Search

We shed new light on a long-standing question in political science: When confronted with costly policy choices, do citizens form their preferences using material (economic) concerns or other-regarding motivations, such as the distribution of costs, and how are these moderated by political ideology? Using the case of carbon taxation, a widely advocated policy solution to climate change, we conducted survey experiments in Germany and the United States to assess the relative importance of these forms of preferences. The results show that individuals are primarily concerned with how a carbon tax would affect their individual income. There are also important cross-national differences with high-income German respondents being more receptive to redistributive policy design, especially in contrast to high-income Democrats who significantly decrease support for carbon taxation. These findings highlight how the constituencies generated by new policies can significantly alter the distribution of mass support for action on emerging societal problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a move some have called the beginning of the end for the internal combustion engine, the California Air Resources Board has created regulations, Advanced Clean Cars II, to target California's carbon pollution, banning the sale of new gas-powered cars and light trucks in the state by 2035. These regulations come from a special privilege held only by the state of California through a preemption waiver from the emissions regulations set by the Clean Air Act. Other states can sign on to California's waiver, taking it from a special privilege to a second set of emissions regulations, almost equal in power to the federal regulations. Pushback to California's waiver comes in the form of an equal sovereignty argument that may go all the way to the Supreme Court. But consumers, and the automotive industry, are moving towards electric vehicles regardless of the regulations. This Note seeks to defend the continued ability of states to choose (despite equal sovereignty concerns) between a federal standard and a Californialed standard through the lens of the electric vehicle market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments promise to make capitalism better. Unfortunately, ESG has become a hotbed of hype and controversy. The core problem is that ESG mixes vague environmental and social goals with a profit maximization goal and does not provide a framework for resolving the conflicts that exist between them. The result is confusion that invites deception and cynicism. This Article proposes a mechanism for resolving conflicts between goals by translating them into the common language of money. Once non-pecuniary environmental or social goals are translated into dollar values, they can provide clear and actionable guidance for firms and investors, enabling ESG to fulfill its promise. To achieve this, corporations and institutional investors that claim to be ESG-friendly should publicly commit to specific valuations for ESG issues. For example, a company or mutual fund concerned with both climate change and profit might commit to valuing a metric ton of carbon emissions at $100 in its charter. The company would use that valuation as a metric in its assessment of projects, pursuing only those projects that would remain "profitable" after adjusting its forecasted cashflows by subtracting $100 for every ton of additional carbon emitted. A mutual fund would use the valuation when voting on climate-related governance issues or investment decisions. For example, the fund would back a shareholder resolution supporting lower corporate carbon emissions so long as the resolution would not reduce profits by more than $100 per ton of carbon saved. Similarly, the fund might pick stocks for investment based on potential profitability at a carbon price of $100. In effect, companies and investors would bid on their valuation of ESG impacts relative to ordinary profit maximization, sending clear and actionable signals on actual and desired behavior. By providing concrete standards and a sorting mechanism for making sense of competing goals, valuation would help realize the potential of ESG investing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, significant attention is paid to environmental issues at all levels of management. Over the long history of human civilization, significant environmental damage has been accumulated, because not only large-scale industrial production, but also ordinary human life leads to the formation of a significant amount of harmful products that pollute the atmosphere, soil, and water spaces. The huge scale of the accumulated damage makes it necessary to resolve environmental issues at the highest level - the level of international organizations and the leadership of individual states. At the same time, interest in the environmental agenda is connected both with the health of the population and with economic aspects, because in the near future in Europe, and then, possibly, in Russia, much more significant taxes and fines for nonenvironmentally friendly production and products will be introduced. Among a significant number of important environmental issues of our time, one of the most acute is the issue related to emissions of the so-called greenhouse gases (primarily carbon dioxide CO2 and methane, but also other gases) and the environmental damage resulting from this phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Minnesota passed House File 7 in early 2023, requiring all electricity supplied in Minnesota be generated by renewable resources by 2040. Potentially, this could have a significant impact on North Dakota as the vast majority of its electricity is generated using fossil fuels. North Dakota may file a lawsuit against Minnesota given the negative financial consequences of being unable to sell electricity generated by fossil fuels to Minnesota wholesalers under this law. If a lawsuit were filed, North Dakota would likely pursue constitutional claims under the dormant commerce clause and the Supremacy Clause. Under the dormant commerce clause, North Dakota could also use the extraterritorial doctrine to show that the Minnesota statute has an impermissible effect on interstate commerce. Additionally, using the Pike test, North Dakota may argue the local benefits to Minnesota from the clean energy mandate do not outweigh the burden to interstate commerce. Lastly, North Dakota could also argue that the Federal Power Act preempts House File 7 under the Supremacy Clause. