The Limits to Growth (Meadows, 1972) generated unprecedented controversy with its predictions of the eventual collapse of the world's economies. First hailed as a great advance in science, The Limits to Growth was subsequently rejected and demonized. However, with many national economies now at risk and global peak oil apparently a reality, the methods, scenarios, and predictions of The Limits to Growth are in great need of reappraisal. In "The" "Limits to Growth Revisited," Ugo Bardi examines both the science and the polemics surrounding this work, and in particular the reactions of economists that marginalized its methods and conclusions for more than 30 years. The Limits to Growth was a milestone in attempts to model the future of our society, and it is vital today for both scientists and policy makers to understand its scientific basis, current relevance, and the social and political mechanisms that led to its rejection. Bardi also addresses the all-important question of whether the methods and approaches of The Limits to Growth can contribute to an understanding of what happened to the global economy in the Great Recession and where we are headed from there."

Meteorological and climate data are indeed essential both in day-to-day energy management and for the definition of production and distribution infrastructures. For instance, the supply of electricity to users can be disturbed by extreme meteorological events such as thunderstorms with unusually strong winds, severe icing, severe cold spells, sea level elevation associated with storm surges, floods ... To be protected against such events, it is not sufficient to act after they have taken place. It is necessary to identify their potential impacts precisely and assess the probability of their occurrence. This book shows that this can only be done through an enhanced dialogue between the energy community and the climate and meteorology community. This implies an in-depth dialogue between actors to define precisely what kind of data is needed and how it should be used. Meteo-France has been in long-term cooperation with the energy sector, including the fields of electricity production and distribution. Drawing on this experience, it should be noted in this respect the importance of lo- term partnership between actors as exemplified here by the message of EDF."

Economic diversification remains at the top of the agenda for hundreds of regions around the world. From the single commodity economies of African countries and the Caribbean, to the many single industry regions of Europe and North America, as well as the oil and gas rich but volatile hydrocarbon economies. Economic diversification policies have been around for almost a century with varying degrees of success and failure. Economic Diversification Policies in Natural Resource Rich Economies takes a special interest in the policy experiences of a set of different countries that have extractive industries representing significant drivers of their economies and subsequently are significant contributors to government revenues. It explores twelve cases including upper-middle to high income economies such as Canada, Australia, Iceland and Norway, emerging economies such as Latin America, the GCC (Saudi and UAE), Kazakhstan, Malaysia and Russia, as well as the developing economy of Uganda. Each chapter provides a review of economic diversification experiences including policy environment, diversification strategies, desired outcomes, the role of government, and a critical evaluation of achievements. This book is suitable for those who study environmental economics, development economics and resource management.

The objective of this textbook is to introduce students and professionals to fundamental principles and techniques and emerging technologies in energy informatics and the digitalization of power markets and systems. The book covers such areas as smart grids and artificial intelligence (AI) and distributed ledger technology (DLT), with a focus on information and communication technologies (ICT) deployed to modernize the electric energy infrastructure. It also provides an overview of the smart grid and its main components: smart grid applications at transmission, distribution, and customer level, network requirements with communications technologies, and standards and protocols. In addition, the book addresses emerging technologies and trends in next-generation power systems, i.e., energy informatics, such as digital green shift, energy cyber-physical-social systems (E-CPSS), energy IoT, energy blockchain, and advanced optimization. Future aspects of digitalized power markets and systems will be discussed with real-world energy informatics projects. The book is designed to be a core text in upper-undergraduate and graduate courses such as Introduction to Smart Grids, Digitalization of Power Systems, and Advanced Power System Topics in Energy Informatics.

This book offers a comprehensive review of how plastic pollution is affecting fresh and marine waters, and what the current challenges in plastic waste assessment and management in the aquatic environment are. Plastic waste comprises particles with heterogeneous physicochemical properties such as large size-range, different shapes and polymer types with various additives determining their environmental fate and risk. This complexity raises several open research questions which are explored in this book. Examples are the plastic uptake by aquatic organisms, degradation processes as well as sources and sinks in the environment. Readers will discover real case studies of plastic pollution detection and management in different parts of the world, including Asia, America and Europe, which provide an integrated overview of the global scope of this issue. This book and the companion volume Plastics in the Aquatic Environment - Part II: Stakeholders' Role Against Pollution are valuable resources to students, researchers, policymakers and environmental managers interested in plastic pollution and working towards its reduction.

