Climate Change Agreement Research Articles

John Rawls and Compliance to Climate Change Agreements: Insights from a Laboratory Experiment

John Rawls and Compliance to Climate Change Agreements: Insights from a Laboratory Experiment

Potential State Responses to Climate Change in Post-COVID World

COVID-19 followed lockdown in countries have significantly reduced the level of global carbon emissions. However, this reduction in emissions is evaluated as a temporary phenomenon as emissions from countries are expecting to grow rapidly once the pandemic imposed restrictions are fully withdrawn. If emissions from countries are growing unabatedly in a post pandemic world that would adversely impact the implementation of the international climate change agreements, particularly the Paris Climate Agreement. Paris Climate Change Agreement which came into form in 2015 is the only international climate change agreement existing today to regulate global carbon emissions from all major economies. Majority of the nation-states have ratified the Paris Climate Agreement. However, the climate leadership vacuum that has created with the decision of the US to withdraw from the Paris Agreement and the current challenges that COVID-19 is posing to world multilateral order are adversely influencing the course of global climate change negotiations and thereby worsening the climate crisis.

Reducing GHG Emissions and Improving Cost Effectiveness via Energy Efficiency Enhancements: A Case Study in a Biscuit Industry

As the new climate change driven regulations are brought into the force and energy prices and sustainability awareness increased, many companies are looking for the most efficient way to reduce their energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In this context, the food industry as one of the main energy consumers within the industry sector plays a significant role. This paper analyses the current energy consumption in a biscuit manufacturing company and considers a number of possible solutions for the energy efficiency improvements. The company uses modern and automated production processes and has signed a Climate Change Agreement. The experimental part involves identification of the energy users, as well as analysis of the energy bills, operation times, production schedule and on-site measurements of energy consumption. The opportunities for energy efficiency improvements, GHG emissions and costs reduction are investigated and additional information about the investments and payback period of the proposed improvements discussed. A number of opportunities for improvement are identified within the production area with a potential savings of 23%, which corresponds to EUR 40,534.00 and 190 tCO2, annually. It was found that the significant savings could be achieved by better managing the production lines and reducing operational hours from equipment, with no impact on productivity and no capital investment required. Further savings can be achieved through technical improvements requiring capital investments. All those improvements and savings make a significant contribution in accomplishing environmental targets set out by the FDF1 agreement.

Nexus between green financing, renewable energy generation, and energy efficiency: empirical insights through DEA technique.

The study aims to test the nexus of green financing with renewable electricity generation and energy efficiency. The study used data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique during the year of 2016 to 2020 in developed and developing countries. The findings show that there is a 24% possibility of worldwide rise in expenditures in renewable energy through energy efficiency projects and probably could fall around 17% much further in 2017 and 2018. This may jeopardize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris climate change agreement. Lack of access to private financing slows the development of green initiatives. Now that sustainable energy is not about science and technology, it is all about getting financing in developed and developing countries. As policy measure, the study suggested to value environmental initiatives, like other infrastructure initiatives, for greater electricity generation and energy efficiency in developed and developing countries. Such infrastructural projects need long-term financing and capital intensiveness. It is further suggested to sustain growth, development, and energy poverty reduction, and around $26 trillion would be required, in terms of green financing, in the developed and developing countries alone by the year 2030 to enhance energy efficiency. To achieve energy sustainability goals in developed and developing countries, recent research suggested some policy implication considering the post COVID-19 time. If such policy implications are implemented successfully, there are chances that green financing would make energy generation and energy efficiency effective.

DOES THE CLEAN DEVELOPMENT MECHANISM EXIST IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES AFTER AN INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT?

