• Energy Research
• 1. No poverty close
• 3. Good health close
• NL close

Agro-pastoral dams (APDs) are an increasingly popular method of adaptation interventions improving communal water supply in rural West Africa. However, APDs are often constructed in areas where culturally heterogeneous pastoralists and farmers compete for similar land and water resources. Lifting open access water abundance is likely to change if not intensify ongoing tensions between farmers and settling Fulani herders. The extent of collective action and inclusivity of 6 APDs in Northern Ghana are analysed, combining theory from common-pool resource management and equity and justice in climate change adaptation into a proposed Inclusive Collective Action (ICA) model. Practically, the article demonstrates that neither fully excluding Fulani pastoralists nor making dams openly accessible results in inclusive APD usage and management where collective action is successful, and more dynamic forms of regional inclusion and exclusion are needed. Theoretically, the article identifies some of the limitations of applying the enabling conditions for collective action of common-pool resource theory as it tends to overlook negative aspects of excluding certain user groups in culturally heterogeneous contexts from managing and using a commons.

We use a panel of 29 Chinese provinces for the period 2003-2011 to estimate the drivers of energy intensity by means of a spatial Durbin error model. We find an inverted U-shaped relationship between energy intensity and income (energy intensity Kuznets curve). Ten provinces, notably the developed east coast provinces, have already passed the turning point of 29,673 RMB. The number of years for the other 19 provinces to reach the turning point ranges between 8.3 (Jilin) and 21.8 (Yunnan). The share of the secondary sector in the own province and in neighboring provinces causes an increase in energy intensity, the capital-labor ratio a decrease. Foreign direct investment (FDI) has a significant negative spatial spillover impact on energy intensity. To improve the sustainability of its energy resources and its environmental conditions, China needs to continue reducing its energy intensity by further developing modern industrial systems to counterbalance the negative effects of its economic growth and energy consumption. An adequate policy handle is investment in research and development and stimulation of their introduction into production processes. For that purpose, market mechanisms can be readily applied, particularly energy prices that adequately reflect energy scarcity and external effects. FDI is also an effective tool to transfer advanced technology to China.

In their Research Article “Bringing ecosystem services into economic decision making: Land use in the United Kingdom” (5 July, p. [45][1]), I. J. Bateman et al. demonstrate the importance of considering nonmarket ecosystem services in economic decision-making. It is an excellent example of the potential for national-level spatial analysis of economic and environmental information to inform policy choices. The drive to connect economic and environmental information mirrors the ongoing developments in environmental-economic accounting. Over the past 6 years, the international statistics community has led work to finalize an international standard—the UN System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) ([ 1 ][2])—and to place the measurement of ecosystem services and ecosystem condition into a national accounting context ([ 2 ][3]). The development of these statistical frameworks provides the basis for compiling internationally comparable data sets at a national level on the relationship between the environment and economic activity. ![Figure][1] CREDIT: ISTOCKPHOTO Despite their common motivations, the approaches of Bateman et al. and the SEEA differ in the ways that they assign value to ecosystem services. Bateman et al. ground their analysis in welfare changes as a consequence of specific policy scenarios. The SEEA approach aims to record the “output” generated by ecosystems, given current uses of ecosystem capital; thus, monetary values represent exchange values consistent with the principles of national accounting. The SEEA approach provides a way to place welfare-based estimates in a broader context. According to Bateman et al. , the maximization of all monetary values leads to an increase of £19,606 million per year with a loss of £448 million in agricultural output [Table 3 in ([ 3 ][4])]. This loss equates to just over 2% of current UK agricultural output, and the overall impact of including nonmarket services as a proportion of GDP is an additional 1.3% ([ 3 ][4]). However, there are some important differences between the definitions of economic activity used by Bateman et al. and standard national accounting, which may limit the interpretation of such comparisons. By integrating estimates of ecosystem services within the framework of accepted economic data, the SEEA approach can provide additional impetus to mainstream these types of studies. Therefore, in addition to the calls by Bateman et al. to ensure the use of additional information on ecosystem services within standard decision-making, we call for investment to improve the quality of the underlying data within a widely accepted and integrated measurement framework such as the SEEA. The availability of quality data is an important precondition to analysis that should not be overlooked. 1. [↵][5] United Nations, European Commission, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, World Bank, “System of Environmental-Economic Accounting 2012: Central Framework, prepublication (white cover)” (2012); . 2. [↵][6] United Nations, European Commission, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, World Bank, “System of Environmental-Economic Accounting 2012: Experimental Ecosystem Accounting, pre-publication (white cover)” (2013); [http://unstats.un.org/unsd/envaccounting/eea\_white\_cover.pdf][7]. 3. [↵][8] Office for National Statistics, Input-Output Supply and Use Tables—2013 Edition (2013). [1]: pending:yes [2]: #ref-1 [3]: #ref-2 [4]: #ref-3 [5]: #xref-ref-1-1 "View reference 1 in text" [6]: #xref-ref-2-1 "View reference 2 in text" [7]: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/envaccounting/eea_white_cover.pdf [8]: #xref-ref-3-1 "View reference 3 in text"

This paper addresses the interplay between economic growth, energy use, change in sectoral composition and technological change, by exploring trends in energy- and labour-productivity development for 14 OECD countries and four sectors over the period 1970-1997. A cross-country decomposition analysis reveals that in some countries structural changes contributed considerably to macroeconomic energy-productivity growth while in other countries they partly offset energy-efficiency improvements. In contrast, structural changes only play a minor role in explaining macroeconomic labour-productivity developments. We also find labour productivity growth to be higher on average than energy productivity growth. Over time, this bias towards labour productivity growth is increasing in Transport, Agriculture and Manufacturing, while it is decreasing in Services.

