identifying roles of international institutions in clean energy technology innovation and diffusion in the developing countries matching barriers with roles of the institutions abstract the development of clean energy technologies is a central issue in climate change negotiation the signatory countries to the united nations convention on climate change agreed to organize the technology executive committee and the climate technology centre and network the objectives of this paper are twofold the first objective is to show a broad landscape of barriers in technology development the paper summarizes the results of key case studies that were conducted to uncover technology specific barriers in technology development these case studies include both technologies for industrial use such as wind bio energy and building energy efficiency and technologies for individual use such as light emitting diodes and photovoltaic panels the case studies also contain technologies at the innovation stage such as integrated gasification combined cycle and carbon capture and storage the second objective of this paper is to highlight and define roles of international institutions in overcoming identified barriers in clean energy technology development in this paper four areas of focus for international institutions are discussed including 1 increasing r d cooperation at the innovation stage 2 facilitation of intellectual property rights 3 supporting finance and 4 enhancing the enabling environment at the diffusion stage

sustainable innovation business models and economic performance an overview sustainable development requires radical and systemic innovations such innovations can be more effectively created and studied when building on the concept of business models this concept provides firms with a holistic framework to envision and implement sustainable innovations for researchers the concept provides an analytical tool that allows them to assess the interplay between the different aspects that firms combine to create ecological economic and social value in addition the business model concept provides a link between the individual firm and the larger production and consumption system in which it operates this paper provides an introduction to the special issue which emerged from selected papers presented at the erscp emsu 2010 conference held in delft the netherlands papers in the special issue cover a broad range from a conceptual discussion resulting in a research agenda the assessment of diffusion of specific business models such as product service systems the introduction of new management tools for business transition management to case studies on how specific business models evolved in specific communities together these papers provide insight into the promise of the business model concept for understanding and advancing sustainable innovation

getting deals done the use of social networks in bank decision making economic actors confront various forms of uncertainty making decisions and how they deal with these obstacles may affect their success in accomplishing their goals this study examines the means by which relationship managers in a major commercial bank attempt to close transactions with their corporate customers it is hypothesized that under conditions of high uncertainty bankers will rely on colleagues with whom they are strongly tied for advice on and support of their deals drawing on recent network theory it is also hypothesized that transactions in which bankers use relatively sparse approval networks are more likely to successfully close than are transactions involving dense approval networks both hypotheses are supported bankers are faced with a strategic paradox their tendency to rely on those they trust in dealing with uncertainty creates conditions that render deals less likely to be closed successfully this paradox represents an example of unanticipated consequences of purposive social action

the role of transnational dimensions in emerging economy technological innovation systems for clean tech the technological innovation system tis framework and its system functions have become a popular analytical tool for the study of clean tech innovation there is increasing attention for the role of emerging economies in global clean tech innovation but the applicability of tis to emerging economies cases is not entirely straightforward a key issue is the limited geographical considerations in particular transnational dimensions in tis whereas earlier perspectives on innovation in emerging economies have stressed the role of such transnational dimensions this paper elaborates transnational tis actor networks and institutions categorizes these in relation to tis functions and describes their potential to induce or block tis development in emerging economies we draw on insights from the perspectives of national learning systems international technology transfer and global production networks for this purpose we conclude that the potential effects of these transnational dimensions may be accurately grasped by the existing list of system functions lending credence to its further application of the tis framework on emerging economy case studies policy makers in emerging economies should recognize these transnational dimensions and seek to optimize their potential effect on domestic tis development taking in to consideration a realistic assessment of its role in the global tis

the formation of a core periphery structure in heterogeneous financial networks recent empirical evidence suggests that nancial networks exhibit a core periphery network structure this paper aims at giving an economic explanation for the emergence of such a structure using network formation theory focusing on intermediation benets we nd that a core periphery network cannot be unilaterally stable when agents are homogeneous the best response dynamics converge to a unique unilaterally stable outcome ranging from an empty to denser networks as the costs of linking decrease a core periphery network structure can form endogenously however if we allow for heterogeneity among agents in size we show that our model can reproduce the observed core periphery structure in the dutch interbank market for reasonable parameter values

transforming the energy sector the evolution of technological systems in renewable energy technology this paper analyses the development and diffusion of technologies that utilize renewable energy sources in germany sweden and the netherlands the analysis enlarges the life cycle model of industry evolution to one where the focus is on the formation and evolution of new technological systems particular focus is on explaining success and failures in shifting from a formative phase into one characterized by positive feedbacks a set of challenges is identified for policy makers attempting to influence the process of transforming the energy sector

towards improved policy processes for promoting innovation in renewable electricity technologies in the uk this paper analyses recent current and potential future relations between policy processes and substantive outcomes in uk low carbon innovation policy focussing on policies relating to renewable electricity generation technologies it examines the development of policy processes relating to the adoption and implementation of the renewables obligation and how these may affect the current and likely future success of the obligation in promoting low carbon innovation it examines the new policy and institutional processes put in place in the 2003 energy white paper and argues that these are unlikely to provide the strategic long term framework needed to realise the ambitious goals for uk energy policy set out in the white paper finally it outlines some suggestions for further development of policy processes to facilitate improved delivery of these goals based on guiding principles for sustainable innovation policy processes developed by the authors and their colleagues

comparing systems approaches to innovation and technological change for sustainable and competitive economies an explorative study into conceptual commonalities differences and complementarities this paper makes a distinction between three theoretical frameworks that have been highly influential in the discourse on innovation competitiveness and sustainability sectoral systems of innovation ssi technological innovation systems tis and socio technical systems st systems these frameworks share a common systems approach to innovation but are often positioned as different bodies of literature that correspond to different epistemic communities this paper is explorative and conceptual in nature it presents a systematic comparative review of ssi tis and st systems based on the following analytical dimensions 1 system boundaries 2 actors and networks 3 institutions 4 knowledge 5 dynamics and 6 policy approach in the concluding section commonalities and differences of the three approaches are presented and suggestions for complimentarily are made c 2010 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

should renewable energy policy be renewable political flexibility brings about trade offs for policy makers aiming to support the deployment of renewable energy sources res on the one hand it allows incorporating new information on ex ante uncertain benefits and costs of res policy on the other hand it may deter res investments this paper scrutinizes how these trade offs play out economically and politically when res policy makers choose the degree of flexibility as well as the instruments to implement flexibility the analysis builds on a theoretical framework distinguishing between flexibility by design and by adjustment it is complemented by a discussion of three case studies res support schemes in germany and the united kingdom and the eu emissions trading scheme theoretical as well as empirical results suggest that the politically chosen degree of flexibility by policy design may be sub optimally low in contrast flexibility by policy adjustment is often excessively high