The Kyoto Protocol is a key document on climate change agreements by the United Nations Framework on Climate Change. The latest commitments agreed in 2012. Its agreed to reduce CO2 emissions by about 20% or less of all global carbon emissions. A strong commitment is needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by governments from various countries. This study aims to figure out the progress of clean development mechanism of reducing CO2 emissions in the Asia and Middle East Region countries after the Kyoto Protocol Commitment. Variable CO2 emissions, economic growth, foreign direct investment, trade activities which covered from 2013 to 2017 were analysed using a panel data model. The alteration after agreement were evaluated using a Klassen Typology. The results show that economic growth and trading activities have a significant effect on clean development mechanism in Asia and the Middle East, but still have differences in the patterns and behavior of each country in implementing commitments to reduce CO2 emissions. Overall, attempts are needed to align economic growth with efforts to reduce emissions so that prudent policies are needed in forming realistic and sustainable mitigation and adaptation steps to address the problem of climate change.Keywords: CO2 emission, clean development mechanism, agreement, Klassen Typology, mitigationJEL Classifications: Q5, Q28, Q54, Q540DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.11514

Carbon intensity threshold for Canadian oil sands industry using planetary boundaries: Is a sustainable carbon-negative industry possible?

Previous studies on environmental performance of the oil sands industry in Canada conclude that its carbon footprint must be reduced. Yet, it remains unclear what threshold of carbon emissions intensity that the industry needs to meet to be within Canada's carbon share following Paris Climate Change Agreement. Here, for the first time, a top-down approach based on planetary boundary is used to identify the threshold of carbon emissions intensity that can keep Canadian oil sands industry within the planet's carrying capacities in absolute terms. The approach follows four steps in scaling down the global carbon budget into national level for Canada and industry level translated into emissions intensity threshold. The results reveal that under both 1.5 and 2 °C targets, the share of oil sands industry of Canada's carbon budget has been exhausted under most downscaling approaches: 10 % and 20 % annual reduction scenarios cannot help the industry to stay within their carbon budget under climate-relevant thresholds. Therefore, a carbon-negative industry is required where a reduction of 101.5–120 % of current emissions intensity is needed. Even in few cases where the industry is still within its cumulative carbon budget, an emission intensity reduction of 88–98 % is required. The results demonstrate the need for rapid transition that goes beyond zero-carbon to carbon-negative oil sands industry to be environmentally sustainable especially under the 1.5 °C target of the Paris Climate Change Agreement. This shows the need for new pathways in the sustainable energy industry such as hybrid renewable-oil sands operations and hydrogen from oil sands resources.

Green is the money: energy efficiency in care homes

Nursing and Residential CareVol. 23, No. 7 ProfessionalGreen is the money: energy efficiency in care homesAdam BernsteinAdam BernsteinCorrespondence to: Adam Bernstein; E-mail Address: [email protected]Adam Bernstein Limited, UKSearch for more papers by this authorAdam BernsteinPublished Online:30 Jul 2021https://doi.org/10.12968/nrec.2021.23.7.6AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail View article References Carbon Trust. Energy efficiency starts here: SME survey results. 2020. https://www.carbontrust.com/news-and-events/news/energy-efficiency-starts-here-sme-survey-results (accessed 30 June 2021) Google ScholarGOV.uk. Climate Change Agreements scheme extension and reforms for any future scheme. 2020. https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/climate-change-agreements-scheme-extension-and-reforms-for-any-future-scheme (accessed 30 June 2021) Google Scholar FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails 2 July 2021Volume 23Issue 7ISSN (print): 1465-9301ISSN (online): 2052-2932 Metrics History Published online 30 July 2021 Published in print 2 July 2021 Information© MA Healthcare LimitedPDF download

Role of Forests of the Volga River Basin in the Mitigation of Climate Fluctuations and of Forthcoming global Warming (Predictive Empirical-Statistical Modeling)

In this article, the authors propose a predictive landscape-ecological analysis of the forest cover of the Volga basin, which highlights the problem of adsorption of greenhouse gases, which is included in the list of tasks set the Paris Climate Change Agreement (2015). As a result of the study, the authors established the adsorption potential of indigenous and derived boreal and nemoral forests, assessed their ability to mitigate climate change, including reducing anthropogenic warming. A quantitative assessment was also made of the loss of these ecological resources by the forests of the Volga basin since the beginning of intensive forest and land use in it. We have identified contrasting changes in the ecological resources of boreal and nemoral forests during their structural transformation in the course of global warming. We show that the process of thermal-arid transformation of forest ecosystems leads to a general decrease in the positive carbon balance in most groups of forest formations. The verification of the predicted calculations of the carbon balance, carried out by remote and ground measurements in the boreal forests of Central Canada in the first decade of modern warming, gave positive results.

