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Abstract In this study, we investigate the driving forces behind the changes in residential energy consumption (REC) in China’s urban and rural areas over the 2001–2012 period. Based on the logarithmic mean Divisia index method, the REC changes are decomposed into seven driving forces, which are climate change, energy price, energy expenditure mix, energy cost share (in total expenditure), expenditure share (in income), per capita income and population effects. According to the results, climate effect due to increasing days with abnormal temperature, energy cost share effect characterized by more expenditure to be paid for energy use, income effect describing constant income growth in the residential sector definitely increase REC in both urban and rural areas. In contrast, energy prices and energy expenditure mix effects negatively contribute to the REC increase, respectively because of the increase in energy prices and the transition from the low-priced energy to high-priced energy. Expenditure share and population effects play opposite roles in urban and rural areas, and the reasons and implications are analysed in depth.

This empirical paper tests for trade-facilitated spillovers in the convergence of energy productivity across 16 European Union (EU) countries from 1995 to 2005. One might anticipate that by inducing specialization, trade limits the potential for convergence in energy productivity. Conversely, by inducing competition and knowledge diffusion, trade may spur sectors to greater energy productivity. Unlike most previous work on convergence, we explain productivity dynamics from cross-country interactions at a detailed sector level and apply a spatial panel data approach to explicitly account for trade-flow related spatial effects in the convergence analysis. Our study confirms the existence of convergence in manufacturing energy productivity, caused by efficiency improvements in lagging countries, while undermined by increasing international differences in sector structure. Further, we find that trade flows explain 30 to 40% of the unobserved variation in energy productivity. Trade continues to explain the unobserved variation in energy productivity even after accounting for geographic proximity. Last, we find that those countries and sectors with higher dependence on trade both have higher energy productivity growth and a higher rate of convergence, further implying that trade can enhance energy productivity. Thus, unlike concerns that trade may spur a 'race to the bottom', we find that promoting trade may help stimulate energy efficiency improvements across countries.

Recently, in the economics literature, several papers have put forward arguments for using a declining discount rate in social-cost benefit analysis. This paper examines the impact of employing a declining discount rate on the social cost of carbon-the marginal social damage from a ton of emitted carbon. Six declining discounting schemes are implemented in the FUND 2.8 integrated assessment model, including the recent amendments to the Green Book of HM Treasury (Treasury, H.M., 2003. The Greenbook: Appraisal and Evaluation in Central Government. TSO, London). We find that using a declining schedule of discount rates increases the social cost of carbon estimate by as little as 10% or by as much as a factor of 40, depending upon the scenario selected. Although the range of plausible estimates is large, using declining discounting schemes in FUND 2.8 in most cases does not yield values at the £70/tC level suggested by UK DEFRA [Clarkson, R., Deyes, K., 2002. Estimating the social cost of carbon emissions. Government Economic Service Working Paper. HM Treasury, London]. Indeed, only at the higher end of the values of social cost of carbon found here would many climate change related policies - such as the Kyoto Protocol - pass a cost-benefit analysis. This conclusion, however, does not necessarily undermine the ethical and political economic reasons for supporting international collective action on climate change. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The role of cities and their commitment to meet the European targets on energy and climate has steadily increased in the latest years as testified by the large number of ambitious initiatives undertaken by European cities to face multiple challenges towards sustainability. Many projects and initiatives have arisen all around Europe to support cities in the achievement of the Europe 2020 targets of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. RE-SEEties "Towards resource-efficient urban communities in SEE" is one of the projects funded under the South East Europe program aimed to enhance the policy-making and strategic planning competences of municipalities in the field of energy efficiency, renewable energy sources and waste valorization. This paper focuses on the methods developed and the main results achieved in the framework of RE-SEEties. The main focus is on the eight partner cities (The Local Government of Budapest District 18 - Hungary/HU, Municipality of Aigaleo - Greece/EL, Municipality of Potenza - Italy/IT, City of Nitra - Slovakia/SK, City of Skopje - Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia/FYROM, City of Miercurea Ciuc - Romania/RO, Municipality of Ptuj - Slovenia/SI, City of Ivani?-Grad - Croatia/HR) and how they were assisted by professional institutions in translating their commitments towards resource efficiency into Local Strategies and Action Plans. A critical comparison of these final results points out differences and similarities in the state-of-the-art of cities across South East Europe as well as a the level of ambition and difficulties faced to turn into resource efficient urban communities.

Artículos en revistas The growing importance of the electricity sector in many economies, and of energy and environmental policies, requires a detailed consideration of these sectors and policies in computable general equilibrium (CGE) models, including both technological and temporal aspects. This paper presents the first attempt to our knowledge at building temporal disaggregation into a CGE model, while keeping technological detail. This contribution is coupled with some methodological improvements over existing technology-rich CGE models. The model is able to account for the indirect effects characteristic of CGE models while also mimicking the detailed behavior of the electricity operation and investment present before only in bottom-up detailed models. The present paper is the first of two parts and focuses on the bottom-up top-down calibration methodology needed to build such a model. Part II will present the CGE model applied to the evaluation of an energy policy with temporal consequences. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The emerging concept of bioeconomy offers several opportunities to address societal challenges. The bioeconomy is mainly driven by advances in microbiology, which can be applied to various processes that use biological resources by shifting consumer preferences and by yielding new insights into resource constraints related to such issues as climate and land. Although expectations are high, less is known about the economic importance of the bioeconomy. This article reviews the methodological challenges of measuring the bioeconomy, the approaches used, and the outcomes reported. The results show that measuring the bioeconomy is still in its infancy and faces a number of methodological challenges. Bioeconomy cuts across sectors and therefore cannot be treated as a traditional sector in economics. Economics must catch up with bioeconomy realities. For a comprehensive economic assessment, information about bioeconomy resources, compounds, and product flows is required. We outline innovations in data storage and analytical methods that would realize bioeconomy opportunities and help guide policy.

Translating resource efficiency into practical European, national and local policy frameworks which integrate the various economic, social and environmental components passes through short to long term visions, strategies as well as measurable targets. The RE-SEEties project was funded by the South East Europe programme in order to contribute to the resource efficiency challenge.The project investigated on energy consumption and waste production and disposal; potential changes in consumption patterns and how policy making alternatives may support the achievement of resource efficiency targets. This paper aims to present the main results of this unique international cooperative experience carried out by research centres and municipalities in the South East Europe area. First, the paper focuses on the methodological toolkit and criteria for assessment which aims to support municipalities increating a sustainable and resource efficient future through coherent and appropriate planning practices. Second, the paper discusses the main result sobtained and lessons learned on a wide range of interrelate dissues covering the policy making process, financing of local resource-efficiency investments, good practices, tools to support decision-making and assessment methodologies. It also covers behavioural change and how policy can stimulate public authorities, companies and citizens to become more sustainable.

This paper provides an empirical analysis of energy-productivity convergence across 56 developed and developing countries, in 10 manufacturing sectors, for the period 1971-1995. We find that, except for the non-ferrous metals sector, cross-country differences in absolute energy-productivity levels tend to decline, particularly in the less energy-intensive industries. Testing for the catch-up hypothesis using panel data confirms that in all manufacturing sectors energy-productivity growth is, in general, relatively high in countries that initially lag behind in terms of energy-productivity levels. At the same time, cross-country differences in energy-productivity performance seem to be persistent; convergence is found to be local rather than global, with countries converging to different steady states and several failing to catch up. Finally, we find that country-specific factors, such as energy price and investment ratio, do explain the observed cross-country differences in energy-productivity performance, but only to a very limited extent.