scholarly journals Population Externalities and Optimal Social Policy

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Lawson ◽  
Dean Spears
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Public Economics ◽  
Important Variable ◽  
Environmental Externalities ◽  
Environmental Costs ◽  
Parental Altruism ◽  
College Tuition ◽  
Child Bearing ◽  
Tuition Subsidies ◽  
Causal Impact

If fertility is not chosen in a socially optimal way, and if policies to directly target fertility are ineffective or politically infeasible, then public policies that affect fertility could have important welfare consequences through the fertility channel. We refer to these effects as population externalities, and in this paper we focus on one important variable that may have a causal impact on fertility: the education of potential parents. If increased education causes families to have fewer children, then a government would want to increase college tuition subsidies in the presence of environmental externalities such as climate change, to indirectly discourage families from having children who will generate future environmental costs. Alternatively, if fertility is inefficiently low, due to imperfect parental altruism for example, governments will want to lower tuition subsidies to encourage child-bearing. We present a simple model of the college enrollment decision and its fertility impacts, and show that such population externalities are quantitatively important: the optimal subsidy increases by about $5000 per year with climate change, and decreases by over $7000 per year with imperfect parental altruism. Our paper demonstrates how public economics can incorporate population externalities, and that such externalities can have significant impacts on optimal policy.

scholarly journals The widespread collapse of an invasive species: Argentine ants ( Linepithema humile ) in New Zealand

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 430-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meghan Cooling ◽  
Stephen Hartley ◽  
Dalice A. Sim ◽  
Philip J. Lester
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Invasive Species ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Argentine Ant ◽  
Environmental Costs ◽  
Argentine Ants ◽  
Ant Communities ◽  
Mean Survival Time ◽  
Colony Collapse ◽  
Increasing Temperature

Synergies between invasive species and climate change are widely considered to be a major biodiversity threat. However, invasive species are also hypothesized to be susceptible to population collapse, as we demonstrate for a globally important invasive species in New Zealand. We observed Argentine ant populations to have collapsed in 40 per cent of surveyed sites. Populations had a mean survival time of 14.1 years (95% CI = 12.9–15.3 years). Resident ant communities had recovered or partly recovered after their collapse. Our models suggest that climate change will delay colony collapse, as increasing temperature and decreasing rainfall significantly increased their longevity, but only by a few years. Economic and environmental costs of invasive species may be small if populations collapse on their own accord.

scholarly journals Colonizing the atmosphere: a common concern without climate justice law?

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 105
Author(s):  
Susana Borràs
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
Climate Justice ◽  
World Population ◽  
Environmental Costs ◽  
Common Concern ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World ◽  
Development Processes ◽  
The Stability

<p>In the new 'Age of the Anthropocene', the Earth's atmosphere, like other elements of Nature, is rapidly being colonized by a minority of the world's population, at no cost, threatening the security of all humanity and the stability of the planet. The development processes of the great emitters of greenhouse gases have transferred social and environmental costs to all the world population, especially the most impoverished ones. This article is a critical analysis of how the legal climate change regime continues to legitimize the onslaught on the atmosphere. It reflects on the need to move to a new "climate justice law", characterized by responsibilities and obligations centered on the prevention, repair, restoration and treatment of damage and related risks linked to climate change, while protecting human rights and the atmosphere, as a common interest of humanity and the Earth.</p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong>Atmosphere, climate change, common concern of humankind, climate justice law<strong></strong></p>

scholarly journals Mitigation Life Cycle Assessment: Best Practices from LCA of Energy and Water Infrastructure That Incurs Impacts to Mitigate Harm

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 992 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Grubert ◽  
Jennifer Stokes-Draut
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Functional Unit ◽  
Environmental Harm ◽  
Environmental Costs ◽  
Lca Results

Climate change will require societal-scale infrastructural changes. Balancing priorities for water, energy, and climate will demand that approaches to water and energy management deviate from historical practice. Infrastructure designed to mitigate environmental harm, particularly related to climate change, is likely to become increasingly prevalent. Understanding the implications of such infrastructure for environmental quality is thus of interest. Environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) is a common sustainability assessment tool that aims to quantify the total, multicriteria environmental impact caused by a functional unit. Notably, however, LCA quantifies impacts in the form of environmental “costs” of delivering the functional unit. In the case of mitigation infrastructures, LCA results can be confusing because they are generally reported as the harmful impacts of performing mitigation rather than as net impacts that incorporate benefits of successful mitigation. This paper argues for defining mitigation LCA as a subtype of LCA to facilitate better understanding of results and consistency across studies. Our recommendations are informed by existing LCA literature on mitigation infrastructure, focused particularly on stormwater and carbon management. We specifically recommend that analysts: (1) use a performance-based functional unit; (2) be attentive to burden shifting; and (3) assess and define uncertainty, especially related to mitigation performance.

