Domestic Capacity Research Articles

How would the European Union fare without Russian energy?

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has forced a rapid and profound rethink of the European Union's energy supply as the Europe-Russia energy decoupling has sharply accelerated. This contribution explores how Europe can manage without the imports of Russian coal, crude oil, oil products, and natural gas. We quantify the supply-side gap that will arise and discuss alternative sources of supply, as well as exploring the internal and global bottlenecks that will arise with any attempt to replace Russian molecules. This exercise illustrates that demand-side measures will be necessary to reduce energy consumption, most notably of natural gas. We offer a perspective of the deeper energy integration that EU leaders must strive for to ensure that the bloc is ready for life without Russian energy. We argue that by following four key principles, the bloc will manage without Russian energy: i) bringing forward all available short run domestic supply capacities, ii) all countries making honest and ambitious efforts to reduce demand, iii) enshrining cross-border flows and the functioning of European energy trade, iv) protecting the most vulnerable consumers.

PENGARUH PENAMBAHAN KAPASITAS RUANG TERMINAL KEBERANGKATAN DOMESTIK TERHADAP KUALITAS PELAYANAN PUBLIK DI BANDAR UDARA INTERNASIONAL SULTAN HASANUDDIN MAKASSAR

The addition of the capacity of the domestic departure terminal room greatly affects passengers in terms of the quality of services provided by the airport, which can be assessed by passengers, in terms of meeting the needs of passengers. Passengers will feel satisfied if their needs and desires have been met. The purpose of this study is 1) To determine the effect of increasing the capacity of the domestic departure terminal space on the quality of public services at Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport Makassar. 2) To find out how big the effect of increasing the capacity of the domestic departure terminal space on the quality of public services at Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport Makassar.
 This study employed a quantitative research method. The research approach used was inferential statistics. The instrument used in this study was a questionnaire. The number of samples was taken using the Slovin technique. The number of research respondents was as many as 100 passengers. The analysis used to answer the problem formulation was a simple linear regression analysis assisted by using the SPSS v.24.0 computer statistical application program.
 The results of this study indicate that there is an effect of increasing the capacity of the domestic departure terminal space on the quality of public services at Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport Makassar. This is evidenced by the significant value of 0.00. Besides the addition of the domestic departure terminal room capacity contributes to the quality of public services at Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport Makassar by 47.5%.

Unbundling the State: Legal Development in an Era of Global, Private Governance

AbstractWhat happens to a public, domestic institution when its authority is delegated to a privately run, transnational institution? I argue that outsourcing traditionally national legal responsibilities to transnational bodies can lead to the stagnation of domestic institutional capacity. I examine this through a study of international commercial arbitration (ICA), a widely used system of cross-border commercial dispute resolution. I argue that ICA provides commercial actors an “exit option” from weak public institutions, reducing pressure on the state to invest in capacity-enhancing reform. I find that the enactment of strong protections for ICA leads to the gradual erosion of the capacity of domestic legal institutions, particularly in countries with already weak legal systems. I test the mechanism driving this dynamic using dispute data from the International Chamber of Commerce. I find that pro-arbitration laws increase the use of international arbitration by national firms, suggesting that firms use ICA as an escape from domestic institutions. This article contributes to debates on globalization and development as well as work on the second-order effects of global governance institutions.

A global analysis of trade policies in antimicrobial medicines

Antimicrobial medicines are difficult to access for the poor people in many parts of the world, mainly because of their costs and lack of local availability. While it is not necessary that these medicines may be produced across the world, it is possible to import them from countries that have enormous production capacities. For this to happen, the countries that lack these medicines should have trade policies in place that facilitate their cheap imports. However, trade policies typically do not take this aspect into account when they are formulated. The policy determinants of high import tariffs are industrial policy and protectionism-related concerns on one hand and revenue considerations on the other hand. In this paper, we take a close look at the global trade and tariffs in various countries in several antimicrobial medicines and medicaments, to come up with inferences on how countries that import a lot of them may do better by reducing tariffs. Especially, the article deals with anibiotics trade. The export and import drug potentials are investigated. The largest export countries proved to be China, the United Kingdom, India, Canada, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. The import leaders are India, Chile, Austria, the USA, Switzerland. A major policy implication emerging from this study is that countries ought to take a deeper look at the trends in trade and tariffs on antimicrobial drugs on a priority basis, since this has to do with lives of real people. Unnecessary blanket tariffs meant for tariff revenue should be avoided, as we find this in many countries that have hardly any production capacity for these drugs (such as the Bahamas, Djibouti, Bermuda, the Comoros, etc.). The bigger players in the sector, both in terms of imports and exports, have relatively lower tariffs, but there is still a lot of scope of reducing these tariffs to ensure that these drugs are available at affordable prices to people at large. Industrial policy motivations to levy tariffs in order to protect the domestic industry against import competition may also need to be done in a measured manner, because this is about health and safety of people and not just another industry. Having said that, for health security purposes, it makes sense to develop domestic production capacity and supply chains. That can be done based on international partnerships, R&D, domestic tax and other policy incentives like the Production Linked Incentives (PLI) scheme in India (rather than tariffs).

