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Non-renewable resources are an obstacle for positive long run growth if they are essential for production, households solve an intertemporal Ramsey problem and population is growing. Modern growth models predict that growth is positively related to growth in production factors. Hence, there are opposing forces at work if labor as one factor is growing and the use of the non-renewable resource as another factor is shrinking. The paper develops a semi-endogenous growth model with one labor and one resource using sector and derives conditions for stable positive long run growth in per capita production and consumption.

The first objective of this paper is to update earlier assessments of mineral dependence in lower-income countries. In 2018, the mining of metals and coal continued to be an important contributor to the economies of several low- and middle-income countries. As in our previous calculations of the Mining Contribution Index, African countries in particular benefit from this fact. When oil and gas are also included in estimates of export dependence on extractive industries, a number of new countries appear among those with the greatest dependence-again mostly African countries. The second objective of this paper is to analyse the opportunities for developing countries of the present global transition to a world less dependent on fossil fuels. This process, it can be argued, is partly a transition from hydrocarbons to metals. Hence, countries with reserves of metals and minerals necessary for the low-carbon future, and in particular those with an existing mining industry, will be best positioned to take advantage of this transition. In this category are several African countries, including Burkina Faso, Côte D'Ivoire, DRC, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. In Asia there are Kyrgyzstan, Papua New Guinea, and Philippines, while in South America Bolivia is the only country.

This doctoral thesis, organized in three self-contained chapters, provides an analysis of the economic effects associated with the extraction of natural resources and the transition from an economy based on fossil fuel use to an economy relying primarily on renewable energy sources. Chapter 1 assesses the question of a potential resource curse in Colombia by analyzing the effect of oil production on different indicators of the development level of municipalities: school enrollment rates, infant mortality rates, and average results of the nationwide school-leaving examination. Moreover, it considers the role that local institutions play in this context. Chapter 2 analyzes how greenhouse gas emissions of companies in OECD and BRICS countries have developed in response to policies aiming at reducing fossil fuel use by providing financial incentives to expand renewable energy adoption and to improve energy efficiency. Chapter 3 provides an extended Input-Output approach to study the economic effects of increased investments in renewable energies and energy efficiency measures. The methodology is tailored to make it applicable to subnational regions and accounts for the scarcity of financial resources and factors of production. Furthermore, Chapter 3 applies the methodology to quantify the effects of an intended energy transition in three German districts. Diese aus drei eigenständigen Kapiteln bestehende Dissertation bietet eine Analyse der wirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen der Extraktion natürlicher Ressourcen und des Übergangs von einer auf fossilen Brennstoffen basierenden Wirtschaft zu einer Wirtschaft, die hauptsächlich auf erneuerbaren Energiequellen beruht. Kapitel 1 beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, ob in Kolumbien ein Ressourcenfluch vorliegt. Zu diesem Zweck werden die Auswirkungen der Ölförderung auf verschiedene Indikatoren für das Entwicklungsniveau der Kommunen analysiert: Schuleinschreibungsraten, Kindersterblichkeitsraten und durchschnittliche Ergebnisse der landesweiten Schulabschlussprüfungen. Darüber hinaus wird die Rolle lokaler Institutionen in diesem Zusammenhang betrachtet. Kapitel 2 untersucht, wie sich die Treibhausgasemissionen von Unternehmen in OECD- und BRICS-Ländern als Reaktion auf Politikmaßnahmen zur Reduktion des Verbrauchs fossiler Brennstoffe entwickelt haben. Die betrachteten Politikmaßnahmen umfassen finanzielle Anreize zur verstärkten Anwendung erneuerbarer Energien und zur Verbesserung der Energieeffizienz in Unternehmen. Kapitel 3 bietet einen erweiterten Input-Output-Ansatz zur Untersuchung der Wertschöpfungs- und Beschäftigungseffekte von Investitionen in erneuerbare Energien und Energieeffizienzmaßnahmen. Der Ansatz wurde so weiterentwickelt, dass er auf subnationale Regionen anwendbar ist, und berücksichtigt die Knappheit an finanziellen Ressourcen und Produktionsfaktoren. Darüber hinaus wendet Kapitel 3 die Methodik zur Quantifizierung der Auswirkungen einer beabsichtigten Energiewende in drei deutschen Landkreisen an.

We study the association between oil rents and tax revenues, highlighting the importance of the shadow economy as a mediating factor. We present a simple theoretical model demonstrating that decreasing oil rents are likely to be positively associated with the tax revenues in a country with a moderate size of shadow economy. Declining oil rents may not lead to higher tax efforts of the state if the shadow economy is sizable. Using a sample of 124 countries from 1991 to 2015, our panel data regression analysis illustrates the moderating role of the shadow economy in the final effect of negative oil rents shocks on the tax revenues. A decline in oil rents following negative oil price shocks cease to have any significant positive impact on tax revenues in countries with shadow economy representing more than 35% of GDP. The results are robust after controlling country and year fixed effects, other determinants of tax revenues and using a dynamic model.

Economic growth in emerging market economies has come hand-in-hand with growing demand for energy, with many of them meeting this higher demand by increased use of coal to fuel electricity generation. This paper examines the impact of pollution generated by coal fueled power units on the anemic status of children and women in India. We show that among very young children (aged 0–5 years), the number of coal units in the district in the month and year of birth significantly increases the likelihood of being anemic net of a comprehensive set of child, mother, household and district level controls. Exposure in utero matters as well for child anemia, while the number of coal plants in the district also induce greater anemia among adult women. Impacts on anemic status are driven by the growth of PM2.5 pollution attributable to emissions from coal-powered units. We undertake a series of falsification and specification checks to underline the robustness of our results. Our research adds anemia to the list of significant health costs of relying on coal-fired power generation in meeting the increasing demand for energy that emerging market economies like India face.