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition from petroleum to electricity as a fuel source for vehicles is an essential step in the effort to stop harmful climate change. The transportation sector currently produces more carbon emissions in the United States than any other area. Recognizing this, the federal government and several states have recently devoted resources to facilitating the transition to large-scale electric vehicle (EV) use. In particular, there must be a nationwide network of EV charging infrastructure so that EV drivers can confidently drive EVs anywhere. Much of the legal research on increasing the number of EV charging facilities and consumer EV purchases focuses on states and areas where support of EVs is more likely, dismissing conservative-leaning Southeastern states, some Midwestern states, and rural areas as places where people "do not recognize climate change as a problem." However, it is not enough to successfully prepare for and achieve mass EV adoption in liberal states. To sufficiently reduce US carbon emissions, the transition to EV use must be widespread across all states and regions, types of communities, and demographics. If environmentalists want to reduce emissions as much as possible in today's polarized political environment, they must take a new approach to creating policy solutions. Instead of pushing large-scale, public EV projects across the board, policy makers should tailor state-level policy proposals that specifically appeal to conservative-leaning states. They should incorporate conservatives' preferred instrument choices--namely, private businesses--as the drivers of EV infrastructure growth. While some environmentalists may prefer government-driven climate action, a privatized system of EV charging infrastructure will be more likely and more easily adopted by both governments and consumers in conservative states. In the context of climate change, decarbonizing the transportation sector as quickly as possible is more important than the policy tool used to do it; therefore, choosing a politically feasible policy is the best strategy. With this approach in mind, this Note proposes specific policies that enable and support the growth of privately owned charging station businesses within the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) region. Using Tennessee as a case study, this Note first explains how the TVA Act and state law would grant TVA a monopoly on the EV charging market in Tennessee. It then proposes changes to state and federal law that could remove the legal barriers to privately owned charging station businesses in the TVA region. Lastly, this Note argues that allowing a private EV charging market will increase conservative Tennessee's EV charging capabilities and encourage the purchase of EVs by Tennessee consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is the second most populous country in the world and stood at seventh rank in a major climate risk index in 2019, which is a grave concern for the Indian government, policymakers and environmentalists. Therefore, the present study examines the role of fiscal policy and monetary policy instruments along with select macroeconomic variables on carbon emission in India over the period 1971–2019 in the non‐linear framework. The outcome of the study reveals that the impact of fiscal and monetary policy instruments on carbon emission is asymmetric in nature. In addition, the positive and negative shocks in fiscal and monetary policy instruments have a positive and negative impact on carbon emissions, respectively. Based on the coefficients' magnitude, the role of fiscal policy instruments has a more prominent effect on carbon emissions than monetary policy instruments. The findings of the study imply that the Indian government is required to implement green fiscal and monetary policies. Use fiscal policy to implement a 'green tax ratio' and a 'green subsidy programme' for manufacturers and investors to reduce CO2 emissions. A 'green lending programme' should be introduced for commercial banks by implementing monetary policy via the central bank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concurrent measurements of atmospheric O2 and CO2 amount fractions have been used for decades now to estimate fluxes of carbon to and from the oceans and the land biosphere. The equations used in these estimates explicitly include fossil fuel combustion but are built on the assumption that fossil fuels are oxidized solely by atmospheric O2, ignoring the small fraction of fossil fuel oxidation by oxide ores that occurs during refining of metals, and thereby overestimating losses of atmospheric O2. Here, we address this deficiency by quantifying the effective O2 fluxes associated with the processing of iron, aluminium and copper. We also consider the potential impact of sulfur. We find that consideration of the oxygen mobilized during metal processing (equivalent to a net O2 flux of -0.005+0.002)Tmol a-1) leads to an increased estimate of ocean carbon uptake in the years 2000-2010 of (0.144-0.005+0.002)Pg a-1 of carbon with a corresponding decrease in estimated land uptake. A rough estimate of oxygen uptake due to sulfur chemistry during fossil fuel combustion (2.4 Tmol a--1) decreases ocean carbon uptake but by a much smaller amount. These corrections are small compared to existing estimates of the fluxes and their uncertainties ((2.27 ± 0.60) and (1.05 ± 0.84) Pg a--1 of carbon for ocean and land respectively (Keeling and Manning, 2014)) but should be employed in future analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caribbean nations are amongst those considered the most vulnerable to climate change impacts. This necessitates climate change education (CCE) to enhance the mitigation and adaptation capacities of the region's populace. CCE is necessary at all levels of the education system, from pre-primary through to the tertiary level. To facilitate this, teachers must be exposed to CCE, understanding what climate change is, its impacts, and how to respond to climate change. Additionally, in order to facilitate students' (as well as their own) abilities to visualise various climate futures and respond to the range of emotions associated with climate change, teachers' own visioning skills must be developed. This article focuses on educators' engagement' with a low-carbon visioning exercise in a CCE course for educators at a regional university in the Caribbean. Thematic analysis of the document and interview data offers illustrations of the possibilities of visioning for awakening students to alternative future possibilities and engendering hope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Production and inventory management for deteriorating items is homogenizing the environmental concerns with great significance. This paper intricates a sustainable economic production quantity model for improvished deteriorating items that pivot on deteriorating items at a constant rate and the control of deteriorating progress, emission of carbon due to production operations and to benchmark by investing in carbon reduction technology and to enchase the quality of unsaleable manufactured product by investing in quality improvement. The objective of this paper is to review the influence of preservation and carbon reduction technologies on the total profit to succour the administrator, mark maximum