This book provides a balanced critique of a range of international sustainability certification schemes across nine agricultural and natural resource industries. Certification schemes set standards through intramarket private and multi-stakeholder mechanisms, and while third-party verification is often compulsory, certification schemes are regulated voluntarily rather than legislatively. This volume examines the intricacies of certification schemes and the issues they seek to address and provides the context within which each scheme operates. While a distinction between sustainability certifications and extra-markets or intrabusiness codes of conducts is made, the book also demonstrates how both are often working towards similar sustainability objectives. Each chapter highlights a different sector, including animal welfare, biodiversity, biofuels, coffee, fisheries, flowers, forest management and mining, with the contributions offering interdisciplinary perspectives and utilising a wide range of methodologies. The realities, achievements and challenges faced by varying certification schemes are discussed, identifying common outcomes and findings and concluding with recommendations for future practice and research. The book is aimed at advanced students, researchers and professionals in agribusiness, natural resource economics, sustainability assessment and corporate social responsibility.

The problems of global warming and environmental pollution are some of the most difficult challenges this planet faces in the 21st century. Carbon dioxide, often identified as one of the culprits, is an inevitable product of the combustion of fossil fuels, necessary for our modern economies to survive. Thus, The Carbon Dioxide Problem refers to the extremely complex matter of limiting carbon dioxide concentrations to levels that pose little environmental risk without devastating national economies and reducing living standards on the planet. This timely book offers solutions to the global warming problem that lie in the development of comprehensive energy and environmental policies that emphasize the need to use energy efficiently while looking to develop alternative renewable sources. The experience of Japan is particularly relevant due to that country's great dependence on foreign fuel supplies, which has led it to be at the forefront of developing new energy conservation and antipollution technologies.

South Asia constitutes a key geography in the world today considering its large population and related daunting energy and environmental challenges. Many countries in the region are faced with a growing gap between energy demand and local resources, resulting in an increased dependence on imports. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the energy demand in South Asia will grow at a rate more than double that of the world average in the coming decades. This book addresses the critical subject of energy and environmental outlook for South Asia and presents the wider challenges and the responses at the national and regional level. Features: Discusses and addresses the ongoing energy and environmental challenges faced by almost a quarter of the global population Includes dedicated chapters for each country and presents analysis and recommendations by regional experts Examines how deteriorating air quality and persistent natural disasters are severe environmental challenges for the region Discusses the implications of global warming and climate change for South Asia Includes practical case studies throughout Energy and Environmental Outlook for South Asia will benefit a wide range of stakeholders from various fields including but not limited to energy, environment, economics, national security, and sustainable development. It also serves as a valuable resource for academics, researchers, analysts, policymakers, and representatives of utilities, industry, professional bodies, financial institutions, think tanks, and developmental organizations to better plan their initiatives, activities, and policies. It will help countries in the region and also those around the world by learning from shared experience, and ideally by collaborating for energy and environmental prosperity.

According to recent estimates, around 6,000 people - mostly children under five - die every day from diseases caused by inappropriate water and sanitation (WS) services. Much of the academic and political debate surrounding this issue has focused on private sector participation. By shifting the attention towards the influence of governance, Krause examines the political and sectoral institutions that are essential for the provision of WS services. Utilizing data from sixty-nine developing countries, Matthias Krause demonstrates that the level of democracy has a statistically significant positive impact on access to WS services and that low-quality governance of sub-national governments compromises the internal efficiency of providers and the widespread access to services. This book makes a critical contribution to the water and sanitation research and will help academics and policy-makers to rethink the way in which they deal with water issues.

Climate change and its impact on water resources in agriculture pose one of the biggest challenges for food, energy, fiber, and water security worldwide and, as a consequence, for society. This book presents a multidisciplinary approach towards climate change and water resources in agriculture and provides a comprehensive perspective about the core points central to this subject. Other topics that are covered in this book include important insights concerning hydrological cycle, forests, land use change and water, low carbon agriculture, green economy concepts, as well as the state of the art on United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and Global Research Alliance are provided.

This book examines the coordination of renewable energy policies in the European Union using an innovative theoretical approach to explain national policy making. David Jacobs asks, why are national support instruments for electricity from renewable energy sources converging, even though the harmonisation of these frameworks at the European level has failed? Which causal mechanisms lead to cross-national policy similarities? And what are the implications for policy coordination in the EU? The author traces the evolution of feed-in tariffs - the most successful and most widely used support mechanism for renewable electricity - in Germany, Spain and France. He reveals increasing cross-national policy similarities in feed-in tariff design - despite the failure of harmonizing instruments at the European level. He explains these increasing policy similarities by applying policy convergence theory. Policy convergence can occur voluntarily, based on transnational communication, regulatory competition and technological innovations and these findings have important implications for European policy steering. The key to this book is the interrelation of an innovative theoretical concept (coordination of policies in the international arena via voluntary cooperation) with a very topical empirical research focus - the promotion of renewable energies in the EU. It will be essential reading for scholars and students of environmental policy, comparative politics and European studies.