Modelling the underlying long-run trend of metal prices is important, given that selected metals are a source of income for many countries. However, estimating the underlying trend has proven to be difficult, given the persistence and volatility of primary commodity prices-metals are no exception. Recent events have led experts to believe that trends have been undergoing large swings; whether these movements are temporary or contribute to the trend being characterized by broken piecewise trends over certain lengths of time remains a contentious issue. We combine robust econometric procedures to calculate the trend, which could be secular or broken, for selected metal prices over a century. We find support for the conjecture that, based on the unpredictable shifts in demand, extraction costs, and discovery of reserves, it is highly possible to expect that prices may be subject to large variability that overshadows any underlying trend.

We examine the effect of pandemics on selected commodity prices-in particular, those of zinc, copper, lead, and oil. We set up a vector autoregressive model and analyse data since the mid-nineteenth century to determine how prices reacted to pandemics such as the 1918 Spanish Flu, 1957 Asian Flu, and 1968 Hong Kong Flu. We control for demand and supply fundamentals to generate forecasts from the point of outbreak, and we consider whether any pattern can be deduced in reactions to adverse global shocks. Results are varied, depending on choice of commodity and magnitude and type of response. No clear conclusions are possible from past pandemics, and we conclude that at the time of writing, forecasts are difficult to make in the ongoing current pandemic too. We conclude by estimating impulse response functions to assess likely impact and the subsequent response of commodity prices to the shock.

This paper discusses the political economy of oil in Uganda since the announcement of its discovery in 2006. It focuses on the dynamics of oil revenue generation (pre-commercial production) and expenditure, investor-stakeholder contestation (i.e. between bureaucrats, investors/oil companies, and domestic stakeholders), and the role of public policy. Although the Government has created several institutional and regulatory frameworks to manage oil-related revenues and ensure that oil contributes to structural transformation, Uganda is already experiencing many of the stylized facts associated with natural resource exploitation, including macroeconomic instability, rent dissipation, and, more broadly, threats of adverse impact on the environment and on local livelihoods in the oil regions. Besides these, Uganda, and similarly endowed African countries, face the economic challenges related to the global shift in recent decades towards a low-carbon development paradigm and the threatening prospect of oil investments becoming 'stranded assets'. The latter issues are not yet part of the policy conversation in Uganda.

The management of revenues from exhaustible natural resources involves a number of challenges. In this paper, we argue that the standard policy advice to managers of resource revenues has been dominated by short-termism and the lack of a perspective on economic development and structural transformation. As a result, mainstream approaches have often addressed only the symptoms of commodity dependence (e.g. vulnerability to commodity price volatility) rather than its root causes (insufficiently diversified productive structures). This paper starts by mapping out the various options for managing resource revenues, and reviews their respective economic and political implications. After discussing the limitations of existing theoretical approaches, we suggest an alternative resource revenue management model that is more suited to the context of commodity-dependent developing countries. This approach, which consists in the gradual scaleup of investments in productivity-enhancing assets, enables the alignment of the dual objectives of short-term stabilization and long-term diversification.

The empirical evidence suggests that the resource rich countries tend to have poor economic perfor- mance and higher rent seeking. In this paper, we develop a general equilibrium model explaining why natural resources turn out to be a curse in an economy divided into two classes: elite and workers. Our model explains the resource curse in a setup in which governing elite expropriate rents from natural resources which reduces the productive use of these resources. The expected costs and benefits of such rent seeking activities depend on the degree of ethnic polarization which a¤ects the concentration of political power, and on the quality of institutions which constraints rent seeking. The model predicts that in the presence of natural resources and rent seeking, ethnic diversity increases concentration of political power, reduces income per capita and increases income inequality. Moreover, the impact will be higher in economies that depend more on natural resources.

The term fiscal resource curse refers to countries' inability to raise taxes from a broad base in the presence of natural resources. We employ a novel instrumental variable strategy to estimate the causal effect of resource revenues on non-resource tax effort by exploiting the so-called 'China shock'. Since its 2001 accession to the World Trade Organization, China's non-renewable resource trade has driven up commodity prices, raising resource revenues among exporting countries. Exporting countries benefit from infrastructure projects rather than just liquid capital flows. Our results provide no consistent evidence for a fiscal resource curse. On the contrary, a onepercentage-point increase in resource revenues as a percentage of GDP leads to about a 0.3- percentage-point increase in non-resource taxes as a percentage of GDP. China's non-resource trade model might be easing binding constraints to expanding the non-resource sector and presenting an opportunity to diversify the domestic revenue base in developing countries.

This study on the economics of gender differences examines whether the mining industry acts as a blessing or curse for women's well-being and economic status. The analysis focuses on the impact of proximity to mineral deposits and active mines on various measures of women's agency and health in India. Identification leverages the plausibly exogenous spatial variation in the occurrence of mineral deposits across districts. Results indicate that women's outcomes improve in the vicinity of mines with improvements in shared decision-making, reductions in barriers to accessing medical care, and reduced tolerance of physical violence. These benefits are pronounced among younger women, and in the proximity of mines that employ relatively high shares of women. The underlying mechanisms include employment gains for women and improvements in women's health near mines. Their children also experience gains in nutritional status. Men's likelihood of making decisions jointly with partners increases, and men are less likely to justify domestic violence. A key explanation for these results is the sharing of mining royalties with local groups that support investments in women and children. Findings imply that mineral mining can bring substantial benefits to women's well-being, which is critical for sustainable development.