identifying barriers in the diffusion of renewable energy sources abstract rapid diffusion of renewable energy sources res in the electricity power sector is crucial if the eu wants to fulfill its 2050 co2 reduction commitments for this reason identifying and alleviating all barriers that hinder the development of res is necessary to the successful deployment of these technologies this paper discusses the main barriers in the diffusion of wind and photovoltaic pv solar power in the greek electricity sector by drawing on the literature of technological innovation systems and system functions furthermore we provide an explanation of the different diffusion rates between the two technologies inadequate financial resources low grid capacity delays in the issuance of building permits opposition from local communities to the construction of wind farms and the lack of a stable institutional framework are among the most important barriers that inhibit the diffusion of the wind and pv solar power the nature of the barriers identified in this study calls for policy intervention

information and structural holes comment on reagans and zuckerman reagans and zuckerman hereafter rz go behind the performance link with network brokerage to speculate on how information flow is responsible the intuition is a perceived tension between brokers and contacts if nonredundant sources of information provide the broker s competitive advantage as is assumed in empirical research on the returns to brokerage then the broker s contacts have a countervailing advantage as monopoly sources advantage versus countervailing advantage is the tension to be resolved the analysis is interesting in its own right but it carries a broader significance in addressing a critical juncture for network models of advantage empirical success in predicting performance with network models has far outstripped our understanding of the way information flow in networks is responsible for network effects a cluster of network concepts emerged in the 1970s on the idea that advantage results from connections with multiple otherwise disconnected groups and individuals the hubs in a social network were argued to have advantaged access to information and control over its distribution at the center of the concept cluster are granovetter 1973 1983 on weak ties as bridges between groups freeman 1977 1979 on network centrality as a function of being the connection between otherwise disconnected people cook and emerson 1978 cook et al 1983 on the advantage of having alternative

remaking the uk s energy technology innovation system from the margins to the mainstream the uk energy technology innovation system etis has undergone wholesale remaking in recent years in terms of its aims funding and organisation we analyse this process and distinguish between three phases since 2000 new beginnings momentum building and urgency and review within an international trend to etis rebuilding uk experience has been distinctive from a low starting base in the early 2000s to system remaking under a strong decarbonisation policy imperative in the late 2000s to multiple and contested drivers in the early 2010s public funding levels have been erratic with a rapid increase and a more recent decline the private business sector has played a leading role in this remaking and as this influence has grown the role and style of energy innovation has shifted from long term niches to the shorter term mainstream the uk etis suffers from persistent problems fragmentation low transparency and weak links to the research evidence base

structural breaks in renewable energy in south africa a bai perron break test application abstract in order to remedy the continuous problem of sustainable energy supply the south african government committed itself to pursuing renewable energies re as a viable alternative to traditional sources such as fossil fuels the aim of this study is to understand whether the policies pursued by the south african government in the period 1990 2010 have had any effect on the consumers and producers of re to do so the bai perron 1998 2003 break test methodology is employed to examine the evolution of re production and consumption deviations from the base case are then explained in the south african economic and policy context

determinants of environmental investments testing the structural model abstract the main purpose of this study is to provide the needed additional quantitative evidence regarding the introduction of environmental technologies and to increase the possibility for generalization and thus policy application of conclusions to achieve that purpose a conceptual model is developed and then tested on a large database of firms from various industries with the use of structural equation modeling the results show that policy measures past environmental investments the importance of environmental technologies for customers and the firm performance have a positive effect on environmental investments furthermore the results show that policy measures are a second order three factor construct

sustainable operations the cutting stock problem with usable leftovers from a sustainable perspective abstract this paper proposes a mathematical model and two heuristic procedures to solve the cutting stock problem with usable leftovers relating the implications of the model with aspects considering sustainability in terms of environmental economic and social issues the possibility of generating leftovers that can be used or sold reduces raw material waste during the cutting process and consequently increases companies profits by reducing waste and increasing profits companies can become more competitive in the market they can also integrate environmental aspects into their operational strategies and therefore create a better self image and profitability generating more jobs and contributing to a stronger local economy we believe that the model is more likely to be adopted by smaller companies which generally face numerous barriers but at the same time have a significant social impact generating income and jobs based on the knowledge of the authors this is the first study that relates a cutting problem with its implications for sustainability computational tests were performed and the obtained results are discussed considering the win win approach to sustainability

renewable energy certificate mechanism in india a preliminary assessment abstract the indian national action plan for climate change napcc envisages several measures to address global climate change one of the important measures identified involves increasing the share of renewable energy in total electricity consumption in the country this would mean napcc envisages renewable energy to constitute approximately 15 of the energy mix of india by 2020 to achieve the target set by the napcc indian ministry of power launched renewable energy certificate rec mechanism in november 2010 however participation in the rec markets is low and recs have failed to attract significant investment so far in this study a preliminary attempt has been made to assess the performance of existing rec mechanism in india after highlighting the salient features of the indian renewable energy policy framework a brief description of renewable purchase obligation rpo and source specific rpos for different states is discussed along with an overview of rec market in india to date the performance of indian rec mechanism is evaluated by cost competiveness decentralized distributed generation and renewable energy portfolio diversity and their effectiveness has also been measured on the basis of the available data although it is difficult to make any conclusive remark on the success or failure of rec mechanism due to its short experience this study examines the process to date to come out with some recommendations which can be used to fine tune the functioning of existing rec market in india for instance rec price bounds should be revised because it has been not explicitly supporting cost competiveness by offering 60 33 higher average price than the existing average feed in tariff fit it is also observed that state wise contribution in registered capacity is skewed towards few states like tamil nadu 27 maharashtra 23 and uttar pradesh 22 which puts pressure on policy makers to restructure the existing rec mechanism