Providing an analysis of multilateral power markets, this book examines power interconnection in Southeast Asia, especially among the ASEAN countries. It uses evolutionary experience of electricity interconnection and trade in three international markets that have relevance for ASEAN to draw upon common global themes. Specifically, it compares the Southern African Power Pool, the European grid, and Nord Pool. Discussing the progress made among ASEAN countries in regional energy integration, with a particular focus on the Greater Mekong Sub-region interconnection, it also examines the recently announced interconnection concept between Lao People's Democratic Republic, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. Exploring the challenges facing ASEAN interconnection of power grids in the context of previous experience elsewhere in the world, this book presents a template for appropriate best practice in terms of technical, political, and financial requirements. It will therefore be of value to decision makers interested in the political economy of energy in Southeast Asia, as well as academics working on Energy Politics and Southeast Asian Politics.

This book analyzes energy security dynamics in Europe through the prism of security logics. Drawing on the literature on securitization, security logics and security contexts, it scrutinizes energy security debates and policy developments in Germany, Poland and Ukraine, focusing on the pipeline politics, nuclear energy and renewables sector. The contextualized analysis accounts for the wider historical, socio-economic and cultural background from which energy policies emerge and gives a voice to the different stakeholders-from policymakers to the local NGO sector. The book sheds light on the root causes of different energy policy decisions and illustrates that European energy security is currently driven by four security logics-war, subsistence, risk and emancipation. The logic of emancipation is a newly emergent phenomenon embraced by many bottom-up citizens' initiatives and manifested in their drive to self-reliance, the rhetoric of liberation and local practices of energy production. The conceptualization and analysis of the emancipatory logic vis-a-vis other energy security logics help to explain European energy context most effectively-with its background conditions, emerging trends and often controversial national policy approaches. This book will be of much interest to students of critical security studies, energy policy and European politics in general.

This volume in the Fundamentals for the Water and Wastewater Main Operator series covers the basics of piping and valves in water and wastewater plants, including details on fittings, strainers, filters, traps and control systems. The book explains how pipes and valves are used to feed materials (e.g., chemicals) into influents and effluents and also siphon off unwanted liquid and gaseous byproduct. Also covered is how pipes are developed into systems and subsystems and coordinated into a plant-wide functioning unit.

Multinational Enterprise and Transnational Regions offers an innovative approach to the study of the history of transnational economic regions. The Rhine valley is such a region comprising the cities and areas along the Rhine river and its tributaries. The transition from coal to oil that unfolded between 1945 and 1973 rapidly transformed the region, shattering some of the old river-based connections and creating new ones with the introduction of large-scale cross-border oil pipelines. Multinational enterprises shaped these new regional connections but divergent national government responses gave rise to differentiated development in different parts of the Rhine valley. Multinational Enterprise and Transnational Regions argues that processes of regional change should be understood from transnational interconnections rather than from local or national perspectives. This book uses a transnational business history methodology to tease out the region's transformation and to circumvent the national bias in public sources. It will be of relevance to academics and researchers with an interest in regional and transnational European history, international business, environmental history, and business history, as well as practitioners interested in the oil industry, energy and energy history, business history and international business, and associated disciplines.

This book, which was first published in 1992 and then updated in 2007, provides a tool for dealing with the legal and institutional aspects of water resources management within national contexts and at the level of transboundary water resources. Like its two previous editions, it seeks to cover all aspects that need to be known in order to attain good water governance, but it provides updates concerning developments since 2007. These relate, inter alia, to the following: - the "greening" of water law, which calls for the progressive integration of environmental law principles into domestic and international water law; - the adoption, by the International Law Commission in 2008, of the Draft Articles on the Law of Transboundary Aquifers, and subsequent developments; - the emergence of the right to water as a self-standing human right; - the adoption of domestic water laws supporting integrated water resources management (IWRM) and enhanced public participation in planning and decision making; - the integration into these laws of tools facilitating adaptive water management as a response to climate variability and change; - progress in the implementation of EU law; - recent international agreements and judicial decisions; - efforts of regional organizations other than the EU to steer cooperation in the management of transboundary water resources and the harmonization of national laws; - institutional mechanisms for the management of transboundary water resources (surface and underground). Unique in its scope and nature, the book identifies the legal and institutional issues arising in connection with water resources management and provides guidelines for possible solutions in a manner accessible to a wide range of readers. Thus, it is a useful reference for lawyers and non-lawyers - engineers, hydrologists, hydrogeologists, economists, sociologists - dealing with water resources within government institutions, river basin commissions, international organizations, financing institutions and academic institutions, among other things, and also for students of disciplines related to water resources.

