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tidbits #30

December 26, 2015
articles, conferences, EC consultation, interesting reads, open positions, tidbits
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Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone out there.

In the news / New articles / Conference and seminar annoucements / Open positions

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tidbits #23

November 11, 2015
climate change, conferences, energiewende
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  • Will you be part of the new VISIONS 2100 project?
  • Clean Energy Wire is, together with Energytransition.de, a great source for news about Germany’s Energiewende. HERE you can read about the components that make up the electricity price in Germany. Taxes make up 3/4 of this price, and the renewable energy surcharge 1/3 of the taxes. Despite this – or maybe because of this (?) – exports roar, Germany grows. Why? Energy makes up only 2.5% of Germany’s GDP, similar to most countries in the world.
  • HERE you can read why all this bogus talk about renewable energy production being too expensive is, simply, bogus. In words:

    Today, even Citibank estimates that transitioning to clean energy will globally save an estimated $1.8 trillion in comparison to a business-as-usual scenario by 2040

  • The effect of Germany’s eco-tax is slowly diminishing. So Mr Klusmann suggests to index eco-taxes. The reason:

    the whole idea of environmental taxes is not to increase the level of taxation, but to focus the existing level on discouraging environmentally damaging consumption.

  • And all this energy transition in Germany is starting to pay off:

    The Fraunhofer Institute has found that Germany made about €1.7 billion, or $1.93 billion, in 2014 by selling surplus electricity. In 2015, that amount could reach €2 billion or $2.2 billion.

conferences:

  • Responsibility to Act – Sustainable Development Goals 2015, in Rotondes, Luxembourg, from 7th-9th December 2015. For more information go here: http://sdgconference2015.lu/
  • Climate Ethics and Climate Economics: Discounting the Future, in Oxford University’s Martin School, Oxford, UK, from 13-14 January 2016. Keynotes by Simon Caney and Partha Dasgupta. More information here: http://www.isecoeco.org/climate-ethics-and-climate-economics-discounting-the-future/
  • ISDRS 2016 – Rethinking Sustainability Models and Practices: Challenges for the New and Old World Contexts, to be held 13-15 July 2016 in Lisbon, Portugal. For more information follow this LINK.

As always, you can find all the information on conferences, workshops and seminars in my environmental economics calender on the right.

tidbits #22

November 8, 2015
conferences, obituary, tidbits
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News round-up:

  • I came across this very interesting and informative issue on climate change by National Geographic. For a bit of trivia, some years ago, initially together with a Dutch climber, I built the climbing wall that goes up the 40m high cooling tower of the nuclear power plant in the picture under the rubrique “How do we fix it” and “Germany Has Some Revolutionary Ideas, and They’re Working“.
  • I was in Lisbon last week at the UECE Lisbon Meeting 2015, which was a very interesting event. I’d like to thank Cecilia Vergari for having drawn my attention to this event. I presend an article co-authored with Georg Müller-Fürstenberger from the University of Trier, Germany, and for those interested you can download my: presentation.
  • The blog Marginal (R)evolution, by the seemingly never-fatigued , is my (unfortunate) main source for the obituary of famous economists. This time the unfortunate news were about Wallace Oates. His early work (together with William Baumol) on environmental policy basically shaped the research in the field for many years and will continue to do so for many years to come.

Conferences:

  • On Monday, Montag 9. November, at the Centre culturel P. Barblé in Strassen, Luxembourg, starting 19.30, I will attend a conference organized by the Ministerium für Nachhaltige Entwicklung und Infrastrukturen and the Klima-Bündnis Lëtzebuerg, entitled “Erneuerbare Energien erobern die Weltenergiemärkte“. More information available HERE.
  • Lunch seminar environmental economics, Paris 1, S/3 in the annex of the Maison des Sciences Economiques, 106/112 Boulevard de l’Hôpital, Thursday 12th November 12:30-13:30. Vicente Ruiz (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris School of Economics) will talk on “Do climatic events influence internal migration? Evidence from Mexico”. Abstract of the paper on the seminar website.

Job openings:

  • There are Postdoctoral Fellowships available from 1 September 2016 in CORE, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. CORE is a wonderful place to study and work, one of the most dynamic places I have come across and of definite interest for environmental economists. For more information follow this link: https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/6662

tidbits #21

November 3, 2015
climate change, conferences, EU policy, nuclear energy
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Some news:

  • The Young Friends of the Earth Europe discuss why it is a myth that the EU is leading the way in terms of climate policy. They suggest this is because
    a) The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is based on the principles of equity, common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities. The EU is not living up to this.
    b) contributions to the Green Climate Fund by European nations have been notoriously low, very far from what was agreed in Copenhagen in 2009
    c) EU nations try to split developing country group at climate talks
    d) The EIB still lends three quarters of its research funds (around 10 billion euros annually) to the automobile industry in spite of its Climate Action Programme
    and much more you can find HERE
  • A list with additional points on why 2015 seems to be a lost year for EU environmental protection can be found HERE.
  • A discussion on the leaked draft ‘State of the EU #EnergyUnion’. Main takeaway point would be that even though the EU claims it wants to move away from fossil fuels, in reality nothing is mentioned in this draft of how this should be done. Thus, while there seems to be a willingness to move towards renewables, there is no clear strategy of how to do so.
  • via Reuters: There are missing EU wide guidelines for the nuclear industry on provisions for decommissioning and long-term spent fuel management. E.g. gross provisions are 4.7 billion euros per reactor in Germany, compared to just 1.2 billion in France and 3.38 billion euros in Britain. Transparency is needed, a unified regulatory framework, so that companies and countries do not suddenly wake up with an overhelming bill for nuclear energy.
  • Via Energytransition.de: Greenpace wants to buy German coal fields in order to make sure that at least a certain amount is left in the ground.

conference announcements:

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