Investigating the Availability of Domestic Wastewater Pollution Load Capacity in Brantas River, Malang

The riverine system can recover itself to its balance once pollutant enters the water body. Nonetheless, this self-purification capability only applies when the concentration and magnitude of the pollutant do not exceed the pollution load capacity. As the main river in Malang, the Brantas River receives most of the pollutants from anthropogenic activities, especially domestic wastewater. A study was conducted to uncover the capacity of the pollution load of the Brantas River. Samples were obtained from surface water in five stations along the river and analysed according to the domestic wastewater parameters in the Permen LHK No. P.68/2016 against river water quality for Class II limit. A model was then constructed using QUAL2Kw software. The analysis showed that Brantas River does not have sufficient allocation for COD and BOD at all stations, and NH3 at downstream stations. In contrast, the river remains able to accept TSS and coliform inputs. The model showed that only coliform contaminants can be self-purified despite all citizens discharging domestic wastewater containing coliform at the maximum concentration and flow. It is clear that to make the pollution load for domestic wastewater available in Malang, river quality must be managed before the stream enters the city.

Health system to response to economic sanctions: global evidence and lesson learned from Iran

BackgroundSanctions have direct and indirect impacts on people’s lives. Therefore, the health systems of countries targeted by sanctions must respond effectively. This study proposes a set of mitigating measures and response strategies to improve the health systems of countries under sanctions.MethodsThis three-stage study was conducted in Iran within the 2020–2021 period, in which a rapid review of evidence was carried out to identify the measures implemented or proposed to make the health system resilient in confronting sanctions. A qualitative approach was then adopted to determine how the health system could be improved to response to sanctions from the perspectives of 10 key experts. Semi-structured interviews and document analysis were conducted for data collection. Finally, a two-round Delphi technique was employed to help eleven experts reach a consensus on a set of mitigating measures, which were then prioritized.ResultsIn this research, 62 proposed or implemented mitigating measures were extracted from 13 eligible studies to improve the health system performance in confronting sanctions. Moreover, 18 measures were identified in interviews for a better health system response to sanctions. They were then classified as five categories: sustained financing, good governance, integrated and updated health information systems, qualified workforce, and efficient and equitable service delivery. In the first Delphi round, 28 mitigating measures were discovered. Nine measures were identified as more effective and feasible in both short and long runs. They were introduced as below: conducting proactive inventory control, developing the nationally essential list of medicines, providing additional clarification that oil revenues can be freely used for medicines procurement, defining tailored health service packages for vulnerable populations, establishing and enhancing an efficient surveillance system, reducing prices of imported medicines, developing dual policies of equity and priority for vulnerable groups, institutionalizing fair and effective resource allocations, and providing clinical guidelines.ConclusionsAccording to the findings, the most critical areas for the resilience of a health system in confronting sanctions include strengthening particular components of governance, improving efficiency, and caring for vulnerable populations. The experts collectively emphasized investment in domestic capacities, public participation, and health diplomacy. Despite the proposed measures, it is unclear how effective these are and, especially whether they can significantly affect the harsh impacts of sanctions on health. Moreover, intensive and long-term sanctions have significant irreversible outcomes that cannot be reversed easily or quickly.

