World Bank / by Limin Wang, Sushenjit Bandyopadhyay Mac Cosgrove-Davies, and Hussain Samad http://tinyurl.com/4lfr7nf Scaling-up adoption of renewable energy technology, such as solar home systems, to expand electricity access in developing countries can accelerate the transition to low-carbon economic development. Using a purposely collected national household survey, this study quantifies the carbon and distributional benefits … Continue reading »
Posted on January 25, 2011 …
Toward a Sustainable Global Energy Supply Infrastructure: Net Energy Balance and Density Considerations
World Bank Research Paper / by by Ioannis N. Kessides and David C. Wade http://tinyurl.com/4rmlhqr This paper complements previous work on the economics of different energy resources by examining the growth potential of alternative electricity supply infrastructures as constrained by innate physical limits. Coal-fired generation meets the criteria of longevity (abundance of energy source) and … Continue reading »
Infrastructure Investments under Uncertainty with the Possibility of Retrofit: Theory and Simulations
World Bank Research Paper / by Jon Strand, Sebastian Miller, and Sauleh Siddiqui http://tinyurl.com/4v3r3tf Investments in large, long-lived, energy-intensive infrastructure investments using fossil fuels increase longer-term energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, unless the plant is shut down early or undergoes costly retrofit later. These investments will depend on expectations of retrofit costs and future … Continue reading »
The Impacts of Biofuel Targets on Land-Use Change and Food Supply: A Global CGE Assessment
World Bank Research Paper / by Govinda R. Timilsina, John C. Beghin, Dominique van der Mensbrugghe, and Simon Mevel http://tinyurl.com/4h374uf This study analyzes the long-term impacts of large-scale expansion of biofuels on land-use change, food supply and prices, and the overall economy in various countries or regions using a global computable general equilibrium model, augmented … Continue reading »
The Economics of Natural Disasters : Concepts and Methods
World Bank Research paper / by Stephane Hallegatte and Valentin Przyluski http://tinyurl.com/4scqzdb Large-scale disasters regularly affect societies over the globe, causing large destruction and damage. After each of these events, media, insurance companies, and international institutions publish numerous assessments of the “cost of the disaster.” However these assessments are based on different methodologies and approaches, … Continue reading »
The Changing Wealth of Nations: Measuring Sustainable Development in the New Millennium
World Bank http://tinyurl.com/4uapulo [read online] http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/wealth-of-nations [downloadable data sets] [WB development blog] If you have ever had a conversation with a finance minister couched in terms of hectares of forestland or tons of greenhouse gases, then you appreciate one of the central problems of environment and development. It tends to be a short conversation, and … Continue reading »
Europe’s Parking U-Turn: From Accommodation to Regulation
Institute for Transportation and Development Policy / by Michael Kodransky and Gabrielle Hermann http://www.itdp.org/documents/European_Parking_U-Turn.pdf The report, Europe’s Parking U-Turn: From Accommodation to Regulation, examines European parking over the last half century, through the prism of ten European cities: Amsterdam, Antwerp, Barcelona, Copenhagen, London, Munich, Paris, Stockholm, Strasbourg and Zurich. The report found: Parking is increasingly … Continue reading »
The Status of Renewable Electricity Mandates in the States
Institute for Energy Research http://tinyurl.com/4vs7tp4 [Executive Summary] Renewable electricity mandates are laws that require utilities to sell or produce a certain percentage of electricity from renewable sources. Usually the required percentage of renewable electricity increases over time until reaching a target percentage, such as 20 or 25 percent, at a target year, such as 2020 … Continue reading »