A comprehensive review of biomass based thermochemical conversion technologies integrated with CO2 capture and utilisation within BECCS networks

The future of the global environment is at threat due to global warming and climate change primarily driven by greenhouse gas emissions. Bioenergy with carbon dioxide capture and storage/utilisation (BECCS/U) through its CO2 negative emission capacity is considered a principal component of global mitigation strategies as agreed in the Paris climate change agreement. In this study, the current global status and efforts to implement BECCS systems are comprehensively reviewed. The potential for thermochemical conversion processes (combustion, gasification, pyrolysis, and liquefaction) to manifest within BECCS systems is analysed, in addition to their integration potential with carbon dioxide capture methods. Outcomes suggest that gasification and combustion processes when integrated with CO2 capture and storage (CCS), within combine heat and power (CHP) configurations, biomass integrated gasification combine cycle (BIGCC) and chemical looping cycle (CLC) are mature technologies. Furthermore, this review indicates that pyrolysis and liquefaction process are commercial and lab-scale respectively. When integrated within BECCS systems, pyrolysis systems are at the pilot level and liquefaction processes are at lab scale. Moreover, a comprehensive discussion on the negative emission potential from various BECCS configurations is provided, highlighting their role in advancing bio-refineries through waste management and conversion to value-added products such as biochar, ethanol, bio diesel etc. The pyrolysis process has CO2 mitigation potential of 2.2 GtCO2/year by 2020-2050. Finally, an insight into the commercial barriers and future perspectives of BECCS technologies, role of international supply chains therein, and the need for effective stakeholder management to facilitate BECCS systems within global trade.

Free neighborhood choice boosts socially optimal outcomes in stag-hunt coordination problem

Situations where independent agents need to align their activities to achieve individually and socially beneficial outcomes are abundant, reaching from everyday situations like fixing a time for a meeting to global problems like climate change agreements. Often such situations can be described as stag-hunt games, where coordinating on the socially efficient outcome is individually optimal but also entails a risk of losing out. Previous work has shown that in fixed interaction neighborhoods agents’ behavior mostly converges to the collectively inefficient outcome. However, in the field, interaction neighborhoods often can be self-determined. Theoretical work investigating such circumstances is ambiguous in whether the efficient or inefficient outcome will prevail. We performed an experiment with human subjects exploring how free neighborhood choice affects coordination. In a fixed interaction treatment, a vast majority of subjects quickly coordinates on the inefficient outcome. In a treatment with neighborhood choice, the outcome is dramatically different: behavior quickly converges to the socially desirable outcome leading to welfare gains 2.5 times higher than in the environment without neighborhood choice. Participants playing efficiently exclude those playing inefficiently who in response change their behavior and are subsequently included again. Importantly, this mechanism is effective despite that only few exclusions actually occur.

John Rawls and compliance to climate change agreements: insights from a laboratory experiment

The most evident shortcoming of the international agreements on climate actions is the compliance to their prescriptions. Can John Rawls’s social contract theory help us to solve the problem? We apply the veil of ignorance decision-making setting in a sequential dictator game to study the compliance to climate change agreements and we test the model in a laboratory experiment. The veil of ignorance shows to be very powerful at inducing the subjects to converge on a sustainable intergenerational path. However, the voluntary compliance to the agreement still remains an open issue, because even small incentives to defect can undermine the compliance stability, and therefore break the whole sustainable dynamic.

Does tourism industry agglomeration reduce carbon emissions?

The global level of climate change agreement and the extensive development of China's industrialization process have caused China to face severe pressures regarding energy conservation and emission reduction. Tourism industry plays an important role in promoting steady economic growth and improving ecological environment in China. The agglomeration economic effect it produces can reduce carbon emissions, but the crowding effect may not be conducive to low carbon development. Therefore, how to reduce carbon emissions while promoting the development of tourism industry has become an urgent problem. This paper measures the level of tourism industry agglomeration and carbon emission in 30 regions of China and uses the method of spatial econometrics to analyze the impact of tourism industry agglomeration on carbon emissions. The empirical results prove that tourism industry agglomeration can reduce the carbon emissions of local and neighboring regions in China. However, this does not mean that the larger the scale of tourism industry agglomeration, the more conducive to the reduction of carbon emissions. For developed tourism groups, the impact of agglomeration effect on carbon emissions of local and adjacent areas shows a U-shaped relationship. When the agglomeration level exceeds 1.963, the expansion of agglomeration scale will increase local carbon emissions. For underdeveloped tourism areas, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between agglomeration level and carbon emissions both in local and adjacent areas. When the agglomeration level reaches 1.883, the expansion of agglomeration scale will reduce local carbon emissions. The conclusions provide a basis for Chinese government to guide the low-carbon development of the tourism industry from another perspective.