Natural resources are often related to conflicts. The Dal B'o & Dal B'o (2011) theory states that income shocks affect capital- and labor-intensive sectors differently. Using sub-national cells covering the African continent for 1997-2010, I find that conflicts react differently to positive commodity price shocks depending on their factor intensity. The results show that a positive shock in the capital-intensive mining sector increases conflict likelihood, whereas a positive shock in the labor-intensive agricultural sector reduces it. These impacts are higher for sub-Saharan Africa. When testing heterogeneous effects for the degree of commodity appropriability, historical African-specific factors, and quality of institutions, I find that easily taxed crops behave differently to an increase in international crop prices. In the same vein, I find that neither historical African-specific factors nor the quality of institutions seem to induce differential responses in conflicts to commodity price shocks.

This paper explores how Southern Africa can leverage its mineral resources to support growth and industrialization. It considers the aggregate and spatial effects of transport infrastructure improvements, and the relative benefits of financing these investments through resource sector concessions versus government expenditure. Using computable general equilibrium analysis, this paper simulates and compares the effects of (1) royalty rebates for infrastructure; (2) zero royalties for infrastructure; and (3) government revenue-financed infrastructure improvements in South Africa and the rest of Southern Africa. The findings suggest that infrastructure directly financed through government royalty revenue has stronger spatial and aggregate effects than concession-based investments. Nonetheless, concession-based investments are less distortionary and crowd-in private investments. Infrastructure improvements, regardless of the method of financing, stimulate activity in non-mining sectors, but sectoral changes are significantly different for South Africa and the rest of Southern Africa. The choice of financing depends on the objectives of the implementing government.

Based on the development of the industrial structure of prefecture-level resource-based cities in Northeast China, this paper selects three indicators of industrial structure&mdash, diversification, rationalization and upgrading&mdash, conducting empirical analysis on the transformation of the industrial structure of these resource-based cities. The effects of the industrial transformation of resource-based cities of the same kind are analysed and the development of industrial structure in different provinces is compared. It indicates that the transformation process and adjustment effect of the industrial structures in resource-based cities of Northeast China were different and were not very satisfactory on the whole and the secondary industry was still the leading industry in most cities. In addition, the article analyses the impact of the industrial transformation on the economic growth of resource-based cities in Northeast China. It can be concluded that the rationalization and upgrading of industrial structure generally promoted the cities&rsquo, economic growth. The promotion of industrial structure rationalization was greater than that of upgrading. In order to promote the sustainable development of resource-based cities&rsquo, economy in Northeast China and solve problems in the process of the cities&rsquo, development, two suggestions are proposed. One is to pay attention to the rational development of the industrial structure, so it is necessary to strengthen the overall planning of resource-based cities in the Northeast region, promote regional coordination and rationally arrange and adjust the industrial structure from the overall scope of the region. Another is to continue to promote the process of industrial structure upgrading by introducing high-tech industries through preferential policies and to develop relevant industries based on the advantages of the cities, instead of just extending the original industry.

Herman Daly's view of the economy as an "inverted pyramid" sitting on top of essential raw material inputs is compelling, but not readily visible in monetary data, as the contribution of primary sectors to value added is typically low. This article argues that "forward linkages", a classical development theory concept capturing the relevance of a sector for downstream activities, is a more appropriate measure to identify key sectors. Using Input-Output (IO) data from eighteen European countries, we identify mining as the sector with the highest average forward linkages, and confirm the consistency of this result across countries via cluster analysis. By treating IO tables as the adjacency matrix of a directed network, we then build and visualise national inverted pyramid networks, and analyse their structure. Our approach highlights the key importance of natural resources in providing the necessary inputs to modern European economies., Series: Ecological Economic Papers

This article develops a novel methodological framework to investigate the exposure of eco- nomic systems to the risk of physical capital stranding. Combining Input-Output (IO) and network theory, we define measures to identify both the sectors likely to trigger relevant capital stranding cascades and those most exposed to capital stranding risk. We show how, in a sample of ten European countries, mining is among the sectors with the highest external asset strand- ing multipliers. The sectors most affected by capital stranding triggered by decarbonisation include electricity and gas; coke and refined petroleum products; basic metals; and transporta- tion. From these sectors, stranding would frequently cascade down to chemicals; metal products; motor vehicles water and waste services; wholesale and retail trade; and public administration. Finally, we provide an estimate for the lower-bound amount of assets at risk of transition-related stranding, which is in the range of 0.6-8.2% of the overall productive capital stock for our sample of countries, mainly concentrated in the electricity and gas sector, manufacturing, and mining. These results confirm the systemic relevance of transition-related risks on European societies., Series: Ecological Economic Papers

The fact that inclusive growth involves the width of growth, benefit-sharing, and human development pertaining to health care makes this study to examine the impact of crude oil, natural gas and agriculture output on inclusive growth in Nigeria between 1970 and 2017. We use employment, life expectancy, and income per capita to capture inclusive growth, from where we compute inclusive growth index using the Principal Component Analysis. The result of the Autoregressive Distributed Lag suggests that crude oil and natural gas production insignificantly impact inclusive growth while agriculture output is significant. It means that oil resource wealth has neither been maximised to widen growth contribution nor used to deepen the growth spread in Nigeria whereas the agriculture resource is critical for inclusive growth. It is important to focus on expanding human capacity by improving employment, health care delivery, and investing in modular mechanised farming for agriculture graduates to promote inclusive growth.

