Green FinancePub Date : 2019-08-05DOI: 10.3934/GF.2019.3.264
Y. Krozer
{"title":"Financing of the global shift to renewable energy and energy efficiency","authors":"Y. Krozer","doi":"10.3934/GF.2019.3.264","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3934/GF.2019.3.264","url":null,"abstract":"A global shift to low-carbon economies needs five times larger annual investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency compared to the present USD2005 200 billion. The question about how to finance those large investments is discussed with particular attention to the citizens’ savings because they are hardly used so far, except a few countries. If good conditions are created, activation of these savings is sufficiently large and it is rewarding regarding the cost-reducing technological change and many civil initiatives. High international prices of fossil fuels create favorable conditions but they are unpredictable whilst the present policy support for energy business and CO2 taxes do not compensate for the low prices. High CO2 taxes could do but meet opposition. Innovations in the USA and EU add value to the energy businesses by USD2005 9.2 billion a year based on average during 2005–2015, which exceeds their RD the projectable cost-reduction reduces the financial risks. Estimates show that the global investments in wind and solar power are efficiently allocated and operations are cost-effective. In addition to the power generation, those renewable energy with storage technologies deliver co-benefits to the energy producers and consumers and business models emerge tuned to the local conditions. The citizens’ participations in energy-efficiency and renewable energy would be enhanced if policies guarantee the annual value of the participants’ savings. Such guarantee would generate tax returns due to more companies and higher value of assets. The citizens participation with policy support enables the global shift to sustainable energy.","PeriodicalId":41466,"journal":{"name":"Green Finance","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.6,"publicationDate":"2019-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45439109","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Green FinancePub Date : 2019-07-03DOI: 10.3934/GF.2019.3.249
A. Malik
{"title":"Cost-Benefit analysis in the context of long horizon projects—a need for a social and holistic approach","authors":"A. Malik","doi":"10.3934/GF.2019.3.249","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3934/GF.2019.3.249","url":null,"abstract":"Discounting has always been a controversial subject among economists and philosophers yet discounting practice remained an essential element of any public policy. The purpose of this paper is to argue against using the practice of discounting in Cost-Benefit analysis for large engineering/public projects particularly aimed at mitigating the effects of global warming, as it creates bias against the future generation. Using systems thinking approach the paper has counter argued against all the three arguments, used to justify discounting, i.e., pure time preference, the opportunity cost of capital, and risk. The paper has shown intuitively that both the consumption- and the investment-based rationales used to justify discounting are in conflict when we take the holistic approach to the environment. The paper clearly is on a topic of great significance for environmental economists and environmental policy specialists. The perspective taken in the paper is a thought-provoking one with the relevance of “systems thinking” for the discounting debate.","PeriodicalId":41466,"journal":{"name":"Green Finance","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.6,"publicationDate":"2019-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41998278","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Green FinancePub Date : 2019-06-10DOI: 10.3934/GF.2019.3.237
C. Kemfert, Sophie Schmalz
{"title":"Sustainable finance: political challenges of development and implementation of framework conditions","authors":"C. Kemfert, Sophie Schmalz","doi":"10.3934/GF.2019.3.237","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3934/GF.2019.3.237","url":null,"abstract":"According to the 2015 Paris Agreement, a long-term goal is the commitment to “making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development.” Reconciling climate change objectives and financial flows is an enormous challenge in the 21st century. States in general and Germany in particular have various instruments at their disposal to initiate appropriate measures. On the one hand, the state can exert direct influence by orienting its own activities towards sustainability, for example by meeting sustainability standards for investments and participations by public institutions and by anchoring divestment strategies in law. On the other hand, the development of suitable framework conditions is a requirement for encouraging private financial market players towards sustainability. A key requirement for the development of sustainable financial system is a uniform taxonomy of sustainability. Standards and labels for identifying business activities can then be implemented. The development of political framework conditions is currently facing far-reaching challenges at European and national level: There is a risk that current approaches will only be applied to a limited extent. Sustainable investments currently account for approximately 3% of the total market (2017). This article aims to focus on the extent to which policy frameworks currently being developed at national and European level can contribute to the development of sustainable finance. In addition to the challenges of implementing and developing new policy approaches, the limits of existing instruments will be identified. Beyond the indirect influence of the state, investment strategies and criteria of public institutions and procurement are analysed, which represent a direct influence of the state for the development of a sustainable financial sector. A case study on the Divestment Strategies is used for this purpose.","PeriodicalId":41466,"journal":{"name":"Green Finance","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.6,"publicationDate":"2019-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49404077","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Green FinancePub Date : 2019-06-04DOI: 10.3934/GF.2019.3.221
