Search

Abstract: The goal of this paper is to estimate the perspectives of the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on meeting the new European Union climate commitments, i.e., to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% to the year 2020 in comparison with 1990. This ambitious target could be reached based on other EU climate and energy package commitments: increase of the share of renewables and improvement of energy efficiency as tools for fulfilling the GHG emissions reduction target. The paper gives an overview on the current situation and future plans of the Baltic States in the field of energy efficiency, consumption of renewables and reduction of GHG emissions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract Bioeconomy is an important element of European Union (EU) political agenda. Promotion of bioenergy is one of the main aspects of bioeconomy strategy. The aim of this paper is to show how the development of bioenergy can contribute to climate change (and the associated policy). Specifically, we look into the possible reduction of GHG emissions within the framework of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). The panel models are estimated for the EU countries by modifying the classical EKC by including in the EKC model biomass and other renewables. The results showed that the coefficient associated with GDP decreases when renewables are included in the model. More specifically, the more types of renewables are included, the lower values of the coefficient associated with the linear term are observed. Furthermore, the effect of biomass on the reduction of GHG emission is higher if opposed to that caused by the other renewable resources. If we hold other factors fixed, increase in biomass use of 1% would reduce GHG emission by 0.089%, whereas the effect of the other renewable energy sources is 0.025%. Therefore, the development of bioeconomy and the promotion of bioenergy are one of the main tools for climate change mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global firms are increasingly adopting greenhouse gas mitigation targets in response to climate change. These targets serve as a spur for carbon mitigation initiatives, provide guidelines to select appropriate mitigation actions, and set the standards to measure the progress of the mitigation efforts. Despite their important functionalities, firm-level mitigation targets have rarely been studied. In this paper we aim to provide a comparative view on mitigation targets set by global firms across different countries and industrial sectors. The analysis focuses on four dimensions, i.e., adoption, metric, scope, and stringency. We find Japan far leads the other major countries in terms of target adoption, but the targets of Japanese firms are generally less stringent. Canadian firms are laggards in both target adoption and target stringency. The mitigation targets are also considerably uncommon among Australian firms. Firms in developing countries fall behind in target stringency and display a significantly greater divergence than developed countries in sectoral adoption rate. The European Union firms are most likely to cover the emissions in their supply chains in targets. Target stringency has substantially tightened from 2005 to 2012. For all the countries in this study, around 95% of the firm-level targets are more stringent than the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions submitted to the Paris Agreement. Setting mitigation target has a significant positive impact on both the likelihood of investing in renewable energy and the amount of investment in renewable energy. However, there is no evidence that more stringent targets lead to higher investment. These findings point to the most pressing issues with regard to corporate mitigation target-setting that policymakers and corporate management should address. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]