Natural gas is the fossil fuel with lowest CO2-emissions, compared to coal, lignite or oil. Regarding the ongoing energy transition in Germany, the extend usage of natural gas provide advantages that might be built a bridge to a low carbon energy system until 2050. Against this backdrop, this paper introduces a model for the German natural gas market (GAMAMOD-DE) with focus on infrastructure utilisation. Following a linear optimization approach, the model considers a highly resolved grid structure of pipelines, storages and cross-border connections to neighbouring countries. The spatial and temporal resolved gas demand is divided into three different sectors: industry, heating and electricity. An application for the year 2012 shows the performance and validation of the proposed model. Results show the utilisation of infrastructure and enable an assessment of the level of security of supply during the considered time frame. In addition, the findings suggest that although European customers suffered on cold winter days in 2012, from a system part of view, the security of supply (SoS) was always ensured. Further research should focus on analysing SoS and resilience of gas networks in the mid- and long-term, especially when sector coupling between electricity and gas is far advanced.

This paper proposes an environmental DSGE model with deforestation of a tropical rain forest. The forest can be used to produce goods, but it also affects the well-being of the representative individual. Environmental policy is implemented with the taxation of the deforestation activity. We calibrate the model for the Brazilian economy, and show that it predicts a procyclical deforestation, and that a more stringent policy reduces the volatility of deforestation. Moreover, technological progress decreases the stock of forest, and it does so more intensely with a lenient environmental policy.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the resilience of oil intensive Romanian communities to oil price fluctuations. Design/methodology/approach: The methodology employed is based on identifying the communities with the most extensive oil extraction activities using GIS (Geographic Information System) software. We then apply a random effects panel regression model to check the significance of the oil price as a predictor of employment. Finding: Results indicate that the effect of oil price fluctuations is limited, with employment in the identified communities following the national trend. Research limitations/implications: Unfortunately, our study is hindered by data availability issues and a short time series. Nevertheless, conclusions are backed by the country’s characteristics - a diversified economy, integration with refining operations, and the presence of related manufacturing and services activities. Originality/value: The study adds to the existing literature by focusing on a mature region with a long history of hydrocarbon extraction activities. We argue that the study of local communities in mature regions is of great importance in the context of the ongoing energy transition, particularly of those located within the European Union.

A price-maker company extracts an exhaustible commodity from a reservoir, and sells it instantaneously in the spot market. In absence of any actions of the company, the commodity's spot price evolves either as a drifted Brownian motion or as an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process. While extracting, the company affects the market price of the commodity, and its actions have an impact on the dynamics of the commodity's spot price. The company aims at maximizing the total expected profits from selling the commodity, net of the total expected proportional costs of extraction. We model this problem as a two-dimensional degenerate singular stochastic control problem with finite fuel. To determine its solution, we construct an explicit solution to the associated Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation, and then verify its actual optimality through a verification theorem. On the one hand, when the (uncontrolled) price is a drifted Brownian motion, it is optimal to extract whenever the current price level is larger or equal than an endogenously determined constant threshold. On the other hand, when the (uncontrolled) price evolves as an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process, we show that the optimal extraction rule is triggered by a curve depending on the current level of the reservoir. Such a curve is a strictly decreasing $C^{\infty}$-function for which we are able to provide an explicit expression. Finally, our study is complemented by a theoretical and numerical analysis of the dependency of the optimal extraction strategy and value function on the model's parameters., 36 pages; 5 figures

Commodity prices and their secular trends are at the core of many different development theories, particularly relevant for the Latin American region, like the Prebisch-Singer hypothesis, the natural resource curse theory or the somehow malthusian scarcity prediction. In this article we review the international copper price indices available in the literature and we compare them with a new data set, elaborated from the Official Foreign Trade statistics of one of the main copper producers (Chile) This data has included information on value added and several price/volume indicators allowing to elaborate a more accurate copper price estimation in the long run. This information will enhance our knowledge on commodity prices, mineral trends and structural change.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Western countries have signed several agreements regarding the use of hydrocarbon resources in the Caspian Basin, with the aim of diversifying their energy suppliers. However, recession in the world economy and persistently low oil prices have profoundly affected the economies of the Caspian states, whose gross domestic product and exports are dominated by oil and oil products. Strongly dependent on export revenues from oil and gas, the economic growth of these states has slowed since 2014. Although limited energy resources have stimulated an emphasis on security of supply, fundamentally understood as a continued and low-risk strategy of interruption of energy import flows, low oil prices have also maintained focus on the challenge of security of demand faced by energy-producing economies in terms of stable energy export revenues. However, geopolitical developments around the world, especially local armed conflicts, highlight the importance of secure routes, as they present a threat to energy transportation. Using an indicator-based approach and country-level data over the period 2000−2017, this paper assesses the security of demand for the oil and gas of three countries in the Caspian region: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan, over a 16-year period, capturing the geopolitical situation and contributing to a greater understanding of the impact of energy-transporting countries' geopolitical situation on energy transportation to the European Union (EU). The results demonstrate that risk of energy security of demand is greater when political risk in energy-transporting countries is included within a measure of energy security of demand, i.e., risky external energy demand. The sharp decline in political stability and absence of violence or terrorism ratings in Ukraine and Turkey has increased the risk of security of energy demand in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan. The results highlight the importance of cooperation not only between the EU and the Caspian region, but also with energy-transporting countries, such as Ukraine, Georgia, and Turkey. Alternatively, routes may be found that bypass countries with low levels of political stability, such as through the Trans-Caspian Pipeline.