In 1974, John R. Vallentyne predicted that by the year 2000 we would be living in an environmental disaster he called the Algal Bowl. Just as the Dust Bowl of the 1930s was created by misusing western farmland, he forecast that the continuing misuse of lakes could only lead to water degradation. In the first edition of The Algal Bowl: Lakes and Man, he explained how the biology of lakes is changed by an overload of nutrients - a process known as eutrophication. Vallentyne demonstrated that human activity was the primary cause of eutrophication and therefore responsible for the explosive growth of algae. His efforts helped move policy makers in North America to action regarding the dangers of phosphates in fresh water. Witnessing the escalation of eutrophication, Vallentyne invited his colleague, David W. Schindler, to substantially revise this ground-breaking book. Along with updates to the scientific data, Schindler added five chapters of new research, including the effect of eutrophication on ocean estuaries. Two of North America's leading water scientists joined forces to explain the science and strategies that are essential to understanding and protecting whole water systems from eutrophication and massive algae blooms. Scientists, opinion leaders, policy makers, and concerned citizens will find this fully revised and expanded second edition an unambiguous diagnosis and prescription for change.

The greatest challenge of our time is to build a world based on the sustainable use of renewable power. Our massive dependence on fossil fuels has upset the very climatic system that made human evolution possible. The global economy and its financial system are in jeopardy, running hot on overtly cheap yet increasingly costly and fast depleting oil. A 100% renewable world is seen by many as an impossible dream in anything but the very long term. But not only do a growing number of initiatives and plans dare to make the change but many have already achieved it. This rich collection presents a series of pioneering efforts and their champions, and the paths to their successes. Ranging from initiatives by individuals to visions for companies, communities and entire countries, it defeats tired economic and technical counter-arguments, showing how the schemes featured not only can and do work but do so economically and with available technology. The book is introduced by incisive writing by Peter Droege, explaining the challenges and framing a roadmap towards a 100% renewable reality.

Over the past 50 years the US economy has experienced economic dynamism and technological change at a dizzying pace, driven substantially by innovation in digital communication technology. This dynamism has had limited effects in the electricity industry, and institutional change within the industry to adapt to these changes has been variable. Many states in the U.S. do not participate in open wholesale markets, and even more states have either no retail markets or have implemented such a restricted and politicized version of retail markets that potential retail market entrants still face substantial entry barriers. This book explores institutional design and regulatory policies in the US electricity industry that can adapt to unknown and changing conditions produced by economic, social, and technological change. Whereas the dominant regulatory paradigm has traditionally been centralized economic and physical control based on natural monopoly theory and power systems engineering, the ideas presented and synthesized by Kiesling compose a different paradigm - decentralized economic and physical coordination through contracts, transactions, price signals, and integrated intertemporal wholesale and retail markets. Digital communication technology, and its increasing pervasiveness and affordability, make this decentralized coordination possible. Kiesling argues that with decentralized coordination, distributed agents themselves control part of the system, and in aggregate their actions produce order. Technology makes this order feasible, but the institutions, the rules governing the interaction of agents in the system, contribute substantially to whether or not order can emerge from this decentralized coordination process.

Tapping Water Markets is about the past, present, and future of water markets. It compares water markets with political water allocation, documents the growth of water markets, and explores the ways in which water markets can be improved and implemented further. This book provides up-to-date information of where and why water shortages are occurring and where and why water markets are evolving to resolve conflicting water uses. Though the main focus is on the United States, it includes examples from other parts of the world to show how water markets are beginning to thrive. It contains institutional detail that is accessible to people who are not economic or hydrologic experts, and comes alive with numerous examples and case studies of water markets. The book begins with an analysis of water institutions as they have varied over time and location. It then covers a range of discrete water management topics including surface water allocation, groundwater management, environmental flows, and water quality trading. The book concludes with predictions about the future of water scarcity and the ability of water markets to shape that future more positively.

