Exhaustible Natural Resources Research Articles

USING TECHNICAL SULFUR AS A STRUCTURING ADDITIVE FOR MINERAL BINDERS BASED ON CALCIUM SULFATE

The article discusses physical and chemical characteristics of producing effective materials based on calcium sulfate dihydrate, the pretreated waste of man-made production being added at the stage of mixing the air binder. The high degree of consumption of exhaustible natural resources causes increased research activities in the field of application of industrial waste in construction. Using manmade waste, such as technical sulfur, as a modifier of the structure and properties of building materials is a significant step in solving environmental, resource, and economic problems. Industrial production of building materials today follows the principles of sustainable development and waste minimization by optimizing product formulations and reducing energy consumption required for their production. In addition, the improvement of quality and performance indicators of standardized products is relevant and sought-after. The need for efficient technologies for utilization of technical sulfur is due to large volumes of production and the environmental threat which accompanies the storage of its large volumes. Adding technical sulfur as a component of technological construction mixtures will create an alternative to the methods of utilization of this production waste. Physical and technical and physical and chemical properties of technical sulfur predetermine the possibility of its use, with certain additional treatment, as an effective modifier of the structure and properties of gypsum products. The results presented in the article prove the potential use of this production waste as an effective structure-forming additive, which has a positive effect on the physical and technical parameters of calcium sulfate-based materials.

Through scarcity to prosperity: Toward a theory of sustainable growth

To make progress toward a comprehensive theory of sustainable growth, this paper integrates fertility choice and exhaustible resource dynamics in a tractable model of endogenous technological change. The model identifies conditions under which the interdependence of population, resources and technology produces a transition that consists of three phases: (1) an initial phase where agents exploit exhaustible natural resources to support population growth; (2) an intermediate phase where agents turn on the Schumpeterian engine of endogenous innovation in response to population-led market expansion; (3) a terminal phase where knowledge accumulation becomes the sole engine of growth. The last phase is crucial: not only economic growth no longer requires growth of physical inputs, but technological change also compensates for the exhaustion of the natural resource.

Time discounting in Harold Hotelling's approach to natural resource economics: The unsolved ethical question

The paper focuses on Harold Hotelling's approach to time discounting in the context of the intertemporal allocation of exhaustible natural resources. In 1931, Hotelling introduces a positive discount rate when dealing with the “social value” or “total utility” derived from a resource. His position was in contrast with early economic literature on conservation, as well as with the point of view of Frank Ramsey, according to whom time discounting expressed an unjustified preference for the welfare of present generations over that of future ones. Hence, it has been argued that Hotelling dismissed ethical concerns. Using archival material, we find that, for Hotelling, economic questions should not be restricted to issues of economic efficiency; that his choice to discount utility – which he considered as analogous to a concrete benefit – at the interest rate is compatible with Ramsey's position; and, more broadly, that this choice does not preclude an ethical position on the desirable distribution of exhaustible resources through time. To Hotelling, ethics is implemented by politics, through fiscal corrections of the interest rate. Revisiting Hotelling on the articulation between ethics, allocative efficiency, and policies allows us to rethink the way we do that in current models using time discounting.

Energy Saving in the Sphere of State Public Interests

The article considers the categories of energy saving and energy efficiency in the aspect of State public interest. The implementation of energy saving policy is an independent public interest, as it allows solving some global, national tasks systematically. The article investigates the ratio of energy saving to the public interest in reducing the energy intensity of the Russian economy. The authors reveal the relationship between energy saving and public interest in ensuring national energy security of Russia. The authors consider energy saving as a factor contributing to the implementation of the actual public interest in the conservation of exhaustible natural resources reveal the relationship between energy saving and public environmental interest. A part of the article is devoted to the study of energy saving as a direction of state policy, allowing contributing to the preservation of the nation health. Energy saving is also considered in the aspect of public interest to increase the efficiency of budget spending to optimize public spending in the field of municipal authorities (for example, lighting). The authors correlate all the considered state public interests with the category of “national interest” in the context of the provisions of the national security Strategy of the Russian Federation.

