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12. Mapping, Measuring, and Managing Methane: The Critical Role of a Potent Climate Pollutant
- Author:
- Deborah Gordon and Frances Reuland
- Publication Date:
- 11-2019
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University
- Abstract:
- Earth's temperature is rising to dangerous levels. Cutting greenhouse gas emissions is increasingly urgent. Although carbon dioxide is the major greenhouse gas, short-lived climate pollutants like methane are rapidly accelerating global warming in the near term. Methane emissions are on the rise. The global growth in oil and gas production and consumption is a prime driver. A new report released today by researchers at the Watson Institute identifies a multi-pronged approach for mapping and measuring methane and provides new tools to more effectively manage this super pollutant. Under a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, authors Deborah Gordon, Watson Institute Senior Fellow, and Frances Reuland, former Brown University Researcher, assess the many ways that methane escapes from the oil and gas sector, both unintentionally and purposefully. Using a first-of-its-kind model under development, the Oil Climate Index + Gas, they estimate that oil operations are at greater risk for intentional venting and flaring of methane while gas operations pose a higher risk of inadvertent fugitive methane and accidental releases. The ability to focus detection and policymaking on the operators who bear direct emissions responsibility holds out the best prospects for methane reductions worldwide. While governments, NGOs, and companies continue to improve their methods to pinpoint and measure methane, difficulties remain. Overcoming these barriers requires: increased transparency and data collection; improved oversight through monitoring, reporting, and verification; regulations and binding agreements; research and development (R&D) and technology transfer; and financial incentives and penalties. In order to offer durable climate solutions, efforts to mitigate methane must be designed to withstand future political pressures.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Science and Technology, Pollution, Fossil Fuels, and Methane
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
13. What Can Protest Achieve?: The Case of the Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign
- Author:
- Carl Death
- Publication Date:
- 09-2019
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Brown Journal of World Affairs
- Abstract:
- Can protest really make a difference? Can social movements change any- thing? Do campaigns like those for fossil fuel divestment rapidly snowballing across campuses, cities, churches, and institutional investors in North America, Europe, and elsewhere have any real impact on global political economies of energy? This article argues that the answer to all of these questions is a qualified “yes.” The fossil fuel divestment campaign is a specific manifestation of environ- mental protest, which, since emerging in 2011, has changed some things and has the potential to change others more profoundly.1 Considering the case of the fossil fuel divestment campaign in detail can illuminate important insights about the role of protest in contemporary global politics. Protest movements can impact the world, as evidenced by both the fossil fuel divestment campaign and longer histories of other divestment movements that have contributed to significant struggles for structural change.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Economics, Natural Resources, Protests, Global Warming, and Fossil Fuels
- Political Geography:
- Europe and North America
14. Climate Change Disclosure of the Financial Sector
- Author:
- Zachary Folger-Laronde and Olaf Weber
- Publication Date:
- 09-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for International Governance Innovation
- Abstract:
- As the impacts of climate change continue to grow in severity, focus has turned toward the climate change implications associated with the products and services of the financial sector. It is estimated that the indirect carbon emissions, which are caused in the financial sector by borrowers, investees and financed projects, are 50 to 200 times larger than the direct impacts of the financial sector. It is evident that a decarbonization strategy is needed for more than the fossil fuel industry and will require significant changes to most economic sectors. This added focus toward the financial sector has led to demands for enhanced disclosure of climate change information with regard to financed clients and projects. However, there remains limited guidance in how the financial sector should disclose its carbon performance to its shareholders and stakeholders. This paper reviews the highlights from an empirical study that investigated the types of carbon performance voluntarily disclosed by banks and the type of carbon impact emissions disclosed. Policy recommendations are made that aim to facilitate and standardize disclosures.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Finance, Fossil Fuels, and Carbon Emissions
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
15. “Blanket” Fuel and Electricity Subsidies Did Not Offer Much Benefit to Zambia’s Poor
- Author:
- Caesar Cheelo and Rabecca Haatongo-Masenke
- Publication Date:
- 10-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Hudson Institute
- Abstract:
- For a long time the Zambian Government ran a number of consumption and production subsidy programmes. These programmes1 came under considerable strain in 2015 when Zambia experienced a significant economic downturn. In that year, the real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate fell to 2.9%, from an impressive 7.7% over the ten years before (2005-2014). By the time the 2015 downturn had fully set in, the country was running a budget deficit of nearly 10% of GDP and had raked up a public debt stock of over 50% of GDP (IMF, 2016). With the combined cost of debt service interest payments and arrear payments rising from 17% of the National Budget in 2016 to 23% in 2017 (Cheelo, 2017), the Government was readily hemorrhaging money in the aftermath of the minicrisis. Zambia could no longer afford the multiplicity of subsidies it had been maintaining and seriously contemplated abolishing some of them. The policy intentions of the Government were met with strong anti-abolition sentiments with some stakeholders asserting that the removal of subsidies on fuel and electricity would cause pump-price and electricity tariff escalations. The worry was that these price hikes would hurt Zambia’s poor and vulnerable groups most of all. Generally, these sentiments were not backed by analysis and empirical evidence; they were subjective and had the potential to misinform public policy. This paper offers an alternative perspective to the above motion on anti-abolition of subsidies. We argue that during their existence, the fuel and electricity subsidies had benefitted the poor far less than they had done any other social groups in Zambia. Likewise, the abolition of the subsidies affected the poor less than it did other social groups.
- Topic:
- Energy Policy, Electricity, Fossil Fuels, and Subsidies
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Zambia
16. Iberian Electricity Sector: A transition towards a more liberalized and sustainable market
- Author:
- Agustin Garcia, Maria Teresa Garcia-Alvarez, and Blanca Moreno
- Publication Date:
- 02-2017
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
- Abstract:
- In recent years, important policy developments have impacted the electricity market in the European Union (EU), affecting the cost of energy and resulting in changes to countries’ electricity generation mix. This paper details the Spanish and Portuguese attempts to transition to a cleaner energy economy. At the end of the last century, Iberian countries started the process of liberalizing their electricity market and promoting the use of renewable energies in the electricity mix. Their objectives included establishing a “greener” energy supply, opening new employment opportunities, reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels, and pursuing a more sustainable economy and society. Assuming a leading role in the energy transition process has been a novel and challenging endeavor for both countries. The economic crisis only increased those challenges, leading to mixed results. In addition to covering the evolution of the Iberian electricity sector, this paper identifies key considerations for the future.
- Topic:
- Energy Policy, European Union, Electricity, and Fossil Fuels
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Spain, Portugal, and Iberia Peninsula