Deforestation in Bolivia has increased considerably during the last few decades, which causes carbon dioxide emissions, biodiversity loss, changes to the hydrologic cycle, among others. This study pretends to estimate the impacts and costs of that deforestation. Since each variablehas its own complexity, the use of different methodologies is necessary. The first model used is a carbon bookkeeping model and the carbon price. The second is the BIOM model which is based on the extrapolation of species, and the use of the elasticity between consumption and absolute species richness for the quantification of costs. Finally, a spatial econometric model and a water scarcity index are used for the estimation of the costs of variation in the hydrologic cycle. The results are presented at three levels; a national level, department level and municipal level for two time periods; 1990-2000 and 2000-2010. In addition, based on the results, conclusion and recommendations are formulated about deforestation in Bolivia. This study calculates that the cost of deforestation in Bolivia exceeds 10% of GDP.

A aquacultura é uma atividade económica que consiste na criação de espécies marinhas em cativeiro, para consumo. Este mercado tem crescido muito a nível mundial por ter cada vez mais, um papel importante no fornecimento sustentado de pescado de qualidade para consumo. Portugal, num contexto piscícola, apresenta características bastante interessantes no que respeita à sua localização geográfica, à excelente tradição gastronómica que tem em pratos de peixe, ao seu clima e ao grande potencial que pode presentear, em termos de novas oportunidades de negócio, nomeadamente a aquacultura. Apesar de não existirem empresas na Europa que criem choco em cativeiro, têmse obtido resultados bastante favoráveis na área da investigação, relativamente à produção desta espécie para fins comerciais. Os investigadores do Centro de Ciências do Mar da Universidade do Algarve (CCMAR) provaram que é possível ter stocks de choco durante todo o ano, permitindo que o preço de venda ao público seja controlado, sem prejudicar os produtores. É neste contexto que surge a oportunidade de se criar uma empresa aquícola direcionada para a engorda do choco ("Sepia officinalis"). Essa empresa é a Aquitrends. Este caso permite a discussão sobre: (i) o que é a aquacultura e (ii) como este sector pode ser considerado sustentável em termos sociais, económicos e ambientais. Permite também saber: (iii) qual o impacto que os efluentes provenientes das atividades deste sector têm sobre o ambiente e (iv) de que forma este problema pode ser mitigado. Este caso dá igualmente a conhecer (v) os diferentes métodos de produção e (vi) os sistemas a adotar em função da escolha da localização (onshore/inland ou offshore) do estabelecimento aquícola. Por fim, irá ser feita uma análise financeira de viabilidade do negócio. Aquaculture is an economic activity consisting on the creation of marine species in captivity for consumption. This market has increasingly grown up worldwide, having an important role in the sustained supply of quality fish for human consumption. In a fishery context, Portugal presents very interesting characteristics regarding its geographical location, its excellent gastronomic tradition in fish dishes, its climate and the great potential it can present in terms of new business opportunities, namely the aquaculture. Although there are no companies in Europe that breed captive cuttlefish, very favorable results have been obtained in the area of research in relation to the production of this species for commercial purposes. For instance, researchers at the Center for Marine Sciences of the University of Algarve (CCMAR) have proved that it is possible to have cuttlefish stocks throughout the year, allowing the retail price to be controlled without harming the producers. It is in this context that the opportunity to create an aquaculture company aimed at the fattening of cuttlefish ("Sepia officinalis") has arisen. This company was named Aquitrends. This case allows a discussion on: (i) what is aquaculture and (ii) how can this sector be considered sustainable in social, economic and environmental terms? It also allows us to know: (iii) what impact have the effluents from the activities of this sector on the environment and (iv) how can this problem be mitigated? This case also shows (v) the different possible production methods and (vi) the systems to be adopted depending on the choice of location (i.e. onshore/inland or offshore) of the aquaculture establishment. A financial feasibility analysis of the business is done.

Im Grundstoffsektor, ein gewichtiger Emittent von Treibhausgasen weltweit, werden Emissionsminderungspotentiale noch unzureichend ausgeschöpft. Vor allem von Möglichkeiten der Substitution von Materialien, des verbesserten Produktdesigns oder des Recyclings und der Wiederverwendung von Produkten wird zu wenig Gebrauch gemacht. Um diese Potentiale zu erschließen, muss in Europa ein kohärenter Politikrahmen entstehen, der es erlaubt, das Portfolio von Emissionsminderungspotentialen zu erschließen. Hier werden vier Bereiche, in denen prioritär und zeitnah gehandelt werden muss, sowie die zugehörigen Politikinstrumente vorgestellt. Der Umfang und die Qualität von Recycling müssen gesteigert werden; Märkte für klimafreundliche Produkte und Technologien müssen geschaffen werden, sowohl kurzfristig für die Etablierung von Innovationen auf dem Markt, als auch langfristig durch CO2-Preissignale; die Emissionen aus CO2-intensiven Prozessen und Technologien müssen reduziert werden., DIW Wochenbericht