structured restocking and pricing decisions using Non-Linear Programming technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource conflicts and human–environment conflicts are active around the globe. As planetary, carbon-induced climate change necessitates new responses, the policies and practices of decarbonisation add new dimensions to existing conflicts. Using examples from two nations with ambitious aims for the decarbonisation of their economies, Ethiopia and Morocco, we illustrate how unintended conflicts and adverse ecosystem impacts arise when nature cannot participate in decision-making processes. Transition to low-carbon economies, we argue, generates and exacerbates multi-dimensional conflicts of interest between state and society, as well as between society and ecosystems. Taking an interdisciplinary perspective, we suggest establishing procedural rights of nature via (1) stronger consideration of scientific expertise, (2) an enhancement of environmental safeguards and (3) making funding linked to Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) conditional upon participation of nature in decision-making processes through legal guardians. We use counterfactuals as a method to demonstrate how procedural rights of nature, in the cases of Ethiopia and Morocco, could change green economy and climate mitigation projects, making them less conflict-prone and more sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We find a positive link between cofinancing and Chinese overseas infrastructure project outcomes. • Cofinanced projects are 3.3–7.1 percentage points less likely to be cancelled or suspended compared to non-cofinanced projects. • Projects cofinanced with recipient partners are more likely to have localized implementation. • Projects cofinanced with international partners have lower carbon emission intensity and lower biodiversity risk. • Our results underscore the importance of a collaborative approach to developing infrastructure projects in the Global South. Cofinancing from government agencies, development banks, and private actors is acknowledged as an important tool to bridge the infrastructure finance gap in developing countries, but relatively little is known about outcomes for cofinanced projects. To fill this void, we explore the role of cofinancing in shaping Chinese lending and overseas development finance for infrastructure projects in terms of implementation outcomes and environmental performance. We examine a sample of 2997 infrastructure projects committed between 2000 and 2017 that were funded by Chinese finance, among which 15 percent are cofinanced. Our study shows that cofinancing correlates with higher infrastructure project completion rates, as cofinanced projects are 3.3–7.1 percentage points less likely to be cancelled or suspended than non-cofinanced ones. We also find that cofinancing with certain partners suggests specific benefits. Cofinancing with partners from the recipient country is associated with more localized implementation, whereas cofinancing with international partners has demonstrated improved environmental performance, with a 2.7 percent lower carbon dioxide emissions intensity and a 0.42 standard deviation decrease in biodiversity risks. The results suggest that cofinancing could be an effective tool to enhance infrastructure project success and achieve greater sustainable performance in Chinese lending and overseas development finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Working Group 1 in the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which reports the physical science of climate change in the form of a Summary for Policy Makers. Topics include a "Guardian" report that carried the headline "Code red for humanity" after the release of the AR6, the focus of the report on the role of humanity in climate change, and the relationship between carbon emissions and the manifestations of global warming.

The tourism industry contributes eight percent to global carbon emissions, directly and indirectly. Indirect carbon emissions are often neglected because they are difficult to calculate. The traditional approach to calculating indirect emissions – Life Cycle Assessment – is expensive and requires an expert data analyst. We introduce an alternative approach, the Environmentally Extended Input-Output Analysis. We show how this approach – currently used at macro-level to estimate carbon emissions at national or regional level – can be applied to the business level using carbon emissions generated by one hotel room clean as an example. Our comparative analysis shows that Environmentally Extended Input-Output Analysis leads to similar results as Life Cycle Assessment, while being substantially cheaper and more user-friendly. Environmentally Extended Input-Output Analysis, we conclude, enables tourism businesses to estimate the indirect carbon emissions of their operations, which is the key to identifying target areas for improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study develops a methodology to assess transportation-related CO2 emissions of European city tourism. In doing so, not only is travel distance considered, but also the chosen transportation modes and the particularities of the different cities' source markets. The major contribution of this study is the implementation of this learning methodology into a decision support system for destination management organizations of cities. Based on a sample from 2018 of 48 European cities with at least 40 source markets, the range of aggregate transportation-related CO2 emissions of European city tourism is estimated. Moreover, a longitudinal analysis of the exemplary city of Vienna covering the period of 1990 to 2018 is carried out. Finally, some policy recommendations of how destination management organizations can contribute to make the estimated transportation-related CO2 emissions even more precise and on how to make European city tourism more environmentally sustainable are drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article highlights that biogeomorphic wetlands serve as the world's biotic carbon hotspots and that conservation and restoration of these hotspots offer an attractive contribution to mitigate global warming. Topics include a key advancement in understanding wetland functioning, human-induced average annual loss rate experienced by worldwide biogeomorphic wetlands, and scientific findings on restoration methods aimed at reestablishing biogeomorphic feedbacks.

The article provides a global perspective on the impact of oceanic warming event marine heatwaves (MHWs) on ecosystem services provision and examines its socio-economic implications. Topics include the effect of the anthropogenic climate change on global ecosystem structure and functioning, an increase in MHWs as a consequence of rising carbon emissions and ocean warming, and the potential adaptation and mitigation measures to reduce risks and consequences for human-ocean interactions.