• Energy Research
• 13. Climate action close
• 11. Sustainability close
• 12. Responsible consumption close
• English close
• Research Papers in Economics close

Most of the climate change models for South Africa predict a reduction in freshwater availability by 2050, which implies that water availability for sectoral production activities is expected to decline. This decline has an impact on sectoral output, value added and households’ welfare. Using a computable general equilibrium approach, this study investigates the possible impact of global change on households’ welfare. The simulation results show that water scarcity due to global change can potentially lead to a general deterioration in households’ welfare. The poor households, whose incomes are adversely impacted, are the most vulnerable to the consequences of the impact of global change on water resources in South Africa. This vulnerability can only be reduced if welfare policies that maintain food consumption levels for the least and low-income households are implemented

In the agricultural sector, climate change (CC) affects multiple weather variables at different stages of crop cycles. CC may influence the mean level or affect the distribution of events (e.g., rainfall, temperature). This work evaluates the economic impact of CC-related changes in multiple climatic components, and the resulting uncertainty. For this purpose, a three-stage discrete stochastic programming model is used to represents farm sector of an irrigated area of Italy and to examine the influence of CC on rainfall and on maximum temperature. These variables affect the availability of water for agriculture and the water requirements of irrigated crops. The states of nature, and their change, are defined more broadly than in previous analyses; this allows examining the changes of more climatic variables and crops cultivation. The effect of CC is obtained by comparing the results of scenarios that represent the climatic conditions in the current situation and in the future. The results show that the agricultural sector would seek to lower costs by modifying patterns of land use, farming practices and increasing the use groundwater. The overall economic impact of these changes is small and due primarily to the reduced availability of water in the future. The temperature increase is, in fact, largely offset by the effects of the increase in CO2 levels, which boosts the yield of main crops of the irrigated zone. Therefore, availability and water management becomes a crucial factor to offset the increase of evapotranspiration and of water stress resulting from the increase of temperature. However, the costs of CC are very high for some types of farming, which suffer a large reduction in income.

To reduce national oil dependency, ethanol has been given a center stage of U.S. energy sources. The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program was launched to increase the volume of renewable gasoline from 9 billion gallons in 2008 to 36 billion gallons by 2012, among which 15 billion are corn-based ethanol, while U.S. corn-based ethanol can hardly achieve this level. There is a trend that indicates U.S. importing ethanol from other countries, so a bilateral trade system has been established between U.S. and Brazil since 2003. The annual import is 211 million gallons in 2008 (USDC, 2009). Nevertheless, this amount is far away from the target, and the worldwide food shortage called us to divert our attention from fuel to food. China, as the third largest ethanol producer, has extreme ethanol growth potential with low production costs and large sources of cassava, which is a non-food feedstock for ethanol. This paper uses Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to measure and compare the efficiency of ethanol production in China and Brazil. To estimate the extent output can be proportionally expanded without altering the input quantities employed in each country. The output orientated method has been developed with annual ethanol production from the inputs-- land for ethanol crops, agricultural labor force and capacity of ethanol production. The DEA results show that China has been more efficient in ethanol production than Brazil since the year 2007. This means China has comparative advantage over Brazil in producing ethanol, hence U.S. can import from China instead of Brazil in the future.

Climate change is altering a wide range of human activities, including wine making. While wine may appear to be one of the most natural alcoholic beverages, it is not without carbon inputs and emissions, which contribute to the very change in climate that is altering both wine and wine making. In this paper, we use a carbon life cycle analysis to develop a model for quantifying carbon inputs in a bottle of wine. Current regulatory arrangements do not capture the carbon costs of wine effectively since most costs are externalized. We conclude with estimates of the cost of carbon under various regulatory regimes, which suggest how wine producers and consumers can reduce the carbon footprint of wine.

In this paper, we show how ecological and economic models can be linked to determine the economic impact of climate change on global timber markets. We begin by discussing some of the important issues relevant to global impact analyses such as this. We then outline our general modeling framework and discuss the particular models that will be used. Finally, we discuss some of the important issues involved with linking the two types of models.

We analyze the effects of climate conditions and crop insurance on farm-level land allocation decisions among corn, soybeans, winter wheat, and hay in 10 Midwest states. Based on ARMS data, we estimate farmers' land allocation equations that control for market conditions, climate and soil variables, and insurance. A multivariate sample selection model is used for estimation. We find that: 1) beneficial heat has positive effects on corn and soybean acreage but negative effects on winter wheat acreage, 2) excessive heat has negative effects on corn and winter wheat acreage but have positive effects on soybean acreage, 3) an increase in precipitation by 1% increases corn acreage by 0.6% but decrease soybean and winter wheat acreage by 1.0% and 1.6%, 4) soybean acreage is more sensitive to summer drought, and 5) crop insurance alters farmers land allocation.

This paper tries to identify under which conditions voluntary certification could be an answer to the governance of sustainability at global level. The study addresses the case of biofuel sustainability certification in Brazil and the role of the EU Directive on biofuels. The case study has permitted to identify and analyze some of these factors as the degree of dependence from foreign market, the policy environment, the structure of the supply chain, the benefits and costs associated to certification as well as some unintended consequences. The research has been conducted through a case study in the state of Sao Paolo (Brazil).

The commercial production of microalgae started in the early 1950’s. Especially in the last two decades, these amounts have tremendously increased. In view of growing world population and limited fossil fuels, microalgae are seen as one promising alternative source for biofuels and high value products (like proteins and ω-3 fatty acids) in different industry branches (e.g. food, feed, cosmetic and pharmaceutic products or waste water treatment). Currently, they are mainly used for food and food supplements. The potential of the small photosynthetic microorganisms for other applications were proven in lab scale experiments. There are obstacles as high processing costs, low production yields and production stability which continue to prevent the commercial use. Furthermore, without artificial lighting and heating, the production in Europe is limited from March to October. As a result, the market prices are often the bottle neck in order to sell products. There is a need for the optimisation of the processes and reactors (e.g. important growth factors, selection of microalgae species and design) to tap the full potential of the green cell factories.

The study focused on indigenous technologies used by fishermen in southern Nigeria as adaptation measures to climate change variability’s. Interview schedule was used to elicit information from sixty respondents in three (3) communities using simple random sampling technique. Percentage and mean scores were utilized for data analysis. The study established that the climate change experiences were: rise in sea level, rise in temperature, high wind, change in tidal pattern and frequent storms. The effects of climate change experiences on fishing include low fish catch, increase in boat mishap, reduced fish production and low growth rate of fishes. Indigenous technologies used as mitigating steps include building of bigger boats, the use of diverse fishing gears and observation of weather. These technologies had been very effective as mitigating steps. The study recommended mainly that modern weather forecasting facilities should be provided for the fishermen.