IMPORTANCE OF BIOECONOMY TO STIMULATE THE BULGARIAN ECONOMY

Tackling the problems of world population growth, the rapid depletion of resources, climate change and the growing threat to the environment call for Europe to radically change its approach to the production, consumption, processing, storage, recycling and landfilling biological resources. Strengthening the bio-economy as a key EU policy will lead to a sustainable solution to these problems and will improve the economic and environmental situation in Europe for providing its inhabitants. On an international scale, documents relevant to the future of humankind are adopted to stimulate the development of the bio-economy as a basis for the ecological and environmentally sound development of the world economy. Legislative measures are also underway in Bulgaria to stimulate the introduction of sustainable production and consumption patterns that are tailored to the capacity and potential for ecosystem recovery and do not cause environmental degradation. The purpose of this report is to assess the importance of the measures taken and the results achieved in introducing innovative methods and ideas based on renewable and not exhaustible natural resources so that each region can benefit from its natural capital.)

Wealth Management and Uncertain Tipping Points

We analyze optimal wealth management, within a global setting, where accumulation of GHGs caused by extraction of fossil resources affects the probability distribution for hitting a threshold or tipping point, indicating a climate change. We derive an optimal strategy for overall wealth management, within a Ramsey-Hotelling-framework. We have two assets; one being reproducible (reversible capital equipment) and another being non-reproducible (stock of exhaustible natural resources – fossil fuels). Resources, along with capital equipment, are inputs in the production of an aggregate output allocated to consumption and net investment. Resource extraction adds to a stock of GHGs that affects the likelihood for a catastrophic event. If, and when, such an event occurs there is a downscaling of production opportunities. We derive a first-best precautionary global tax on using fossil fuel, which internalizes the present value of (conditional) expected welfare loss of hitting a threshold, as well as a set of risk-modified optimality conditions for overall wealth management, as long as no catastrophe has occurred.

Sustainable growth and financial markets in a natural resource-rich country

This paper studies the optimal growth path of a natural resource-rich country, which can borrow from international financial markets. I explore to what extent international borrowing can overcome resource scarcity in a small open economy, in order to have sustainable growth. First, a benchmark model with a constant interest rate and technical progress is set up to see if the economy's growth can be sustainable in the long run. Secondly, the case of a debt elastic interest rate is analysed. The main finding of this paper is that borrowing on international capital markets does not permit sustainable growth for a country with exhaustible natural resources, when the interest rate is constant. Nevertheless, when the interest rate is endogenized, the consumption growth rate can be positive before declining.

How much does recycling reduce imports? Evidence from metallic raw materials

ABSTRACTIn countries with limited exhaustible natural resources, reducing imports of raw materials is increasingly viewed as a significant side benefit of waste recycling. Using a panel of 21 developed and developing countries from 1994 to 2008, we seek to measure the size of this benefit by estimating the impact of metal scrap recovery on imports of metallic raw materials. We address the endogeneity of metal recovery with exogenous country characteristics including population density and the level of education. We also develop a strategy for controlling for the price volatility in raw material markets. We find that domestic metal recovery is substituted for imports of secondary raw materials while leaving imports of primary raw materials unaffected. The overall effect is a 3.3% decrease in imports of metallic raw materials when metal recovery grows by 10%. Thus, waste recycling policies may have a sizeable impact on trade balance and on security of raw material supply.

СУЧАСНІ ТЕОРІЇ МЕНЕДЖМЕНТУ І СТАЛИЙ РОЗВИТОК: ТОЧКИ ПЕРЕТИНУ

СУЧАСНІ ТЕОРІЇ МЕНЕДЖМЕНТУ І СТАЛИЙ РОЗВИТОК: ТОЧКИ ПЕРЕТИНУ

Sustainability with endogenous discounting when utility depends on consumption and amenities

We study the issue of sustainability using a model with a stock of man-made capital and a stock of exhaustible natural resource that provides a flow of amenity services as well as an input for the production of a consumption good. We ask under what conditions the utility flow will be a constant if infinitesimal households discount their utility using an endogenous utility discount rate that depends some macroeconomic variables. Our main result is that for the utility flow to be constant, the utility discount function must be the marginal product of capital function adjusted for the growth rate of aggregate consumption weighted by the elasticity of the consumer’s marginal rate of substitution between the final good and the amenity services. We demonstrate that Hartwick’s Rule holds but the Hotelling Rule must be modified. We also provide an explicit analytical example to confirm the general result.

