Perverse incentives under the CDM: an evaluation of HFC-23 destruction projects

The clean development mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol allows industrialized countries to use credits from greenhouse gas (GHG) abatement projects in developing countries. A key requirement of the CDM is that the emission reductions be real, measurable and additional. This article uses data from registered projects to evaluate the extent to which these objectives are met by projects that reduce hydrofluorocarbon-23 (HFC-23) emissions in the production of hydrochlorofluorocarbon-22 (HCFC-22). The data show that HCFC-22 plants produced significantly less HFC-23 during periods when no emission credits could be claimed compared with periods when HFC-23 destruction could be credited under the CDM. Moreover, the total amount of HCFC-22 produced appears to be determined mainly by CDM rules. This suggests that the claimed emission reductions may partly not be real and that the CDM provides perverse incentives to generate more HFC-23. The accelerated phase-out of HCFCs under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer could worsen this situation. To address these issues an ambitious emission benchmark for the baseline HFC-23 emissions is proposed.     

Benchmark-based allocations in EU ETS Phase 3: an early assessment

Phase 3 of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS; 2013–2020) sees the introduction of new rules governing the free allocations of emissions allowances given to energy-intensive industries. In contrast to Phases 1 and 2, allocations will be based on historical production multiplied by best available emissions technology benchmarks. This article exploits an original database to provide a first analysis of the distributional and economic efficiency implications of the new rules. It is shown empirically that the new allocation rules reduce the scope for windfall gains by EU ETS firms while also effectively mitigating carbon leakage risks, even assuming optimistic forecasts of Phase 3 carbon prices. The example of the cement sector is used to show that benchmarking significantly improves the harmonization of the levels of free allocations to competing firms throughout the EU compared to Phase 2. However, it is also found that the use of ex ante output levels to determine allocations still leaves considerable scope for windfall gains and possible distortions of the internal market.     

Approaches to modelling coupled flow and reaction in a 2D cementation experiment

Porosity evolution at reactive interfaces is a key process that governs the evolution and performances of many engineered systems that have important applications in earth and environmental sciences. This is the case, for example, at the interface between cement structures and clays in deep geological nuclear waste disposals. Although in a different transport regime, similar questions arise for permeable reactive barriers used for biogeochemical remediation in surface environments.The COMEDIE project aims at investigating the coupling between transport, hydrodynamics and chemistry when significant variations of porosity occur. The present work focuses on a numerical benchmark used as a design exercise for the future COMEDIE-2D experiment. The use of reactive transport simulation tools like Hytec and Crunch provides predictions of the physico-chemical evolutions that are expected during the future experiments in laboratory. Focus is given in this paper on the evolution during the simulated experiment of precipitate, permeability and porosity fields.A first case is considered in which the porosity is constant. Results obtained with Crunch and Hytec are in relatively good agreement. Differences are attributable to the models of reactive surface area taken into account for dissolution/precipitation processes. Crunch and Hytec simulations taking into account porosity variations are then presented and compared. Results given by the two codes are in qualitative agreement, with differences attributable in part to the models of reactive surface area for dissolution/precipitation processes. As a consequence, the localization of secondary precipitates predicted by Crunch leads to lower local porosities than for predictions obtained by Hytec and thus to a stronger coupling between flow and chemistry. This benchmark highlights the importance of the surface area model employed to describe systems in which strong porosity variations occur as a result of dissolution/precipitation. The simulation of highly non-linear reactive transport systems is also shown to be partly dependent on specific numerical approaches.     

Should the use of standardized baselines in the CDM be mandatory?

There has been considerable debate on the merits of standardized baselines (SBLs) in the clean development mechanism (CDM), and how such baselines could reduce transaction costs for CDM projects. It has not been considered whether the voluntary versus mandatory use of SBLs by CDM project developers can affect the environmental integrity of the CDM. An example is given in which SBLs are applied to a homogeneous output industry in order to illustrate how the voluntary use of SBLs could lead – even with relatively stringent benchmarks – to over-crediting of emission reduction credits.     