Future Directions for Power System Interconnection from Korea’s Perspective

The power system interconnection between Northeast Asian countries has been discussed since 2000 but has not been realized to date due to various obstacles. This paper specifies the expected future energy policy, long-term energy supply plan, and necessity of power interconnection from the Korean viewpoint, including the climate change agreement. There are very many interconnection scenarios presented by various institutes in NEA countries now. These studies contain the overall preliminary feasibility results but do not consider the environmental effects, energy security, and market reforms. Do these existing studies show how we could interconnect specific countries? This paper discusses the trading potentials for green energy utilization between countries and some obstacles to be removed to promote the energy interconnection projects from technical, economic, marketable, and energy security standpoints. Especially, energy security in terms of politics, as well as vulnerability characteristics of renewable energy, could cause the interconnected system blackouts. These could be a serious obstacle to realization and continuous stable operation of these interconnection projects. Finally, this paper will specify the future directions and possible scenarios for power system interconnection by integrating these issues comprehensively from Korea's perspective.

A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON LEGAL FRAMEWORKS ON RENEWABLE ENERGY IN MALAYSIA AND INDIA: TOWARDS THE COMMITMENTS UNDER THE PARIS AGREEMENT

Climate change has always been an agenda for the international community, individually and collectively, due to global warming and unusual weather conditions. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) believes that the adequate deployment of clean energy can achieve the targets of the Paris Climate Change Agreement. Many countries have shown their commitment to decrease their carbon emission levels substantially, and they have done so by resorting to renewable energy sources. Renewable energy generation opens a viable door for climate change mitigation efforts. Both Malaysia and India are committed to fulfilling their obligation under the Paris Agreement. This comparative study evaluates the laws and policies related to renewable energy in Malaysia and India, as these countries progress towards their commitments under the Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC). This study operates under the comparative qualitative methodological framework and utilises secondary sources for analysis. Based on the comparative expositions, Malaysia can learn measures adopted by India to accelerate renewable energy development as well as to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, which will prove beneficial to the country as well as in order to comply with international conventions and agreements.

Fossil fuel mineral wealth and climate change law: expectations of coal mine development in a time of decarbonisation

International climate change law embodied in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement entails commitments to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, mainly from the use of fossil fuels. The development of fossil fuel mineral resources, especially coal, is becoming less attractive. Although it can be argued that countries, especially developing countries, should have a right to develop their coal resources, there is no general exception to the international agreements to that effect. The agreements address emissions and do not directly prevent fossil fuel extraction at the present. Emission reduction measures are not the only factors causing uncertainty in international coal markets. No tenable argument can be made for exceptions to the climate change agreements on the basis of the right to development, sustainable development or permanent sovereignty over natural resources; and pressure to reduce the use of fossil fuels, at the corporate level or in international affairs, is legitimate and to be expected. A low-carbon future means changes for mining, and coal mining in particular does not have a legal claim to business as usual operation immune from international efforts to reduce harm to the climate.

Free Neighborhood Choice Boosts Socially Optimal Outcomes in Stag-Hunt Coordination Problem

Situations where independent agents need to align their activities to achieve individually and socially beneficial outcomes are abundant, reaching from everyday situations like fixing a time for a meeting to global problems like climate change agreements. Often such situations can be described as stag-hunt games, where coordinating on the socially efficient outcome is individually optimal but also entails a risk of losing out. Previous work has shown that in fixed interaction neighborhoods agents' behavior mostly converges to collectively inefficient outcome. However, in the field, interaction neighborhoods often can be self-determined. Theoretical work investigating such circumstances is ambiguous in whether the efficient or inefficient outcome will prevail. We performed an experiment with human subjects exploring how free neighborhood choice affects coordination. In a fixed interaction treatment, a vast majority of subjects quickly coordinates on the inefficient outcome. In a treatment with neighborhood choice, the outcome is dramatically different: behavior quickly converges to the socially desirable outcome leading to welfare gains 2.5 times higher than in the environment without neighborhood choice. Participants playing efficiently exclude those playing inefficiently who in response change their behavior and are subsequently included again. Importantly, this mechanism is effective despite that only few exclusions actually occur.