Floods, species extinction, migration, droughts, super tornadoes - climate change is no longer a threat looming on the horizon but has long since become part of our everyday lives. Limiting the emerging and worsening climate changes is one of the most important challenges of our time. All human induced climate impacts can be traced back to a single factor: Energy. This book provides a comprehensive and readable introduction to the interplay between energy and climate, which also includes the fields of technology, economics, and politics. At the same time, the issue is highly complex and can only be understood in all its details by expert scientists, meaning that the facts are often poorly presented in the political discussion about climate. To put it simply: If we want to stop and even reverse the current climate trends, we need to find answers to the following three questions: * How exactly does our existing way of consuming energy affect the climate? * What options are there for generating energy without negative climate effects, and what do these mean for our lives? * What technological advances will directly help us to achieve this in future? In a non-alarmist yet entertaining manner, the book highlights the key determinants of global energy supply. Readers will come to appreciate the crucial facts about "energy and climate", will be up to date with the latest scientific and technological knowledge, and will understand the global political and economic framework that we need to consider when designing an appropriate future energy and climate policy. At the same time, the author conveys a clear and optimistic message: We already have the technical capabilities (which will be further enhanced in the future) to reverse the devastating climate trends without significantly limiting prosperity. The obstacles lie primarily in economic and political "constraints" and particular conflicts of interest. "A very important book that explains one of the most essential questions of our time - how we can master climate change by an energy transition - with scientific precision and clear words." Georg Kell, founder and former Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact

In the current age of science and technology, our lives have become dominated by countless scientific and technological innovations without which the earth would be a much poorer place. Life as we know would become absolutely bleak and boring without the inventions and advances being made all over the globe. In fact, scientific inventions, discoveries and innovations have ushered in a dramatic revolution in virtually every sphere of life. But at the same time, the skewed use of technology is at loggerheads with the environment. We, and our environment, now face a number of critical challenges and it is in response to this that we wrote this book to raise awareness for environmental issues and related management aspects. With a primary focus on Environmental Management - the rational reconciliation of man and nature, which involves the judicious exploitation and utilization of natural resources without disturbing the ecosystem's balance - it will thus help to improve the relationship between man and environment. Moreover, it offers a wealth of ready-to-use material for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of Environment and Water Management. The book systematically addresses a range of key aspects, e.g. scientific principles, methods and ideas, as well as life-long learning skills for students. Further, it provides a solid foundation for applying scientific approaches to environmental problems.

There is a growing realization that human intent and activity are not easily separated from natural forces in the shaping of landscapes. The pervasive Western dichotomy of culture and nature has proved to be a poor basis for scientific research and long-term environmental management. Humans have been major factors in environmental change for thousands of years using fire, intensive hunting and a wide range of agricultural strategies to transform most ecosystems on the earth long before the Industrial Revolution.All these activities contribute to the making of cultural landscapes which incorporate elements generally classified in two groups: tangible empirical evidence of human behavior, and intangible, symbolic meanings. This book investigates the newly emerging scope of interests and project agendas to investigate and preserve cultural landscapes. It presents the historic, archaeological, ethnographic, and environmental traditions of cultural landscape study and the attempts to reconstruct and analyze the complex processes of cultural changes through prehistoric and historic times. The 'guiding light' of the book is that the fullest understanding of a cultural landscape will materialize through interdisciplinary cooperation, which should involve an ecological approach with historical ecology as the guiding tool, applied archaeology, and environmental planning.The book addresses issues of interest to policymakers-makers and planners and those who investigate cultural landscapes.

