Search

The econometric approach and the economic-engineering approach are two methodological approaches for the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reduction policies. The econometric approach focuses on issues relating to the cost structure of the electric power industry, input relationships and related CO2 policy issues. The economic-engineering approach develops least-cost expansion plans aimed at reducing CO2 emissions to desired levels.

Neoliberal capitalism has extended the use of markets to address climate and energy issues. Carbon trading characteristically exemplifies the neoliberalization of climate policy. This paper discusses the workings of the European Union's Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) in the European Union (EU) with a focus on its application in crisis-ridden Greece. Beyond environmental effectiveness and distributional effects, the paper explores the interactions of the EU ETS with crisis, austerity programs, energy poverty, and uneven development. Despite adjustments and changes, the EU ETS continues to indicate limited environmental effectiveness and unjust distributional effects. Moreover, by forging a centralized neoliberal transition to a low-carbon economy without consideration of the issues faced by unevenly developed and crisis-stricken EU members such as Greece, the EU ETS leads to additional disturbances and problems for the Greek economy as a whole, its pauperized working people, and its energy and climate options to reduce emissions on its own potential, needs, and priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author defends the position that capitalism has the potential to be ecologically sustainable, using value theory to address issues of production and consumption.

This is the second paper in a two-paper series in which we present how the ongoing crisis in Greece has been used to accelerate the neoliberal restructuring of Greece with serious implications for the appropriation of nature. In this paper we focus specifically on particular aspects of the austerity programs that relate to natural resources and natural conditions. We examine changes to the business environment and ongoing privatization schemes to show how the Greek austerity programs benefited private capital with significant concessions of natural resources. By discussing relevant specific cases, we concretely show how austerity programs have had far-reaching adverse consequences for the living conditions of working people and their access to natural resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ongoing crisis in Greece constitutes an emblematic case of repressive capitalist restructuring. In this first part of a two-paper series, we argue that public debt is used as a vehicle for furthering the neoliberal transformation of Greek society with serious implications for the appropriation of nature. We present theoretical considerations about nature in capitalism, the rationale of neoliberal capitalist restructuring, as well as the relation between nature and neoliberalism. We finally present the timeline of the Greek crisis, as well as how the three structural adjustment programs wrought a severe capitalist restructuring upon Greece. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This is part 2 of a paper that revisits the European Union’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) in an attempt to take stock of how the system has worked and evaluate it from the standpoint of radical political economy. In part 1 of the paper the basic design, the workings and the outcomes of the scheme were discussed with critical perceptiveness. In particular, the paper revealed the unsatisfactory results of the scheme (even in its own proclaimed aims), including allowances surplus, allowance trades for pure financial profit, low and volatile prices of allowances, windfall profits, extensive use of Kyoto project-based credits, and several malfunctions and instances of fraud. These findings set the ground for part 2 of the paper, which offers a critical assessment of ETS, proclaimed by mainstream analyses as the major vehicle for the transition to a low-carbon economy. In particular, the complications and instabilities created by the increasing financialization of the carbon market are exposed. Moreover, the ineffectiveness of the ETS as a catalyst for investments in clean energy technologies, especially in times of economic crisis, is substantiated. Since the deep embeddedness of the scheme in capitalism risks climate sustainability, the analysis concludes that a more radical transformation of society with an eco-socialist orientation is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is part 1 of a paper that revisits the European Union’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) in an attempt to take stock of how the system has worked and evaluate it from the standpoint of radical political economy. The paper briefly discusses the basics of the scheme, including its design as a financial instrument and its performance during the first trading period (2005–2007). It then moves to elaborating on the workings of the scheme during phase 2 (2008–2012) and on the initiation of phase 3 (2013–2014). This analysis discusses the adjustments and the extensions of the scheme, compliance results and allowance trades and prices with a critical eye. The paper reveals the unsatisfactory results of the scheme (even in its own proclaimed aims), which include allowances surplus, allowance trades for pure financial purposes, low and volatile price of allowances, windfall profits, extensive use of Kyoto project-based credits, and several malfunctions and instances of fraud. These findings set the ground for part 2 of the paper which offers a critical assessment of ETS from the standpoint of radical political economy, putting emphasis on the needs and interests of the unprivileged working people. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, an overdeterminist value-theoretic and class-based approach is used to intervene in the discussions of ecological sustainability. It is argued that the search in nature for ecological principles to guide society/nature relations is epistemologically suspect. Ecological problems in capitalism are inseparably articulated with the process of extracting surplus value. Moreover, due to their adverse impacts, they instigate struggles over the appropriation of nature that shape the possibility of sustainable development. This analysis suggests that capitalism may be ecologically sustainable, but that is by no means given. It is argued that scientific research and technology development in capitalism, so often presented as a solution, could create new ecological risks. The greening of capitalism is contradictory and socially unjust. Socialism can be expected to be preferable to capitalism on a number of social grounds, including environmental considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports findings of a study on regional energy substitution in the manufacturing industry that used a dynamic disequilibrium model of firm output demand. Elasticity of demand for energy of whole regions; Different substitutability pattern for Southeast region; Slow input adjustment speeds in the Northeast region.