[en] Some behind-the-scenes developments from the climate change meeting in Buenos Aires in November 1998 are discussed. It is pointed out that reducing carbon dioxide emissions is only half the problem when it comes to climate change; capture and storage and trading of permits are also very important. One key issue not discussed in formal sessions was caps on carbon trading. The extent to which countries will be allowed to offset their Kyoto obligations is at issue. Another key issue not covered formally was the extent to which countries will be allowed to offset their obligations by investing in carbon sinks (e.g.forestry) rather than in new technologies which reduce emissions. These two issues will determine what the Kyoto agreement means in practice for industry in general and the energy industry in particular. With regard to offset mechanisms, many questions remain unanswered. The Carbon Storage Trust aims to create high quality carbon offsets for sale to both consumers and companies. The debate on trading caps and the inclusion of sinks may not have made the formal sessions in Buenos Aires but it did gain momentum which will last until the year 2000 when the IPCC reports on forestry and land use. (UK)

[en] A market for energy services is emerging. Energy suppliers and building services contractors have the same customers but have traditionally operated in different markets. The boundary between the energy and building services markets is blurred. Substantial degrees of freedom are being created for the customer in a free market. After the initial euphoria about this, there will be a realization that there are also risks, for example as a result of price fluctuations, uncertainty about supplier reliability, the effects of the rates system, complex regulation and political decision making. If people want to reduce these risks and through this make costs controllable, attention must be paid to the interdependence between aspects on the supply side, in the energy supply system and on the demand side

[en] Recent empirical studies have tested the hypothesis of an Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) focusing primarily on the relationship between per capita income and certain types of pollutant emissions. Given the stock-nature of many pollution problems, emissions only partially account for the environmental impacts. Moreover, almost all of the studies have given consideration to little more than income levels as explanatory variables. This paper empirically tests the hypothesis of the EKC existence for a stock-sensitive indicator, that is, the percentage of protected area (PA) within national territory. It does theorize that economic growth is a necessary condition in order to better address environmental issues. But it also stresses that other variables (income distribution, education, information accessibility) may play a fundamental role in determining environmental quality. Contrary to other studies that mainly focus on the calculation of the income level corresponding to the transition point, this paper is more concerned with the calculation of environmental quality corresponding to that transition point, that is, the minimum level of environmental quality that a country is willing to accept. This paper highlights the idea that if the transition point is determined primarily by income level, social policies determine the level of environmental quality corresponding to that point

[en] The impact of energy policy measures is not restricted to the energy system and should therefore be analysed within an economy-wide framework, while keeping the essential details of the energy sector. The aim of this paper is to present new developments in the field of the consistent evaluation of indicators for the sustainability assessment of energy policy measures. Starting from the static concept of Boehringer (Energy Econ. 20 (1998) 233), this paper shows how the complementarity format can be used in computable general equilibrium (CGE) modelling for a dynamic formulation of bottom-up and top-down approach merging models. While a hybrid approach increases the credibility of CGE models in energy policy analysis by replacing the energy sector generic functional forms with a bottom-up activity analysis based on specific technologies, the endogenous formulation of investment decisions makes an explicit description of evolving specific capital stocks and technology mixes possible. Both features are essential when assessing effects of policy measures that may be affected by structural change--which is typically the case in the long-term assessment of energy policy measures

[en] Global climate change has been one of the challenging environmental concerns facing policy makers in the past decade. The characterization of the wide range of greenhouse gas emissions sources and sinks as well as their behavior in the atmosphere remains an on-going activity in many countries. Lebanon, being a signatory to the Framework Convention on Climate Change, is required to submit and regularly update a national inventory of greenhouse gas emissions sources and removals. Accordingly, an inventory of greenhouse gases from various sectors was conducted following the guidelines set by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The inventory indicated that the industrial sector contributes about 29% to the total greenhouse gas emissions divided between industrial processes and energy requirements at 12 and 17%, respectively. This paper describes major mitigation scenarios to reduce emissions from this sector based on associated technical, economic, environmental, and social characteristics. Economic ranking of these scenarios was conducted and uncertainty in emission factors used in the estimation process was emphasized. For this purpose, theoretical and experimental emission factors were used as alternatives to default factors recommended by the IPCC and the significance of resulting deviations in emission estimation is presented. (author)

No abstract available

[en] The tasks to perform by any area are presented for the two basic types of environmental structure within the organization, function oriented and process oriented - based on that classification, advantages and disadvantages are identified for both structures. Finally, some additional coordination mechanisms are proposed in order to make the process oriented structure more flexible

[en] Although a large number of energy decomposition analysis studies have been reported in the last 25 years, there is still a lack of consensus among researchers and analysts as to which is the 'best' decomposition method. As the usefulness of decomposition analysis has now been firmly established in energy studies and its scope for policymaking has expanded greatly, there is a need to have a common understanding among practitioners and consistency on the choice of decomposition methods in empirical studies. After an overview of the application and methodology development of decomposition analysis, the paper attempts to address the above-mentioned issues and provide recommendations

[en] In this paper the effect of environmental policy on the composition of capital is investigated. By allowing for non-linearities it generalizes Xepapadeas and De Zeeuw (Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 1999) and determines scenarios in which their results do not carry over. In particular, we show that the way acquisition cost of investment decreases with the age of the capital stock is of crucial importance. Also it is obtained that environmental policy has opposite effects on the average age of the capital stock in the case of either deterioration or depreciation. We also focus more explicitly on learning and technological progress. Among others we obtain that in the presence of learning, implementing a stricter environmental policy with the aim to reach a certain target of emissions reduction has a stronger negative effect on industry profits, which implies quite the opposite as to what is described by the Porter hypothesis

[en] Climate for Change: Non-State Actors and the Global Politics of the Greenhouse provides a challenging explanation of the forces that have shaped the international global warming debate. Unlike existing books on the politics of climate change, this book concentrates on how non-stage actors, such as scientific, environmental and industry groups, as opposed to governmental organisations, affect political outcomes in global fora on climate change. It also provides insights in to the role of the media in influencing the agenda. The book draws on a range of analytical approaches to assess and explain the influence of these non-governmental organisations in the course of global climate change politics. The book will be of interest to all researchers and policy-makers associated with climate change, and will be used on university courses in international relations, politics and environmental studies. (Author)