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The aim of this paper is to describe and discuss the weak and strong sustainability approach of assessing climate change and to show reasonable applications, weaknesses, possible improvements and linkages of both approaches. Main features of “weak” and “strong” sustainability approaches are characterised. Damage cost studies of global warming representing weak sustainability indicators are discussed. Further, the examples of the “inverse scenario” approach of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) and the environmental space concept of the Dutch Advisory Council for Research on Nature and Environment (RMNO) are described and discussed for illustrating advantages and weaknesses of strong sustainability indicators. Finally, the integration of damage cost modules into a broader methodological framework of strong sustainability is recommended.

In recent years, the literature in the field of general equilibrium modeling has increased. For long-term energy projections, general equilibrium models are more adequate than standard econometrics in evaluating alternative economic policies in a theoretically consistent framework. The well-known structure and economic mechanism of those models makes it easier to analyze structural changes of prices and quantities demanded or supplied for a given data set of an economy, national income accounts figures, and trade balance effects. The dynamic formulation of these models via investment decisions and capital formation also enables an intertemporal interpretation of structural adjustment and growth processes.

The zinc acetato and triflato complexes of 2,2’-bipyridine and 1,10-phenanthroline were prepared and completely characterised. The whole series (including the already described dichlorido complexes and the ligands themselves) were screened for their catalytic activity in the solvent free ring-opening polymerisation of D,L-lactide. The acetato and triflato complexes were found to be active initiators and polylactides could be obtained in almost quantitative yields or with high molecular weights, up to 145,000 g/mol.

This paper assesses the economic impacts of linking the EU emissions trading scheme (ETS) to emerging schemes beyond Europe in the presence of a post-Kyoto agreement in 2020. Numerical simulations with a multi-country equilibrium model of the global carbon market show that linking the European ETS induces only minor economic benefits. As trading is restricted to energy-intensive companies that are assigned high initial emissions, the major compliance burden is carried by the non-trading industries excluded from the linked ETS. In the presence of parallel government trading under a post-Kyoto Protocol, the burden of the excluded sectors can be substantially alleviated by international permit trade at the country level. However, the parallel carbon markets of linked ETS companies and post-Kyoto governments are still separated here. From an efficiency perspective, the most desirable future climate policy regime is thus represented by a joint trading system facilitating international emissions trading between ETS companies and post-Kyoto governments. While the Clean Development Mechanism is not able to attenuate the inefficiencies within linked ETS, in a parallel or joint trading regime the economy-wide access to project-based abatement options in developing countries induces large additional cost-savings.

We propose an ethical analysis as a method to reflect on how companies’ decisions promote sustainable development. The method proceeds by first identifying the choice according to financial business interests, and by then scrutinizing this choice according to consequentialist and deontological ethics. The paper applies the method to the choice of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) that a consortium of Brazilian companies (EGASUR) delivered as part of their project proposal for the realization of the Inambari hydropower dam in the Peruvian Amazon. We show that if an EIA is chosen based on the attempt to maximize the financial bottom line, it raises ethical issues both from a consequentialist perspective by involving negative consequences for various stakeholder groups, and from a deontological perspective by not complying with relevant rules, guidelines, and principles. The two ethical perspectives hence reveal where the consortium faces impediments to a genuine commitment to sustainability. Building on stakeholder interviews, observations of the project developments, and the executive summary of the actual EIA, we provide indications that EGASUR has indeed made a choice that resembles a decision based on financial interests.

This paper proposes a new framework for integrated assessment models of global environmental issues, including energy, climate, land use, macroeconomics, and environmental impacts. We conducted simulations on carbon emission stabilization in regions specified at the Third Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Conventions on Climate Change (UNFCCC/COP3). Adaptation strategies including technology choice, conservation and carbon emission certificate trade are evaluated. We find that carbon certificate trade is potentially effective in averaging relative impact in macroeconomic activity.

The transformation of the present energy system into a sustainable one is discussed worldwide. This is also mirrored in a vivid debate in the scientific literature [1–3]. Self-sufficiency attained with the help of electricity, heat, and fuel from renewable energy (RE) in combination with energy saving is seen as one way to establish a sustainable energy system, e.g., [4,5]. Many communities and regions in different countries are facing the challenge of such a transformation of their energy system, and have taken up the objective of achieving energy self-sufficiency through the use of renewables [4,6–8]. [...]