K. Aryal, L. Bhatta, P. Thapa, S. Ranabhat, Nilhari Neupane, Jagannath Joshi, K. Shrestha, A. Shrestha
{"title":"Payment for ecosystem services: could it be sustainable financing mechanism for watershed services in Nepal?","authors":"K. Aryal, L. Bhatta, P. Thapa, S. Ranabhat, Nilhari Neupane, Jagannath Joshi, K. Shrestha, A. Shrestha","doi":"10.3934/GF.2019.3.221","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3934/GF.2019.3.221","url":null,"abstract":"As a stewardship for watershed services, an incentivizing mechanism of payment for ecosystem services (PES) has been increasingly discussed in global policy arena. In this context, various models of incentivizing mechanisms have been implemented as a pilot program. This study assesses the existing financing mechanisms for watershed services at the national level and examines the pilot PES programs that have been implemented in four different sites of Nepal. Using various participatory and qualitative research methods; this study analyses institutional arrangement, operational procedures and implementation practices from the study sites. Our findings reveal that the pilot PES programs have shown fairly satisfactory outcomes in watershed management. Based on our findings, we argue that the PES mechanism can be a promising approach in financing sustainable watershed management in Nepal. Nevertheless, PES mechanism should be flexible and contextual in terms of institutional arrangement and needs to be strengthened with a strong linkage between service providers and service users, through a regulatory mechanism. An intermediary role of the local government is found to be utmost important to institutionalize the PES mechanism as a sustainable financing mechanism for ensuring watershed services in Nepal.","PeriodicalId":41466,"journal":{"name":"Green Finance","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.6,"publicationDate":"2019-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45442843","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Green FinancePub Date : 2019-06-01DOI: 10.3934/GF.2019.3.279
Rui Manuel Pereira, A. Pereira
{"title":"Financing a renewable energy feed-in tariff with a tax on carbon dioxide emissions: A dynamic multi-sector general equilibrium analysis for Portugal","authors":"Rui Manuel Pereira, A. Pereira","doi":"10.3934/GF.2019.3.279","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3934/GF.2019.3.279","url":null,"abstract":"Renewable energy production subsidies alleviate the pressure on electricity prices associated with carbon and energy pricing policies in the process of decarbonization and electrification of the Portuguese economy. Our simulation results show that a feed in tariff financed by a carbon tax leads to adverse macroeconomic as well as adverse and regressive distributional welfare effects. On the flip side, however, we show that use of the carbon tax revenues to finance a feed in tariff is an improvement over the simple carbon tax case along all the relevant policy dimensions. The feed in tariff mechanism when added to the carbon tax leads to better environmental outcomes at lower costs both in terms of the economic and social justice implications. The policy implications are clear. First, because of its adverse economic and distributional effects, a carbon tax should not be used in isolation. The use of the revenues to finance a feed in tariff dominates the simple carbon tax case in all dimensions. Second, the search for an appropriate recycling mechanisms beyond a feed in tariff is an issue as important as the carbon tax itself as it pertains to the potential reversal of the adverse effects of such a tax.","PeriodicalId":41466,"journal":{"name":"Green Finance","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.6,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48246758","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Green FinancePub Date : 2019-05-24DOI: 10.3934/GF.2019.2.205
Wei-bin Zhang
{"title":"Growth, environmental change and business cycles in a multi-regional economy","authors":"Wei-bin Zhang","doi":"10.3934/GF.2019.2.205","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3934/GF.2019.2.205","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of this is to examine multi-regional dynamics with wealth and pollutant accumulation over time. The paper generalizes the dynamic model by Zhang (2016). It treats regional amenities endogenous variables dependent on the region’s population and level of pollutants. Regional differences in productivities and amenities are important for modelling regional agglomeration. The government decides environmental tax rates on production, consumption, wealth, income from wealth and housing. The economy is perfectly competitive. The dynamics of -region economy is described by differential equations. We demonstrate business cycles due to different exogenous periodic perturbations in the multi-regional economy","PeriodicalId":41466,"journal":{"name":"Green Finance","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.6,"publicationDate":"2019-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45523833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Green FinancePub Date : 2019-05-02DOI: 10.3934/GF.2019.2.188
G. Shrimali
{"title":"Do clean energy (equity) investments add value to a portfolio?","authors":"G. Shrimali","doi":"10.3934/GF.2019.2.188","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3934/GF.2019.2.188","url":null,"abstract":"Investment in renewable energy needs to increase significantly to address climate change. Large institutional investors with huge asset bases, such as pension funds, mutual funds, insurance companies, and sovereign wealth funds, can be a prime potential source of capital for renewable energy. One way to ensure increased investment commitment from such investors is for them to treat clean energy as a separate asset class in their portfolios. Through this paper, our aim is to present initial insights into the potential effect the addition of clean energy listed equity as a separate asset class can have on existing portfolios. We focus on the value of listed renewable energy equity in a static portfolio optimization problem. Our main finding is that treating renewable energy listed equity as a separate asset class within an investor's portfolio does not appear to add value to that portfolio. On one hand, this may reflect the need for applying more sophisticated techniques to show value. On the other hand, it may also imply that governments, policy makers, and regulators must keep working to ensure the clean energy sector is conducive to mainstream investment.","PeriodicalId":41466,"journal":{"name":"Green Finance","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.6,"publicationDate":"2019-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45791190","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Green FinancePub Date : 2019-04-22DOI: 10.3934/GF.2019.2.174
