Recent Green Paper Research Articles

Process reconfiguration and intensification: An emerging opportunity enabling efficient carbon capture and low-cost blue hydrogen production

Low-carbon hydrogen can play a significant role in decarbonizing the world. Hydrogen is currently mainly produced from fossil sources, requiring additional CO2 capture to decarbonize, which energy intense and costly. In a recent Green Energy & Environment paper, Cheng and Di et al. proposed a novel integration process referred to as SECLRHC to generate high-purity H2 by in-situ separation of H2 and CO without using any additional separation unit. Theoretically, the proposed process can essentially achieve the separation of C and H in gaseous fuel via a reconfigured reaction process, and thus attaining high-purity hydrogen of ∼99%, as well as good carbon and hydrogen utilization rates and economic feasibility. It displays an optimistic prospect that industrial decarbonization is not necessarily expensive, as long as a suitable CCS measure can be integrated into the industrial manufacturing process.

Policy and Regulatory Issues

Policymakers face a conundrum: promoting the adoption of IoT services to reap its many benefits, while safeguarding societal concerns. This will be a balancing act of oversight and regulation from policymakers to drive investment and consumer adoption while ensuring that safety, security, and privacy frameworks are in place. Meanwhile, industry must step up to lead and adopt best practices and standards, which will allow policymakers to forbear as appropriate. In this inaugural issue of IEEE Internet of Things Magazine (IoTM), we are fortunate to have the Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), David Redl, as our first contributor to this Regulatory and Policy Column, discussing key findings of NTIA’s recent green paper on IoT. In future issues, we will explore critical IoT policy and regulatory issues being considered in other parts of the world as well as take a deeper dive into specific topics of interest. It is difficult to overstate the impact that IoT will have on our society; therefore, getting the policy and regulatory issues right is critical because the policies will guide the ultimate success and direction of this important digital evolution. The breadth and depth of policy and regulatory issues facing IoT are surprisingly vast, ranging from safety, privacy, security and spectrum policies to issues of infrastructure coordination, rights of way and acceptable use.

Digital Convergence and Diminished Creative Industry Growth: A New Zealand Case Study

The New Zealand Government’s recent Green Paper “Exploring Digital Convergence” (EDC) suggests that so-called “digital convergence,” or convergence in telecommunications, information technology, media and entertainment (TIME) sectors is facilitating the creation, dissemination and consumption of creative works. This paper analyses the economic performance of the film and television industry in New Zealand to see if there has been any correlated increase in revenues, employment and output during the time of this convergence. Our review suggests the evidence in New Zealand is inconsistent with any suggestion that convergence has facilitated a dramatic increase in revenues or output for the creative sector. Our findings suggest the opposite: Total screen industry revenues as measured by Statistics New Zealand’s Screen Industry Survey (SIS) which commenced in 2005 shows that from 2005-2015, there is a shortfall of total screen industry revenues over the ten-year period of approximately $4.6 billion against what they would have been had revenues kept pace with inflation and economic growth. This estimate includes just over $3 billion in the “production and post-production” (PPP) sector. Alternative scenarios described in more detail in this paper involving historical data yield estimates for the shortfall in production and post-production (PPP) revenues ranging from estimates of $3.94 billion in total over the ten-year period from 2005 to 2015, including a $600 million shortfall in the final year, to a considerably higher estimate, where the shortfall in PPP revenues reaches $4.1 billion in the last year (2015) alone. This upper scenario further suggests that by the end of the 14-year period 2001-2015, the shortfall in total screen industry revenues would have been $8.5 billion in the last year (2015) alone. In other words, total screen industry revenues in 2015 would have been closer to $12 billion in 2015, rather than $3 billion actual. At the same time, screen industry employment is also down and there has been no measurable increase in film and TV output during the data available from 2011.The data is more consistent with the need to move to stronger copyright in New Zealand to restore the effective rate of copyright protection and stem the loss of revenue and decreased production, not weaker copyright. More advanced empirical work, of course, is justified, but at this stage this is the direction to follow if one adopts an evidence-based approach to policy.