中国电网企业成本合理性评价与空间分异特征

电网企业因其垄断特性造成的成本信息不对称性,不仅制约了政府对电网企业监管的效率,而且使消费者对电价定价缺乏信任,因而,评估电网企业的成本合理性具有重要的理论和现实意义。从空间对标视角,以中国国家电网公司各分公司的运行维护费为样本,采用Gini准则融合多种DEA模型的测算结果,并进行空间系统聚类分析,结果表明：① 全国大多数省级电网公司运行维护费支出处于合理水平,但部分电网企业的分量成本合理性水平较低;② 运营绩效水平较高的公司存在更高的绩效提升边际成本,较容易发生成本的支出不合理;③ 各电网公司在选择成本对标标准时,既要选择成本合理性程度较好的公司作为参照,又要依据动态参考原则随时调整合理成本的参照系。     

How much physical complexity is needed to model flood inundation?

Two‐dimensional flood inundation models are widely used tools for flood hazard mapping and an essential component of statutory flood risk management guidelines in many countries. Yet, we still do not know how much physical complexity a flood inundation model needs for a given problem. Here, three two‐dimensional explicit hydraulic models, which can be broadly defined as simulating diffusive, inertial or shallow water waves, have been benchmarked using test cases from a recent Environment Agency for England and Wales study, where results from industry models are also available. To ensure consistency, the three models were written in the same code and share subroutines for all but the momentum (flow) and time‐stepping calculations. The diffusive type model required much longer simulation times than the other models, whilst the inertia model was the quickest. For flows that vary gradually in time, differences in simulated velocities and depths due to physical complexity were within 10% of the simulations from a range of industry models. Therefore, for flows that vary gradually in time, it appears unnecessary to solve the full two‐dimensional shallow water equations. As expected, however, the simpler models were unable to simulate supercritical flows accurately. Finally, implications of the results for future model benchmarking studies are discussed in light of a number of subtle factors that were found to cause significant differences in simulations relative to the choice of model. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An extended Huff-model for robustly benchmarking and predicting retail network performance

This study proposes a modified Huff model that takes directly into account spatial competition between stores of the same brand, brand attraction based on actual brand performance and spatially variable substitution. The model uses only publicly available or easily acquirable data as input, whereas model output is extensively validated on various levels. These levels include comparison of modeled and real market shares on block, store and brand level for the Belgian food market. Results show that multi-objective optimization of model parameters yields comparable results on block level to other models in the literature but improved results on store and brand levels, thereby ensuring model robustness. This robustness also enables the application of the model for various business purposes as store location determination, leaflet distribution optimization, store and store concept benchmarking, without loss of spatial generality.     

对标先进企业力促转型发展

本文以中铁二院工程集团有限责任公司为例,在阐述管理提升意义、对标管理涵义的基础上,选取中国成达工程有限公司作为标杆企业进行对比分析,探讨提出形成发展合力、创新管理与商业模式、加强技术创新与转化以及完善人才开发机制等企业转型发展的方向。     

Cross-border regional enlargement in Øresund

Cross-border regional enlargement entails complex dynamics. The integration process at the maritime border between Sweden and Denmark illustrates this. Physical infrastructure has been improved by national governments and intranational and supranational institutions have added to the instrumentation as a precondition for social interaction and integration. The outcome of these efforts is here tested under a hypothesis that in spite of this forceful cocktail of policy instruments, the cross-border regionalization process is at best a long-run phenomenon in the ?resund Region. The point of departure is the stepwise procedure for the formation of binational cities suggested in Ehlers (2001, GeoJournal 54: 21–32). Social interaction is identified as the pivotal factor in the present state of integration of the ?resund Region using Bucken-Knapp (2001, GeoJournal 54: 51–60). A benchmarking method is proposed for testing social interaction in the labour market, where cross-border dynamics are benchmarked against national dynamics. The cross-border regional enlargement process is still in its very infancy and a continued focus on policies to promote cross-border social interaction is required. The present governance without government approach to cross-border cooperation in the ?resund Region is in that respect challenged by a reform of the Danish geo-administrative system.