The domestic wastewater treatment capacity of Spirulina platensis SP4 and the application of the treated wastewater in stimulating rice germination

Many scientists are interested in microalgae and cyanobacteria because of their richness in high-value bioactive metabolites (proteins, lipids, vitamins, plant growth regulators, and others). Microalgae and cyanobacteria can be used to produce valuable commodities such as dietary supplements, biofuel, animal feed, and agricultural fertilizer, etc. To improve the economic feasibility of the cyanobacterial product recovery process, it is possible to utilize domestic wastewater as a source of nutrients for their growth. This research focuses on assessing the ability of domestic wastewater treatment and treated domestic wastewater utilization to stimulate BC15 rice-grain sprouting by cyanobacteria Spirulina platensis SP4. Research results showed that S. platensis SP4 grown best in domestic wastewater at the initial density of 0.3 and the wastewater concentration of 100%. The incubation of S. platensis was performed in the laboratory under the condition of 16.8 g/L NaHCO3; aeration during 8 h/day; light: dark cycle of 8:16; light intensity of 5000 lux. Under these conditions S. platensis SP4 could treat N-NH4+, T-N, P-PO43-, T-P and COD well with the treatment efficiency of 96.37, 49.71, 67.05, 65.88 and 95.53%, respectively. The addition of treated domestic wastewater by S. platensis SP4 to BC15 rice grains stimulated the grouting by 99.54 ± 1.25%, which was 1.54 times higher than using the tap water and gave a germination efficiency equivalent to that of the experiments with adding cyanobacteria in standard medium with or without L-tryptophan addition for 48 h. The obtained research results have elucidated the feasibility of employing cyanobacteria in residential wastewater treatment as well as the reuse of treated wastewater for plant development.

Structural Change and Economic Growth in Visegrad and South Caucasian Countries

This paper investigates the effect of the change in the economic structure on economic growth in Visegrad and South Caucasia. The Shift Share Analysis (SSA) method measures the direct effects of structural change on productivity growth. Fully Modified OLS (FMOLS) regressions evaluate the indirect effect of the advanced sectors on economic growth. SSA finds that within sector productivity is the main driver of economic growth in both regions and the manufacturing sector is the engine of within sector productivity growth in Visegrad countries. Expansion of the modern business services sector produced a positive reallocation effect in all countries but the lack of growth dynamism in the productivity of this sector undermined the positive reallocation effect in Hungary and Slovakia. The FMOLS regressions show that manufacturing export has a positive effect on economic growth while business service production does not. The general structure of Visegrad economies is similar to advanced countries and they can achieve further development by upgrading their production within advanced sectors while South Caucasian countries can develop their economies by expanding the high-value sectors and channeling the excess labor in low-value sectors to relatively higher value activities. Both strategies require investment in human capital and upgrading their domestic capacity.

Re-examining the relationship between Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth in Nigeria

This study examined the impact of foreign direct investment on Nigeria economic growth at large using time series data from World Bank Development Indicators. The research employed Auto Distributed Lag Model (ARDL) to investigate the impact of FDI on Nigeria economic growth both in the short-run and long-run. It was revealed that foreign direct investment has positive significant impact on Nigeria economic growth within the period under review. The research therefore concludes, that foreign direct investment has significant impact on Nigeria economic growth collaborating the earlier findings in theoretical and empirical literatures. The research therefore, recommends among others that Nigeria government and other West-African countries should invest more in infrastructural development and on R&D to increase the country domestic firm absorptive capacity and inflow of FDI in the country.

An Analysis of Exports and Growth in Pakistan

Trade is presumed to act as a catalyst of economic growth and the growth in exports leads to increase in the incomes of factors of production, which in turn increases the demand for input for further expansion in production. The resultant pressure on domestic capacity may stimulate technological change and investment opportunities. Also increase in demand due to raising incomes of the factors of production on account of exports may spill over into other sectors of the economy. A part of such growths could also be diffused abroad through technical assistance and aid. According to Emery (1967) empirically proved that higher rates of exports growth leads to higher economic growth. Traditionally, a developing country had the choice of two alternative trade strategies for supporting industrial development, export promotion or import substitution. A consensus has emerged among many development economists that an export expansion policy by permitting resource exploitation according to comparative advantage and by allowing for utilisation and exploitation of economies of scale leads to higher growth rates of output and employment, greater technological progress and availability of foreign exchange. These in turn enable the countries with export oriented policies to attain higher rates of growth of GNP vis-à-vis countries following import substituting industrialisation [Donges and Muller-Ohlsen (1978)].

