BC3 Seminars: Adaptation and Development in Times of Climate Change
Thomas Heydt
University of Canada
BC3-UPV/EHU Seminars: Local and Global Externalities, Environmental Policies and Growth
Prof. Dr. Karen Pittel
Head of Department Energy, Environment and Exhaustible Resources Ifo Institute for Economic Research, Munich
The paper analyzes the implications of local and global pollution when two types of abatement activities can be undertaken. One type (e.g., use of particulate matter filters) reduces solely local pollution while the other (e.g., application of fuel saving technologies) mitigates global pollution as well. In the framework of a 2-country endogenous growth model, the implications of different assumptions about the degree to which global externalities are internalized are analyzed. Subsequently, we derive policy rules adapted to the different scenarios as well as to implement the first-best solution. Special attention is paid to pollution, growth and optimal policy in the case of asymmetric internalization.
BC3-UPV/EHU Seminars: Selecting random parameters in discrete choice experiment for environmental valuation: A simulation experiment
Amaia de Ayala
Phd Student at the University of the Basque Country
This paper examines various tests commonly used to select random parameters in choice modelling. The three most common procedures for selecting random parameters are: the Lagrange Multiplier test as proposed by McFadden and Train (2000), the t-statistic of the deviation of the random parameter and the log-likelihood ratio test. The identification of random parameters in other words the recognition of preference heterogeneity among population is based on the fact that an individual makes a choice depending on her/his: tastes, perceptions and experiences. A simulation exercise was carried out based on a real case study where cross-sectional and two different structures of panel data settings were used to examine the empirical size and power of the three tests. The key results indicate that the power of these tests depends importantly on the spread and type of the parameter
distribution.
BC3-UPV/EHU Seminars: The benefits and costs of heat waves prevention in a context of rising temperatures
Gerardo Sanchez
PhD. student, UPV/EHU
Heat waves are a serious threat to communities? health, particularly in urban settings. Heat-related health risks are increasing due to current trends of population ageing, fast urbanization and rising temperatures related to climate change.
However, public health prevention of heat waves is still not widespread, mainly because of resource constraints and uncertainty about the costs incurred and benefits achieved. Several available health valuation techniques can provide the basis for a cost-benefit or cost-effectiveness analysis framework of this type of prevention.
While there is no standardized procedure for such analysis as yet, even an exploration of methodological steps could prove useful for public health authorities considering the implementation of heat prevention plans. Ultimately, only cost-beneficial and/or cost-effective adaptation options are likely to be adopted in a context of multiple competing public health priorities.
Summer School 2011
Miramar Palace Paseo Miraconcha, 48, San Sebastian, Gipuzkoa, SpainAdaptation to Climate Change: An essential part of the Climate Change Policy
Donostia, 20th-22nd of July 2011
Directors: Prof. Anil Markandya (BC3, Basque Centre for Climate Change) and Prof. Alberto Ansuategi (EHU/UPV Foundations of Economic Analysis I)
The objective of the Summer School is to offer an updated and recent view of the ongoing trends in Climate Change research in an annual basis.
This school is designed to approach the main scientific topic from a multidisciplinary approach, depending on the main trends of Climate Change issues and allowing for an integrated view and understanding of the problem.
Different editions of the school might take different approaches to study Climate Change.
This second edition will be devoted to adaptation strategies and energy-related challenges of Climate Change.
This school is open to PhD students, postdoctoral fellows and other researchers as well as policy makers interested in acquiring a deep understanding of Climate Change and the policies designed to fight it.
The final aim of the Summer School is becoming an integral part of an European Master course offered by the UPV/EHU (University of the Basque Country) in a near future.
Climbe Workshop
Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss:
The Effects on Ecosystem Services
in Tropical Forests in Central America
September 21st, 2011 - 09:00
Bizkaia Aretoa Conf. Hall - Bilbao
The Workshop will present the results of the research project “Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss: The Effects on Ecosystem Services in Tropical Forests in Central America ”, carried out jointly by the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3) and the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Centre of Costa Rica (CATIE).