a hybrid fuzzy satisfying optimization model for sustainable gas resources allocation abstract energy resources allocation continues to be a hot topic and has attracted more attention in recent years in iran as one of the richest countries in the world in terms of hydrocarbon resources energy resources allocation is a multi criteria decision making problem in which a great deal of input information cannot be expressed precisely in this paper we propose an integrated satisfying optimization approach based on fuzzy goal programming fgp and logarithmic fuzzy preference programming lfpp the goal of which is to handle effectively the uncertainties and vagueness of input data and different importance preferences among fuzzy constraints and weights of objectives due to the above mentioned problem the proposed model is applied to a real case study of sustainable gas resources allocation in iran the solutions provide gas resources allocation to different sub sectors at macro level taking various criteria into consideration the results show that reasonable solutions that have been found are useful for supporting adjustment of the existing demand and supply patterns of gas resources and also for coordination of conflict interactions among economic security and environmental aspects of gas resources allocation

success factors for environmentally sustainable product innovation a systematic literature review the growing awareness regarding environmental sustainability has fully reached business reality consumers and companies alike are looking for alternatives to mitigate pressing environmental demands resulting from continuous population and economic growth on the other hand companies must deal with an increasingly competitive scenario where innovation is regarded as a survival need in most markets it is thus clear that systematic academic research is paramount to guide companies to succeed in environmentally sustainable product innovation in this context this paper i consolidate extant research and aggregate findings of different studies on environmentally sustainable product innovation through an interpretative framework of published literature on the topic and ii map critical success factors that drive the success of product innovation developed in this new logic of production and consumption to achieve these objectives a systematic literature review on environmentally sustainable product innovation was conducted results show that there are four main critical success factors for environmentally sustainable product innovation market law and regulation knowledge interfunctional collaboration innovation oriented learning and r d investments the factors identified in this research and corresponding variables were subjected to a brief empirical test by professionals the test allowed a preliminary approval of the developed framework and identification of the most important variables within each factor a research agenda based on the state of the art on the topic is also proposed

dynamic governance of clean energy markets how technical innovation could accelerate climate policies abstract this article explores the governmental means to accelerate technical progress in climate protection it is based on selected best practice cases in which the diffusion of low carbon technologies has been accelerated by ambitious policies the empirical cases involve not just renewable energies but also energy efficiency the latter being considered more difficult in terms of governance the examples are taken from advanced oecd countries as well as from emerging economies this article will explore which factors have caused this dynamic development the conclusion reached will show that the interaction of positive feedback mechanisms which has already been described as virtuous cycle provides only a plausible theoretical explanation if the policy cycle is added to the market cycle and the innovation cycle climate policy should not only define ambitious targets but also address all three feedback mechanisms

urban public transport companies and strategies to promote sustainable consumption practices abstract development policy adopted by governments and companies increasingly pays attention to issues of sustainability one dominant strategy emphasizes behavioural change vis a vis technological innovation however often attempts at changing individual and collective behaviour is ineffective one of the main reasons for this failure is that policy makers do not consider the gap between values and practices we propose to address this gap by using theories of practice which give centrality to reflexivity in the analysis of practices and have long been applied in research on environmental behaviours we will use the example of the transport sector which has long been a major contributor to climate change and technological improvements have not been enough to make up for the growth of impacts focusing on the role of a transport company in promoting sustainability through behavioural change the main goal of this article is to analyse transport practices from the supplier s perspective choices made by transport companies towards green technologies are strongly limited by available economic resources by the public policies and by the fuel market results also reinforce the idea that the economic dimension constrains the strategies to reduce environmental impacts

dynamics of networks if everyone strives for structural holes when entrepreneurs enter structural holes in networks they can exploit the related benefits evidence for these benefits has steadily accumulated the authors ask whether those who strive for such structural advantages can maintain them if others follow their example burt speculates that they cannot but a formal demonstration of this speculation is lacking using a game theoretic model of network formation the authors characterize the networks that emerge when everyone strives for structural holes they find that the predominant stable networks distribute benefits evenly confirming that no one is able to maintain a structural advantage in the long run

understanding carbon lock in abstract this paper narrative argues that industrial economies have been locked into fossil fuel based energy systems through a process of technological and institutional co evolution driven by path dependent increasing returns to scale it is asserted that this condition termed carbon lock in creates persistent market and policy failures that can inhibit the diffusion of carbon saving technologies despite their apparent environmental and economic advantages the notion of a techno institutional complex is introduced to capture the idea that lock in occurs through combined interactions among technological systems and governing institutions while carbon lock in provides a conceptual basis for understanding macro level barriers to the diffusion of carbon saving technologies it also generates questions for standard economic modeling approaches that abstract away technological and institutional evolution in their elaboration the question of escaping carbon lock in is left for a future paper

how does foreign direct investment influence energy intensity convergence in china evidence from prefecture level data abstract the huge energy intensity gaps among chinese prefectures make the overall reduction of energy intensity extremely difficult energy intensity convergence eic i e catching up of the high energy intensity prefectures with the low ones is imperative for narrowing these gaps as one of the most important channels for international technology diffusion foreign direct investment fdi has great impact on energy intensity and may be beneficial for the convergence based on pollution haven hypothesis however fdi may result in energy intensity divergence to provide an in depth understanding of the mechanisms of fdi induced convergence divergence this paper employs markov chain approach to examine the impact of fdi on eic for 256 chinese prefectures in the period from 2005 to 2014 moreover we particularly emphasis on the influences of local specific characteristics such as human capital resource endowment and environmental regulation on fdi induced convergence divergence our study on 256 chinese prefectures finds that fdi helps prefectures with higher energy intensity to catch up with lower ones which strengthens eic the impact of fdi on eic varies depending on different local characteristics among all characteristics mentioned above human capital and environmental regulation benefit the convergence driving effect of fdi while this effect is hindered by resource endowment more comprehensive and detailed policies are recommended to address energy intensity gaps in china

analyzing the functional dynamics of technological innovation systems a scheme of analysis various researchers and policy analysts have made empirical studies of innovation systems in order to understand their current structure and trace their dynamics however policy makers often experience difficulties in extracting practical guidelines from studies of this kind in this paper we operationalize our previous work on a functional approach to analyzing innovation system dynamics into a practical scheme of analysis for policy makers the scheme is based on previous literature and our own experience in developing and applying functional thinking it can be used by policy makers not only to identify the key policy issues but also to set policy goals