A differential game of international pollution control with evolving environmental costs

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 680-700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nahid Masoudi ◽  
Georges Zaccour
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Differential Game ◽  
Pollution Control ◽  
Environmental Cost ◽  
Environmental Externalities ◽  
Environmental Costs ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
Cooperative Solutions ◽  
Definition Of

AbstractWe consider a two-player differential game of international emissions to represent the interactions between two groups of countries, namely, developed and developing countries. We adopt a broader-than-usual definition of environmental cost for developing countries to account for their evolving involvement in tackling environmental externalities. Cooperative and non-cooperative solutions are characterized and contrasted. We find that it may not be the best course of action to push developing countries to reduce their emissions in the short term, and that cooperation may not create enough dividend, also in the short term, to be implementable.

Green Economy and Sustainable Development

2017 ◽  
pp. 314-333
Author(s):  
Elvira Nica
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Adjustment Costs ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Economic Advantage ◽  
Green Economy ◽  
Environmental Externalities ◽  
Climate Regime ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Considerable Body

The analysis presented in this chapter contributes to research on alleviation and adjustment costs to climate change and requisite investments, the negative influence of agriculture on the environment, and the intricate character of the connections between development, poverty, and environment. In this chapter, the author is particularly interested in exploring the function of trade in bringing forward a green economy, the economic advantage of cutting down environmental externalities, and the sources of sustainable development. This study is grounded in the considerable body of scholarship examining the positive connections between trade and the green economy, effects of climate change and ecosystem deterioration, and the entailments of degenerated environments for the poor. The results of the current study converge with prior research on the sound performance of the Earth's ecosystems, the function of non-state participants in the climate regime, and the necessity for policies to attain greener growth.

scholarly journals Application of ERA5 and MENA Simulations to Predict Offshore Wind Energy Potential

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shahab Shamshirband ◽  
Amir Mosavi ◽  
narjes nabipour ◽  
Kwok-wing Chau
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Wind Energy ◽  
Power Distribution ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Surface Wind ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Important Variable ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Energy Potential ◽  
Near Surface

This study explores wind energy resources in different locations through the Gulf of Oman and also their future variability due climate change impacts. In this regard, EC-EARTH near-surface wind outputs obtained from CORDEX-MENA simulations are used for historical and future projection of the energy. The ERA5 wind data are employed to assess the suitability of the climate model. Moreover, the ERA5 wave data over the study area are applied to compute sea surface roughness as an important variable for converting near-surface wind speeds to those of wind speed at turbine hub height. Considering the power distribution, bathymetry and distance from the coats, some spots as tentative energy hotspots to provide a detailed assessment of directional and temporal variability and also to investigate climate change impact studies. RCP8.5 is a common climatic scenario is used to project and extract future variation of the energy in the selected sites. The results of this study demonstrate that the selected locations have a suitable potential for wind power turbine plans and constructions.

Green Economy and Sustainable Development

2015 ◽  
pp. 337-356
Author(s):  
Elvira Nica
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Adjustment Costs ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Economic Advantage ◽  
Green Economy ◽  
Environmental Externalities ◽  
Climate Regime ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Considerable Body

The analysis presented in this chapter contributes to research on alleviation and adjustment costs to climate change and requisite investments, the negative influence of agriculture on the environment, and the intricate character of the connections between development, poverty, and environment. In this chapter, the author is particularly interested in exploring the function of trade in bringing forward a green economy, the economic advantage of cutting down environmental externalities, and the sources of sustainable development. This study is grounded in the considerable body of scholarship examining the positive connections between trade and the green economy, effects of climate change and ecosystem deterioration, and the entailments of degenerated environments for the poor. The results of the current study converge with prior research on the sound performance of the Earth's ecosystems, the function of non-state participants in the climate regime, and the necessity for policies to attain greener growth.

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