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The question of whether biofuels help mitigate climate change has attracted much debate in the literature. Using a global computable general equilibrium model that explicitly represents land-use change impacts due to the expansion of biofuels, this study attempts to shed some light on this question. The study shows that if biofuel mandates and targets currently announced by more than 40 countries around the world are implemented by 2020 using crop feedstocks, and if both forests and pasture lands are used to meet the new land demands for biofuel expansion, this would cause a net increase of greenhouse gas emissions released to the atmosphere until 2043, since the cumulative greenhouse gas emissions released through land-use change would exceed the reduction of emissions due to replacement of gasoline and diesel until then. However, if the use of forest lands is avoided by channeling only pasture lands to meet the demand for new lands, a net increase of cumulative greenhouse gas emissions would occur but would cease by 2021, only a year after the assumed full implementation of the mandates and targets. The study also shows, contrary to common perceptions, that the rate of deforestation does not increase with the rate of biofuel expansion; instead, the marginal rate of deforestation and corresponding land-use emissions decrease even if the production of biofuels increases.

Biofuels --- CGE Analysis --- Climate Change and Environment --- Climate Change Economics --- Climate Change Mitigation --- Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases --- Deforestation --- Energy --- Energy and Environment --- Environment --- Environment and Energy Efficiency

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Municipal solid waste management continues to be a major challenge for local governments in both urban and rural areas across the world, and one of the key issues is their financial constraints. Recently an economic analysis was conducted in Eryuan, a poor county located in Yunnan Province of China, where willingness to pay for an improved solid waste collection and treatment service was estimated and compared with the project cost. This study finds that the mean willingness to pay is about 1 percent of household income and the total willingness to pay can basically cover the total cost of the project. The analysis also shows that the poorest households in Eryuan are not only willing to pay more than the rich households in terms of income percentage in general, but also are willing to pay no less than the rich in absolute terms where no solid waste services are available; the poorest households have stronger demand for public solid waste management services while the rich have the capability to take private measures when public services are not available.

Contingent valuation method --- Economic analysis --- Energy --- Energy and Environment --- Environment --- Environment and Energy Efficiency --- Environmental Economics & Policies --- Multiple bounded discrete choice --- Municipal solid waste management --- Small towns --- Urban Solid Waste Management --- Waste Disposal & Utilization

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Scaling-up adoption of renewable energy technology, such as solar home systems, to expand electricity access in developing countries can accelerate the transition to low-carbon economic development. Using a purposely collected national household survey, this study quantifies the carbon and distributional benefits of solar home system programs in Bangladesh. Three key findings are generated from the study. First, dissemination of solar home systems brings about significant carbon benefits: the total carbon emissions avoided from replacing kerosene use for lighting by solar home systems in non-electrified rural households was equivalent to about 4 percent of total annual carbon emissions in Bangladesh in 2007. This figure increases to about 15 percent if the grid-electricity generation is used as the energy baseline to estimate the carbon avoided from the installation of solar home systems. Second, solar home system subsidies in rural Bangladesh are progressive when the program is geographically targeted. Third, there exists a market potential for solar home systems in many rural areas if micro-credit schemes are made available and the propensity to install solar home systems is very responsive to income, with a 1-percent increase in per capita income increasing the probability of installing solar home systems by 12 percent, controlling for other factors.

Access to Finance --- Carbon emission --- Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases --- Distributional impact --- Energy --- Energy and Environment --- Energy Production and Transportation --- Environment and Energy Efficiency --- Solar Home System --- Bangladesh

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Many experts believe that low-cost mitigation opportunities in agriculture are abundant and comparable in scale to those found in the energy sector. They are mostly located in developing countries and have to do with how land is used. By investing in projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), countries can tap these opportunities to meet their own Kyoto Protocol obligations. The CDM has been successful in financing some types of agricultural projects, including projects that capture methane or use agricultural by-products as an energy source. But agricultural land-use projects are scarce under the CDM. This represents a missed opportunity to promote sustainable rural development since land-use projects that sequester carbon in soils can help reverse declining soil fertility, a root cause of stagnant agricultural productivity. This paper reviews the process leading to current CDM implementation rules and describes how the rules, in combination with challenging features of land-use projects, raise transaction costs and lower demand for land-use credits. Procedures by which developed countries assess their own mitigation performance are discussed as a way of redressing current constraints on CDM investments. Nevertheless, even with improvements to the CDM, an under-investment in agricultural land-use projects is likely, since there are hurdles to capturing associated ancillary benefits privately. Alternative approaches outside the CDM are discussed, including those that build on recent decisions taken by governments in Copenhagen and Cancun.

Agriculture --- Banks & Banking Reform --- Clean Development Mechanism --- Climate Change --- Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases --- Energy and Environment --- Environment and Energy Efficiency --- Environmental Economics & Policies --- Land Use --- Mitigation --- Rural Development --- Sequestration --- Soil Carbon

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Household surveys in Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka were analyzed using a two-stage Heckman model to examine the factors influencing the decision to use liquefied petroleum gas (stage 1) and, among users, the quantity consumed per person (stage 2). In the first stage, liquefied petroleum gas selection in all six countries increased with household expenditure and the highest level of education attained by female and male household members. Electricity connection increased, and engagement in agriculture and increasing household size decreased, liquefied petroleum gas selection in five countries; urban residence increased selection in four countries; and rising firewood and kerosene prices increased selection in three countries each. In the second stage, the quantity of liquefied petroleum gas consumed increased with rising household expenditure and decreasing price of liquefied petroleum gas in every country. Urban residence increased and engagement in agriculture decreased liquefied petroleum gas consumption. Surveys in Albania, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru, which did not report quantities, were also examined by calculating quantities using national average prices. Although fuel prices faced by individual households could not be tested, the findings largely supported those from the first six countries. Once the education levels of men and women were separately accounted for, the gender of the head of household was not statistically significant in most cases across the ten countries. Where it was significant (five equations), the sign of the coefficient was positive for men, possibly suggesting that female-headed households are burdened with unmeasured economic disadvantages, making less cash available for purchasing liquefied petroleum gas.

Biomass --- Cooking --- Education --- Energy --- Energy and Environment --- Energy Conservation & Efficiency --- Energy Poverty --- Energy Production and Transportation --- Fuel --- Gender --- Heckman --- Household Surveys --- Liquefied Petroleum Gas --- LPG --- Markets and Market Access --- Renewable Energy