sustainable development and the challenge of innovation abstract innovation does not automatically lead to societal progress as is implicitly assumed in technology push oriented policies this assumption is an inheritance of the enlightenment i e the belief that science will automatically lead to a better quality of life the strive for sustainable development needs an approach towards innovation that can be characterised as society pull the society has to decide which balance of economical ecological and social goals are to be met society pull can be organised by developing shared perspectives for the future which are inspiring for public and private policy makers and investors in this paper this is worked out as transition management a process approach directing innovation towards sustainable development a crucial aspect of transition management is that innovation is no longer driven by the past but attracted by the future

a theory of buyer seller networks this paper introduces a new model of exchange networks rather than markets of buyers and sellers it begins with the empirically motivated premise that a buyer and seller must have a relationship a link to exchange goods networks buyers sellers and the pattern of links connecting them are common exchange environments this paper develops a methodology to study network structures and explains why agents may form networks in a model that captures characteristics of a variety of industries the paper shows that buyers and sellers acting strategically in their own self interests can form the network structures that maximize overall welfare

an investment analysis for china s sustainable development based on inverse data envelopment analysis abstract in the face of environmental degradation sustainable development has become a common goal across the globe making a scientifically based investment scheme is of great significance to promote the sustainable development of china s economy however there is scarce research related to such an investment scheme of sustainable development this paper proposes a new inverse data envelopment analysis method with undesirable outputs to make several scientifically based investment schemes from different perspectives namely the natural regulation and optimal perspectives by this method decision makers can scientifically forecast the specific amount of investment based on their actual sustainable development objectives which is conducive for reducing the blindness of investment in the future in addition a new ideal perspective is defined to guide a definite direction for improving the level of sustainable development combined with the gray forecasting model gm 1 1 the methods proposed by this paper were then applied to analyze the investment problem for china s sustainable development during the 2015 2024 period the results show that the unbalanced distribution of labor investment and the excessive investment in capital and energy are serious barriers to china s sustainable development in the short term and in the long term the demand for investment in labor and capital will continue to increase along with a lower demand for energy investment and that appropriately strengthening environmental regulations will not affect the overall demand for investment meanwhile improvement directions for improving china s sustainable development are discussed and the results show that most of developing and undeveloped regions in china have great potential for improvement finally some suggestions are proposed in order to create better conditions for china s sustainable development

strategies to promote renewable energy in brazil the present study is the result of recent research that has been developed in brazil in cooperation with international research centers the aim is to analyze the best strategies for maintaining the high share of renewable sources in brazil s electric power generation system the results show that for the time horizon considered the country still has plentiful energy resources available notably its hydroelectric potential and that the introduction of mitigation measures in the electricity sector has only a small impact on the price of electricity the study also shows that the country has made a significant contribution to the struggle against global warming

increasing returns path dependence and the study of politics it is increasingly common for social scientists to describe political processes as path dependent the concept however is often employed without careful elaboration this article conceptualizes path dependence as a social process grounded in a dynamic of increasing returns reviewing recent literature in economics and suggesting extensions to the world of politics the article demonstrates that increasing returns processes are likely to be prevalent and that good analytical foundations exist for exploring their causes and consequences the investigation of increasing returns can provide a more rigorous framework for developing some of the key claims of recent scholarship in historical institutionalism specific patterns of timing and sequence matter a wide range of social outcomes may be possible large consequences may result from relatively small or contingent events particular courses of action once introduced can be almost impossible to reverse and consequently political development is punctuated by critical moments or junctures that shape the basic contours of social life

critical factors for transforming creativity into sustainability abstract although creativity and sustainability have received considerable attention in the literature there is limited research considering both particularly in relation to co existing organizational factors which facilitate the transformation of creativity into sustainable products this paper explores this gap through an analysis of six case studies of commercial organizations presenting both successful and unsuccessful implementation of sustainable products services across types of firms and industries the research framework focuses on three general facets 1 leadership 2 boundaries where different aspects of internal and external firm s activities enable a diversity of opinions and stakeholder engagement and 3 economic alignment instrumentality in which the goal of wealth creation is present and supported by a firm s capabilities the main finding of the paper is that appropriate leadership along with effective boundary spanning and clear profit orientation are simultaneously necessary conditions for successful transformation of creative business ideas into successful sustainable products services by business organizations this implies a steep discounting of success prospects if any of the above factors is lacking the work contributes to the development of general theoretical frameworks and approaches for achieving organizational success based on co creating social and economic value at the same time

commitment versus discretion in climate and energy policy to decarbonize the power sector policy makers need to commit to long term credible rules for climate and energy policy otherwise risk of opportunistic policy making will impair investments into low carbon technologies however the future benefits and costs of decarbonization are subject to substantial uncertainties thus there may also be societal gains from allowing policy makers the discretion to adjust the policies as new information becomes available we examine how this trade off between policy commitment either unconditional or state contingent and discretion affects the optimal intertemporal design of market based instruments in the power sector using a dynamic partial equilibrium model we show that commitment to a state contingent level of ambition for the market based instrument leads to higher welfare than both unconditional commitment and discretion with benefit uncertainty the choice between the practically more feasible approaches of unconditional commitment and discretion is analytically ambiguous a basic numerical illustration suggests that policy discretion may outperform unconditional commitment in terms of welfare however this result is reversed when only a limited fraction of benefit uncertainty resolves in reasonable time when future policy makers have own agendas or when investors are risk averse with cost uncertainty policy discretion is welfare superior if the government can commit to a technology deployment target

overcoming barriers to innovation and diffusion of cleaner technologies some features of a sustainable innovation policy regime despite a deepening understanding of systems and processes by which the innovation and diffusion of cleaner technologies occurs relatively little attention has been given to the development of policy processes that reflect this deeper understanding a set of guiding principles for improving sustainable innovation policy processes has been formulated and disseminated by the authors and colleagues in research drawing on theoretical and empirical analysis including a case study of low carbon energy innovation in the uk and interactions with policy makers and other stakeholders through a series of workshops this paper elaborates on two of the guiding principles 1 stimulating the development of a sustainable innovation policy regime bringing together innovation and environmental policy regimes 2 applying systems thinking engaging with the complexity and systemic interactions of innovation systems and policy making processes to promote a transition to sustainability