Energy is a key resource for transformational development globally. Oil and gas continue to play a key role in this sector irrespective of the gradual transition towards renewables and will continue to do so in most developing and emerging economies in the near future. The industry is complex and highly capital intensive with significant risk, but also with significant benefits. Such a complex but important sector is generally not well understood both in academic and policy circles. This book fills this void by serving as a comprehensive reference to the oil and gas sector, with a focus on emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs). It offers in-depth coverage of the critical and contemporary issues in the economics of oil and gas industry by carefully integrating the relevant theoretical underpinnings and practical policy issues across the value chain of the industry in relation to the development, fiscal arrangements, and the economic and financing aspects of the industry. These insights will significantly deepen the understanding of the industry and extend the knowledge of the sector in ways that existing books do not. The book includes relevant cases and thus, will serve as a valuable resource for students taking courses in market analysis of the oil and gas industry, energy economics, development economics and finance, environmental and resource economics, the political economy of the extractive industry and development studies. Researchers and practitioners working in these areas will also find the book to be a useful reference guide.

Tourism has become one of the most powerful forces organizing the predatory geographies of late capitalism. It creates entangled futures of exploitation and dependence, extracting resources and labor, and eclipsing other ways of doing, living, and imagining life. And yet, tourism also creates jobs, encourages infrastructure development, and in many places inspires the only possibility of hope and well-being. Stuck with Tourism explores the ambivalent nature of tourism by drawing on ethnographic evidence from the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula, a region voraciously transformed by tourism development over the past forty years. Contrasting labor and lived experiences at the beach resorts of Cancun, protected natural enclaves along the Gulf coast, historical buildings of the colonial past, and maquilas for souvenir production in the Maya heartland, this book explores the moral, political, ecological, and everyday dilemmas that emerge when, as Yucatan's inhabitants put it, people get stuck in tourism's grip.

The transformation of Britain's energy policy in the last two decades has been more radical than any such change in developed economies. Since 1979 the great state energy monopolies created after the Second World War have been privatised and made subject to competition. Images of Arthur Scargill and the miners' strike of the 1980s remain vivid, but what effect has the new market philosophy had on Britain's energy industries? Since 1979 the National Coal Board, British Gas, and the Central Electricity Generating Board have all been broken up. Energy trading, electricity pools, auctions, and futures markets first developed, but they failed to solve the old energy policy problems of security of supply and network integrity, and the new ones of the environment and reliance on gas. The government introduced a new regulatory regime as a temporary necessity but regulation did not wither away, rather it grew to be more pervasive. Changing the ownership of the industries did not reduce the government's involvement, it simply changed its form. The 1980s and 1990s were years of energy surpluses and low fossil-fuel prices. There was little need to invest, and much of the investment in the so-called dash for gas was artificially stimulated. The new owners sweated the assets, and engaged in major financial engineering. Takeovers consolidated the industry into a smaller number of dominant firms. As investment priorities became more urgent, with the environmental pressures of climate change and the gradual switch to imported gas, the market philosophy was found wanting. Energy policy could not rely solely on the market. And it is the government which finds itself responsible for resolving the core issues of energy policy. Helm's book tells this story. It is a major study of the new market approach to energy policy in Britain since 1979. It describes the miners' strike, the privatisations of the gas, electricity, nuclear generation, and coal industries, and looks at events such as the dash for gas, regulatory failures in setting monopoly prices, and the takeovers and the consolidations of the late 1990s. Helm sets out the achievements of the new market philosophy, but also analyses why it has ultimately failed to turn energy industries into normal commodity businesses. The revised paperback edition includes a new chapter on the White Paper on a low-carbon economy and updated discussions on nuclear power, to incorporate the 2003 Nuclear White Paper, price reviews, and emissions trading.

