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City Logistics
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-08-043903-7

Book part
Publication date: 1 March 2016

Tony Phillips

This chapter presents a South American perspective on the environmental and financial sustainability of energy integration incorporating recent financial lessons from the United…

Abstract

Purpose

This chapter presents a South American perspective on the environmental and financial sustainability of energy integration incorporating recent financial lessons from the United States and Europe. An illustrative project called UNASUR-GRID is presented to highlight new thinking on funding ecologically sensitive development (post-carbon electricity generation) and regional energy sovereignty via a new regional development bank for the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) called Bank of the South, Banco del Sur (BDS) 1,2 . Sustainable BDS finance rules are presented that aim to break the link between development funding, environmental damage, and sovereign debt owed to banks outside the region, tapping into alternative finances to buffer the region against changes in global financial flows from core nations in the Great Recession.

Methodology/approach

The author attended presidential meetings of MERCOSUR and UNASUR supplementing this with presidential declarations comparing these with ongoing development planning from IIRSA, also interviewing a COSIPLAN representative. He also cooperated (as an independent researcher) with the Ecuadorian Central Bank research group called ‘New Architectures for Regional Finance’ (NAFR) and conducted technical interviews at South American energy institutes specialising in integration.

Findings

Development finance must reflect changes in both energy supply and demand while replacing fossil fuel inputs in electricity generation. Demand planning is necessary to attain sovereignty over a post-carbon electricity supply while maintaining dependability.

Practical implications

Successful energy cooperation is more than just energy infrastructure (UNASUR-GRID), cross-border confidence building is also required, reinforced by commercial treaties for energy exports and imports. Public and private national and regional energy companies need real incentives to trade internationally (improving competition) or renationalisation of supply and distribution may be necessary.

Originality/value

Highly original, this chapter incorporates government, UN and civil NGO inputs into primary research. BDS policy sources include government, ministerial and presidential speeches with interviews and participation in meetings with social movements. For indigenous ecological and social economic concepts such as Sumak Kawsay, the author has travelled extensively in South America and was an active participant at the first World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the 2010 Rights of Mother Earth (World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, 2014) in Cochabamba, Bolivia, along with ecologists and tribal representatives.

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Lessons from the Great Recession: At the Crossroads of Sustainability and Recovery
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-743-1

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Making Mergers and Acquisitions Work
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78743-350-2

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Harnessing the Power of Failure: Using Storytelling and Systems Engineering to Enhance Organizational Learning
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78754-199-3

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Energy Security in Times of Economic Transition: Lessons from China
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83982-465-4

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Information Services for Innovative Organizations
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-12465-030-5

Book part
Publication date: 22 December 2016

Fabio Lorusso

The Chinese electricity sector is in the midst of a transition from a state-owned monopoly to a market-oriented structural unbundling. In the process of restructuring, the power…

Abstract

Purpose

The Chinese electricity sector is in the midst of a transition from a state-owned monopoly to a market-oriented structural unbundling. In the process of restructuring, the power system is facing significant deficiencies which hinder integration of sustainable solutions and dramatically impact the environment.

Methodology/approach

The chapter provides a qualitative analysis of the legislative, regulatory, and administrative provisions that have been recently implemented in the Chinese electricity sector, in order to identify the barriers that limit implementation of sustainable solutions and suggest prospects of change.

Findings

Despite a strong commitment to renewable energy, integration of sustainable solutions in the Chinese power system is hampered by an inefficient coordination between the players variously operating in the electricity sector and a lack of consistency at the regulatory design stage.

Practical implications

A clear picture of the legislative, regulatory, and administrative inconsistencies that characterize the Chinese electricity sector may help Chinese policy makers to overcome issues that hinder efficiency and hence develop a systemic approach useful to make the economic growth sustainable.

Originality/value

The chapter considers integration of sustainable solutions as related to the policy makers’ ability to conceptualize systemic efficiency in relation to an original understanding of proximity between efficient energy systems to be developed on a regional basis.

Details

China and Europe’s Partnership for a More Sustainable World
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-331-3

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Modern Energy Market Manipulation
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78743-386-1

Book part
Publication date: 30 October 2009

Roland Geyer and Max DuBuisson

In the 1930s, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were developed as safe, non-reactive alternatives to toxic and explosive refrigerants and propellants such as ammonia, chloromethane, and…

Abstract

In the 1930s, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were developed as safe, non-reactive alternatives to toxic and explosive refrigerants and propellants such as ammonia, chloromethane, and sulfur dioxide. American engineer Thomas Midgley famously demonstrated these properties by inhaling Freon (CFC-12) and blowing out a candle with it. He was presented with many awards for his discoveries, such as the Perkin, Priestley, and William Gibbs medals. In today's jargon, CFCs might have been called an eco-innovation, because they provided solutions to several environmental issues. However, CFCs solved environmental problems by creating others. In 1974, Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina published their pathbreaking research that demonstrated CFCs were depleting the ozone layer. In 1989, the Montreal Protocol, which regulates a global phaseout of CFCs, entered into force. A few years later, in 1995, Rowland and Molina received the Nobel Price in Chemistry. The new substitutes for CFCs, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), have no known effects on the ozone layer but are extremely potent greenhouse gases (GHGs) and thus subject to the Kyoto Protocol.

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Frontiers in Eco-Entrepreneurship Research
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84855-950-9

Book part
Publication date: 27 August 2014

Kevin Jones

This chapter focuses on the common occurrence of wholesale electricity prices that fall below the cost of production. This “negative pricing” in effect represents payment to…

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the common occurrence of wholesale electricity prices that fall below the cost of production. This “negative pricing” in effect represents payment to high-volume consumers for taking excess power off the grid, thus relieving overload. Occurrences of negative pricing have been observed since the wholesale electricity markets have been operating, and occur during periods of low demand, while generators are being kept in reserve for rapid engagement when demand increases (it is expensive and time-consuming to shut down generators and then restart them, so they are often kept in “spooling mode”). In such situations power production may temporarily exceed demand, potentially overloading the system. When the federal government began subsidizing the construction of wind generation projects, with regulations in place requiring transmission grids to accept all of the electricity produced by the wind generators, negative pricing became more frequent.

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Research in Finance
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-759-7

1 – 10 of over 2000