The English «Teaching Excellence Framework» and Professionalising Teaching and Learning in Research-Intensive Universities: An Exploration of Opportunities, Challenges, Rewards and Values from a Recent Empirical Study

Currently English universities are responding to a recent government Green Paper which promises to deliver a raft of radical policy changes which could have a major impact on how excellence in teaching and learning is to be publicly acknowledged and rewarded. A significant, yet controversial proposal is the introduction of a «Teaching Excellence Framework» for universities. This paper examines and contextualises the current important policy debates and then presents some preliminary findings from a recent empirical case study which explored how research-intensive universities have valued, rewarded and supported excellence in teaching through institutional structures and also from the perspectives of academic staff responsible for teaching students. We argue that the reality on the ground for many academics is a sense of confusion and contraction around how their universities value and support high quality teaching and that there may be some way to go before some of the ideas and principles currently being discussed in the context of a national English Teaching Excellence Framework are fully embedded in practice.

Public Opinion, Risk to Reputation: The Essentials of Societal Corporate Governance?

This paper will examine the role of reputation regarding corporate governance in terms of performance, risk control and the possible role of legislature or behaviors in this field (in particular with regards to the recent Green Paper “Companies in the EU: a management of governance”, COM (2011) 164 final, of the 5th April 2011, of the European Commission). Image, reputation, positive or negative opinion, notoriety of the companies and their managers are regarded as an element of their performance. It is accepted that public opinion, inherently linked to the reputation risk is an essential element of corporate governance. Regarding the need of a long term matter, particularly after the financial crisis, a short period of time is enough to transform a positive public opinion into a negative one. In addition, the assessment of public opinion is complex. Everyone can freely form an “opinion”. The opinion may be private and public. Public opinion refers to society, to citizens and to the people. Its classic means of expression are freedom of the press and freedom of speech. This question is particularly crucial regarding the role of the companies to the “society” as recently defined by the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the committee of the Regions, A renewed EU strategy 2011-14 for Corporate Social Responsibility, the European Commission and the European Parliament (Brussels, 25.10.2011) COM(2011) 681 final).

The Dutch VAT Compensation Fund: a Critical Assessment

As in the European Union the activities of public sector bodies are not subject to full taxation, the Value Added Tax (VAT) regime may cause distortions in their decision-making, in particular with respect to the choice between self-supply and contracting out of services to the private sector. Several European countries have addressed this distortion via a budgetary solution. In the Netherlands, such a refund scheme was introduced in 2003. This article provides an integral analysis of this scheme based on a broad range of evaluations. As this study shows, VAT only plays a minor role in considering whether to outsource and the introduction did not cause a significant increase in contracting out. Motives other than the budgetary effects might be more relevant. Besides, contracting out was already a trend, regardless of the costs of VAT. The introduction had a number of negative side effects, such as the administrative burden and the budgetary effects, leading to a rather negative opinion of the participating public sector bodies. Therefore, an introduction of compensation schemes in other Member States or a change in EU-VAT law as discussed in a recent Green Paper of the European Commission should be assessed thoroughly, to decide whether the remedy is worse than the disease.

Economic capital for defined benefit pension schemes: An application to the UK Universities Superannuation Scheme

AbstractThis article considers the amount of economic capital that defined benefit (DB) pension schemes potentially need to cover the risks they are running. A real open scheme, the Universities Superannuation Scheme, is modelled and used to illustrate our results and, as expected, economic capital requirements are large. We discuss the appropriateness of these results and what they mean for the DB pension scheme industry and their sponsors. The article is particularly pertinent following the recent European Commission Green Paper on the future of European pensions systems, its call for advice on reviewing the Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision Directive and the introduction of the Basel 2 and Solvency 2 risk-based regulatory regimes for banking and insurance, respectively.

Free movement of goods in a labyrinth: Can Buy Irish survive the crises?

The article explores the legal status of consumer ethnocentrism in the EU and how the three simultaneous crises of the present time (economic, food and climate change) challenge the EU Court's judgment in Buy Irish, which presents the foundation for uprooting negative consumer stereotypes towards products from other Member States and protectionism. Various national campaigns of EU Member States that try to raise consumer ethnocentrism are discussed in light of the established case law of the EU Court, thereby highlighting new circumstances, in which the principle of free movement of goods, particularly of food, is currently situated. In this respect, in a recent Green Paper on promotion of the tastes of Europe (COM (2011) 436) the Commission adopted an apparently new approach towards local and regional food markets, by expressly recognizing the importance of short distribution channels for national traditions, food security (and self-sufficiency) and combating climate change. This "new approach" could have considerable consequences for the legitimacy of national initiatives to promote domestic purchase, thereby compromising a thirty year old judgment - Buy Irish and free movement of goods in general.

