Can the Risks of the Kyoto Mechanisms be Reduced Through Portfolio Diversification? Evidence from the Swedish AIJ Program

Through Joint Implementationand the Clean Development Mechanism, reductionsof greenhouse gas emissions achieved abroad canbe credited to domestic firms. However, thetechnical, economic and political risksinvolved may prevent the private sector frominvesting in such projects. This paperdescribes three types of risks which emissionreduction projects are exposed to. Eleven pilotprojects carried out under the ActivitiesImplemented Jointly (AIJ) program and financedby Sweden are evaluated. Actual project costsare found to exceed projected costs in allcases. Annual emission reductions also deviatefrom their expected values and vary stronglyover time, supporting the hypothesis that suchprojects are risky business. The riskmanagement tool portfolio diversification isapplied to a sample of Swedish AIJ projects.The results indicate that diversification canreduce the risks of greenhouse gas mitigationprojects significantly. Thus, carbon funds area promising way of lowering the risks of theKyoto Mechanisms for private sector investors.     

Natural resources, capital accumulation and the resource curse

Early concern by economists for the effect of natural capital on economic growth gave way to complacency and neglect during the nineteenth century. Evidence has emerged, however, that since the 1960s the economic performance of low-income countries has been inversely related to their natural resource wealth. This relationship is not a deterministic one so policy counts. SEEA can help improve the policy and performance of resource-abundant low-income countries by reinforcing the rationale for the sound management of natural resources and also by providing an index of policy sustainability in the form of the net saving rate. This policy index, along with other measures such as a capital fund for sterilizing the rent, initiatives to increase the transparency of rent flows and the rigorous evaluation of alternative uses of additional public sector revenue can improve the efficiency by which natural resource rent is transformed into alternative forms of capital to sustain rising social welfare. Chad and Mauritania provide case studies to illustrate how SEEA and net saving can be used to diagnose policy failure and improve economic performance.     

Economic Potential of Biomass Based Fuels for Greenhouse Gas Emission Mitigation

Use of biofuels diminishes fossil fuelcombustion thereby also reducing net greenhousegas emissions. However, subsidies are neededto make agricultural biofuel productioneconomically feasible. To explore the economicpotential of biofuels in a greenhouse gasmitigation market, we incorporate data onproduction and biofuel processing for thedesignated energy crops switchgrass, hybridpoplar, and willow in an U.S. AgriculturalSector Model along with data on traditionalcrop-livestock production and processing, andafforestation of cropland. Net emissioncoefficients on all included agriculturalpractices are estimated through crop growthsimulation models or taken from the literature. Potential emission mitigation policies ormarkets are simulated via hypothetical carbonprices. At each carbon price level, theAgricultural Sector Model computes the newmarket equilibrium, revealing agriculturalcommodity prices, regionally specificproduction, input use, and welfare levels,environmental impacts, and adoption ofalternative management practices such asbiofuel production. Results indicate no rolefor biofuels below carbon prices of $40 perton of carbon equivalent. At these incentivelevels, emission reductions via reduced soiltillage and afforestation are more costefficient. For carbon prices above $70,biofuels dominate all other agriculturalmitigation strategies.     

浅析物流信息化与资源节约型城市的可持续发展

21世纪是全球物流发展的时代,其中信息在物流中发挥重要的作用。全社会掀起物流信息化建设的热潮,资源节约型城市要抓住这一有利时机,充分利用有利信息来发展物流业,实现经济的转型,从而保证本地经济的持续、健康、稳定的发展。本文从分析物流信息化与资源节约型城市的可持续发展关系入手,指出目前其原型城市在物流信息化建设中存在的问题及形成的原因,最后提出合理的建议。     

基于循环经济理论的建筑节能研究

建筑节能是贯彻国家可持续发展战略的重要组成部分,循环经济理论将为我国建筑节能政策提供良好的思路.文章在分析循环经济理论基本内涵的基础上,分析循环经济理论对我国建筑节能工作的指导意义,并结合当前我国建筑节能现状及其存在的问题,根据“十一五“规划目标,提出新时期我国建筑节能对策.     

民用建筑循环冷却水系统设计的探讨

文章对多年来在民用建筑循环冷却水系统设计、运行中碰到的一些问题,提出在设计时应注意的事项及所需要采取的措施。     

浅谈价值工程与企业基本战略管理

价值工程(VE)作为一种系统化的管理技术,在企业生产和经营管理中都取得了显著的效果。并且随着时代的发展,应用范围将更加广泛。而企业的战略对企业的经营和发展都起着至关重要的作用,特别是在经济全球化的今天,把价值工程理论运用到企业的基本战略管理中,有利于企业提高效益,创造顾客价值、企业价值和社会价值。     

油价上涨对世界经济的影响及中国能源政策选择

油价上涨给世界经济带来很大影响,引发了经济危机、加重了西方国家的财政负担和生产成本、加大了非产油国家的进口成本。高油价也给航空、速递等一些运输行业造成沉重负担,油价上涨的最终承担者是消费者。油价不断上涨促使各国调整能源结构,高油价给石油输出国带来丰厚收益的同时也带来一些负面影响,如腐败、暴力冲突、战争等。油价上涨要求中国大幅提高能源利用率,采用多元化能源战略,尽快建立国家石油战略储备,加强能源领域国际合作。     

电子商务环境下的冷链物流研究

当今信息时代，人们将先进的信息和网络技术应用到物流管理中，极大地促进物流事业的发展，第三方物流事业也应运而生且发展前景广阔。它的优势就在于降低了生产成本。提高了经营效率，加强了竞争力，提升了企业彤象。作为现代物流的一个组成部分，冷链物流也伴随着社会的进步．技术的更新和管理思想的发展而不断地发展。在电子商务环境下如何实施冷链物流是冷链行业面临的重要课题。本文通过对一个成功的第三方冷链物流案例的分析，结合我国国情，提出相应实施策略。     

A Spatial Structural Decomposition Analysis of Chinese and Japanese Energy Demand: 1985–1990

This paper proposes a spatial structural decomposition analysis to measure the effects of the changes in intra- and inter-country linkages on the embodied energy demand in the concerned country. For the empirical analysis, we have used the China- Japan inter-country input–output tables for 1985 and 1990, expressed in constant prices of 1990. The empirical results reveal that (1) at least for the period between 1985 and 1990, the effects of the non-competitive input structural changes in China on the primary energy requirements of Japan were negligible, and (2) the contribution of the Japanese final demand shifts on the total change in Chinese primary energy demand was 40 times larger than that of the Chinese final demand shifts on the primary energy requirements of Japan. The Japanese policy makers should concentrate on the energy impacts of the changes in the domestic production structure rather than the changes in the Chinese production structure.