High-Strength Concretes Based on Multicomponent Binding and Fractionated Aggregates from Waste from Processing of Subsurface Rocks

A review of the use of industrial wastes in our country and abroad was conducted, and prospects for using man-made raw materials at the Grozny CHP and wastes of subsurface rocks crushing were considered. The analysis of the results of the conducted research is carried out, which showed that secondary technogenic raw materials can successfully compete and replace exhaustible natural resources, since the chemical composition and qualitative parameters of the materials under study confirm its uniqueness and, moreover, there is can see a solution of environmental problems. The formulation of multicomponent binders and concretes based on fine-dispersed ash microspheres and enriched artificial aggregates promoted recycling of secondary raw materials and improvement of the ecological situation in the region.

Os vazanteiros, a agricultura de vazante e as barragens da destruição no Médio Rio Tocantins: perspectivas etnoecológicas

Human societies are distinguished by their ways of living and dealing with nature. While western society seeks at all costs to exhaust natural resources, the vazanteiros-fishers in the mid-Tocantins deal with nature sustained by mutual respect. Our purpose in this text is to identify and analyze the particularities of a millenarian cultivation system that is still exercised and is called agricultura de vazante or "Vazantes" (floodplain agriculture). The data were collected between 2007 and 2017 within the master’s degree and the development of the doctoral thesis concluded at the beginning of 2018, through participant observation and semi-structured and unstructured interviews. The results show that the vazanteiros developed their cultivation in “vazantes” in accord with their peculiarities, which include specific measures between the hills for seed planting, the number of seeds, taboos, exchanges and reciprocities inherent in agricultural cultivation and social relations thatdenote their local mode of living. Besides being sustainable, in this mode of cultivation, the earth seems to understand them and they also seem to understand the earth and its limitations, to the extent that they plant only plants that best suit each soil type. The local reality shows that the vazanteiros, their customs and traditions. have been addressed in an agenda that seems to promote, at whatever cost, their disappearance in the coming years. This is due to the unconditional increase in dams and Small Hydroelectric Power Plants (SHP) in national rivers, especially during the last few decades. It is becoming increasingly clear to us that this phenomenon known as agricultura de vazante may have its days numbered in Brazil.

Valuing Exhaustible Resource Ownership: General Equilibrium Assets-Markets versus Partial Equilibrium

This paper uses a general equilibrium assets-markets approach with arbitrageurs for valuing mineral resource deposit ownership. The results are contrasted with those delivered by a partial equilibrium approach. We show that in a general equilibrium assets-markets approach, arbitrageurs’ valuation of resource deposit rights commands a discount factor that adjusts not only for the time depreciation but also for changes in the resource stock size over time. A general equilibrium assets-markets approach with arbitrageurs leads to a more conservative management of exhaustible natural resources than a partial equilibrium approach does.

Through Scarcity to Prosperity: A Theory of the Transition to Sustainable Growth

This paper integrates fertility choice and exhaustible resource dynamics in a tractable model of endogenous technological change. The analysis shows that, under the right conditions, the interdependence of population, resources and technology produces a transition from unsustainable resource-based growth to sustainable knowledge-based growth that consists of three phases: (1) an initial phase where agents build up the economy by exploiting exhaustible natural resources to support population growth; (2) an intermediate phase where agents turn on the Schumpeterian engine of endogenous innovation in response to population-led market expansion; (3) a terminal phase where growth becomes fully driven by knowledge accumulation and no longer requires growth of physical inputs. The last phase is crucial: not only economic growth no longer requires growth of physical inputs, but technological change also compensates for the exhaustion of the natural resource stock.

The Basic Environmental Economics of the Circular Economy

This paper sets up a Ramsey model with exhaustible natural resources to study the optimal recycling of polluting raw materials and household waste products. During the process of economic development, it is optimal for the economy to go through an initial “linear” phase with no recycling followed by a “circular” phase where some materials and waste products are recycled to alleviate growing natural resource scarcity and environmental degradation. Ensuring the optimal degree of recycling in a market economy requires a Pigouvian tax on non-recycled raw materials combined with a subsidy to recycling of household waste and a tax on man-made wealth to internalize the environmental cost of capital accumulation.

Genetically modified crops, agricultural sustainability and national opt-outs: Enclosure as the loophole?

