Article
Энергопотребление российского автомобильного сектора: роль технологических инноваций в межтопливной конкуренции
The development of production and consumption technologies for the road transport has led to large scale introduction of alternative energy in this sector. These alternatives to the conventional petroleum fuels include biofuels, electricity, natural gas and synthetic fuels produced from coal and natural gas. However, it is very important to point out, that inter-fuel competition is determined not only by the development of technologies, but also by such parameters as availability, fuel cost, consumer preferences and government legislations, all of which vary greatly across the globe. In other words, the very same technologies can be capable of radically altering the fuel mix in some countries while having little to none impact in the others. The topic of the inter-fuel competition development in the transportation sector holds much importance for Russia, as the country’s fuels mix is almost totally dominated by the petroleum products. The diversification of energy sources for transport may positively influence energy security and domestic fuels market stability; reduce the strain on ecology, especially in major cities; all the while increasing Russian oil and petroleum products export potential.
The article presents results of the research for prospects of the developments in Russian transport sector fuel mix. The research was carried out using the tools of economic and mathematical modeling under various scenario assumptions. The analysis has shown that natural gas and, to a lesser extent, electricity hold the best prospects as petroleum products substitutes in the long-term. Their cumulative share in the total energy consumption of the road transport sector has the potential of reaching as high as 26% by 2040. Yet, the extent of substitution largely depends on the government actions for infrastructure development and tax incentives for alternative vehicle owners.
Economic growth in developing economies and the transition of large population groups to the middle class lead to a surge in energy consumption and hence in greenhouse gas emissions. The solution to such issues as poverty and inequality comes therefore into conflict with climate change mitigation. The existing international climate change regime does not address this contradiction. The existing international system of climate regulation does not address this contradiction. Today, the global climate governance relies on the estimates of aggregate emissions of countries not considering the level of development and the distribution of emissions among income groups within each country. Emissions from production are being monitored, while consumption-related emissions, albeit known be experts, rarely underlie decision-making. Meanwhile, income distribution has a higher impact on consumption-based emissions in comparison to the production-based ones. Decisions on the emission regulation are made at the national level by countries with different development agendas where the climate change mitigation often gets less priority in comparison to other socio-economic objectives.
The paper proposes a set of principles and specific mechanisms that can link both climate change and inequality within a single policy framework. Firstly, we highlight the importance of modification of the global emission monitoring system for the sake of accounting for emissions from consumption (rather than production) by income groups. Secondly, we suggest the introduction of a new redistribution system to address climate change including a "fine" imposed on households with the highest levels of emissions. Such a system follows the principles of progressive taxation but underlies climate mitigation objectives and can rather be treated not as taxation of high incomes but as payment for negative externality. Thirdly, we outline the need for adjustment of climate finance criteria: priority should be given to projects aimed at 1) reducing the carbon intensity of consumption of the social groups entering the middle class, and 2) at adaptation of the poorest population groups to the climate change. The special role in the implementation of these principles may belong to BRICS countries which could use it as a chance for proactive transition to the inclusive low-carbon development.
The global energy landscape is currently shaken by tectonic shifts.1 We witness
dramatic changes in energy geopolitics, the formation of the global system of energy
governance, a huge wave of massive technological innovations, global markets are
undergoing a radical transformation embracing a fast multiplication of new sources
of energy, newproducts, newproducers, and suppliers, coupled with the development
of the vast and sophisticated infrastructure and an increasing efficiency in energy use.
Each and every component of the system is touched upon by a wind of change that
brings about the contours of a new energy global order.
Over the past thirty years, optimization modeling techniques have begun to be actively used in supply chain planning and management. Given the specifics of planning tasks in supply chains, linear programming and its methods such as dynamic programming, stochastic programming and scenario planning have become the most popular. These methods make it possible to optimize the supply chain across numerous databases, each of which corresponds to a scenario describing different options for development in an uncertain future. Despite quite intensive research in this area, dynamic and stochastic programming is still underused by managers to solve application tasks in various fields, including supply chain management. Hence, there is a need for development of new planning models in logistics and supply chain management in the context of incomplete information and methods that are used to investigate situations of risk and uncertainty.