Proton Therapy in Canada: Toward Universal Access and Health Equity With a Publicly Funded Facility

Proton beam therapy (PBT) is utilized worldwide in the treatment of pediatric cancers and many cancers in adults as accumulating clinical evidence indicates dosimetric and toxicity advantages. However, Canada is the only G8 country without an operating clinical PBT facility. Access to out-of-country PBT referrals, adjudicated by individual provincial governments, varies across the country. The lack of domestic capacity for PBT, variability in public funding nationwide, and the anticipated future demand for PBT suggest unmet needs for health equity in Canadian cancer care. This article outlines the current state of access to PBT across Canadian provinces, domains of health inequities among those receiving PBT, and strategies for addressing health inequity in PBT, in the context of ongoing planning for a Canadian publicly funded facility. The lessons learned from the Canadian experience may be applicable to other jurisdictions seeking to improve fair, equitable access to PBT.

EU’S OPEN STRATEGIC AUTONOMY CONCEPT: CONNECTING THE UNCONNECTABLE

The article examines the formation and development of the concept of open strategic autonomy promoted in the EU, scholarly discussions about its prospects as well as practical steps to increase the resilience of a united Europe to new economic and geopolitical challenges. The concept under study, which initially had a predominantly military-political dimension, subsequently acquired new meanings and imperatives related to the implementation of trade, investment, energy, environmental, innovation and other areas of economic policy. The article proves that these EU steps have become both one of the reasons for the current processes of deglobalization, regionalization and fragmentation of the international economic system, and a showcase of contradictions that accompany these processes.
 
 Although the European authorities have already adopted a number of important initiatives that fit into the concept under consideration, such as the creation of industrial alliances in strategically important industries, screening of foreign direct investment, the introduction of a cross-border carbon tax, etc., its implementation is fraught with a number of challenges, including a slide towards protectionism and an increase in the cost of subsidizing domestic production capacities. In addition, in the medium term, the achievement of strategic autonomy will be hindered by confrontation with Russia, which objectively leads to an increase in the dependence of EU countries on the United States, including in such a sensitive area as energy imports.

Policy mixes and policy feedback: Implications for green industrial growth in the Swedish biofuels industry

Policymakers have increasingly voiced an ambition to combine the transition to a climate-neutral society with a “green” domestic industrial agenda. In recent years, innovation systems scholars have advanced the understanding of the evolution of industries around renewable energy technologies as well as the role of policy feedback (and indeed politics) surrounding the development of domestic green industrial development policies. To take a step towards combining these literature streams, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of policy mixes and policy feedback in the emergence of domestic green industries. This is achieved in the empirical case of biofuels in Sweden, and the findings show that policy feedback dynamics created difficulties in aligning the national policy mix with the technology and industrial developments in the country. The resulting political uncertainty predominantly hampered the scaling up of domestic production capacity, while R&D and import of biofuels instead could grow strong. Based on this empirical case, a process model is developed to explain the role of policy feedback in the development of domestic industries, thus demonstrating how the growth of domestic industries is driven by the interplay of policy effects and various feedback processes. The findings suggest that future research into the role of policies in “green” domestic industry growth should devote more attention to the dynamics driving the co-evolution of policy, technology and industry structures.

The Impact of Digitalization and Trade Openness on Economic Growth: New Evidence from Richest Asian Countries

The aim of this investigation is to check the impact of digitalization and trade openness on economic growth for top ten richest Asian countries. Static Gravity Model and Generalized Method of Moments Model were estimated. We found that digitalization and trade openness have a significant positive effect on economic growth. These results prove that trade openness and digitalization is a source of economic growth for richest Asian countries. Due to the magnitude of the positive externalities attached to the trade openness and digitalization, in terms of technology transfer bias, financial capacities, economic policies, human expertise, plenty of natural resources, large markets size, and spillover effect added to the domestic capacities and the national investment, the pace of the phenomenal economic performance of the Asian economies is very well marked.