EU Member States face a quandary: after decades of demanding powers to choose whether or not to cultivate GM crops, the EU has returned some limited but significant powers to them. A directive permits Member States to “opt-out” from GM cultivation, provided that they meet relevant criteria. Member States need to decide urgently and carefully whether and how to restrict GM crops, as the permeable nature of the environment facilitates the spread of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) once cultivated. One consideration is agri-sustainability. In principle, GM crops could promote agri-sustainability, including through increasing agrobiodiversity, as they facilitate introducing new traits or species into an ecosystem. However, the nature of their modifications allows for the applicability of patenting law, which enables the legal “enclosure” of the crops’ genetic make-up. This impacts negatively upon the long-term availability of plant genetic resources and agrobiodiversity, as farmers and other breeders operate in a context where accidental cultivation of patented material can still attract liability. This article argues that legal enclosure could justify imposing restrictions on GM cultivation in order to conserve agrobiodiversity as an exhaustible natural resource essential to agri-sustainability. To improve the likelihood of restrictions being upheld legally at both the EU and WTO level, such justifications must be distinguished clearly from any broader environmental concerns, as both the EU and WTO impose stringent restrictions where environmental objectives are raised.

From solar to hydrogen: Preliminary experimental investigation on a small scale facility

Issues of exhaustible natural resources, fluctuating fossil fuel prices and improvements in electric power systems motivated governments to behave positively toward the development of distributed generation. In addition, progresses in small size generation technologies and storage systems give rise to a significant diffusion in microgrids, working together with conventional power grid. Indeed, in the next future, domestic microgrids are expected to play a fundamental role in electric power networks, driving both the academic and industrial research interests in developing high efficient and reliable conversion and storage technologies.In this context, this study presents a feasible configuration of a solar-hydrogen integrated microgrid and documents the procedure to characterize the overall efficiency of a laboratory scale test facility. Experimental results highlight that the most significant inefficiencies in the solar to hydrogen conversion process are mainly attributed to the solar to electrical energy conversion process, being responsible for about 89% of losses. The overall laboratory scale solar to hydrogen chain can reach conversion efficiency up to 5.3%.

Social Dilemmas in Environmental Economics and Policy Considerations: A Review

Many crucial environmental issues lead to social dilemmas, in which the personally optimal solution, and the socially optimal solution diverge. Finding a solution to this dilemma is extremely important to allow a good and sustainable management of many exhaustible natural resources. This is especially true when the resource users need to develop collectively a set of rules or practices, and the institutions are unable to provide, or enforce, effective regulations. A few examples are forests, and fisheries, but also carbon emissions. This review presents a selected number of results coming from field observations, laboratory experiments, and theoretical work, which pinpoint some of the more crucial aspects of these decision environments. Knowing which incentives and situational aspects may motivate resource users to adopt a more or less cooperative behavior can potentially be of pivotal importance to develop effective policies and regulations. At the same time, the research we present is also of great interestfor any diagnostic or explorative study that aims to study direct resource users, and their development of cooperative attitudes and practices.

Economic growth and property rights on natural resources

We consider two models of economic growth with exhaustible natural resources and agents heterogeneous in their time preferences. In the first model, we assume private ownership of natural resources and show that every competitive equilibrium converges to a balanced-growth equilibrium with the long-run rate of growth being determined by the discount factor of the most patient agents. In the second model, natural resources are public property and the resource extraction rate is determined by majority voting. For this model, we define an intertemporal voting equilibrium and prove that it also converges to a balanced-growth equilibrium. In this scenario, the long-run rate of growth is determined by the median discount factor. Our results suggest that if the most patient agents do not constitute a majority of the population, private ownership of natural resources results in a higher rate of growth than public ownership. At the same time, private ownership leads to higher inequality than public ownership, and if inequality impedes growth, then the public property regime is likely to result in a higher long-run rate of growth. However, an appropriate redistributive policy can eliminate the negative impact of inequality on growth.

Welfare, Wealth, and Sustainability

Growing concerns over climate change and the potential for large damages due to nonlinear processes underscore the need for a meaningful sustainability assessment of an economy. Economists have developed rigorous approaches to conceptualizing sustainability based on the paradigm of weak sustainability, which relies on extensive substitution among reproducible capital, renewable resources, and exhaustible natural resources. In contrast, strong sustainability emphasizes physical limits to this substitution and the importance of maintaining the resilience of normally functioning biophysical processes. Recent progress in resource and environmental economics has demonstrated the feasibility of incorporating strong sustainability features, including tipping points, uncertainties, and resilience, to assess efficiency and optimal policies. Given that weak sustainability and intertemporal efficiency share a welfare theoretic foundation, we ask: To what extent can these approaches be applied to evaluate sustainability? We highlight recent work on assessing sustainability in imperfect economies and dynamic models of intertemporal welfare that embed strong sustainability features.