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Haydn W

Fossil fuel subsidies 'killing UK's low-carbon future' | Environment | The Guardian - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...il-fuel-subsidies-green-energy

The Guardian Fossil Fuels G20 UK Subsidy Environment

shared by Haydn W on 07 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • Fossil fuel subsidies 'killing UK's low-carbon future'
  • despite commitments to cut carbon emissions and reduce "perverse" fossil fuel subsidies.
  • Britain is "shooting itself in the foot" by subsidising its coal, oil and gas industries by $4.2bn (£2.6bn) a year even as government reviews the "green levies" on energy bills which support energy efficiency and renewable power, according to a report published on Thursday.
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  • The figures from the Overseas Development Institute suggest that Britain is now the world's fifth largest subsidiser of fossil fuels
  • For every $1 spent to support renewable energy, another $6 were spent on fossil fuel subsidies
  • In 2011, the latest year for which data is available, Britain gave tax breaks of £280m to oil and gas producers and reduced VAT on fossil fuels by several billion pounds
  • Rich countries have committed to phase out "inefficient" fossil fuel subsidies but the ODI figures, drawn from the International energy agency, OECD and other sources, suggest global subsidies to fossil fuel producers totalled $523bn a year in 2011 – dwarfing subsidies to renewable energies.
  • £2.6bn yearly incentive favours investment in carbon at the expense of green energy, says thinktank
  • In effect, each of the 11.6bn tonnes of carbon emitted from the top 11 developed countries comes with an average subsidy of $7 a tonne – around $112 for every adult
  • The figures have been released as ministers prepare to go to Poland for the deadlocked UN climate talks and as uncertainty surrounds the future of government-mandated levies on energy bills that support fuel poverty schemes and renewable energy.
  • G20 governments accepted in 2009 that fossil fuel subsidies encourage wasteful consumption, reduce energy security, and undermine efforts to deal with the threat of climate change.
  • The report said: "Investors are being sent the wrong signals on two fronts as carbon prices decline and fossil fuel subsidies increase."
  • The report argues that fossil fuel subsidies also fail in one of their core stated objectives, which is to to benefit the poorest.
  • Haydn W on 07 Nov 13
     
    This article describes how the UK government is heavily subsidising fossil fuel producers instead of prioritising and investing money in renewable sources of energy. Although it is essential to keep crude oil and fossil fuel prices low, as they are essential to many businesses, consumers and indeed the country itself, the G20, of which the UK is part of, has made a commitment to phasing out fossil fuels in favour of greener and more sustainable energy sources. 
Amanda Anna G

Counting the Cost of Fixing the Future - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...cost-of-fixing-the-future.html

Counting the Cost of Fixing Future

shared by Amanda Anna G on 12 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • What would you pay to protect the world in which your great-great-grandchildren will live from hurricanes, drought and the like?
  • Perhaps the most startling conclusion to be drawn from the new estimates is that the sacrifice demanded of our generation to prevent vast climate change down the road may turn out to be rather small.
  • Amanda Anna G on 12 Sep 13
     
    I think this article was appropriate for our task, since most of the article was about opportunity cost, if we should spend our money on fixing the future. This subject (the environment) can be seen as an opportunity cost since we choose to venture our money on the environment for the future, even though we might not will take part of the advantages now, for the moment.
Daniel B

Which oil & gas stocks to buy in volatile environment - 0 views

economictimes.indiatimes.com/...23638150.cms

Price Elasticity

shared by Daniel B on 22 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • Daniel B on 22 Oct 13
     
    This article shows the best possible market where inelastic demand is common. The oil and gas are the products that have the price elasticity of demand below the one. It is caused by the cooperation of the industries and miners as well as it is really hard to find such a good substitutes for it.
Marenne M

True Costs of So-called Cheap Food | Ellen Gustafson - 0 views

www.huffingtonpost.com/...lled-cheap-food_b_4337423.html

'externalities of production'

shared by Marenne M on 26 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • when you look at the prices of so-called "conventional" junk food compared with local, organic fruits and veggies, on a calorie per dollar basis, the junk often wins.
  • Many people assume that it's the produce or organic foods that "cost more" than highly processed, shelf-stable ubiquitous and cheap junk food, but what if the price tags that we see don't tell the whole story?
  • hich requires acres of corn fields, seeds, gallons of water, gas for heavy machinery, pounds of fertilizer and sprays of pesticides, and government subsidies.
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  • give them antibiotics, deal with their waste, transport them to slaughter, power the slaughter facility, refrigerate the ground meat and then cook it
  • processed wheat bun and condiments.
  • so efficient that all of those costs amortize over tons of ground beef and fixings to make a really cheap burger, or are there parts of that whole list of "costs" that don't actually show up in the price of our fast food burgers?
  • Examples of costs not currently factored into our food supply include the environmental outcomes of chemically-intensive and petroleum-intensive agriculture, costs for soil erosion, real water and irrigation costs, pesticide and waste runoff that creates dead zones in our waterways (like the "New Jersey-sized dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico" that stems from nitrogen runoff from our Corn Belt) and then affects the livelihoods of fishermen and shrimp farmers in the Gulf region.
  • Hidden health costs like our global obesity epidemic and the food-related public health issues of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer are certainly not included in the cost of your fast food meal.
  • unpaid externalities like low wages for food workers that often mean government subsidies like food assistance, which is what over 50 percent of fast food worker families are getting
  • "value" and "low prices" of cheap food that we see at the cash register, are not the whole story
  • We are paying today in our health and our taxes and our children
  • will be paying tomorrow with a degraded environment, dirty water, decimated communities and jobs, and denigrated health.
  • Marenne M on 26 Nov 13
     
