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• Countries that issue internationally acceptable currencies tend to have lower interest rates and higher price levels than those whose currencies are not internationally acceptable. • Differences in interest rates and price levels are likely to cause asymmetric transfers of biophysical resources from low-income to high-income countries. • Currency hierarchy can be empirically operationalized as a categorical variable based on the liquidity of currencies and the degree of monetary sovereignty of their issuers. • Ecologically unequal exchange is driven not only by diverging monetary compensation for exported resources, but also by the impact of currency hierarchy on countries' trade balances. • Alternative explanations for the empirical correlations between currency hierarchy, interest rates, price levels, and ecologically unequal exchange have theoretically and empirically limited. Asymmetric transfers of biophysical resources from the Global South to the North are a key obstacle to sustainable development. The underlying causal drivers of this 'ecologically unequal exchange' are not well understood. This paper accounts for the causal role of hierarchy between currencies as one driver of ecologically unequal exchange. Drawing on dependency theory, I propose testable hypotheses that explain why countries that issue internationally acceptable currencies create net inflows of embodied labour, land, energy, raw materials, and carbon from countries whose currencies lack international acceptability: Countries with lower-ranking currencies face higher interest rates, which constrain their policy space, drive income outflows, and necessitate resource exports. Such countries also tend to have lower price levels (measured as the ratio between exchange rates and purchasing power parity rates) because their currencies are not demanded internationally, resulting in reduced dollar income per exported resource. To test these hypotheses, I use a novel categorical operationalization of currency hierarchy. I compare different observable correlations to the theoretical correlations implied by the proposed hypotheses, and test multiple regression models against cross-country data. Overall, the results are consistent with the hypotheses. Considering alternative explanations, the conclusion seems justified that currency hierarchy is a significant driver of ecologically unequal exchange, and that this mechanism operates specifically through cross-country divergences in interest rates and exchange rates. In short, the monetary cost of a dollar impacts the biophysical cost of a dollar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Degrowth lacks a theory of how the state can finance ambitious social-ecological policies and public provisioning systems while maintaining macroeconomic stability during a reduction of economic activity. Addressing this question, we present a synthesis of degrowth scholarship and Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) rooted in their shared understanding of money as a public good and their common opposition to artificial scarcity. We present two arguments. First, we draw on MMT to argue that states with sufficient monetary sovereignty face no obstacle to funding the policies necessary for a just and sustainable degrowth transition. Increased public spending neither requires nor implies GDP growth. Second, we draw on degrowth research to bring MMT in line with ecological reality. MMT posits that fiscal spending is limited only by inflation, and thus the productive capacity of the economy. We argue that efforts to deal with this constraint must also pay attention to social and ecological limits. Based on this synthesis we propose a set of monetary and fiscal policies suitable for a stable degrowth transition, including a stronger regulation of private finance, tax reforms, price controls, public provisioning systems and an emancipatory job guarantee. This approach can support broad democratic mobilization for a degrowth transition. • Degrowth and Modern Monetary Theory form a strategic symbiosis for addressing social and ecological crises • Public spending on social and ecological objectives is not constrained by tax revenues or GDP • MMT needs to incorporate ecological limits to production and productive capacity • Targeted fiscal and monetary policies can ensure macroeconomic and price stability during a degrowth transition • Policy priorities include a job guarantee, credit regulation, price controls, tax reforms, and universal public services • An MMT-informed degrowth transition requires more democratic control over monetary policy and financial system governance [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union's relative disregard for the economic, geopolitical and climatic concerns of its peripheral Eastern countries has contributed to making the war in Ukraine possible. Its consequences are now returning in the form of energy dependence and economic instability on the Union as a whole and the risk of economic crisis and deindustrialisation. This should prompt a re-assessment of the EU's strategy towards its eastern neighbours, particularly in the energy and climate policy field. This evaluation starts from the issue of control over cheap energy as a key material foundation of state and interstate power. On this basis, we analyse the struggle between Russia and the European core states over Ukraine in terms of the ability to extract an economic surplus through the unequal exchange of energy. The current escalation should be understood as an attempt by the Russian petrostate to preserve the economic basis of its regime, which is threatened by the prospect of a low-carbon transition in Europe. We conclude that a massive acceleration of the transition away from fossil fuels is the key to economic, geopolitical and climate stabilisation, highlighting possible policy instruments the EU could use to secure its production system and protect citizens' security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Automatic Frequency Restoration Reserve market description. • Operating strategy for a generation pool comprising a Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) • Bidding strategy to derive optimal bids and to evaluate economic feasibility. • BESS market participation not economic feasible in 2019 but possibly in 2025. In continental Europe, automatic Frequency Restoration Reserve (aFRR) is one of three control reserve services to counteract imbalances in the electrical grid. The market is dominated by a few operators of conventional power plants since the auction design is complex and new players face various entrance barriers. In order to stabilize the electrical grid in the future, renewable generation technologies need to enter the market. To encourage operators (and traders) of renewable generation facilities to enter the market, this paper presents a bidding strategy based on an optimization approach for deriving an optimal bid and for estimating the revenue potential on this market. The focus is on the participation of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) either in standalone mode or in conjunction with a virtual power plant (VPP). An in-depth cost breakdown and battery ageing model support the derivation of earning potentials. With current costs of containerized BESS, an operation is not economically viable. However, with a predicted cost breakdown for the year 2025 and a pooled operation, profits can be generated. But even for the reduced-cost scenario, profits were found to be lower than on the Frequency Control Reserve (FCR) market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]