Public opinion, risk to reputation: The essentials of societal corporate governance?

Research Question/Issue: This paper will examine the role of reputation regarding corporate governance in terms of performance, risk control and the possible role of legislature or behaviors in this field (in particular with regards to the recent Green Paper “Companies in the EU: a management of governance”, COM (2011) 164 final, of the 5th April 2011, of the European Commission). Research Findings/Insights: Image, reputation, positive or negative opinion, notoriety of the companies and their managers are regarded as an element of their performance. It is accepted that public opinion, inherently linked to the reputation risk is an essential element of corporate governance. Regarding the need of a long term matter, particularly after the financial crisis, a short period of time is enough to transform a positive public opinion into a negative one. In addition, the assessment of public opinion is complex. Everyone can freely form an “opinion”. The opinion may be private and public. Public opinion refers to society, to citizens and to the people. Its classic means of expression are freedom of the press and freedom of speech. This question is particularly crucial regarding the role of the companies to the “society” as recently defined by the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the committee of the Regions, A renewed EU strategy 2011-14 for Corporate Social Responsibility, the European Commission and the European Parliament (Brussels, 25.10.2011) COM (2011) 681 final). Theoretical/Academic Implications: How to manage good corporate governance reputation ?As from 1979, the Anglo-Saxon doctrine has acutely highlighted the role of reputation risk regarding corporate governance but what is the situation within the EU? Has legislature, in Europe (and for example, in France), sufficiently acknowledged the concept of reputation risk control? – A long term period seems necessary for efficient corporate governance. Yet, CSR has given an additional power to social and environmental information which may, because it affects a more important spectrum (stakeholders…), cause a more important prejudice, whereas CRS is an "integral part" of corporate governance. Thus, in France, as pointed out in recital 10 of the policy 2006/46/CE but above all, as pointed out in article 53 of the said Grenelle 1 law (n° 2009-967 of the 3rd August 2009), “the quality of information regarding the way in which companies consider the social and environmental consequences of their activity and the access to this information constitutes essential conditions of good corporate governance”. The SRI funds also attempt to control the factors of reputation risk. Practitioner/Policy Implications: The multiple vehicles of public opinion regarding corporate governance : in fact, CSR, largely consisting in the “reporting” of social and environmental values therefore on “societal communication”, which potentially contains so many possible public opinions to be expressed, may be “additions” to individual opinions. CSR rests on a true discourse which seems, to certain authors, removed from reality: “the reports on corporate social responsibility, summary document between the “say” and “do”, appear as a support of speech which, removed from the real situation, tends first and foremost, to show the “good faith” of organisations. Societal corporate e-governance with the aid of the internet further weakens the concept of societal reputation.

Technology Can Solve MTIC Fraud – VLN, RTvat, D-VAT certification

Technology can solve missing-trader intra-Community (MTIC) fraud. In the early 2000s, MTIC fraud mainly concerned cell phones and computer chips. By 2006, MTIC fraud was targeting services (transfers of CO2 permits and VoIP services) and was no longer limited to the European Union. MTIC fraud is now fully digitized (the supply, the movement of the product and the funding). Technology is both the causative agent and the most effective countermeasure for this type of fraud. The details of the three major technology-intensive approaches for solving MTIC fraud are known since 2007: the VAT locator number (VLN); real-time VAT collection (RTvat); and certified tax software (Digital VAT or D-VAT). This article endeavours to contribute to the debate that the European Commission has opened on this topic with its recent Green Paper, by comparing and contrasting these proposals.

The prospects and pitfalls of Ken Clarke's package of penal reforms

In the Conservative‐led coalition's recent green paper Breaking the Cycle Ken Clarke aims to justify reducing the scale and costs of imprisonment. These proposals have been met with a generally positive response from penal reform groups and academic criminologists who see them as a departure from the expansionist policies of the last two decades. Many of the reform proposals presented in the green paper are however unlikely to save the taxpayer money or increase community safety.