the long term impacts of air pollution control policy historical links between municipal actions and industrial energy efficiency in kawasaki city japan abstract under the pressures of rapid industrialization and urbanization many asian countries are facing the challenge of reducing air pollution and co 2 emissions simultaneously while maintaining their economic growth under such a circumstance a growing attention is focused on successful implementation of co benefit policies that are designed to reduce both air pollutants and co 2 emissions however the concept of co benefit policies must be developed further in order to identify its quantitative and qualitative validity which can be assessed using a reliable methodology for the estimation of co benefits and through clarification of the importance of this approach for stakeholders in urban environmental policy making based on a systematic review of co benefit research and air pollution control policies in japan we investigated the local air pollution control policy in kawasaki city one of the industrial centers of japan and confirmed that it has contributed both to the sharp decline of atmospheric sulfur dioxide so 2 levels and to energy efficiency improvements in local industries our results suggest that preventive actions and local scale compliance enforcement tools that are uniquely designed and act as a form of agreement between government and individual firms could contribute significantly to successful implementation of co benefit policies in the long term we conclude our paper with a discussion of linkages between low carbon technology innovations and policy designs that could further nurture co benefits

what is challenging renewable energy entrepreneurs in developing countries this paper cumulates the findings from a review of the challenges faced by renewable energy entrepreneurs in developing countries to date research that could facilitate the success of renewable energy entrepreneurs in the world s developing regions has been fragmented across two main bodies of literature management specifically entrepreneurship and renewable energy by conducting a qualitative review of the extant literature i propose that the findings from both bodies of research may be distilled to six 6 key challenges inadequate access to institutional finance the price of renewable energy technologies rets the lack of skilled labour underdeveloped physical infrastructure and logistics power dominance of incumbents inadequate government or policy support through this research i not only advance a unified conceptualisation of the challenges faced by renewable energy entrepreneurs in developing countries but also highlight a number of the revealed opportunities for future research

foreign direct investment co2 emissions nexus in middle east and north african countries importance of biomass energy consumption abstract this study examines the association between foreign direct investment fdi and carbon emissions for the middle east and north african mena region in 1990 2015 including biomass energy consumption as an additional determinant of carbon emissions we apply the generalized method of moments gmm to validate the existence of the pollution haven hypothesis phh the n shaped association is also validated between fdi and carbon emissions the link between economic growth and carbon emissions is inverted u and n shaped that is it satisfies the environmental kuznets curve ekc hypotheses biomass energy use lowers carbon emissions and the causality analysis reveals that fdi causes co2 emissions clearly the results confirm the existence of a feedback effect between economic growth and carbon emissions the connection between biomass energy use and co2 emissions is also bidirectional the empirical findings suggest policy makers to design comprehensive trade and energy policies by targeting the cleaner production practices for not only to ensure environmental sustainability but also to fulfil the objectives of sustainable development goals

comparison of renewable energy policy evolution among the brics abstract renewable energy policy evolution of the brics is analyzed and assessed quantitatively based on the bai and perron s structure breaks test results indicate no break for time series of renewable production in russia while series of renewable production and consumption are characterized as segmented trend stationary processes around one or two structural breaks in brazil india and china renewable policies in brazil and china have long term positive effects on renewable energy production and consumption improving the two variables growth rate the time series structure change of indian renewable energy production is complicated and the long term impact of energy policies on renewable production is contradictory at the two breakpoints russian renewable policies are not working reducing renewable energy consumption growth in the long term empirical analysis suggests policy implications that china should mandate the promotion of renewable energy develop biomass energy on the base of comparative advantage and enhance renewable energy industry chain integration

from cleaner production to sustainable development the role of academia cleaner production cp strategies are fundamentally concerned with operations environmental sustainability and maximization of waste reduction recycling and reuse at the enterprise level and are thus microeconomic in scope sustainable development sd however involves the design of integrated approaches that are capable of addressing environmental sustainability and waste while ensuring social and economic prosperity at the national or even global level implying a macroeconomic scope due to its philosophy broad scope and long term horizons sustainable development necessitates capacity building via advancement of sustainable societal patterns and the creation of a new set of visions paradigms policies methodological tools and applicable procedures the first and foremost step on this path is the development of human capital required to make such a transition this paper proposes the application of a methodology via which leaders in higher education could assess the necessity and the urgency for designing training programs that could assist with developing human capital needed to support sd the methodology evaluates the conditions and constraints that could control the effectiveness and ease of implementation of such programs at its core the proposed methodology utilizes expert judgment to assess importance of including cp and sd indicators listed in the questionnaire on the proposed academic programs during a pilot study which was conducted in the fall of 2013 at selected universities in the usa latin america and china experts evaluated a series of proposed cp infused academic programs according to a matrix consisting of sd indicators and under consideration of the norms culture political systems regulations resource availability and local regional and global economic development goals and objectives results of data analysis in the pilot study suggested that inclusion of the resource management rm topics in designing academic programs is the most preferred approach in all three different regions followed by development of programs that could cover topics in areas of human capital development hcd human system designs hsd and sustainable economic development and prosperity sedp quantitative analysis of the data indicated existence of two clusters of preferences for cp sd criteria one for in the americas including latin america and one for china

room for improvement in low carbon economies of g7 and brics countries based on the analysis of energy efficiency and environmental kuznets curves abstract carbon emissions which are nowadays targeted for significant reduction cause global warming with climate change producing a series of side effects including economic losses and ecological extinction the data envelopment analysis approach has recently been employed for environmental estimations the target of this study is to introduce a new data envelopment analysis method in order to provide environmental improvement suggestions this study measures the room for improvements in low carbon economies of g7 group and brics group based on the analysis of energy efficiency and environmental kuznets curves the main findings are as follows i the g7 group has greater room for improvement in its carbonization value than the brics group before 2005 however the latter has greater room for improvement in carbonization value than the former after 2005 ii countries with the backfire effect of a high carbon economy include germany italy and south africa iii during the data period three environmental kuznets curves including energy intensity emission intensity and carbonization value do not satisfy the environmental kuznets curve hypothesis that the curves are inverted u shaped on the contrary the three environmental kuznets curves in this study are u shaped

the secretary problem with a selection committee do conformist committees hire better secretaries this paper analyzes a variation of the secretary problem in which two selectors with different fields of interest each want to appoint one of the n candidates with as much expertise as possible in their field selectors simultaneously vote to accept or reject unanimous decisions are respected and candidates with a split decision are hired with probability p each candidate arrives with expertise x and y in the two fields uniformly and independently distributed on 0 1 and observable to both selectors if a candidate with expertise pair x y is hired by unanimous decision the payoffs to the selectors are simply x and y however to model the level of conformity in the firm we deduct a positive consensus cost c from the utility of a selector who has rejected a candidate who is nevertheless hired we show theorem 1 that each stage game has a unique equilibrium in which there are two thresholds z v or x z and y v we show that for suffi