The electric power industry has been transformed over the past forty years, becoming more reliable and resilient while meeting environmental goals. A big question now is how to prevent backsliding. Pollution, Politics, and Power tells the story of the remarkable transformation of the electric power industry over the last four decades. Electric power companies have morphed from highly polluting regulated monopolies into competitive, deregulated businesses that generate, transmit, and distribute cleaner electricity. Power companies are investing heavily in natural gas and utility-scale renewable resources and have stopped building new coal-fired plants. They facilitate end-use efficiency and purchase excess electricity produced by rooftop solar panels and backyard wind turbines, helping to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. But these beneficial changes have come with costs. The once-powerful coal industry is on the edge of ruin, with existing coal-fired plants closing and coal mines shutting down. As a result, communities throughout Appalachia suffer from high unemployment and reduced resources, which have exacerbated a spiraling opioid epidemic. The Trump administration's efforts to revive the coal industry by scaling back environmental controls and reregulating electricity prices have had little effect on the coal industry's decline. Major advances therefore come with warning signs, which we must heed in charting the continuing course of sustainable electricity. In Pollution, Politics, and Power, Thomas O. McGarity examines the progress made, details lessons learned, and looks to the future with suggestions for building a more sustainable grid while easing the economic downsides of coal's demise.

For a century, almost all light-duty vehicles (LDVs) have been powered by internal combustion engines operating on petroleum fuels. Energy security concerns about petroleum imports and the effect of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on global climate are driving interest in alternatives. Transitions to Alternative Vehicles and Fuels assesses the potential for reducing petroleum consumption and GHG emissions by 80 percent across the U.S. LDV fleet by 2050, relative to 2005. This report examines the current capability and estimated future performance and costs for each vehicle type and non-petroleum-based fuel technology as options that could significantly contribute to these goals. By analyzing scenarios that combine various fuel and vehicle pathways, the report also identifies barriers to implementation of these technologies and suggests policies to achieve the desired reductions. Several scenarios are promising, but strong, and effective policies such as research and development, subsidies, energy taxes, or regulations will be necessary to overcome barriers, such as cost and consumer choice. Table of Contents Front Matter Overview Summary 1 Introduction 2 Alternative Vehicle Technologies: Status, Potential, and Barriers 3 Alternative Fuels 4 Consumer Attitudes and Barriers 5 Modeling the Transition to Alternative Vehicles and Fuels 6 Policies for Reducing GHG Emissions from and Petroleum Use by Light-Duty Vehicles 7 Policy Options Appendixes Appendix A: Statement of Task Appendix B: Committee Biographies Appendix C: Meetings and Presentations Appendix D: Reports on Transportation Greenhouse Gas Emissions Projections to 2050 Appendix E: Glossary, Conversion Factors, and Acronyms and Abbreviations Appendix F: Vehicles Appendix G: Fuels Appendix H: Modeling

An insiders' guide to everything interested readers need to know about the ongoing consolidation of the utilities industry. Roll-Up delves into the rich history of utilities consolidation-from the original, highly fragmented US industry structure, through the development of industry views on consolidation and participation, to the drivers and events occurring in the cycles of the modern era. Roll-Up also explores the changing motivations for combinations, the hands-on perspectives of successful transactions, and gives a glimpse into what could happen next for utility mergers and acquisitions. Expert utilities consultant Tom Flaherty interviewed twelve current or former chief executive officers, investment bankers, attorneys, and ratings analysts who provided introspection and commentary on their experiences with consolidation in the modern era from 1995-2020. These notable individuals made the tough decisions about whether to pursue a transaction, and they provided constant advice to management, crafted merger agreements, and evaluated the logic of transactions and the potential for successful outcomes. From deal execution to the current nature of business simplification and portfolio rationalization, Roll-Up covers the past and present of utilities consolidation and looks over the horizon at how future transactions might evolve beyond those seen today.

The UK has pioneered the introduction of competition into previously monopolistic utility industries. Competition has been introduced progressively, starting with BT, and continuing with the gas and electricity industries, where it is to be completed during 1998. In water, competition has so far been restricted to new developments, and it is said that it will be phased in once the initial franchises expire. These radical policy innovations have been controversial, and raise significant generic problems concerned with market design, regulation, corporate strategy and income distribution. The lessons from the UK provide an essential input into liberalization throughout the world, as well as helping to shape the transitional arrangements already in place in the UK. This volume brings together independent experts with the specialist regulators to provide a comprehensive analysis of the issues. The common themes are drawn together in the introduction. The volume will be essential reading for utility companies, regulators, politicians and policy advisors.

In this timely book, former Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham debunks the myths that warp our current debate over energy, and offers new solutions to the real problems we face in America.

