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The macroalgal industry is expanding, and the quest for novel ingredients to improve and develop innovative products is crucial. Consumers are increasingly looking for natural-derived ingredients in cosmetic products that have been proven to be effective and safe. Macroalgae-derived compounds have growing popularity in skincare products as they are natural, abundant, biocompatible, and renewable. Due to their high biomass yields, rapid growth rates, and cultivation process, they are gaining widespread recognition as potentially sustainable resources better suited for biorefinery processes. This review demonstrates macroalgae metabolites and their industrial applications in moisturizers, anti-aging, skin whitening, hair, and oral care products. These chemicals can be obtained in combination with energy products to increase the value of macroalgae from an industrial perspective with a zero-waste approach by linking multiple refineries. The key challenges, bottlenecks, and future perspectives in the operation and outlook of macroalgal biorefineries were also discussed.

Trends in energy intensities for 31 countries are evaluated, over the period from 1950 to 1988, using a purchasing power parity-based GDP measure and United Nations energy statistics. With non-commercial energy included, the energy intensities of low income countries are similar to those of high income countries. Energy intensities have decreased for 15 out of the 31 countries studied. The analysis indicates that there is a level of energy intensity, between 0.25 and 0.5 toe per 1000 (1980) international dollars, to which many countries are converging. Energy use per capita increases with higher incomes, but cross-country comparisons can be misleading and inappropriate due to large differences in, for example, economic structure and climate. Electricity appears to be the energy carrier of choice for advanced economies, leading to increased use of electricity relative to other energy carriers. Electricity intensities for eight industrialized countries are evaluated. In four countries, electricity intensities have decreased in recent years. This result suggests that electricity intensities may develop similarly to how energy intensities have developed as economic structure and energy end-use efficiency continue to change.

It is often argued that the inequality in the world is increasing. We study the global income and resource inequality between 1960 and late 1990s. Income is measured in GDP/capita in terms of both current market exchange rate and purchasing power parity (PPP). Consumption of paper, energy, electricity, food, animal food, as well as emissions of carbon dioxide, is also studied. Changes in the absolute and relative gap between the top and bottom 20% consumers as well as the Atkinson measure are used as inequality indicators. Some remarks are made on how to compare income across countries and how inequality should be measured. We find that the inequality in terms of GDP/capita measured in PPP terms is rather stable in relative terms, but increasing in absolute terms. We conclude that inequality as measured by the Atkinson index is decreasing for all resources but that the gap in resource consumption in absolute terms is increasing for paper and electricity consumption.

A service transition is supposed to lead to the decline of energy intensity (energy/GDP). We argue that this interpretation is overly optimistic because the shift to a service economy is somewhat of an illusion in terms of real production. Several recent studies of structural effects on energy intensity have made the error of using sector shares in current prices, combined with GDP in constant prices, which is inconsistent and ignores the different behaviour of prices across sectors. We use the more correct method of sector shares in constant prices, and make an attempt to single out the effect from the real service transition by using two complementary methods: shift share analyses in current and constant prices, and Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) for 10 developed and 3 emerging economies. A service transition is rather modest in real terms. The major driver of the decline in energy intensity rests within the manufacturing sector. Meanwhile, the transition to a service sector had a small downward impact on energy intensity in 7 of the developed countries (and no impact in the others). For emerging economies like Brazil, Mexico and India, it is the residential sector that drives energy intensity down because of the declining share of this sector as the formal economy grows, and as a consequence of switching to more efficient fuels. (Less)

We study a tax policy based on the emission factor.We compare it to other environmental policies using a social welfare model.The policy provides the highest consumers' surplus and the lowest market price.The optimal tax rate induces high emitters to use less carbon-intensive fuels.A reduction in the emission factor leads to a reduction in the total emissions. This paper studies a tax policy based on the emission factor, which is used as an intensity measure. Specifically, the paper models a situation where policy makers set a limit on the production emission factor of a regulated industry and require firms to pay tax if they exceed that target. The efficiency of the policy is evaluated against other existing environmental policies using a social welfare mathematical programming model. A case study is built within the context of the cement industry and is used to carry out the analysis. The results show that the intensity-based carbon tax achieves the highest consumers' surplus and production quantities and the lowest prices. The policy is found to be effective in reducing CO2 emissions with little impact on social welfare.

India is among the world lowest per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters, but rapid increases are expected. At the same time, World Health Organization (WHO) estimates show that 424,000 die prematurely in Indian households each year from air pollution exposure due to solid fuel use. We analyze GHG emissions and health through three policy scenarios for household energy, using projections for population, income and urbanization. In policy scenarios called Business as Usual (BAU), Improved Health, and Green Future, projected per capita household GHG emissions in 2026 increase by 169%, 164% and 139%, respectively, compared to 2001, whereas household mortality rates decrease by 45%, 67% and 45%, respectively. Due to income growth and urbanization, an increase in GHG emissions is likely inevitable, but can be slowed. For health, in contrast, improvements are expected and can be expanded.

More than 61% of the total population of Nepal has no access to electricity. The majority is poor and live in rural areas. In recent years, rural electrification has had high priority in government policies, and micro hydro and solar PV have been the most commonly adopted off-grid technologies. The financial mix in the off-grid rural electrification is generally characterized by subsidy, equity and credit. In this paper, we analyze how rural electrification has been funded and the impact of subsidy policies on the renewable energy market, focusing on the projects implemented under the ‘subsidy policy 2000’. Our study is based on official data obtained from authorities in Nepal and a survey carried out among private supply and installation companies, NGOs and financial institutions. The study shows that awareness levels in adopting RE-technologies and willingness of people to access and pay for electricity have increased significantly. However, there is a huge financial gap between the cost of electrification and the affordability. Bridging this gap is a crucial issue that needs to be addressed for the smooth expansion of rural electrification in the country.

Coral reefs in the tropical Pacific region are exposed to a range of anthropogenic local pressures. Climate change is exacerbating local impacts, causing unprecedented declines in coral reef habitats and bringing negative socio-economic consequences to Pacific communities who depend heavily on coral reefs for food, income and livelihoods. Continued increases in greenhouse gas emissions will drive future climate change, which will accelerate coral reef degradation. Traditional systems of resource governance in Pacific island nations provide a foundation to address local pressures and build reef resilience to climate change. Management and adaptation options should build on the regional diversity of governance systems and traditional knowledge to support community-based initiatives and cross-sectoral cooperation to address local pressures and minimize climate change impacts. Such an inclusive approach will offer enhanced opportunities to develop and implement transformative adaptation solutions, particularly in remote and regional areas where centralized management does not extend.

This paper reviews the literature on the economics of climate change adaptation in developing countries, and identifies three key points for consideration in future studies. One key point is that all development policy should be formulated using forecasts from climate science as a baseline. When this is not done, there is risk that a false status quo without climate change is seen as an implicit baseline. Another key point is that authors must be clearer about their behavioral assumptions: Many studies either (problematically) assume profit maximization on the side of farm households, or do not specify behavioral assumptions at all. A third important point is that the allocation of rights is crucial for the results; if households have a right to maintain their current livelihoods, the costs of climate change in developing countries are considerably greater than traditional willingness‐to‐pay studies would indicate. Thus, costs and benefits of climate change adaptation cannot be analyzed using economic aspects only; climate science, behavioral science, and legal and moral aspects have crucial implications for the outcome of the analysis.