The fairness of shared responsibility for embodied carbon emission: a case study of the Yellow River Basin, China

Under the dual constraints of China's carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, as well as ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, clarifying the embodied carbon emissions and responsibility sharing of inter-provincial trade is crucial to the carbon reduction strategy of the Yellow River Basin. This paper uses the MRIO (multi-regional input-output) model to measure the production-side and consumption-side responsibility sharing of nine provinces in the Yellow River Basin in 2012 and 2017, revealing the amount and direction of the embodied carbon transfer between provinces, and finally introduces the share of provincial value added as the responsibility sharing factor to compare and analyze the differences between the three responsibility sharing methods. The results show the following: (1) The embodied carbon emissions on the production side in most provinces of the Yellow River Basin were larger than that on the consumption side, with the most significant differences in Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, and Shandong, among which local demand carbon emissions and intermediate product transfer out of carbon emissions were the main causes of production-side carbon emissions. (2) In general, all provinces except Shaanxi were net carbon transfer-in regions, and the embodied carbon was mainly transferred to Beijing, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Hebei. (3) Shared responsibility for carbon emissions was jointly determined by the volume of embodied carbon trade and the ability to obtain value added, which lay between production and consumption side responsibility shares. (4) The Yellow River Basin had a large responsibility-sharing factor and embodied carbon trade, and thus needs to take more responsibility for emission reduction. This study is expected to provide scientific support for the strategy of differentiated emission reduction in the Yellow River Basin and enrich the regional carbon accounting methods.

An output-based measurement of EU bioeconomy services: Marrying statistics with policy insight

In its revised bioeconomy strategy, the European Union (EU) has extended the scope of activities to include services. Employing an output-based approach, this study quantifies the contribution of bioeconomy services to gross domestic product and employment in the EU Member States over 2008-2017. Moreover, it also identifies the main sectoral sources of employment and growth within bioeconomy services. The choice of Eurostat statistics ensures data harmonisation across countries and continuity for future updates, although important data needs are identified to enhance the representation of bioeconomy services within European statistical frameworks. In 2015-2017, economic growth was stronger in bioeconomy services than in the total EU economy. Bioeconomy services accounted for between 5.0-8.6% and 10.2-16.9% of EU gross domestic product and the EU labour force, respectively, whilst three service sectors account for more than 60% of bioeconomy services employment and value added. Interestingly, in the decade up to 2017, labour productivity in bioeconomy services improved.

Global environmental inequality: Evidence from embodied land and virtual water trade

The trade-off between economic growth and environmental conservation is the focus of national environmental management. Previous studies have proved that global trade can bring both economic benefits and environmental costs to all countries. However, for different countries, it is not clear whether the environmental costs match their economic benefits in global trade. Also, whether the global trade exacerbates or mitigates the uneven distribution of natural resources among countries need to be further investigated. This study aims to fill these research gaps by providing evidence of global environmental inequality from land and water perspective, thus inspire new thinking on the optimization of global trade patterns. We construct an environmental inequality index based on the world Multi-Regional Input-Output (MRIO) model, and perform a case study for land and water. Results show that most of countries with low per capita land resources are net importers of embodied land, while many countries with extreme water shortages are net exporters of virtual water, such as India, Pakistan, Iran and Egypt, indicating that the global trade encourages the optimal distribution of land resources but exacerbates the uneven distribution of water resources. The environmental cost of developed countries is much lower than that of developing countries compared to their economic gains from global trade, and the inequality of virtual water trade is higher than that of embodied land trade. High-income countries mainly export high value-added products with low environmental costs, while developing countries are just the opposite. We suggest that due to the lack of a unified global natural resource market, resource tax may be an effective means to reduce global environmental inequality and resource mismatch, and policies aimed at reducing environmental inequality can help achieve coordinated management of land and water resources.

Research on multiple effects of fixed-asset investment on energy consumption--by three strata of industry in China

Fixed-asset investment directly affects energy consumption through purchasing and upgrading energy-saving equipment on the one hand, and indirectly affects energy consumption by expanding output scale on the other hand. This paper analyzes the multiple effects of fixed-asset investment on energy consumption by three strata of industry in China during 1991-2017. The econometric methods based on VAR model such as Johansen co-integration test and Granger causality test (linear Granger causality test and non-linear Granger causality test) are utilized to explore the long-run stable equilibrium relationships and causal interactions between fixed-asset investment and energy consumption. And the mediation test is performed by employing the bias-corrected non-parametric percentile bootstrap method combined with causal steps approach to obtain the direct and indirect effects of fixed-asset investment on energy consumption. Our study indicates that there are long-run stable equilibrium relationships between fixed-asset investment and energy consumption by three strata of industry. Bidirectional causalities exist in secondary and tertiary industries between fixed-asset investment and their respective energy consumption, and a unidirectional causality exists in primary industry from fixed-asset investment to energy consumption. The fixed-asset investment in primary industry directly suppresses its energy consumption, while indirectly promotes its energy consumption through its value added. And the fixed-asset investment in secondary industry not only directly promotes its energy consumption but also indirectly promotes its energy consumption through its value added.

Environmental and economic assessment of food-packaging systems with a focus on food waste. Case study on tomato ketchup

In this paper, a sustainability evaluation method for food-packaging systems is proposed. First, food waste due to poor emptiability was determined. Then, these quantities were included in life cycle assessments (LCA) and life cycle costing (value added, VA) of the products. Finally, LCA and VA results were combined using multi-criteria decision analysis, Technique for Order by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), in order to identify the most sustainable food packaging system. As a case study, four different ketchup products were examined. For ketchup in polypropylene bottles, FLW resulting from poor emptiability ranged from 13.12% (±2.05) to 28.80% (±3.30) respectively, while this was only 3.85% (±0.41) for ketchup packaged in glass. After integrating the emptiability results into life cycle assessments, this resulted in greenhouse gas emissions of 5.66 to 9.16 kg CO_2eq per 3.80 kg consumed ketchup, the average consumption per capita in Austria. Importantly, poor emptiability of the examined products led to greater environmental impacts than the associated packaging. While greater product loss also pushes up the costs for consumers, it contributes to more value added to the economic system, which is in stark contrast to the goal of decoupling the economy from resource consumption.

Exploring the Impact of Student Teaching Apprenticeships on Student Achievement and Mentor Teachers

We exploit within-teacher variation in the years that math and reading teachers in grades 4-8 host an apprentice ("student teacher") in Washington State to estimate the causal effect of these apprenticeships on student achievement, both during the apprenticeship and afterwards. While the average causal effect of hosting a student teacher on student performance in the year of the apprenticeship is indistinguishable from zero in both math and reading, hosting a student teacher is found to have modest positive impacts on student math and reading achievement in a teacher's classroom in following years. These findings suggest that schools and districts can participate in the student teaching process without fear of short-term decreases in student test scores while potentially gaining modest long-term test score increases.

In Dreams Begin Responsibility: Why and How to Measure the Quality of Graduate Training in Applied Behavior Analysis

Although no one knows just how effective graduate training may be in creating effective practitioners of applied behavior analysis, there are plenty of logical and historical reasons to think that not all practitioners are equally competent. I detail some of those reasons and explain why practitioner effectiveness may be a more pressing worry now than in the past. Because ineffective practitioners harm the profession, rigorous mechanisms are needed for evaluating graduate training programs in terms of the field effectiveness of their practitioners. Accountability of this nature, while difficult to arrange, would make applied behavior analysis nearly unique among professions, would complement existing quality control processes, and would help to protect the positive reputation and vigorous consumer demand that the profession currently enjoys.