In early 2014, unprecedentedly heavy rainfall led to a flood in northern lowland Bolivia affecting the livelihoods of thousands of people relying on ecosystem services and climate sensitive sectors for their daily livelihood. Based on a case study of 50 households from indigenous forest communities living in the TCO Tacana I, ex-ante and ex-post household data were collected to obtain insights into the economic performance, livelihood strategy changes and role of forest products in the direct aftermath of the extreme weather event. A negative impact on natural resource dependent livelihood strategies was found as an immediate consequence. However, most households had recovered just one year later. There was no increase in the use of forest products to mitigate immediate income shortages. A typical high contribution of forest products to household income from before the flood continued afterwards. This article contributes to understanding of livelihood-based efforts of people living in tropical lowland forests to adapt to weather extremes.

Gender and energy in the North is an under-researched area. Most of the work to date has focused on making the case that a gender dimension in energy exists – with a significant emphasis on promoting women working in the sector. This chapter aims to extend our understanding of gender in energy focusing on energy poverty, also an issue not widely recognised as existing within the Global North. However, it is estimated that more than 54 million people in Europe have difficulty paying their energy bills or have limited access to high quality energy because of low incomes. Even less well recognised is the fact that there is a gender dimension to this issue. Due to their lower average income, women are at a greater risk of energy poverty than men. As part of a growing recognition of this problem, in December 2016, the European Parliament (EP) adopted a resolution on access to energy which called for the EU to include a gender dimension in all its energy policies. The question is: to what extent is gender already taken into account in EU energy law and policy? And where are the gaps in the normative frameworks at the EU and Member-State level? This chapter analyses existing EU energy poverty law and policy related through a gender lens. The methodology used is a mix of literature review, desk review of policy documents (both on EU and national level) combined with mapping and a case study approach of gender and energy poverty in seven EU Member States (Bulgaria, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK). The findings are combined with the insights from interviews with key informants conducted in 2017-2018. This chapter will start with insights into energy poverty as experienced by women and men, mediated by social characteristics, within the European Union. One of the challenges of exploring the gender dimension of energy poverty in the EU, is that there is no agreed definition of energy poverty. Furthermore, deriving such a definition is hampered by the limited data available which tend to be qualitative. The chapter summarizes definitions of energy poverty that have been developed by both researchers and public institutions and proposes a metric for assessing the gender dimension of energy poverty. We survey the normative framework in seven Member States with respect to gender and energy services. We examine how existing EU legislation is interpreted and implemented at the national level. Also, any initiatives in the case study countries which provide positive examples of addressing issues related to gender and energy poverty are identified. In this context, the study explores the recommendation of a definition of energy poverty which reflects the context across member states but is suitable for cross-comparison, to define indicators of energy poverty to enable tracking of progress and support measures.We argue that a more gender-aware energy policy is needed to address energy poverty. A starting point for the process of creating a more gender-aware energy policy is raising awareness of the issues. Therefore the next section uses the conceptual map of the drivers, causes and effects of energy poverty developed by Trinomics (2016) to explore these issue and to make recommendations on how energy poverty can be addressed with gender equitable outcomes. Within this conceptual framework, the gender gaps are identified. There are gender dimensions to the drivers, factors and outcomes of energy. Gender and energy poverty in the EU member states, is analysed from three interlinked perspectives: economic: e.g. Women with low incomes are disproportionately found as heads of households either as single parent families or, due to their greater longevity than men, living alone at pensionable age biological/physiological: e.g. Age is a significant factor in dealing with heat and cold stress, with young children and older people being particularly vulnerable. Women are also considered to be more sensitive to ambient temperature than men.socio-cultural: women’s energy needs and consumption patterns differ compare to men but also among women, factors like marital status and employment influence energy consumption. The chapter concludes with recommendations for the EU and member states on the way forward to addressing gender and energy poverty.

Over the last decade Brazil has implemented a new and ambitious biofuel program: the National Program of Production and Use of Biodiesel (PNPB). When launching this program in 2004 the government stated that it wanted to avoid the same kind of geographical concentration, single crop focus, dominance of agribusiness, and exclusion of family farmers that have occurred with bioethanol production through the ProÁlcool policy since 1975. This paper compares the life histories of the bioethanol and the biodiesel policies of Brazil by analyzing their substantive policy content; the power and politics of actors that struggle for the design and implementation of the policies; and the polity in terms the organization and institutionalization of the policies. The paper concludes that both policies have become submerged by and dependent on the polity and politics of primarily the energy and agricultural sectors that operate as the two semi-autonomous governance fields. This submerging has shaped the substantive contents of biofuels policies, and explains why the 2004 biodiesel policy PNPB, in spite of its objectives for social inclusion and rural development, faces similar problems in implementation as its predecessor, the 1975 bioethanol policy ProÁlcool.