The article analyzes the current natural gas pricing system in Russia and suggests directions for its transformation, taking into account the situation in the economy and the energy sector. The methodology is based on the methods of system analysis using economic and mathematical optimization modeling of the energy sector and the economy. The authors show that the current gas pricing system in the country limits the development of competition, does not allow to increase the efficiency of economic sectors and to modernize the energy sector. Mechanisms of gas exchange trading, which were created in the country, do not reflect the state of the market. Under these conditions, it is necessary to implement a set of measures that will allow creating a transparent pricing system based on market principles and reflecting the real situation in the consuming sectors. The gas industry can become a tool to stimulate economic development. The increase in gas prices would allow to create conditions for modernization, leading to GDP growth due to the expansion of orders for the Russian industry from the energy and consuming sectors. At the same time, increased efficiency helps to contain the growth of consumer spending, while increased tax revenues from the gas industry would make it possible to avoid the growth of other taxes on consumers, which could be inevitable due to the expected decline in revenues from the oil industry. In parallel, objective conditions would be created for the development of inter-fuel competition, and the gas industry itself will become a more at-tractive segment for investment.
The problem of energy saving of a mobile device is still relevant, moreover, the need for energy saving increases every year with the advent of the Internet of things. However, despite the significance and effectiveness of previous studies, we still do not know the exact amount of energy consumed by the elements of the mobile device interface. In this regard, our contribution to this study is that we received a specific amount of energy in the established units of measurement consumed by the basic elements of the interface and the main color palette on TFT displays. The data obtained in this study were obtained through many experiments and have some small error associated with the used measurement sensors built into the mobile device. This error was calculated and determined for each element. In addition, the data on the energy consumption of the mobile device were evaluated from a theoretical point of view and a mathematical model of the battery consumption of the mobile device was compiled.
The goal of the research is the verification of the hypothesis that an innovative economic growth has a considerable importance for the regions with a high development level and is less significant in the explanation of the growth in other regions. The government and public expenditures for R&D are concentrated in a small number of the leading regions and also in those which are located closer to the industrial border. The regions beyond the borders of these technology intensive centers depend as a rule on less technological forms of innovation and on the technology transfer. We determined the following factors which are important for the regional growth: human capital, infrastructure, labour market, innovation, agglomerations interactions and productivity. As the factors characterizing the innovations we use the number of the issued patents, internal expenditures for the R&D, expenditures for technological innovations, number of employees involved in the R&D, volume of innovative goods, works and services and innovative activity of organizations. The innovations can have a positive impact on the long term growth. The data were collected in 83 regions of Russia in 2005-2015. The model of a regression with a constant elasticity was used. In the case when the impact of the competitive environment factors on the regional economic growth is significant it is difficult to assess the importance of the innovations. The division of the regions into groups according to the GDP per capita allows us showing the significant factors of their innovative growth. From the point of view of a practical application it is obvious that the regions with the development of the regions lower than average GDP per capita are expected to develop due to the innovations. Such institutional factors like management, leadership, efficient use of the potential available in the region are expected to take into account the active role of the innovations for the working force. Using as an example the Russian regions we showed that the provision of an innovative economic growth has a considerable impact for the regions with the level of the development lower than average and is less important for the explanation of the growth in other regions.
The paper examines the structure, governance, and balance sheets of state-controlled banks in Russia, which accounted for over 55 percent of the total assets in the country's banking system in early 2012. The author offers a credible estimate of the size of the country's state banking sector by including banks that are indirectly owned by public organizations. Contrary to some predictions based on the theoretical literature on economic transition, he explains the relatively high profitability and efficiency of Russian state-controlled banks by pointing to their competitive position in such functions as acquisition and disposal of assets on behalf of the government. Also suggested in the paper is a different way of looking at market concentration in Russia (by consolidating the market shares of core state-controlled banks), which produces a picture of a more concentrated market than officially reported. Lastly, one of the author's interesting conclusions is that China provides a better benchmark than the formerly centrally planned economies of Central and Eastern Europe by which to assess the viability of state ownership of banks in Russia and to evaluate the country's banking sector.
The paper examines the principles for the supervision of financial conglomerates proposed by BCBS in the consultative document published in December 2011. Moreover, the article proposes a number of suggestions worked out by the authors within the HSE research team.