Geological supply and economic demand: The unresolved equation

Whereas the ultimate world supply of minerals is controlled by geological factors, the actual supply at any particular time is controlled by economic factors. Mineral production is a function of investment in exploration, mining, and processing - and research in these fields. Given the long lead time between a decision to explore and actual production from any deposit found, the increasing difficulty of finding deposits in the well prospected parts of the world, the political barriers to exploration in the less developed countries, the energy barriers to mining and processing ever lower grade ores, and the lengthy time required to develop new exploration, extraction, and processing techniques, adjustments in supply in response to changes in demand cannot be assumed to be automatic.     

World energy future: the demand side challenge

Non-OECD countries will account for the greatest share of growth in future energy demand. Policy-makers, in response to public concern that the continued use of fossil-fuels could bring about global climate change have sought out policies which will reduce future energy demand. However, economic instruments which can do so, such as carbon taxes, provoke significant distributional and equity issues. Most OECD governments have set CO₂ reduction targets, but few of those targets are backed up by effective legislation and programmes. Instead, most governments seem to count on increasing energy efficiency, seemingly 'spontaneously', to bring about CO₂ reductions. Realization of OECD CO₂ reduction targets would be insignificant on a global scale, but they are nevertheless very ambitious when compared to recent changes in the OECD's energy-derived CO₂ emissions. Reliance on market forces alone may therefore not be enough.     

What caused the slack demand for metals after 1974?

This paper explores the general reasons for the sudden decline in the growth of world metal demand which began after 1974 and continues to impact the metal industries. For all of the eight metals studied, except aluminium, the dominant cause of this atrophy in demand is the stagnation in total world economic growth, which has caused reduced demand for all goods and services. In addition, consumer preferences have shifted away from metal-intensive goods, further reducing the need for metals. However, materials substitutions and manufacturing technologies have continued to evolve towards lower use of metal in each product at much the same rate after 1974 as before. Therefore, these aspects do not explain the sudden shortfall after 1974 except in the case of aluminium which experienced a dramatic change during the energy crisis years.     

The relationship between inbound tourism and economic growth: Case of Botswana

This study investigates the relationship between inbound tourism expansion and economic growth in Botswana, employing time series data from 1988 to 2019. An autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds tests and Toda and Yamamoto causality test were utilized for cointegration and direction of causality analyses, respectively. The study findings suggest and validate a tourism-led growth hypothesis (TLGH) both in the long and short run. However, inbound tourism expansion has a modest impact on the country's economic growth, which causes concern and need for improvement. Therefore, the study suggests that there should be strengthening and expediting of tourism product diversification for enhanced tourism experiences and tourist spending. The tourism sector should be restructured to curb high economic and financial leakages, create strong linkages with other sectors, and adopt a mixed-price model to promote domestic tourism and local beneficiation.     

The demand for platinum

The platinum group metals are among the scarcest of metallic elements and are critical to industry, having in the main no viable substitutes. South Africa is the Western world's major supplier, and the paper considers the action the Western world should be taking to insure against the dislocation that would arise from serious supply disruption from that source.     

Petrochemical markets in the UK: Methodological aspects of assessing future demand

This article focuses on how input-output techniques could be applied to study the petrochemical industry in general and plastics materials in particular. The theory serves as a tool for understanding the operations of the industry and, therefore, allows for a better control and organization of its development process.     

Petroleum royalties and regional development in Brazil: The economic growth of recipient towns

In 1997, Brazil approved law n^er 9478, establishing new rules for sharing petroleum royalties with Brazilian municipalities. The goal of this paper is to evaluate whether royalties distributed under the new law have contributed for the development of benefited municipalities. For that the difference-in-differences estimator (diff-in-diff) is used, which compares the evolution of the economic product into the municipality affected by the new law with the unaffected ones, by exploring the new legislation as an exogenous change. The data refer to the municipal gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate before and after the event. Results are surprising, showing that royalty receivers grew less than municipalities that did not receive such resources. The difference is small but statistically significant. In general, an increase of one real in royalties per capita reduces the growth rate of the municipal product in 0.002 percentile points.     

Clean air with economic growth: Optimization modeling

Conflicts between the goals of having clean air and economic development are widespread. This paper discusses the conceptual and mathematical development of a linear programming optimization model and an interative solution procedure to determine optimal economic development strategies to promote employment subject to various contexts which limit air pollution carrying capacity. Three cases are formulated: (1) maximizing employment subject to ambient concentration constraints, (2) maximizing employment subject to emissions constraints, and (3) minimizing emissions subject to employment constraints. Empirical relationships using Census and pollutant inventory data describe a conceptual urban system, so that indirect and induced impacts of development strategies are also included. The modeling incorporates both point and nonpoint sources, and is shown to be adaptable for nonreactive emissions.     

On course for a sustainable future? European environmental policy and local economic development

Local authorities are increasingly faced with demands and pressures to become much more responsive to environmental issues. International agreements and national legislation all put an emphasis on the local level as the most appropriate scale for action and on local authorities as the most appropriate bodies to take such action. One area of local authority competence where environmental issues have made a limited impact to date is in economic development. Yet the concept of sustainable development which forms the basis of national and European legislation and policy necessitates the integration of economic development with the environment. In this paper the main features of European policy with regard to the environment are outlined and the implications for European funding of local authority economic development strategies are examined.     