The existing studies on Green Paradox and stranded assets focus on dirty exhaustible assets (fossil fuel reserves) and show that environmental regulations, by changing the costs of dirty inputs relative to clean ones, lead to replacements of the former by the latter and stranding of dirty assets due to perfect substitution. It, in turn, induces acceleration of dirty resource extractions and pollution emissions for fear of dirty assets becoming stranded - the Green Paradox effect. This paper uses an endogenous growth framework to revisit the problem of Green Paradox and stranded assets by taking a new perspective that focuses on capital accumulation with investment irreversibility. We show that if 1) direct irreversibility of investment does not rule out the indirect channel of converting dirty capital goods into clean ones through final goods allocations, and 2) interactions between dirty and clean capital as imperfect substitutes can generate reciprocal effects, then environmental regulation, through directing investment towards clean capital, does not necessarily leads to asset stranding of dirty capital. Accumulation of clean capital with a pollution-saving effect offsets the polluting impact of dirty one and leads to reversed Green Paradox. We further propose an endogenous growth mechanism through which the accumulation of both dirty and clean capital, as well as environmental improvement, can be sustained in the long run without converging to the steady state.

The exploitation of natural resources is a huge opportunity, but one that carries considerable risks. Relative prices in resource-exporting economies tend to push them towards economic structures dominated by the resource sector. This paper explores ways to achieve diversification in a resource-rich economy. It describes the relative price changes that accompany a resource boom and suggests policies and public investments to mitigate their impact. It explores some of the issues that influence the participation of local firms in the resource value chain and argues for broadening the options for diversification, through the development of "industries without smokestacks" and investments in knowledge.

What is required for a poor country to turn a valuable resource endowment into a driver of development? The resource curse literature highlighted the importance of institutions and the nature of the resource, neither of which is a useful policy guide. A more recent literature views resource exploitation as a series of hurdles that must be negotiated: ensuring production, dividing revenues, and using the added public finance. The Kyrgyz Republic's Kumtor gold mine is a useful case study in that the country cleared the first hurdle but over almost a quarter century was embroiled in negotiating the second hurdle. The paper assesses the extent to which such problems are inevitable for a small poor country, and the consequences of an extended conflictual process.

This study analyses the environmental and financial sustainability of solid waste management in Indian cities. It presents an assessment of the rapidly rising volume of municipal solid waste, its changing composition, the continuing practice of mixing biodegradable (wet) waste with dry waste at the source of generation, and the growing volume of plastic in the waste. The present system is focussed on collection and transportation of largely mixed unsegregated waste. Resource recovery from the waste and safe disposal of the residual waste in scientifically designed landfills are grossly neglected. Rules have now been put in place for sustainable solid waste management, but the capacity to plan and manage the system and ensure the enforcement of the rules is a major challenge. The inability to ensure segregation of waste comes in the way of proper recycling, effective functioning of biomethanation plants, and also of safe operation of waste to energy plants which consequently leads to release of toxic pollutants into the atmosphere. Sites allocated for landfills are used as open dumping sites where far too much waste is dumped without resource recovery, generating leachate and methane gas. This study also presents the sources of greenhouse gas emissions from the solid waste sector. Besides presenting some mitigation choices to respond to the growing challenge, it also suggests mechanisms for ensuring that the system is financially sustainable.

The role of the financial system to absorb and to intermediate commodity boom induced windfall gains efficiently presents one of the most pressing issues for developing economies. Using an exogenous increase in iron ore prices in March 2005, I analyse the role of regional bank branch networks in Brazil in reallocating capital from affected to non-affected regions. For the period from March 2004 to March 2006, I find that branches directly exposed to this shock by their geographical location experience an increase in deposit growth in the post-shock period relative to non-affected branches. Given that these deposits are not reinvested locally, I further show that branches located in the non-affected region increase lending growth depending on their indirect exposure to the booming regions via their branch network. Even tough, these results provide evidence against a Dutch Disease type crowding out of the non-iron ore sector, further evidence suggests that this capital reallocation is far from being optimal.

Wachstum und sektoraler Wandel allein haben in näherer Zukunft wahrscheinlich keinen dämpfenden Effekt auf die globalen Treibhausgasemissionen. Die vorliegende Untersuchung zeigt, dass Carbon Leakage ein Phänomen ist, welches auch im Kontext der Umwelt-Kuznets-Kurve relevant ist. Werden Emissionsexporte bzw. -importe berücksichtigt, so zeigt sich, dass der absteigende Ast der Umwelt-Kuznets-Kurve ein Trugschluss ist. Wollte man den ökologischen Fußabdruck eines Landes korrekt bestimmen, dann müssten die Emissionen bei der Herstellung aller konsumierten Güter unabhängig vom Emissionsstandort berücksichtigt werden. Hierbei wären eben auch die Emissionen von solchen Gütern miteinzubeziehen, die importiert und im Inland verbraucht bzw. veredelt und weiter exportiert werden.

There are large volumes of gas offshore Tanzania, which has raised hopes of a boom. But those hopes look set to be disappointed. A boom would depend on there being a sizeable flow of revenue to government from producing and exporting gas. This paper sets out the scale of the gas, and the array of risks which currently make investment in gas production, and any associated boom, unlikely. As well as geological, engineering, and market risks, the risks to investment from public policy have been elevated over the last few years.

This study examines the financial channel between oil price volatility and the resource curse using firm-level data. A collapse in oil prices adversely affects firm borrowing in resource-dependent countries. However, unlike in non-resource-dependent countries where just the resource sector is harmed, both resource and non-resource firms are affected in resource-dependent countries in an oil price collapse. We also find evidence of a flight to quality in lending, implying that the decline in leverage can partly be attributed to a reduction in the credit supply. Our results suggest that oil price volatility operates via the financial channel to impede economic diversification in resource-dependent countries.