Biodiversity loss is expected to accelerate in the near future stressed by climate change. This will affect the functioning of the ecosystems and the goods and services they provide to humans. As biodiversity decreases, we are losing species and varieties of species, as well as goods and services. This raises the issue of the impact on the welfare of current and future populations and the role of human in the exploitation of natural resources.
The aim of this collaboration has been to assess the impacts of Climate Change on the tropical forest ecosystem of Central America, in order to better understand the consequences, increase scientific knowledge and persuade policy action in this area.
The analysis is focused on tropical forests in Central America; however both the methodology used and the implications derived can be easily transferred to other ecosystems and geographical regions, and will serve to assist the design of effective conservation policies.
The research is built on a combination of different models, where both the ecological and economic implications of Climate Change are studied together. A specific methodological framework has been developed to assess the changes in the provision of ecosystem services and the economic losses that can be expected under different climatic scenarios.
Basically the theoretical framework is based on an integrated approach which combines ecological models with land use and economic models, in order to derive impacts and social costs.
BC3-UPV/EHU Seminars: From regulatory policies to ecosystem services: political ecology in the Amazon
Professor Xavier Arnauld de Sartre
CNRS (University of Pau)
Even if the payment for ecosystem services (PES) is becoming a new way of framing sustainable policies, the assessment of such a notion remains difficult. It holds many questions relatives to the measurement of the environment for policy goals. As this question is highly contingent, we will analyze the case of a specific context, the frontiers areas of the Amazon Basin. We will firstly present the rationale of PES instruments in this context. We will then present the main results of a transdisciplinary research project whose objective was to evaluate the ecosystem services provided in two frontiers areas of the Amazon. This project showed three main points relative to the ecosystem services assessment: the high variability of this notion when we aim to measure the different types of ecosystem service and to synthesise them in a single indicator; the importance of the landscape scale regarding the other scales; and the importance of the ecoefficience of such landscapes. Analyzing the rationale, the dangers and the potential of a political notion who aims to frame the man/nature relationships, we will finally introduce the assistance to the political ecologist studies.
BC3-UPV/EHU Seminars: Promoting Renewable Energy in the EU
Dr. Juan Delgado
Former Chief Economist of the Spanish Competition Commission CNC
Renewable sources of energy play a fundamental role in the EU strategy to fight climate change. Energy production and consumption account for a large part of total greenhouse gas emissions. This implies that policies to promote the use of renewable energy should be efficiently designed in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Being climate a global issue, policies should aim to be global. The European dimension offers a good opportunity for the efficient design of such policies. Policies should be coordinated across countries to make the most of the European renewable potential. The efforts can however be diluted in the absence of a European energy market. Climate policies cannot deliver if energy markets remain fragmented.
BC3-UPV/EHU Seminars: Ecosystem Services: Ground Truthing
David Batker
Director of Earth Economics
Join us for a 90-minute presentation and discussion exploring innovative applications of economics to further conservation and on-the-ground restoration. David Batker and Jennifer Harrison-Cox from the innovative non-profit Earth Economics (http://www.eartheconomics.org/) will be demonstrating how they put ecological economics to work by looking at case studies in Ecuador, China and the United States. They will discuss how they are working with the US Federal government to include the value of green infrastructure in financial reporting and benefit-cost analysis, how modeling and mapping ecosystem services informs the development of long-term natural capital funding institutions and mechanisms, how ecosystem services can inform jobs analysis, and ways to bring ecosystem services into the built environment to change incentives for green building investment .
BC3-UPV/EHU Seminars: Precaution and proportionality in the management of global environmental change
Prof. Charles Perrings
School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University
The precautionary principle is a mandate to tread cautiously when managing novel threats to the environment or human health. A major obstacle when applying the principle at the international level is disagreement about how precautionary efforts should be constrained to ensure that policy costs are proportional to the attained level of protection. Proportionality is an unresolved question when preliminary evidence precludes decision-makers from assigning probabilities over future events. The paper suggests practical analytical tools for communicating ex ante trade-offs when probabilities are unavailable. The tools could be used to facilitate discussion and compromise when implementing precautionary decisions in international settings where cooperation is important. The approach is demonstrated in an application to climate policy that uses the integrated assessment model DICE (Nordhaus 2008). The paper also situates the task of precautionary decision-making within the broader context of implementing a precautionary response at the international level.