Environmental sustainability: Balancing pollution control with economic growth

This article will discuss in some detail how prescribed command-and-control pollution abatement and economic growth must work together rather than in opposition. How a balanced environment can and must tolerate acceptable levels of pollution and how economic growth from added value pollution prevention in unity with pollution control technology can and does work.© 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Natural resource abundance and economic growth revisited

An analysis using reserves as a measure of resource abundance suggests that natural resource abundance has not been a significant structural determinant of economic growth in the seventies and eighties. The story behind the effect of natural resources on economic growth is a complex one that typical growth regressions do not capture well. Preliminary evidence suggests that natural resources may affect economic growth through both ‘positive’ and ‘negative channels.’ Potential reverse causality running from these ‘channels’ to fuel and mineral reserves further complicates the analysis. I conjecture that, as economic historians suggest, the ability of a country to exploit its resource base depends critically on the nature of the learning process involved.     

Steel consumption and economic growth in Korea: Long-term and short-term evidence

This paper examines the long-term and short-term causal relationships between steel consumption and economic activity in Korea between 1975 and 2008 using vector error correction and vector autoregression models. This study disaggregates steel products and steel-consuming industries because the consumption of a specific steel product is closely linked to the output of the corresponding industry. This approach can provide a clear and reliable causal relationship between variable pairs. The results show that total steel consumption and GDP have a long-term equilibrium relationship, running from GDP to total steel consumption. However, a long-term bi-directional causal relationship exists between flat products consumption and the manufacturing GDP. Flat products consumption also demonstrates the long-term relationships between steel-consuming industries, such as automobile, shipbuilding, and fabricated metal product, but causal directions are mixed, depending on variable pairs. These results imply that the reciprocal growth between these industries has contributed to the robust competitiveness of Korean manufacturing. Because Korea has maintained its export-oriented industrial policy based on manufacturing, the steel and steel-consuming industries are expected to play a significant role in economic growth far into the future.     

Developing river and lake basins for sustained economic growth and social progress

It is evident that river basin development in Africa can do much to provide environmental stability to wildly erratic hydrologic and climatic cycles, to produce more food and to contribute to economic growth. The experience to date of river basin development in Africa has not proven as positive as in many developing countries. There are too many examples of ill-conceived and ill-suited schemes that contribute to further environmental degradation, social dislocation and hardship, and weaken already stressed national economies. The experience in Africa suggests that the real challenge for Africans to achieve environmentally self-sustaining water resources development lies in establishing the appropriate social and environmental context for physical development to take place. Attention needs to focus on regional development, multi-objective planning, community participation, environmental resiliency, the institutional arrangements for regional development, and the political and economic conditions within the basin states.     

Linking climate policy across economic sectors: A case for green growth in Nepal

While the energy sector is the largest global contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU) sector account for up to 80% of GHG emissions in the least developed countries (LDCs). Despite this, the nationally determined contributions (NDCs) of LDCs, including Nepal, focus primarily on climate mitigation in the energy sector. This paper introduces green growth—a way to foster economic growth while ensuring access to resources and environmental services—as an approach to improving climate policy coherence across sectors. Using Nepal as a case country, this study models the anticipated changes in resource use and GHG emissions between 2015 and 2030, that would result from implementing climate mitigation actions in Nepal's NDC. The model uses four different scenarios. They link NDC and policies across economic sectors and offer policy insights regarding (1) energy losses that could cost up to 10% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030, (2) protection of forest resources by reducing the use of biomass fuels from 465 million gigajoules (GJ) in 2015 to 195 million GJ in 2030, and (3) a significant reduction in GHG emissions by 2030 relative to the business-as-usual (BAU) case by greater use of electricity from hydropower rather than biomass. These policy insights are significant for Nepal and other LDCs as they seek an energy transition towards using more renewable energy and electricity.     

有色金属矿山尾矿库复垦与生态恢复技术

由北京矿冶研究总院开发、北京环境保护产业协会推荐的有色金属矿山尾矿库复垦与生态恢复技术适用于有色金属和其它矿山尾矿库、排土场、渣场、露天采矿坑等被破坏、损毁土地使用价值的恢复。主要技术内容一、基本原理对矿业开发形成的尾矿库、排土场、渣场、露天采矿坑等损毁压占的土地，采取综合整治措施，经过工程复垦、生物复垦和监测、管理、修复三个阶段，使其变成农田、林地、草场、鱼塘，恢复土地的使用价值和环境生态。二、技术关键该技术突破单一覆土工程和植被的传统复垦模式，以安全、稳定、可持续利用和生态恢复为目标组织水工…     

Environmental legislation, economic growth and risk in minerals development The Bolivian case

This paper examines the General Environmental Law of Bolivia which was recently passed by its Congress. It is a multi-purpose law with two primary objectives: (i) the protection and conservation of the environment; and (ii) the promotion of sustainable development. In this law, environmental benefits are emphasized by stating general principles, not by attempting to define the means. Regulations setting forth the means are left to the writing of subsequent complementary codes. This paper shows that much of the controversy surrounding the legislation disappears when it is seen as a guideline rather than an operational part of Bolivia's industrial policy. In essence, the law addresses environmental awareness in a region that is more anxious than ever to speed economic growth.