Ecotechnologies for wastewater treatment (EWWT) have been used as a cost-effective alternative to conventional wastewater treatment methods for improving the removal of organic carbon, nutrients and pathogenic microorganisms from wastewater. However, due to biochemical transformations of organic matter and nutrients EWWT are net sources of CO2, CH4 and N2O greenhouse gases (GHGs), which may be transferred into the atmosphere contributing to global warming. Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Ecotechnologies for Wastewater Treatment provides scientific information about greenhouse gas, such as CO2, CH4 and N2O, generation and emissions from different municipal EWWT. The main EWWT considered in this book are anaerobic ponds, facultative ponds, duckweed-based ponds, and a freshwater natural wetland perturbed by anthropogenic activities such as wastewater discharge and nutrients from agricultural run-off. The book includes a full literature review of recent publications about GHGs emissions from EWWT. It also introduces the calculation of GHGs flux using a static chamber technique. Besides, the book presents information on the influence of environmental factors such as temperature, pH, DO, and nutrients on GHG emissions produced in EWWT under tropical conditions. This book will be a useful reference for researches and students interested in the broader area of water and climate change subjects. The publication may also be of interest to policy makers concerned with climate change, water sector planning, and wastewater treatment.

An impending energy crisis is looming globally, which has led to the use of effluents from paper mills for enhanced oil recovery (EOR), CO2 flooding and wastewater treatment by biosurfactants, and the current market demand for cost-competitive and environment-friendly alternatives to synthetic chemicals. This up-to-date book on petroleum technology provides a comprehensive review of the background and recent advances in the field of petroleum technology and highlights various facets of the fascinating world of upstream, midstream and downstream petroleum technologies. It comprises 25 chapters, each representing the progress, prospects and challenges in petroleum research, and focuses on the tremendous progress made by the scientific community in this research field. The book covers in detail EOR processes, reservoir engineering, production operation and optimisation, pipeline transportation and storage, CO2 capture and sequestration, wastewater management and innovative treatment, refining technologies, environmental chemistry, and biochemistry and biotechnology for the petroleum industry.

Fuel Taxes and the Poor challenges the conventional wisdom that gasoline taxation, an important and much-debated instrument of climate policy, has a disproportionately detrimental effect on poor people. Increased fuel taxes carry the potential to mitigate carbon emissions, reduce congestion, and improve local urban environment. As such, higher gasoline taxes could prove to be a fundamental part of any climate action plan. However, they have been resisted by powerful lobbies that have persuaded people that increased fuel taxation would be regressive. Reporting on examples of over two dozen countries, this book sets out to empirically investigate this claim. The authors conclude that while there may be some slight regressivity in some high-income countries, as a general rule, fuel taxation is a progressive policy particularly in low income countries. Rich countries can correct for regressivity by cutting back on other taxes that adversely affect poor people, or by spending more money on services for the poor. Meanwhile, in low-income countries, poor people spend a very small share of their money on fuel for transport. Some costs from fuel taxes may be passed on to poor people through more expensive public transportation and food transport. Nevertheless, in general the authors find that gasoline taxes become more progressive as the income of the country in question decreases. This book provides strong arguments for the proponents of environmental taxation. It has immediate policy implications at the intersection of multiple subject areas, including transportation, environmental regulation, development studies, and climate change. Published with Environment for Development initiative.

Conventional services, such as water, energy and waste services, have been for a long time physically networked and centrally managed. Today, this delivery model appears increasingly inefficient in two respects. It often fails in guaranteeing its financial viability and equitable service access, and and it generally draws heavily on the natural resources conveyed by these services. The book aims thus at exploring how service coproduction, based on public-community collaborations, can represent a valuable alternative to the conventional service provision model. Contributions in this book look into service coproduction and its relationship with the conventional service model both in the Global North (Germany) and Global South (Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, India, Tanzania). They also address a variety of different perspectives in coproducing conventional services, such as the role of service modernisation, the variety of non-networked solutions, the relationship with the commons, just to cite some of them. Eventually, this book provides a first comprehensive exploration of the service coproduction theory in relation to conventional services, such as water, energy and waste. The chapters originally published as a special issue in Urban Research & Practice.

Australia's Uranium Trade explores why the export of uranium remains a highly controversial issue in Australia and how this affects Australia's engagement with the strategic, regime and market realms of international nuclear affairs. The book focuses on the key challenges facing Australian policy makers in a twenty-first century context where civilian nuclear energy consumption is expanding significantly while at the same time the international nuclear nonproliferation regime is subject to increasing, and unprecedented, pressures. By focusing on Australia as a prominent case study, the book is concerned with how a traditionally strong supporter of the international nuclear nonproliferation regime is attempting to recalibrate its interest in maximizing the economic and diplomatic benefits of increased uranium exports during a period of flux in the strategic, regime and market realms of nuclear affairs. Australia's Uranium Trade provides broader lessons for how - indeed whether - nuclear suppliers worldwide are adapting to the changing nuclear environment internationally.