Technology Solves MTIC - VLN, RTvat, D-VAT Certification

Technology solves missing trader intra-community (MTIC) fraud. This should come as no surprise. MTIC is technology-intensive fraud – its solution should also be technology-intensive. MTIC is getting to be an out-dated term. Now that missing trader fraud has move into services it is no longer confined to intra-community trade, and the older acronym should be adjusted to MTIC/MTEC fraud (with MTEC standing for missing trader extra-community). MTIC/MTEC fraud is fully digitized (the supply, the movement of the supply, and the funding). The consequences should be clear. MTIC/MTEC must be prevented (before the fact), not pursued (after the fact). In the digital world everything evaporates when pursued. Technology is both the causative agent and the most effective counter-measure for this fraud. We have known the details of the three major technology-intensive proposals for solving MTIC/MTEC since 2007: the VAT locator number (VLN); real time VAT (RTvat), and certified tax software (D-VAT). This paper endeavors to contribute to the debate that the Commission has opened on this topic with its recent Green Paper by comparing and contrasting these three proposals. Both the VLN and RTvat are mandatory systems. The VLN focuses on securing every supply, whereas the RTvat focuses on securing every payment. D-VAT certification differs in both respects. It can be adopted on a voluntary basis (per taxpayer) and achieves a secure remission of VAT through trusted third parties. These third parties are providers that stand between the taxpayer and the tax administration, complete all filings, and remit payments – guaranteeing the accuracy of the return and the satisfaction of the tax due. There is a considerable amount of central control under both VLN and RTvat proposals. Central (government) computer systems will track each transaction (VLN) or payment (RTvat). Under D-VAT certification there is no central tracking, just assurance that each transaction is completely and accurately reported because the systems performing these operations are certified and guaranteed. Finally, both the VLN and D-VAT certification go to great lengths to avoid making fundamental changes in the way the EU VAT currently operates (the VLN perhaps even more than D-VAT certification). In addition, both VLN and D-VAT certification can be adopted one Member State at a time. The RTvat proposal differs on both accounts. It fundamentally changes the EU VAT into an origin system, and requires adoption by all Member States to be fully effective.

Preparing the ground for marine spatial planning in Ireland

Marine spatial planning (MSP) is advocated as a means of managing human uses of the sea in a manner that is consistent with the maintenance of the ecological goods and services of the marine environment. The adoption of a system of MSP is seen as urgent in the face of ever-increasing demands on marine resources. This is particularly so in Ireland with its extensive seas, belatedly being recognised as a significant development resource. MSP is promoted by the European Commission (EC) in a recent Green Paper to which Member States of the Union, including Ireland, generally have responded positively. Arising from this consultative process, the EC has published the ‘Blue Book’ that commits support for MSP. It has also issued guidelines for an integrated approach to maritime policy. The recently adopted EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive strengthens the case for implementing MSP as it requires each Member State to develop a strategy for its marine resources. There is evidence that a diverse range of stakeholders at national and local levels in Ireland are positively disposed toward MSP but no practical manifestation of the concept is in place, though some preparatory work is

Promoting sustainable livelihoods: making welfare reform truly personal

Gordon Brown has high and admirable aspirations for welfare reform. In his foreword to the recent Green Paper No-one written off he states these as being ‘delivering personalised services tailored to individual needs, giving more freedom to frontline professionals and increasing people’s control over the services and support they choose to access’ (DWP, 2008, p 5). For such policies to be successful, it is essential to understand people’s own strategies and aspirations, the assets they bring and the barriers they experience to achieving and sustaining work. This article is based on in-depth research carried out by Church Action on Poverty’s ‘Thrive’ project and Oxfam with households experiencing long-term poverty in the North East of England since 2006, using an internationally recognised sustainable livelihoods approach.

Please Mind the Gap: Satisfaction with the Police within London

Within policing in the UK the citizen focus domain continues to take on a greater significance, specifically highlighting the value of responding to the needs of communities, particularly those from a non-white origin. The recent Green paper ‘Engaging Communities in criminal justice’ and Cabinet Office report ‘Engaging Communities in fighting crime’ similarly assert the role for communities within Criminal Justice. A controversial finding from the previous literature is the disparity in satisfaction with the police between white and non-white groups. Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) data reveal a current satisfaction gap of 4.7%. Through survey data and quantitative research undertaken by the Strategy Research & Analysis Unit (SRAU), opinions of police, victim age, contact method used and deprivation levels are posited as contributors to this gap. This paper aims to explore these contributors in more detail and discuss tactics that have been developed in the MPS that aspire to reduce this gap.

