• Energy Research
• 1. No poverty close
• GB close

We study the impact of global climate change on the prevalence of tropical diseases using a heterogeneous agent dynamic general equilibrium model. In our framework, households can take actions (e.g., purchasing bednets or other goods) that provide partial protection from disease. However, these actions are costly and households face borrowing constraints. Parameterizing the model, we explore the impact of a worldwide temperature increase of 3°C. We find that the impact on disease prevalence and especially output should be modest and can be mitigated by improvements in protection efficacy.

International policy is placing increasing emphasis on adaptation to climate change, including the allocation of new funds to assist adaptation efforts. Climate change adaptation funding may be most effective where it meets integrated goals, but global geographic priorities based on multiple development and ecological criteria are not well characterized. Here we show that human and natural adaptation needs related to maintaining agricultural productivity and ecosystem integrity intersect in ten major areas globally, providing a coherent set of international priorities for adaptation funding. An additional seven regional areas are identified as worthy of additional study. The priority areas are locations where changes in crop suitability affecting impoverished farmers intersect with changes in ranges of restricted-range species. Agreement among multiple climate models and emissions scenarios suggests that these priorities are robust. Adaptation funding directed to these areas could simultaneously address multiple international policy goals, including poverty reduction, protecting agricultural production and safeguarding ecosystem services.

The current state of knowledge on climate change and water points to predominantly negative effects. This paper reviews the literature on these effects by geographical region and notes the differences as well as the uncertainties. An important feature is the fact that the climate effects will occur on top of water scarcity that currently prevails in many parts of the world. The impact of climate change on scarcity is present but generally small compared to the impact of the socioeconomic factors. Changes in efficiency of water use could make a big contribution to water problems, including those caused by climate change. In-depth estimates of damages from climate change related to water have been made to 2060 and, less accurately, to 2100. The 2060 estimates indicate that the impacts from water supply changes or changes in water-related extreme events and marine flows add up to about 1.5 of GDP in 2060 in the absence of mitigation or adaptation. This average figure, however, may be an underestimate of a number of reasons. Estimates to 2100 of potential damages in economic terms are even more uncertain but there are strong reasons to believe they will be greater as a percentage of GDP, perhaps around 10 globally and possibly even higher. Adaptation can make a major contribution to reducing damages from climate change for all mitigation scenarios, and more so when mitigation is absent or limited. Adaptation will require both private and public actions.

Abstract Most existing estimates of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) for sulfur, which use samples of mainly high-income countries, indicate a maximum emissions turning point at middle to lower high-income levels of GDP per capita. We use a larger and more globally representative sample than previous sulfur EKC studies. We find that sulfur emissions per capita are a monotonic function of income per capita when we use a global sample and an inverted-U shape function of income when we use a sample of high-income countries. A model estimated in first differences results in a monotonic EKC when estimated with both high-income and global samples. Reductions in emissions are time-related rather than income-related.

Abstract The global education agenda, embedded in the Education for All (EFA) Goals, and the Millennium Development Goals, has emphasised the importance of reaching EFA rather than sustaining this achievement. As a corollary, the emphasis for external aid has also been on increasing aid to secure EFA rather than on the dangers of aid dependency in securing and sustaining EFA. The international architecture in support of education for sustainable development appears to have little interest in analysing these tensions between the pursuit of these rights-based EFA Goals, on the one hand, and the kind of economic growth and macro-economic environment that would be necessary to sustain their achievement.

The ten countries that joined the European Union (EU) in 2004 (Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia) have experienced faster economic growth and slower declines in energy consumption than traditional EU members. As designing of low-carbon policies requires accurate CO2 emission accounting, this study describes the evolving trajectories of CO2 emissions from 2005 to 2017 of 2004 EU accession members by providing detailed emission inventories by 28 types of energy and 47 socioeconomic sectors. We further quantify the contributions of four socioeconomic drivers (i.e., economic growth, energy structure, carbon intensity, and energy intensity) to the emission changes. The results show that the total CO2 emissions of the ten countries decreased by 7.50% from 2010 (506.81 Mt) to 2016 (468.78 Mt), which is lower than the average decline rate of other EU members (10.52%). Although the effect of economic growth contributed the most to emission increase (15.44%), it is completely offset by the decline in carbon intensity (-18.82%). We also discuss potential roadmaps towards carbon neutrality by designing 33 scenarios based on the European Union Low-Carbon Development Map 2050. We find that carbon neutrality cannot be achieved unless the share of renewable energy sources reaches 60% and more than half of existing coal and gas power plants are upgraded to Carbon Capture Storage (CCS) technology. These changes require the implementation of both short-term and long-term strategies.

Financial markets play a vital role in the allocation of the world’s resources. Yet financial markets are also prone to booms and busts as financial intermediaries imperfectly respond to the world around them. This thesis examines the role of financial markets in the context of climate change. It examines how financial markets are slowly, though imperfectly, moving towards addressing one of the greatest economic and scientific challenges of our century. I examine in-depth a number of areas where financial markets are operating effectively to address the challenges of climate change. I also identify those areas where market failures signal the need for further government intervention. This thesis proceeds in four substantive chapters. My approach is empirical and employs both quantitative and qualitative techniques. I first address financial market theory on the role of information in efficient market operation (Chapter 3). I then examine behaviourally how financial markets are integrating new climate-related information in investment decisions (Chapter 4). This thesis then examines the two financial markets in depth. The first is an empirical examination of how carbon markets have influenced publicly listed markets in energy stocks within Europe (Chapter 5). The second is an empirical examination of direct investment (venture capital and private equity) in clean technologies in Europe and North America (Chapter 6). Four findings emerge from this thesis: Firstly, financial market reform must begin with greater information disclosure to the market on the physical and carbon-related risks facing corporations and the community. Secondly, large asset owners (such as pension funds) should demand greater integration of long-term systemic risk considerations in their asset allocation decisions if they are to adequately respond to climate change. Thirdly, market structure appears to materially influence the operation of a carbon price signal within an energy market. This indicates further empirical research is needed by governments to examine whether carbon markets achieve their intended aims. Fourthly, the flow of direct investment (private equity) in emerging clean technologies is highly contingent on geography. The size and direction of capital flows is influenced by regulation, capital market structures, and physical environmental variables. Government must bear this in mind when formulating appropriate technology and industry policy to spur clean technology investment.

AbstractPrevious studies challenge the assumption that economic growth improves subjective well‐being, and argue that economic growth is incompatible with not only nature conservation but also subjective well‐being. To achieve SDGs, a mode of economy that sustains both subjective well‐being and the natural environment needs to be investigated. This ethnographic study explored community‐based economy systems in post‐genocide Rwanda, and elaborated the process and mechanisms by which the contemporary gift economy facilitated subjective well‐being in culture and natural landscape. Findings showed that subjective well‐being can be achieved by applying alternative modes of economy (gift economy, sharing economy) and having access to direct sources of well‐being (natural environment, social cohesion, cultural identity, and spirituality), when basic needs are satisfied by well‐established infrastructure and social services. This study contributes to understanding why and how people can be happy without money, and illuminate a mode of economy that can benefit the sustainable development of local communities.