The EU economy is currently losing a significant amount of potential secondary raw materials which are present in waste streams (particular numerical data are presented in the paper). In the total amount of generated waste, the share of Coal Combustion Products (CCPs) and Coal Mining Products (CMPs) is particularly high, which is generated mainly by Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs), where we come to deal with high consumption of energy produced by coal combustion and coal mining processes. The problem concerns, in particular, the Polish economy. Consequently, the European Commission (EC) has developed a closed-loop (circular) economy concept (CEC), whose implementation should contribute to reducing CCPs negative impact on the economy, not only in the ecological, but also in social and economic aspects. Closed-loop (circular) economy keeps products, parts and materials in economic circulation, as long as possible, using as little resources as possible. This concept was presented in the document published by the European Commission: Circular Economy Package, which also includes the Communication of the Commission: Closing the Loop - An EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy (2015). Recent trends suggest that further progress in resource efficiency is possible and it can bring major economic, environmental and social benefits. Turning waste, especially CCPs, into a resource is an essential part of increasing resource efficiency and closing the loop in a circular economy. There are four key areas of CCPs use: construction, road construction, energy and road maintenance. Increasing the use of CCPs can be achieved by granting a legal status to waste products and convincing consumers and business of the following benefits of using them: decreasing production costs by substituting natural aggregate with waste aggregates (based on CCPs), reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and increasing energy efficiency. As a result, CCPs must comply with certain technical standards set by the EU and implemented in the Polish economy. The study attempts to estimate, using comparative analysis, the economic, social and environmental benefits of implementation of CEC in the CCPs sector of the Polish economy.

In 2008, the Government of Zambia reformed its mining tax regime for large-scale copper mines through a unilateral legislative change. The country went from having one of the lowest average effective tax rates and government take to be above the average. We focus on a particularly controversial element of the packet of changes: the windfall tax. We trace adjustments in the mining tax regimes since independence and calculate effective tax rates and the fiscal sharing between government and companies. Empirical evidence shows the 2008 mining tax regime as being both understandable and justifiable from an economic point of view, considering the nature of the state and the copper companies.

Am 11. und 12. September 2017 fand an der Ostfalia Hochschule, Campus Suderburg, eine vom Thünen-Institut, dem Julius-Kühn Institut und der Ostfalia Hochschule gemeinsam organisierte Fachtagung zum Thema "Bewässerung in der Landwirtschaft" statt. Dazu wurden deutschland-weit Experten des Fachgebiets Bewässerung eingeladen, aktuelle Einschätzungen zur Entwicklung des Bewässerungsbedarfs und der Bewässerungswürdigkeit verschiedener Kulturen an unterschiedlichen Standorten in Deutschland sowie zur Entwicklung der Bewässerungstechnik zu geben. Die Bewässerung von Kulturen im Freilandgemüsebau oder Sonderkulturbereich gehört in ganz Deutschland seit langem zur gängigen Praxis. Die Rentabilität der Bewässerung weiterer landwirtschaftlicher Feldkulturen war bisher auf einige wenige, trockene Standorte begrenzt. Im Zuge des Klimawandels werden seit einigen Jahren eine steigende Jahresdurchschnittstemperatur und veränderte Niederschlagsmuster (v. a. geringere Niederschläge zu Beginn der Vegetationsperiode im Frühjahr) in Deutschland beobachtet. Für die Zukunft sind laut der Ergebnisse von Klimamodellen eine weitere Zunahme der Temperaturen und weitere Veränderungen der Niederschlagsverteilung, z. B. eine Abnahme der Sommerniederschläge und eine Zunahme der Winterniederschläge, zu erwarten. Der Tagungsband gibt einen Überblick über neueste Erkenntnisse aus der Forschung und diskutiert mögliche alternative Quellen für die Deckung des Beregnungswasserbedarfs landwirtschaftlicher Kulturen. Dabei werden auch Aspekte des Landschaftswasserhaushalts und hydrologische Zusammenhänge in der Agrarlandschaft angesprochen und Lösungsansätze präsentiert. Einblicke in mögliche Nutzungskonflikte der Wassernutzung und praktische Erfahrungen mit der Erarbeitung von Lösungsansätzen werden begleitet von der Darstellung der rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen der Wassernutzung. Ergänzt werden die Beiträge durch Berichte langjähriger Beregnungs-Feldversuche der Landwirtschaftskammer Niedersachsen. Einerseits ergaben die Versuche, dass die Bewässerung die Nährstoffeffizienz der Pflanzen und die Qualität der Ernteprodukte erhöhen kann. Andererseits werden der derzeitige Stand der Technik der Bewässerung erläutert und Grenzen sowie Möglichkeiten für eine Steigerung der Effizienz in der Zukunft dargelegt. Zur Steigerung der Effizienz der Bewässerung kommt der Bewässerungssteuerung eine hohe Bedeutung zu, deren aktueller Stand dargestellt und die Trends für die Zu-kunft aufgezeigt werden. Die Rentabilität der Investitionen in Bewässerungstechnik wird in zwei Beiträgen dargestellt. Hier werden sowohl die verschiedenen Techniken als auch deren Rentabilität bei verschiedenen Kulturen betriebswirtschaftlich beurteilt. Als Abrundung wird die Entwicklung des regionalen Bewässerungsbedarfs am Beispiel Nordrhein-Westfalens aufgezeigt. Der Tagungsband schließt mit einem Kapitel zur Übersicht über bisherige Projekte im Bereich des Wassermanagements und zu Fragen der Bewässerung landwirtschaftlicher Nutzflächen im Hinblick auf zukünftige Klimaveränderungen in Deutschland. On September 11 and 12, 2017, a symposium on "Irrigation in agriculture", jointly organized by the Thünen Institute, the Julius-Kühn Institute and the University of Applied Sciences Ostfalia took place at the Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, Campus Suderburg. For this purpose, experts from the field of irrigation were invited to give current assessments on the development of irrigation needs and the irrigation-worthiness of different crops at different locations in Germany as well as on the development of irrigation technology. The irrigation of crops in outdoor vegetables or special crops has long been a common practice. The profitability of irrigating agricultural crops in Germany has so far been limited to a few, dry locations. As a result of climate change, an increasing average annual temperature and changed precipitation patterns (in particular lower rainfall at the beginning of the vegetation period in spring) have been observed in Germany for some years now. For the future, according to the results of climate models, a further increase in temperatures and further changes in the precipitation distribution such as a decrease in the summer precipitation and an increase in winter precipitation are to be expected. The conference proceedings provide an overview of the latest research findings from the field of drought stress and discuss possible alternative sources for meeting the additional water requirements of agricultural crops. Aspects of the landscape water balance and hydrological correlations in the agricultural landscape are addressed and solutions presented. Insights into possible conflicts of water use and practical experience with the development of solutions are accompanied by the presentation of the legal framework for water use. The contributions are supplemented by reports of long-term irrigation field trials conducted by the LWK Lower Saxony. On the one hand, the experiments have shown that irrigation can increase the nutrient efficiency of crops and the quality of crops. On the other hand, the present state of the art of irrigation will be explained and limits and possibilities for increasing efficiency in the future will be presented. In order to increase the efficiency of irrigation, irrigation control is of great importance; its current status is presented and the trends for the future are shown. The profitability of investments in irrigation technology is presented in two contributions. Here, both the different techniques and their profitability in different crops are assessed economically. Possible developments of regional irrigation needs are exemplarily shown for the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The conference proceedings conclude with a chapter on the overview of previous projects in the field of water management and on irrigation of agricultural land in view of future climate change in Germany.