renewable energy in russia markets development and technology transfer abstract five potential markets in russia offer commercial opportunities for renewable energy that are nearly cost competitive with conventional forms of energy grid connected electricity from wind power electricity for villages and small settlements from hybrid wind diesel and biomass district heating for buildings from biomass hot water for buildings from solar thermal and electricity and heat from geothermal over the last several decades the soviet union conducted research and development on several forms of renewable energy technological infrastructure scientific and technical knowledge engineering and technical skills and factories and equipment are all well developed assets but the translation of these assets into commercial renewable energy technologies and markets is a problem because associated market oriented skills and institutions are still lacking many barriers also exist including lack of information and demonstration experience lack of long term commercial financing a perceived climate of high investment risk technology acceptance some direct and indirect energy price subsidies most energy prices have risen to market levels utility monopolies and the absence of operational regulatory frameworks for independent power producers and historical enterprise specialization market intermediation is very important for renewable energy investments and technology transfer providing the knowledge information skills services financing and analysis that is necessary to overcome barriers joint ventures with foreign multinational corporations represent another important means for overcoming barriers one that takes advantage of russian technological capabilities four case studies illustrate the most prominent examples of renewable energy technology transfer with russia ukraine and the baltic states during the period 1992 1996

contributing to differentiated technology policy making on the promotion of energy efficiency technologies in heavy industrial sector a case study of china abstract promoting energy efficiency technologies eets in heavy industrial sector is a crucial approach for energy conservation worldwide due to the existence of various barriers the diffusion of eets is often slow and is largely influenced by policy incentives insufficient consideration of the heterogeneity of eets makes the one size fits all policy design scheme ineffective and inefficient in practice therefore this paper analyzes the design of differentiated technology policies to accelerate the promotion of eets the analysis is based on technology classification results from a bottom up technology evaluation system technical attributes were qualitatively analyzed and the 130 total technologies were divided into three segments 76 main production process technologies pp 39 process integrated resource and energy recycling technologies rer and 15 pollution control technologies pc then the 115 pp and rer technologies were quantitatively analyzed by calculating benefit cost ratio investment payback time and technical penetration the evaluation results proved that eets had marked differences in economic efficiency and technical maturity with dynamic investment payback time ranging from 0 3 to 11 years and penetrations ranging from 1 to 80 graphing investment payback time on a vertical axis and technical penetration on a horizontal axis the 115 technologies were classified into four quadrants features and policy support demands of those three types of technologies in the four quadrants were discussed and corresponding technology policies were proposed the thorough technical investigations in this study also provided a complete technological database for policy making which was freely offered on the website of china s ministry of industry and information technology

conflicts and common interests in committees committees improve decisions by pooling members independent information but promote manipulation obfuscation and exaggeration of private information when members have conflicting preferences committee decision procedures transform continuous data into ordered ranks through voting this coarsens the transmission of information but controls strategic manipulations and allows some degree of information sharing each member becomes more cautious in casting the crucial vote than when he alone makes the decision based on own information increased quality of one member s information results in his casting the crucial vote more often committees make better decisions for members than does delegation

job contact networks abstract many workers hear about or obtain their jobs through friends and relatives the aim of this paper is twofold first we relate both individual and aggregate labor market outcomes to the network structure of personal contacts second we study strategic network formation to this purpose we develop a model specifying at the individual level both the decision to form contacts with other agents and the process by which information about jobs is obtained and transmitted we show that equilibrium networks always exist and that only moderate levels of network asymmetry can be sustained at equilibrium also we establish a general non monotonicity result on information flow and unemployment with respect to network size in symmetric networks

revealed and stated preferences for co2 emissions reduction the missing link abstract in this paper we combine data collected from two strands of literature dealing with revealed preferences expressed by conventional vehicle drivers for fuel price variation and stated preferences expressed by consumers for alternative fuel vehicles we employ a meta analysis approach drawing data on 30 primary studies reflecting two important policy interventions which are fuel price taxation and subsidies for alternative fuel vehicles this is a new contribution in environmental and energy economics in that we rescale all primary information into a unique index which captures consumers economic attitude towards carbon dioxide co2 emission reduction in monetary terms focusing on the transport sector we compute the implicit price for the avoidance of a kilogram of co2 emissions named pco2 explaining the existing heterogeneity from several points of view the results of the meta analysis show that contextual and individual characteristics influence the implicit price for co2 emissions avoidance this implicit price is on average positive in the case of revealed preferences studies whereas it is negative in the stated preferences studies although there are some important geographical differences our results show that fuel taxes could be an important additional instrument for environmental policy

integrating cleaner production into sustainability strategies an introduction to this special volume abstract this special volume of the journal of cleaner production is built primarily upon articles submitted for the 4th international workshop advances in cleaner production held in sao paulo brazil in 2013 the 54 articles underscore the urgent need for changing from unsustainable production and societal patterns to sustainable ones they provide many new approaches to help industries governments and society to speed up the transition to sustainable patterns the authors focus on defining and solving problems with special emphasis upon sustainability strategies raw material replacement renewable energy technological developments product and policy changes the central roles of improved corporate management for sustainable societal transitions are explored with an emphasis upon stakeholder empowerment in promoting implementation of new cleaner technologies within companies industrial sectors supply chains and countries some authors improved assessment tools for environmental accounting at the biospheric scale some authors underscored the need for cooperation among governments industrial sectors and companies to accelerate the integration of cleaner production into policies and practice multiple examples of successful integration of cp in national and local policy structures exemplified how focused work in key industrial sectors is delivering multiplier benefits within and among companies and in the community at large the authors documented numerous benefits of holistic integration of local regional national and global efforts to accelerate the transition to sustainable development and societal well being

structural holes in social networks we consider a setting where every pair of players that undertake a transaction e g exchange goods or information creates a unit surplus a transaction can take place only if the players involved have a connection if the connection is direct the two players split the surplus equally while if it is indirect then intermediate players also get an equal share of the surplus thus individuals form links with others to create surplus to gain intermediation rents and to circumvent others who are trying to become intermediary our analysis clarifies the interplay between these forces in the process of strategic network formation first we show that in the absence of capacity constraints on links it leads to the emergence of a star network where a single agent acts as an intermediary for all transactions and enjoys significantly higher payoffs second we study the implications of capacity constraints in the ability of agents to form links in this case distances between players must be long which induces players who are far off to connect in order to avoid paying large intermediation rents a cycle network then emerges payoffs being equal across all players

