation policies and increased climate action intentions among liberals but not conservatives.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 1347
Author(s):  
Kyriakos Maniatis ◽  
David Chiaramonti ◽  
Eric van den Heuvel

The present work considers the dramatic changes the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the global economy, with particular emphasis on energy. Focusing on the European Union, the article discusses the opportunities policy makers can implement to reduce the climate impacts and achieve the Paris Agreement 2050 targets. The analysis specifically looks at the fossil fuels industry and the future of the fossil sector post COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis first revises the fossil fuel sector, and then considers the need for a shift of the global climate change policy from promoting the deployment of renewable energy sources to curtailing the use of fossil fuels. This will be a change to the current global approach, from a relative passive one to a strategically dynamic and proactive one. Such a curtailment should be based on actual volumes of fossil fuels used and not on percentages. Finally, conclusions are preliminary applied to the European Union policies for net zero by 2050 based on a two-fold strategy: continuing and reinforcing the implementation of the Renewable Energy Directive to 2035, while adopting a new directive for fixed and over time increasing curtailment of fossils as of 2025 until 2050.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 797-811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brianne Suldovsky ◽  
Asheley Landrum ◽  
Natalie Jomini Stroud

In an era where expertise is increasingly critiqued, this study draws from the research on expertise and scientist stereotyping to explore who the public considers to be a scientist in the context of media coverage about climate change and genetically modified organisms. Using survey data from the United States, we find that political ideology and science knowledge affect who the US public believes is a scientist in these domains. Our results suggest important differences in the role of science media attention and science media selection in the publics “scientist” labeling. In addition, we replicate previous work and find that compared to other people who work in science, those with PhDs in Biology and Chemistry are most commonly seen as scientists.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 4712 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinjia Wu ◽  
Jiansheng Qu ◽  
Hengji Li ◽  
Li Xu ◽  
Hongfen Zhang ◽  
...  

The theme of global sustainable development has changed from environmental management to climate governance, and relevant policies on climate governance urgently need to be implemented by the public. The public understanding of climate change has become the prerequisite and basis for implementing various climate change policies. In order to explore the affected factors of climate change perception among Chinese residents, this study was conducted across 31 provinces and regions of China through field household surveys and interviews. Combined with the residents’ perception of climate change with the possible affected factors, the related factors affecting Chinese residents’ perception of climate change were explored. The results show that the perceptive level of climate change of Chinese residents is related to the education level and the household size of residents. Improving public awareness of climate change risk in the context of climate change through multiple channels will also help to improve residents’ awareness of climate change. On the premise of improving the level of national education, improving education on climate change in school education and raising awareness of climate change risk among dependents will help to improve the level of Chinese residents’ awareness of climate change, which could be instrumental in promoting public participation in climate change mitigation and adaptation actions.


1992 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 430-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruud Pleune

Present energy use - largely dependent on fossil fuels - is incompatible with the sustainable world concept. In a sustainable world, energy sources are renewable and used in a way that damage to the environment is minimalized. This study investigates the possibility of a sustainable world using renewable energy sources. It appears that - when strict energy conservation is applied - such a sustainable world seems to be attainable. This requires, however, drastic changes in most parts of society.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anahita A. Jami ◽  
Philip R. Walsh

A wider use of renewable energy is emerging as a viable solution to meet the increasing demand for global energy while contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. However, current literature on renewable energy, particularly on wind power, highlights the social barriers and public opposition to renewable energy investment. One solution to overcome the public opposition, which is recommended by scholars, is to deploy a collaborative approach. Relatively little research has specifically focused on the role of effective communication and the use of a knowledge-broker in collaborative decision-making. This study attempts to fill this gap through the proposition of a participatory framework that highlights the role of the knowledge-broker in a wind project decision-making process. In this paper, five illustrative wind projects in Ontario are used to highlight the current situation with public participation and to address how the proposed framework could have improved the process. Based on the recommended collaborative framework, perception must shift from the dominant view of the public as “a risk to be managed” towards “a resource that can be tapped”. The developers need to improve sharing what they know and foster co-learning around questions and concerns.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keira Webster

Climate change is a systemic issue embedded in and interconnected with the social and economic makeup of a city. Building urban climate resilience requires innovative, collaborative solutions that hinge upon the openness and availability of current and contextual data. Open data tools, in stimulating information sharing, civic engagement, and innovative products, can contribute to climate change planning, building lasting resilience. Through an exploratory research methodology, this paper explores 17 international use cases, providing a basis for the implementation of open data tools in the realm of urban climate resilience, through the following five themes: 1) risk and vulnerability assessment; 2) the inception of initiatives; 3) diverging approaches to preparedness; 4) community mobilization; and 5) mitigation and adaptation. This research aims to spark a dialogue on the intersection of open data tools in urban climate resilience strategies, demonstrating open data as an appropriate tool to cultivate shared understanding and collective action.


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