Drawing on the very latest thinking from experts in industry and academia, and his own experiences running America's Energy Department, he proposes a fresh approach to meeting our daunting energy threats. This book effectively answers how America and the world can overcome the challenges of rising global energy demand, geopolitical disruptions of the energy marketplace, and the environmental impact of producing and using energy. What emerges is a pragmatic energy strategy that calls for blending a variety of energy sources including nuclear, clean coal, solar, wind, and natural gas with a more determined effort at improving energy efficiency through the deployment of smart energy grids and buildings, to help meet our challenges while preserving our economy and environment.

Coming in the midst of a national debate about global warming, energy dependence and rising energy prices and rich with anecdotes from the author's service in the Senate and cabinet, this book is a clarion call that will help shape our energy future.

After the discovery of oil in the 1930s, the Gulf monarchies—Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Bahrain—went from being among the world’s poorest and most isolated places to some of its most ostentatiously wealthy. To maintain support, the ruling sheikhs provide their subjects with boundless cheap energy, unwittingly leading to some of the highest consumption rates on earth. Today, as summertime temperatures set new records, the Gulf’s rulers find themselves caught in a dilemma: can they curb their profligacy without jeopardizing the survival of some of the world’s last absolute monarchies? In Energy Kingdoms, Jim Krane takes readers inside these monarchies to consider their conundrum. He traces the history of the Gulf states’ energy use and policies, looking in particular at how energy subsidies have distorted demand. Oil exports are the lifeblood of their political-economic systems—and the basis of their strategic importance—but domestic consumption has begun eating into exports while climate change threatens to render their desert region uninhabitable. At risk are the sheikhdoms’ way of life, their relations with their Western protectors, and their political stability in a chaotic region. Backed by rich fieldwork and deep knowledge of the region, Krane expertly lays out the hard choices that Gulf leaders face to keep their states viable.

Following the liberalization of EU energy markets, more than three hundred gas and electricity companies entered the market to substitute state-run monopolies. A sizeable shift has taken place within the European energy sector, one that remains only partially understood at best. Focusing on the financial performance of retail energy firms between 2008 and 2017, and taking the Italian market as its exemplar-a market that has arguably undergone the most significant transformation in Europe-Changes in European Energy Markets provides a critical and up-to-date analysis of this major development. Based on a comprehensive literature review and a wealth of data, the authors provide a compelling and much-needed account of the intensity and pace of change in the sector, which has been far from uniform. Changes in European Energy Markets is a must-read for students, researchers, practitioners and policymakers concerned with the seismic changes that have occurred within EU energy markets over the past decade.

The 1970s were a decade of historic American energy crises-major interruptions in oil supplies from the Middle East, the country's most dangerous nuclear accident, and chronic shortages of natural gas. In Energy Crises, Jay Hakes brings his expertise in energy and presidential history to bear on the questions of why these crises occurred, how different choices might have prevented or ameliorated them, and what they have meant for the half-century since-and likely the half-century ahead. Hakes deftly intertwines the domestic and international aspects of the long-misunderstood fuel shortages that still affect our lives today. This approach, drawing on previously unavailable and inaccessible records, affords an insider's view of decision-making by three U.S. presidents, the influence of their sometimes-combative aides, and their often tortuous relations with the rulers of Iran and Saudi Arabia. Hakes skillfully dissects inept federal attempts to regulate oil prices and allocation, but also identifies the decade's more positive legacies-from the nation's first massive commitment to the development of alternative energy sources other than nuclear power, to the initial movement toward a less polluting, more efficient energy economy. The 1970s brought about a tectonic shift in the world of energy. Tracing these consequences to their origins in policy and practice, Hakes makes their lessons available at a critical moment-as the nation faces the challenge of climate change resulting from the burning of fossil fuels.

This book covers the entire gamut of trading of energy which is comparatively a new phenomenon. Today across economy and globe, energy is become a tradable resource. This book covers in great detail the trading processes of oil and gas, power, and emissions (under Clean Development Mechanism). It also provides insights into the key concepts of risk management. The widely prevalent trade flows among various regions and economies are also presented in this book.