Sewage contamination assessment in an urbanized tropical estuary in Northeast Brazil using elemental, isotopic and molecular proxies

The Capibaribe Estuarine System (CES) is a tropical estuary located within a densely populated metropolitan region in the Brazilian Northeast, providing multiple ecosystem services including artisanal fisheries, tourism, and navigation. A significant load of domestic and industrial effluents is causing visible environmental degradation that needs to be characterized. This study evaluated the degree of contamination by domestic sewage and the relative contribution of organic carbon (OC) sources in sediments, measuring carbon-to-nitrogen atomic (C/N)a ratios, δ13C of OC, and linear alkylbenzene concentrations (LAB). The SIAR mixing model indicated that estuarine phytoplankton and sewage contribute 73% and 22% to OC, respectively, based on sedimentary (C/N)a ratios that varied from 8.5 to 13, and δ13C ranging from −25.21 to −21.63‰. This suggests that eutrophication of CES is triggered by sewage inflow. The CES was moderately contaminated by LAB, and the highest concentrations observed in the inner portion, from 287 to 1349 ng g−1 dry weight, suggests the retention of sewage. The mixing isotopic model indicated a significant dilution process of sewage-derived OC by estuarine phytoplankton. The lowest LAB in the lower estuary (317–320 ng g−1 dw) probably resulted from marine dilution. Principal component analysis demonstrated that mud regulates sedimentary OC content, and that the sewage plume regulates sedimentary LAB. High degradation of LAB isomers probably reflects the net heterotrophic condition of this system, also suggesting these compounds are introduced into CES partially degraded. Our results pointed out that degraded OM is a result of chronic and long-term sewage input. Considering the implications of sewage pollution to environmental and public health, there is an urgent need of better policies to improve domestic effluent treatment capacity, reducing contamination of estuarine environments.

The USA and the energy transition of the 21st century: Measures to overcome dependence on China in critical minerals

Since the middle of 2010s, international community (developed economies primarily) has been paying increasing attention to the reduction of carbon footprint in the environment by means of large-scale deployment of renewable energy, electrification of transport system and sustainable production of goods. Aspiring to become a global leader of energy transition, the United States of America has already taken a set of measures to stimulate technological growth. Such a challenging task cannot be accomplished without a guaranteed access to the so-called critical minerals. However, the US has encountered growing competition from China in this field. From the beginning of 2000s, China has amassed within its territory a dominant share of global production of critical minerals, acquired access to key foreign extraction centers and thus become virtually a monopolist in the markets. Hence the United States government urgently needs to devise measures to overcome the dependence from China in this regard. The author of the article dwells on the factors which have made the issue of critical minerals (as a recent development of international relations) relevant and politically charged. In its turn, it has led to the securitization of the subject in American official discourse during Trump administration which manifested itself in the ‘mineral security’ concept. The article contains comparative analysis of Trump and Biden administration approaches to navigating the country out of the dependence from China for critical minerals; it also identifies key focus areas of the current US mineral strategy. Respective analysis indicates that Trump administration prioritized bolstering domestic extraction capacity, whereas Biden-Harris administration underscores processing and production segments, mostly due to the pressure from local communities and environmental groups. The author stresses that the Unites States, being unable to contest China’s monopoly as producer and supplier of critical minerals with market instruments, tends to employ human rights discourse to compete with its rival. The ultimate expression of such an approach is Energy Resource Governance Initiative which has been designed to foster high ecological and social standards in global extraction sector. Relying on its partners, the United States intends to use the program to challenge China in commodity markets. The author concludes that despite the effort Washington won’t be able to rid itself of the dependence for Chinese imports in the near future. As for the long-term goals, their achievement is complicated due to both China’s production capacity and experience and insufficient government funding of renewable energy projects in the United States.

Climate change and food security in selected Sub-Saharan African Countries.

This study examined the nexus between climate change and food security in Sub-Saharan African Region (SSA). With focus on 30 countries within the region, the study employed the dynamic panel data analysis using the one-step and two-step system generalized method of moments (GMM) model. The time observed spanned from 2000 through 2019. The study found that increase in greenhouse gas emission would lead to an increase in prevalence of malnourishment rate, resulting in a decrease in food security in SSA. In addition, climate change and food price have a negative significant effect on food security, while income and food supply have a positive significant impact on food security in SSA. The findings also revealed that the decline in carbon emission is expected to boost agricultural supply and productivity, reduce the prevalence of malnourishment rate and promote food security. Thus, the study recommends that SSA region should be more deliberate about meeting its targets towards achieving zero net emission. Furthermore, the region should improve its domestic food production capacity by implementing policies that will support improvement in agricultural production in the region.