A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON LEGAL FRAMEWORKS ON RENEWABLE ENERGY IN MALAYSIA AND INDIA: TOWARDS THE COMMITMENTS UNDER THE PARIS AGREEMENT

Climate change has always been an agenda for the international community, individually and collectively, due to global warming and unusual weather conditions. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) believes that the adequate deployment of clean energy can achieve the targets of the Paris Climate Change Agreement. Many countries have shown their commitment to decrease their carbon emission levels substantially, and they have done so by resorting to renewable energy sources. Renewable energy generation opens a viable door for climate change mitigation efforts. Both Malaysia and India are committed to fulfilling their obligation under the Paris Agreement. This comparative study evaluates the laws and policies related to renewable energy in Malaysia and India, as these countries progress towards their commitments under the Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC). This study operates under the comparative qualitative methodological framework and utilises secondary sources for analysis. Based on the comparative expositions, Malaysia can learn measures adopted by India to accelerate renewable energy development as well as to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, which will prove beneficial to the country as well as in order to comply with international conventions and agreements.

Accounting for Emissions: Evidence from Auditor Pricing of Climate Change Risk

We investigate whether, and how, auditors price risks related to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) for a sample of firms traded in the US that disclose their CO2 emissions data. Specifically, we assess whether auditors price CO2 physical and transition risks among multiple categories of emission measures as auditor business risks. After controlling for audit fee determinants, we find that auditors assign a fee premium in the presence of greater total and direct emissions measures, signifying auditor perception of greater risk arising from higher emitting clients. Our findings are robust to alternate specifications (endogeneity, headquarter state membership in a cap and trade agreement, the Paris climate change agreement). Our paper contributes to the literature by shedding light on whether and how auditors respond to emissions information through their pricing decision.

THE U.S INACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE: REALISM AND ITS INTERPRETATIONS

President Donal Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 Paris Agreement, and stated that the withdrawal was mainly to protect its national interests. The U.S. economic ambitions, the China factor and the intricacies of U.S domestic politics had played a major role in deciding the U.S. position on the Paris Agreement and the Kyoto Protocol of 1997. There are some who are sceptical on whether the Paris Agreement would successfully achieve its expected outcomes in the absence of U.S. participation. The objective of this study is to examine the factors that have discouraged the U.S. to partake in the international climate change agreements. An analytical framework was employed for this study that examines the insights and conceptions from the textual data, based on realism. The study concludes that the U.S. outlook on climate change had more or less adhered to the realist stance, even though realism is considered a theoretical approach with significant drawbacks, particularly when dealing with issues of climate change. Nonetheless, this study also asserts that there is a need for deeper engagement between the U.S. and the participants of the Paris Agreement to effectively tackle the issues of climate change at this moment.

Courts, Climate Change, and the Global Pact for the Environment

This Chapter provides background material for conversations held at the 2020 Global Constitutionalism Seminar (a Part of the Gruber Program on Global Justice and Women’s Rights) at Yale Law School. Awareness of the precarious state of our world has become all the more acute. The materials begin with debates about what role courts play, a question that intersects with what remedies they could or should provide in response to climate change. The Chapter then turns to issues of knowledge about and accountability for current and future environmental harms. The issues are how courts determine what information governments and corporations must make public as well as who has the right to access that information and require disclosure. Recognizing that global problems often inspire calls for global solutions, the Chapter ends with an examination of efforts to constitute a Global Pact for the Environment. The 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement established an array of policy goals and nationally determined contributions (NDCs) on the part of the 180 signatory nations. In 2020, environmental experts and national governments are hoping to build upon this foundation to shape broader commitments to a sustainable future with a Global Pact for the Environment.