Countries face both challenges and opportunities in using their extractive industries to achieve more inclusive development - particularly in the developing world. Yet while a large national income can result from resource wealth, it can also be associated with acute social inequality and deep poverty. Many countries struggle to diversify their economies, and create redistributive fiscal systems. The very worst cases see violent conflict and civil war. The expression "resource curse" has in turn become common coin. This paper presents 10 main messages from a UNU-WIDER Project, that should underpin efforts to improve development and environmental outcomes in the extractive industries.

A high-temperature process of firing cement clinker in a rotary kiln creates conditions for waste-free thermal waste utilization, in accordance with the EU requirements. The paper presents methods of using waste fuels in the co-combustion process in a rotary furnace as well as types of alternative fuels and methods of their production. Physical and chemical properties of alternative fuels and their impact on the combustion process were characterized. The example of the furnace tested was used to discuss its properties in the co-combustion process of alternative fuels as well as the obtained technical and ecological indicators.

This paper presents the first rigorous empirical evidence of the impact of a large hydrocarbon project in both its economic and environmental dimension. Concentrating on Peru's largest hydrocarbon project, the Camisea Gas Project, which began operating in the dense Amazonian jungle under strict environmental safeguards in 2004, we assess whether natural resource extraction can have beneficial economic effects without causing negative environmental externalities. The analysis relies on the synthetic control method to systematically choose comparison units (departments), which allows for precise quantitative inference in small-sample studies. Our results indicate that in six of the eight years since the Camisea gas fields began operating, local economic effects, as measured by nighttime lights data, are robustly positive. An examination of remotely-sensed vegetation data suggests that the Camisea Gas Project did not have a significant effect on deforestation, suggesting that the implementation of stringent safeguards can help mitigate environmental risks.

A significant natural resource discovery creates excited popular expectations of imminent wealth. But the size of a boom is usually overestimated and the delay in receiving revenues is underestimated. This paper takes stock of the sequencing, timing, and scale of the development of a natural resource endowment; reviews the 'resource curse' literature; looks at benchmarks of scale and timing so as to put potential booms into the context of the challenges of growth and structural change in Africa; and, finally, gathers together observations on policy and institutional changes.

The fuel and energy economy is an area of business that encompasses the whole spectrum of phenomena and processes related to the acquisition and use of energy carriers, both in the processing of certain energy carriers for others and in the processes of final consumption of fuels and energy. The article studied the potential of waste to produce green energy, in order to search for alternatives to energy from conventional energy sources. Efforts have been made to evaluate the activities of waste incineration plants, both economically and environmentally. The work is theoretical. Methods used to try to answer a research question are characterized by a heuristic approach. Gospodarka paliwowo‑energetyczna to dziedzina działalności, która obejmuje całe spektrum zjawisk i procesów związanych z pozyskiwaniem i użytkowaniem nośników energii, zarówno w zakresie przetwarzania niektórych nośników energii, jak i procesów końcowego zużycia paliw i energii. W artykule badano potencjał odpadów w celu poszukiwania alternatywy dla energii pochodzącej z konwencjonalnych źródeł. Podjęto się oceny działań spalarni odpadów pod względem ekonomicznym i środowiskowym. Praca ma charakter teoretyczny. Metody wykorzystane do próby odpowiedzi na pytanie badawcze charakteryzują się podejściem heurystycznym.