Motivation, morals and justice: discourses of worklessness in the welfare reform green paper

New Labour’s recent green paper on welfare reform No one written off: reforming welfare to reward responsibility – outlines new plans for tackling worklessness. The proposals centre on extending conditional forms of welfare that mandate participation in work-related activities to cover most of the workless population. This article considers the way in which discourses of workless are deployed in the green paper to make the case for reform. It asserts that the proposals are underpinned by three central claims regarding the individual causes of worklessness (‘motivation’), the responsibilities of citizens to seek work (‘morals’) and the social benefits of working (‘justice’). These claims are used to legitimise plans for accelerating the roll-out of supply-side welfare-to-work programmes that seek to improve the employability of the workless. This article contends, however, that these claims are undermined by competing arguments that worklessness is as much a function of labour demand in terms of a lack of suitable jobs. It identifies the need to ground welfare reform in a sober assessment of labour market conditions if it is to provide more equitable forms of assistance to ensure ‘no-one [is] written off’. The paper concludes by suggesting that the failure of policymakers to acknowledge these arguments can be attributed to the role these discourses play in validating conditional forms of welfare that enforce the takeup of unattractive work.

Learning Selves And Citizenship: Gender And Youth Transitions

Discourses of citizenship have increasingly featured in social policies aimed at young people, particularly in relation to the promotion and crafting of ‘active citizens’. The inclusion of citizenship education in school curricula, the Learning and Skills development agency post-16 citizenship development programme, and the recent Green Paper Youth Matters, all speak of instilling in young people the rights and responsibilities that come with citizenship. In this article we draw on empirical work on youth transitions to explore the ways in which citizenship is learnt and lived by young people themselves. The article draws on some of the models of citizenship identified by Lister et al. (2003) in their study on young people's perceptions of citizenship, particularly considering them in relation to the gendered experiences and realities of youth transitions to adulthoods.

Allocating Jurisdiction in Private Competition Law Claims within the EU

This article demonstrates that the policies underlying EC competition law and EU private international law currently have a significant potential for conflict. This conflict is a result of a failure to adequately translate the ‘public’ nature of supranational EC Competition Law into the national context of ‘private’ forms of litigation. The conflict is explored in the context of the private litigation of cross border competition law disputes. It is suggested that whilst the conflict is unresolved the effective enforcement of EC competition law can not be assumed to follow naturally from either the current modernisation of EC competition law, or the provisions of the Commission's recent Green Paper concerning private damages actions for breach of competition law.

Mental Health Help-Seeking and Young People: A Review

In the United Kingdom, the issue of health and social care of young people is now a major concern for the government. Thus, a recent government green paper has insisted on the provision of early and appropriate interventions for young peoples' mental health difficulties and that their views must be incorporated into the design of mental health services. More recently, the NHS Health Advisory Service has recommended that schools and teachers should assume some responsibility in the identification of pupils who may have mental health difficulties. Unfortunately, there is scant information in the United Kingdom on young peoples' pathways into services. We know very little about their help-seeking strategies and service use, barriers or facilitators to care, satisfaction with services and service preferences. In addition, we have limited knowledge of how young people conceptualize mental health or how they perceive mental health professionals. In brief, the needs and help-seeking behaviours of young people in psychological distress are poorly understood and often mediated through older people such as parents and teachers. In this paper, we examine these issues and discuss the implications of such gaps in the evidence base for our understanding of adolescent help-seeking and our ability to provide appropriate well-targeted services.

The Eurohypothec and the English Mortgage

The recent Green Paper on Mortgage Credit in the EU (Brussels: European Commission, 2005) confirms that the European Commission is giving serious consideration to ‘the feasibility and desirability’ of a pan-European mortgage (‘Euromortgage’ or ‘Eurohypothec’) to facilitate the integration of cross-border financing of real estate investments. The purpose of this paper is two-fold. First, to examine the proposed Eurohypothec as a central case in the larger project of attaining cross-border commonality in European private laws of immovable property. Second, to consider whether the prevailing model for the Eurohypothec can be accommodated in England and Wales. It is argued that doctrinal indeterminacy or ‘shapelessness' in national property institutions of EU Member States assists in the reception of pan-European institutions alongside national laws, and thereby advances the project to achieve ius commune Europaeum in property law. It will be demonstrated that the mortgage law of England and Wales exemplifies the necessary doctrinal indeterminacy and therefore provides fertile ground for the reception of the Eurohypothec.