an index decomposition analysis of china s interregional embodied carbon flows abstract being the largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world china also possesses enormous regional disparities in terms of carbon dioxide emissions significant carbon emission flows from developed regions to undeveloped regions through inter regional trade have been observed in china in order to examine the determining factors of such virtual carbon flows an index decomposition analysis was conducted to investigate emissions embodied in trades among eight regions which were grouped with recourse to the latest available provincial i o tables in china this paper finds that trade balance and energy intensity are two most salient factors with regard to interregional carbon flows in the largest outsourcing region the northwest region of china the two factors account for 35 6 59 1 of the total carbon surplus respectively thus china is experiencing more efficiency losses than efficiency gains resulting from carbon transfers in order to switch to a future efficiency gain situation policies and supports for technology innovation in and transfer to inland regions as well as enhanced technology standards for expanded carbon intensive productions in less developed regions are suggested to complement the current policy of carbon intensity target

sustainable innovations in the corporate sector the empirical evidence from ibex 35 firms abstract sustainable innovation practices those which simultaneously contribute to environmental social and economic value creation have drawn increased attention from academics industry leaders and policy makers around the globe there is a general agreement that innovation is a very important part of the puzzle in achieving long term sustainability thus a critical question to be answered is what factors actually differentiate and appear to contribute to sustainable innovations si at the firm level this paper addresses the question by examining empirical evidence from the ibex 35 companies from the years 2010 2015 our results obtained from multivariate regression model indicate that the intensity of a firm s si activity is strongly and statistically significantly associated with the sector in which a given firm operates with a rising level of environmental footprint acting as a stimulant for innovation additionally firms characterized by higher net profit margins and returns on equity were also much more likely to introduce sis the findings also suggest that factors like size and age of a given company as well as level of competition in a sector in which it operates are not significant predictors for the implementation of sustainable innovations overall this study contributes to our understanding of the main characteristics of companies active in the area of si

sustainability oriented innovation system analyses of brazil russia india china south africa turkey and singapore abstract the coherency of research development and innovation processes are vital in promoting a more resource efficient society sustainability oriented innovation systems define specific kinds of innovation systems i e those that are directed to the aims of sustainable development this paper develops an integrated method with four layers of analysis to evaluate the priorities and performances of such systems the method is applied to a sample of emerging and innovation based economies namely brazil russia india china south africa turkey and singapore the analyses consider the 6 main activities or functional dynamics of innovation systems and a set of 19 keywords the keywords relate to the thematic clusters of renewable energy technologies energy efficiency and environmental management the priorities of the countries in each main interaction of the system are classified accordingly the priorities are compared to the existing level of specialization in the keywords based on the intermediate outputs of the system the analyses cover 153 838 papers and 15 138 patents between the years 2003 and 2014 a sustainable innovation index is developed to aggregate the normalized values of country performance across all keywords singapore receives the highest value 21 17 and the average of brazil russia india china and south africa is 14 91 the results determine the ability of countries to align priorities and performance towards more mature innovation systems for sustainable development

policy mixes for sustainability transitions an extended concept and framework for analysis reaching a better understanding of the policies and politics of transitions presents a main agenda item in the emerging field of sustainability transitions one important requirement for these transitions such as the move towards a decarbonized energy system is the redirection and acceleration of technological change for which policies play a key role in this regard several studies have argued for the need to combine different policy instruments in so called policy mixes however existing policy mix studies often fall short of reflecting the complexity and dynamics of actual policy mixes the underlying politics and the evaluation of their impacts in this paper we take a first step towards an extended interdisciplinary policy mix concept based on a review of the bodies of literature on innovation studies environmental economics and policy analysis the concept introduces a clear terminology and consists of the three building blocks elements policy processes and characteristics which can be delineated by several dimensions based on this we discuss its application as analytical framework for empirical studies analyzing the impact of the policy mix on technological change throughout the paper we illustrate the proposed concept by using the example of the policy mix for fostering the transition of the german energy system to renewable power generation technologies finally we derive policy implications and suggest avenues for future research

a sequential selection game with vetoes we study a selection game between two committee members the players they interview candidates sequentially and have to decide after each interview whether to hire the candidate or to interview the next candidate each player can either accept or reject the candidate and if he rejects the candidate while the other accepts her he can cast a veto the candidate is hired if accepted by at least one player and not vetoed the total number of vetoes available for each player are fixed in advance we prove the existence of a subgame perfect equilibrium if there are a finite number of candidates types for a general candidate distribution we prove the existence of a subgame perfect e equilibrium we exhibit situations in which a player prefers that the other player would have an extra veto and even prefers to give one of his vetoes to the other player

sectoral systems of innovation and production the concept sectoral system of innovation and production provides a multidimensional integrated and dynamic view of sectors it is proposed that a sectoral system is a set of products and the set of agents carrying out market and non market interactions for the creation production and sale of those products a sectoral systems has a specific knowledge base technologies inputs and demand agents are individuals and organizations at various levels of aggregation they interact through processes of communication exchange co operation competition and command and these interactions are shaped by institutions a sectoral system undergoes change and transformation through the co evolution of its various elements 2002 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

a strategic model of social and economic networks we study the stability and efficiency of social and economic networks when self interested individuals can form or sever links first for two stylized models we characterize the stable and efficient networks there does not always exist a stable network that is efficient next we show that this tension persists generally to assure that there exists a stable network that is efficient one is forced to allocate resources to nodes that are not responsible for any of the production we characterize one such allocation rule the equal split rule and another rule that arises naturally from bargaining of the players