Exploring Enablers for an Ambitious Coal Phaseout

To reach the mitigation goals of the Paris Agreement, many countries will have to phase out their coal power plants prematurely, i.e., before the end of their normal lifetimes, which will lead quite possibly to significant stranded assets. This could present a major challenge, particularly for many of the rapidly developing countries whose electricity demand is growing and which are currently expanding their coal fleets. Recent research shows that countries with aging power plants and decreasing coal consumption are more inclined to phase out coal, but little is known about where, why, and how coal power plants are being prematurely retired. In the context of the hybrid Paris Agreement, attention is increasingly shifting to domestic mitigation capacities and, alongside this—given the vested interests involved in different sectors—to state capacity to implement the transformations required to achieve deep decarbonization. In this article, we aim to study those capacities in the context of coal phaseout. We use a recent and comprehensive global dataset on coal power plants and employ a mixed-methods research design to (a) identify general emerging patterns with respect to premature coal fleet retirement, and (b) derive stylized types of political strategies to prematurely retire coal power plants. We find state capacity to be a robust predictor of general and premature coal retirement, and we identify three main strategies that countries have used to date to prematurely retire coal: (a) <em>rein-in</em> using top-down regulatory enforcement of environmental, climate, or other regulations that affect the operating licenses of coal plants; (b) <em>buy-out</em> or provision of compensation to companies and regions to appease vested interests; and (c) <em>crowd out</em> where accelerating market and price dynamics in the power sector crowd out coal. We propose that future research should explore more systematically the kinds of strategy that might be most promising in the regions and countries needing to rapidly phase out coal, taking into account their political structures, and also the implications that such strategies might have for global mitigation efforts.

The African Health Initiative's Role in Advancing the Use of Embedded Implementation Research for Health Systems Strengthening.

<h3>Key Messages</h3> The embedded implementation research (EIR) approach involves engaging policy makers and decision makers at each stage from the design to the dissemination of research and increases the likelihood of the use of research evidence to better inform policy and management decisions. The African Health Initiative is an example of a public enterprise that has demonstrated success in developing domestic research capacity and strengthening health systems in sub-Saharan Africa by integrating the EIR approach into its projects. Further efforts and investments are needed to increase the sustainability and scalability of the EIR approach to improve the performance of national health systems.

The relationship between a ‘polluter pays’ approach to carbon capture, regional policy and ‘just transition’ employment agendas

ABSTRACT Policy makers in a number of nations are currently developing carbon capture and storage (CCS) as an industrial decarbonisation solution, linking capture potential in industry clusters to domestic or overseas offshore storage capacity. However, the design, focus and timeframe for policy support are proving challenging in countries like the UK, where industry actors are concerned about the competitiveness implications of additional operational capital costs, while government aims to offer only transitory policy support. Policy-facing research is required to understand the drivers, nature and extent of potential competitiveness loss from adopting carbon capture in specific industry and country contexts, along with the impacts of policy decisions in other countries and of possible future technology improvements. We consider the case of the UK chemicals industry, using an economy-wide computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. This highlights how macroeconomic and sectoral impacts of concern under regional, industry and climate policy agendas depend on domestic and export demand responses to changing industry prices. A crucial question is whether capture costs are similarly reflected in international prices. We identify a risk of policy commitment to ‘polluter pays’ having sustained negative outcomes for capture firms, along with offshoring/leakage of jobs and GDP, and associated emissions, as demand shifts to lower cost overseas production. However, such costs could be reduced, and some capture industry gains realised, if competitors in other nations ultimately follow in bearing similar costs and particularly if ‘early mover’ action enables firms to make efficiency gains and build comparative advantage in operational carbon capture. Key policy insights A ‘polluter pays’ approach to industrial carbon capture risks triggering potential ‘offshoring’ of manufacturing activity in all timeframes where increased operational costs reduce the relative competitiveness of capture firms. A border tax risks worse industry and wider economy outcomes, where domestic production is intensive in imports of the commodity in question. Transitory policy support should focus on enabling capture firms to build efficiency in using carbon capture equipment while sustaining competitiveness and jobs within regional industry clusters. Opportunities should be explored to develop comparative advantage where policy activity involves ‘early mover’ action on carbon capture.