Any understanding of the complex politics of the post-Soviet Caucasus presupposes an understanding of the relationship between the transportation of Azerbaijan's oil, inter-state relations and ethnic conflicts. Energy and Security in the Caucasus is a contribution to the debate revolving around the geo-politics of the Caucasus.

The Smart Grid has the potential to revolutionize electricity delivery systems, and the security of its infrastructure is a vital concern not only for cyber-security practitioners, engineers, policy makers, and utility executives, but also for the media and consumers. Smart Grid Security: An End-to-End View of Security in the New Electrical Grid explores the important techniques, challenges, and forces that will shape how we achieve a secure twenty-first century electric grid. Includes a Foreword by Michael Assante, President and CEO, National Board of Information Security ExaminersFollowing an overview of the components of the Smart Grid, the book delves into the evolution of security standards and regulations and examines ways in which the Smart Grid might be regulated. The authors discuss the technical details about how metering technology is being implemented and the likely threats and vulnerabilities that utilities will face. They address the home area network (HAN) and examine distribution and transmission-the foundation for the delivery of electricity, along with distributed generation, micro-grids, and operations. The book explores future concepts-such as energy storage and the use of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs)-in addition to the concomitant risk for fraud and manipulation with stored energy. Consumer-related issues are discussed as they pertain to emerging ways of receiving and generating energy. The book examines dysfunctions ranging from inadvertent outages to cyber-attack and presents recommendations on how to respond to these incidents. It concludes with speculation of future cyber-security challenges and discusses new ways that the grid can be defended, such as better key management and protection. Written in a style rigorous enough for the practitioner yet accessible to a broad audience, this comprehensive volume covers a topic that is becoming more critical to industry and consumers everywhere.

Are oil-rich countries prone to war? And, if so, why? There is a widely held belief that contemporary wars are motivated by the desire of great powers like the United States or Russia to control precious oil resources and to ensure energy security. This book argues that the main reason why oil-rich countries are prone to war is because of the character of their society and economy. Sectarian groups compete for access to oil resources and finance their military adventures through smuggling oil, kidnapping oil executives, or blowing up pipelines. Outside intervention only makes things worse. The use of conventional military force as in Iraq can bring neither stability nor security of supply. This book examines the relationship between oil and war in six different regions: Angola, Azerbaijan, Colombia, Indonesia, Nigeria and Russia. Each country has substantial oil reserves, and has a long history of conflict. The contributors assess what part oil plays in causing, aggravating or mitigating war in each region and how this relation has altered with the changing nature of war. It offers a novel conceptual approach bringing together Kaldor's work on 'new wars' and Karl's work on the petro-state.

Recent developments like the rising trend in crude oil price, the international economic crisis, the civil revolts in Northern Africa and the Middle East, the nuclear threat in Japan after the tsunami, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the economic growth of emerging countries like China and India have a direct relation to the security of energy supply anywhere in the world. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of energy risks, energy scenarios and energy policies with special reference to the European Union and its member states, emphasizing the economic and geopolitical dimensions of energy security.

The book assesses both quantitatively and qualitatively the socioeconomic and political risks related to the European energy supply, together with the EU 's energy relations with other countries. Two innovative indicators have been developed to estimate geopolitical energy risks and energy-related relations with other countries. The book also examines the process of convergence of member states energy security policies, the path towards a common European energy policy, and the process of Europeanization projected towards the energy corridors through which the EU receive energy imports. In addition, alternative strategic scenarios related to energy risk are assessed. Finally, guidelines for the EU 's energy policy and new strategies using energy corridors are suggested in order to maximize EU 's energy security.

The book should be of interest to students and researchers across a wide range of subjects, including energy economics and policy, energy and foreign policy in the EU, energy policies in EU member states and several aspects related to international political economy.

Stability of the electricity industry is crucial for economic growth of all nations. Sustainable economic growth cannot be accomplished without secured energy supply. The book underlines how management of the electricity industry should be conducted and the efficient form of electricity market structure. The book also studies the electricity industry in Korea which has been a strongly supportive and vital factor in the economic development of Korea for the last few decades. The book focuses on the three market players of the electricity market and they are the suppliers, consumers and the government-related organizations. It includes detailed information on generation and finances at the generator level and analyzes the efficiency differences among generators, plants and business units by using different performance measurement methods. It identifies and analyzes different production factors' effectiveness and relationships in generation. The comprehensive analysis helps to provide explanations in the differences in the performance of the studied units. The book also discusses the implications of the findings for future resource allocation and how we can further enhance the efficiency of the industry. The book will appeal to those interested in energy and energy policies, as well as researchers and practitioners in the economic development and electricity and utilities industry.