examining the role of policy design and policy interaction in eu automotive emissions performance gaps in the wake of the 2015 dieselgate scandal the us and european governments publicly confronted automakers about their behaviour which raised concerns about the integrity of the current emissions legislation regimes in this article i argue that flexibilities within the eu s emissions legislative framework afforded automakers the opportunity to legally sidestep strict performance standards laid out in the law and resulted in a significant performance gap in real world driving emissions this article provides a timely examination of eu emission legislation policy design and policy interaction within the european union with the aim of explaining why the eu policy framework failed to regulate the regional automotive industry current research is mostly concerned with the typology and effectiveness of individual environmental policy instruments be it regulatory or economic incentives that aim to influence industry behaviour this article approaches the current eu policy regime in a more holistic manner and focuses on the exploitation of weaknesses in the regulatory framework by private firms which has received little academic attention in the innovation and transition literature a major contribution of this article therefore is a body of primary qualitative interview data from industry elites concerning relevant emissions policies

energy co2 emissions and value added flows embodied in the international trade of the brics group a comprehensive assessment abstract the brics economies group i e brazil russia india china and south africa has become an important contributor to the growth of the world economy which is increasingly concerned about carbon emissions due to the recent increase in energy use in these countries while the embodied energy use related to emissions of the brics group has been discussed in the literature an integrated analysis of energy carbon footprints and value added flows associated with international trade among the brics group has to date rarely been reported based on an improved multi regional input output model south africa was extracted from the rest of the world in the world input output database wiod to analyze the above mentioned flows embodied in trade within the brics countries as well as between the brics group and other economies the results show that the brics economic entity was a net embodied flows exporter more flows were embodied in intermediate products than in final demand within the brics group compared with other brics economies china which is the largest transit country transferred more embodied flows from russia to other brics countries and drove more embodied flows from major economies including the united states and european countries outside the brics group than those within the brics group however china imported a relatively higher embodied energy and co2 in per unit value added from the brics countries than non brics countries while exporting relative lower embodied energy and co2 per value added to other brics economies than non brics countries the potential policy implications on cleaner development within the brics economies are discussed at the end of this paper

mobilizing private finance for low carbon innovation a systematic review of barriers and solutions this paper analyses the field of innovation studies regarding barriers to low carbon innovation and consequences for finance investment and divestment and contributes to a more holistic understanding of the underlying mechanisms a combination of technological barriers combined with economic barriers institutional and political barriers contribute to sub optimal low carbon investment all along the innovation cycle policy makers need to take a systemic approach to enable the redirection of diverse private financial sources instruments range from cutting dirty r d subsidies and support for clean technology innovation and diffusion levelling the institutional playing field and making risks of high carbon and low carbon technologies transparent to providing a consistent but adaptive long term transition strategy this would allow financiers to gradually shift their investments away from high carbon mainstream markets and scale low carbon technology niche markets however financiers also need to sharpen their competencies with regard to new clean technologies and markets

opportunities and challenges for renewable energy policy in china renewable energy is the inevitable choice for sustainable economic growth for the harmonious coexistence of human and environment as well as for the sustainable development government support is the key and initial power for developing renewable energy in this article an overall review has been conducted on renewable energy development policy including laws and regulations economic encouragement technical research and development industrialized support and government model projects etc in china on this basis a systematic analysis has been conducted on the disadvantages of renewable energy development policy on the point of long term effective system for renewable energy development a series of policy advice has been offered such as strengthening the policy coordination enhancing regional policy innovation echoing with clean development mechanism implementing process management constructing market investment and financing system it is expected that the above advices could be helpful to ever improvement of renewable energy development policy c 2007 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

household biogas use in rural china a study of opportunities and constraints as a renewable energy biogas is not only an important part of the development of rural new energy but also an important aspect of sustainable development in china the development process and present status of household biogas specifically the opportunities and constraints of household biogas in rural china are discussed in this paper only about 19 of the biogas potential has been utilized in rural china there are several opportunities for household biogas development in rural china including the problem of rural household energy consumption the availability of biogas fermentation materials national financial subsidies legal and international clean development mechanisms also more research needs to be done in straw fermentation and cold fermentation technology training should be conducted to raise the level of biogas customers in comprehensive biogas utilization measures should be taken to improve the follow up services and management of biogas plants the information presented in this paper will be helpful not only to the sustainable development of household biogas in rural china but also to the development of biogas in similar countries around the world

innovation enabling policy and regime transformation towards increased energy efficiency the case of the circulator pump industry in europe abstract when new energy efficient products are struggling with their commercialisation and diffusion into widespread applications you would typically expect policy makers and green lead users to guide the way this paper examines the case of the hot water circulator pump industry in europe where parts of the industry envisioned and worked for a voluntary energy label bringing technological innovation new business and energy savings of approx 85 for each new circulator pump the case study explores the complexities of innovation processes where technology market actors and policy co evolve over time to transform an existing socio technical regime the paper highlights the importance of policies to reduce barriers towards innovation and energy efficiency and shows that it is not always policy makers that establish the crucial policies that change the innovation dynamics for the benefit of the environment and the industry

modes of governance for municipal energy efficiency services the case of led street lighting in germany energy efficiency retrofits are often impeded by high perceived investment risks long payback periods and a lack of skills at the municipal level these issues are particularly pronounced as procuring implementing and managing retrofits can exceed existing municipal governance capacities the diffusion of municipal led street lighting as a replacement for conventional lighting serves as an example this paper argues that technological e g complexity and maturity economic e g selling services vs products and financing costs institutional e g property situation and contracts and competency barriers to retrofitting e g lack of measurement capacity and qualified facilitators translate into transaction costs we develop a taxonomy of appropriate modes of municipal retrofitting governance based on transaction costs economics the findings indicate that more market based solutions energy performance contracts in particular can facilitate the procurement of innovative energy efficiency retrofitting solutions and associated investments among municipalities if neutral tenders open book accounting municipal ownership and intermediary organisations allow municipalities to choose appropriate governance structures for particular technologies and retrofits

uk innovation systems for new and renewable energy technologies drivers barriers and systems failures abstract a better understanding of the systemic processes by which innovation occurs is useful both conceptually and to inform policy making in support of innovation in more sustainable technologies this paper analyses current innovation systems in the uk for a range of new and renewable energy technologies and generates policy recommendations for improving the effectiveness of these innovation systems although incentives are in place in the uk to encourage innovation in these technologies system failures or gaps are identified in moving technologies along the innovation chain preventing their successful commercialisation sustained investment will be needed for these technologies to achieve their potential it is argued that a stable and consistent policy framework is required to help create the conditions for this in particular such a framework should be aimed at improving risk reward ratios for demonstration and pre commercial stage technologies this would enhance positive expectations stimulate learning effects leading to cost reductions and increase the likelihood of successful commercialisation