    This article describes how processed food and fast food have many negative externalities which in the end makes them cost more than organic foods which are more expensive in the stores. Processed foods may be cheaper than organic food, however the pollution during the process of producing the food, the health problems involved and the low wages which are unpaid for are all consequences which in the end will make these foods cost more.
Jakub B

Why do economists describe climate change as a 'market failure'? - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...-climate-change-market-failure

negative externalities

shared by Jakub B on 25 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • Jakub B on 25 Nov 13
     
    When free markets do not maximise society's welfare, they are said to 'fail' and policy intervention may be needed to correct them. Many economists have described climate change as an example of a market failure - though in fact a number of distinct market failures have been identified.
Haydn W

Inflation Forecast 2014-2014: Continued Mild Price Increases - 1 views

www.forbes.com/...continued-mild-price-increases

Forbes Inflation Unemployment Phillips Curve Trade-off

shared by Haydn W on 03 May 14 - No Cached
  • Inflation is likely to remain mild in the next two years, but first a caution: none of the inflation forecasting models is doing a good job these days.
  • the Phillips Curve was our primary way of looking at inflation. William Phillips found an inverse relationship between inflation and unemployment over the period 1861-1957. This simple approach was used here in the United States in the 1960s and 70s.
  • With lower unemployment you would expect greater inflation. However, the Phillips Curve does not explain why inflation didn’t go down much when our unemployment rate was high a few years ago.
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  • Milton Friedman said “Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon . . . .” The relationship was solid for a long time, though financial changes in the 1990s made the theory harder to apply.
  • Unfortunately, the expectations-augmented Phillips Curve has not worked well in recent years. One study found that the predicted inflation for 2010 was negative 4.3 percent, while actual inflation was still positive.
  • Different theories tell us that the actual dynamics by which inflation changes are influenced not only by unemployment but also by inflation expectations.
  • Two different money concepts have been used, the money supply (such as the M2 definition) and the monetary base Recent data for both concepts indicate that inflation should have been much higher in recent years. The fact that inflation has accelerated very little suggests that in the current environment, the money-inflation connection is not very tight.
  • Haydn W on 03 May 14
     
    This article from Forbes is primarily titled to be a forecast about inflation in the coming fiscal year but it also interestingly (and relevant to our studies) discusses the different arguments and criticism surrounding the modelled Phillips Curve. The article also contains an interesting graph that is based on recorded statistics about inflation and unemployment which helps to demonstrate the problems with the Phillips Curve model. 
Talisha R

Subsidising Farmers - 1 views

nymag.com/...t-not-the-poor-still-evil.html

subsidy farmers food-stamps

shared by Talisha R on 07 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • Talisha R on 07 Nov 13
     
    This article is about how farmers have been given subsidies. They have been given the subsidies so that they can do things like grow corn. However, there has been backlash as people feel that the subsidies are not going to a good cause, farmers are being given subsidies but there is no action being taken on food stamps which people are opposing. People are also arguing that ethanol subsidies which are used to make corn are bad for the environment, that is another reason why they are opposing the subsidy. Overall, this article focuses on the negative reaction of farmers being given subsidies.
Zuzanna G

How can America pay for its roads? - 1 views

www.economist.com/...economist-explains-4

PED price elasticity demant tax government excise

shared by Zuzanna G on 09 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • Zuzanna G on 09 Nov 13
     
    This is an article that appeared lately in The Economist. It considers gas taxation in order to fund roads. It gives the factor that we discussed during classes: substitutes to gasoline, PED, the influence on the environment.
Pietro AA

Effects of dumping radioactive waste in ocean need more study, scientists say - 1 views

www.tampabay.com/...2157923

radioactive waste externalities negative production energy

shared by Pietro AA on 21 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • Pietro AA on 21 Dec 13
     
    I found this article very interesting because it has to do with externalities and common goods. I think this article may be associated with the article "Trajedy of the Commons" which we read because instead of talking of men's overconsumption of grass lands, it talks about the overcosumption of the ocean's self-purifying system. Generally, when talking about production of electricity through fission power plants, there will be unusable waste that is highly harmful for men and the environment because it emits highly ionizing radiation. But producers of that energy simply throw that waste in the oceans and wash their hands of the problem. The cost of society for that energy is equal to the producer's cost plus the cost for that damage the nuclear waste does. The marginal social cost is greater then the marginal private cost. But since, in a free market, it the private who determines the quantity consumed, there will be too much nuclear electricity produced with respect to society. "too much" means that resources are not optimally allocated and therefore there is a market failure.
John B

Large fishing nations fail to agree to deep cuts in Pacific tuna quotas | Environment |... - 2 views

www.theguardian.com/...g-nations-fail-cut-tuna-quotas

quota

shared by John B on 24 Oct 14 - No Cached
  • The 33 member states of the commission, which is tasked with ensuring sustainable fishing, negotiated a proposal to reduce the amount of yellowfin and bigeye tuna, which is regularly used in sashimi and sushi, by 2018.
  • The US, China, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia and Taiwan are responsible for 80% of bigeye tuna caught each year. In 2012, a record 2.6m tonnes of tuna was hauled from the Pacific – 60% of the global total.
  • “The big nations are the disappointing ones, given that they’ve refused to take cuts in their quota,” said Amanda Nickson
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  • Large fishing vessels will also now have to carry unique identification numbers, similar to passenger and cargo ships. The move is aimed at reducing illegal and unreported fishing.
  • Although there has been progress on some measures, it’s disappointing to see the commission fail on its core objective, which is to ensure sustainable fishing.
  • John B on 24 Oct 14
     
    This article deals with the quota put on the big nation's extreme fishing. The problem is that the nations ignore the quota and therefore there are species that are on their way to becoming extinct.
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