Article
Comparing transformation pathways across major economies
This paper explores the consequences of different policy assumptions and the derivation of globally consistent, national low-carbon development pathways for the seven largest greenhouse gas (GHG)–emitting countries (EU28 as a bloc) in the world, covering approximately 70% of global CO2 emissions, in line with their contributions to limiting global average temperature increase to well below 2 °C as compared with pre-industrial levels. We introduce the methodology for developing these pathways by initially discussing the process by which global integrated assessment model (IAM) teams interacted and derived boundary conditions in the form of carbon budgets for the different countries. Carbon budgets so derived for the 2011–2050 period were then used in eleven different national energy-economy models and IAMs for producing low-carbon pathways for the seven countries in line with a well below 2 °C world up to 2050. We present a comparative assessment of the resulting pathways and of the challenges and opportunities associated with them. Our results indicate quite different mitigation pathways for the different countries, shown by the way emission reductions are split between different sectors of their economies and technological alternatives.
Climate changes in Russia are analysed
Global climate change entails both threats and new opportunities for social and economic development of the Altai-Sayan Ecoregion. Taking into account the scale of climate change forecasted for the ASE, the importance of Altai-Sayan as one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots as well as an important role assigned to the region in strategic plans of Russia’s economic development, the need to develop regional measures of adaptation to both negative and positive impacts of climate change raises no doubts. In particular, climate change is referred to as a new determinant of development and a security challenge to Russia and its regions in such strategic documents as: the RF Environmental Doctrine (2002), the RF Long-Term Social and Economic Development Concept for the period to 2020 (2008), the RF Forest Complex Development Strategy for the period to 2020 (2008), the RF National Security Strategy for the period to 2020 (2009), the RF Climate Doctrine (2009), the Energy Strategy of Russia for the period to 2030 (2009), the RF Food Safety Doctrine (2010) and the Strategy of Social and Economic Development of Siberia for the period to 2020 (2010).
Report contains extensive information on an array of thematic issues: current and predicted climate change, prognosis for change in plant communities and water resources, and impact of climate change on population, economy and services provided by natural ecosystems in the Altai-Sayan Ecoregion (ASE). It is not easy to identify the human-induced changes in global climate and their regional peculiarities against the backgrounds of natural climate variability and local impacts. This report will serve as a guide of future action aimed at studying climate change impacts and planning adaptation measures when the adverse impacts of climate change reveal themselves and/or when sufficient data is collected and reliable regional models are developed to allow climate change prediction.
Analysis of Climate change in Russia
The article considers the problem of reduction of greenhouse gases emissions, one of the main anthropogenic causes of increasing carbon concentration in the atmosphere, and consequently the global climate change. In the second half of the XX century many schemes for involving market mechanism in solving these problems were proposed. These efforts increased in the last decade of XX century and finally the Kyoto Protocol supported many flexible mechanisms, as a solution for these problems. In spite of all these efforts, during the first period of its implementation (2008–2012) the emissions of carbon increased. This issue has been especially pronounced in Russia, one of the main global emitters. The paper explores the mechanisms and projects in Russia, and its importance for reducing the GHG emissions and fulfilling the commitments of Kyoto Protocol and other international documents.
Global climate change entails both threats and new opportunities for social and economic development of the Altai-Sayan Ecoregion. Taking into account the scale of climate change forecasted for the ASE, the importance of Altai-Sayan as one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots as well as an important role assigned to the region in strategic plans of Russia’s economic development, the need to develop regional measures of adaptation to both negative and positive impacts of climate change raises no doubts. In particular, climate change is referred to as a new determinant of development and a security challenge to Russia and its regions in such strategic documents as: the RF Environmental Doctrine (2002), the RF Long-Term Social and Economic Development Concept for the period to 2020 (2008), the RF Forest Complex Development Strategy for the period to 2020 (2008), the RF National Security Strategy for the period to 2020 (2009), the RF Climate Doctrine (2009), the Energy Strategy of Russia for the period to 2030 (2009), the RF Food Safety Doctrine (2010) and the Strategy of Social and Economic Development of Siberia for the period to 2020 (2010).
The particularities of American political system impede the progress of US climate change regime at the federal level. The only possible way to create the comprehensive system of climate change regulation in the USA is thereby the bottom-to-up scheme proceeding from the diverse green initiatives at the level of firms, communities and states.
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.
We address the external effects on public sector efficiency measures acquired using Data Envelopment Analysis. We use the health care system in Russian regions in 2011 to evaluate modern approaches to accounting for external effects. We propose a promising method of correcting DEA efficiency measures. Despite the multiple advantages DEA offers, the usage of this approach carries with it a number of methodological difficulties. Accounting for multiple factors of efficiency calls for more complex methods, among which the most promising are DMU clustering and calculating local production possibility frontiers. Using regression models for estimate correction requires further study due to possible systematic errors during estimation. A mixture of data correction and DMU clustering together with multi-stage DEA seems most promising at the moment. Analyzing several stages of transforming society’s resources into social welfare will allow for picking out the weak points in a state agency’s work.