Gaoke Liao, B. Drakeford
{"title":"An analysis of financial support, technological progress and energy efficiency:evidence from China","authors":"Gaoke Liao, B. Drakeford","doi":"10.3934/GF.2019.2.174","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3934/GF.2019.2.174","url":null,"abstract":"In order to explore the nonlinear relationship between financial support, technological progress and energy efficiency, a panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) is developed to analyze the impact of financial support and technological progress on the energy efficiency. Based on panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2003 to 2016, the total-factor energy efficiency of 30 province-level divisions in China are evaluated using Data Envelopment analysis (DEA). The results show that financial support and technological progress are generally conducive to increasing energy efficiency. However, the increment effect of financial support and technological progress on energy efficiency transitions smoothly between high and low regimes with the changes of the transition variables, such as local government expenditure; foreign direct investment, energy structure and industrial structure. Therefore, the results emphasize the need for enhancing financial support and technological progress in increasing energy efficiency.","PeriodicalId":41466,"journal":{"name":"Green Finance","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.6,"publicationDate":"2019-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46759179","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Green FinancePub Date : 2019-04-18DOI: 10.3934/GF.2019.2.130
B. Novkovska
{"title":"Relationship between shadow and green economy: less shadow more green","authors":"B. Novkovska","doi":"10.3934/GF.2019.2.130","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3934/GF.2019.2.130","url":null,"abstract":"Main aim of this work is to determine the relative efficiency of the hidden (shadow) economy (r) with respect to the regular economy. National economies of different size and level of development have been studied (Macedonia, Albania, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel, Czech Republic, Hungary, Switzerland and United States). Sophisticated energy consumption method was used in calculations. It is found that the ratio r for different economies varies in a large range from 0.14 to 0.70, covering almost the entire interval of theoretically expected values (from 0 to 1). Therefore, world economies differ substantially not only by the size of the hidden economy, but also by the efficiency of the use of energy resources in it. It is expected that the measures leading to the reduction of hidden economy will also provide significant increase of the efficient use of energy and expectedly various other resources. Interventions in the sector of the hidden economy aiming at greener production of energy appear to be particularly important for the ongoing transition to green economy, since it consumes a large part of the total energy due to the low energy efficiency in this sector. In conclusion, in creating policies aimed to cope with the hidden economy, both aspects—the size and the energy efficiency are to be taken into account.","PeriodicalId":41466,"journal":{"name":"Green Finance","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.6,"publicationDate":"2019-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47896180","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Green FinancePub Date : 2019-04-15DOI: 10.3934/GF.2019.2.94
B. Ilic, D. Stojanović, Gordana Djukic
{"title":"Green economy: mobilization of international capital for financing projects of renewable energy sources","authors":"B. Ilic, D. Stojanović, Gordana Djukic","doi":"10.3934/GF.2019.2.94","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3934/GF.2019.2.94","url":null,"abstract":"The aim of the paper is to analyze the sustainability of green economy financing, to determine how and to what extent green economy is financed in the Republic of Serbia, the countries of the ASEAN Association, and what the economic instruments for achieving green growth are. The emphasis will be placed on green bonds, modern securities, as well as the impact they have on international projects for using renewable energy sources. At the Earth Summit of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), a plan of action Agenda 21 was adopted. Some time after the adoption of the plan of action, some favorable changes occurred in the models of financing sustainable development and the amounts of international financial transfers were defined in less developed countries of 125 billion dollars a year. Due to international activities, projects of transferring international financial resources were created with the aim of directing them from the developed to underdeveloped countries to help development of green economy. Since Serbia is one of the less developed countries and in the process of transition for a very long time, a specific recommendation for its own green finance projects can be found, based on the practice from modern countries. As an example of an advanced country that is largely on the path of sustainable development and use of renewable energy sources, the authors have taken into consideration Singapore and compared it with Serbia. The paper gives a certain contribution in terms of analyzing the development of green economy in one of the countries of the ASEAN Association (Singapore) and in Serbia, which is only paving its way of sustainable development, the use of renewable energy sources and forms of green finance.","PeriodicalId":41466,"journal":{"name":"Green Finance","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.6,"publicationDate":"2019-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41341012","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}