Willingness to pay for clean air in China

We use a residential sorting model incorporating migration disutility to recover the implicit value of clean air in China. The model is estimated using China Population Census Data along with PM2.5 satellite data. Our study provides new evidence on the willingness to pay for air quality improvements in developing countries and is the first application of an equilibrium sorting model to the valuation of non-market amenities in China. We employ two instrumental variables based on coal-fired electricity generation and wind direction to address the endogeneity of local air pollution. Results suggest important differences between the residential sorting model and a conventional hedonic model, highlighting the role of moving costs and the discreteness of the choice set. Our sorting results indicate that the economic value of air quality improvement associated with a one-unit decline in PM2.5 concentration is up to $8.83 billion for all Chinese households in 2005.     

Non-cooperative and cooperative climate policies with anticipated breakthrough technology

Global warming can be curbed by pricing carbon emissions and thus substituting fossil fuel with renewable energy consumption. Breakthrough technologies (e.g., fusion energy) can reduce the cost of such policies. However, the chance of such a technology coming to market depends on investment. We model breakthroughs as an irreversible tipping point in a multi-country world, with different degrees of international cooperation. We show that international spill-over effects of R&D in carbon-free technologies lead to double free-riding, strategic over-pollution and underinvestment in green R&D, thus making climate change mitigation more difficult. We also show how the demand structure determines whether carbon pricing and R&D policies are substitutes or complements.     

HHMHC对Cu2+、Ni2+的萃取性能

以对羟基苯甲酸为原料,通过化学修饰合成得到上沿羧基化的杯[6]芳烃羟肟衍生物,即5,11,17,23,29,35-六羧基-37,38,39,40,41,42-六羟肟酸甲氧基杯[6]芳烃(HHMHC),采用IR对其结构性能进行表征,并探讨了溶液初始pH值、初始重金属离子(Cu2+、Ni2+)浓度、萃取时间、温度等因素对HHMHC萃取重金属离子的影响.结果表明,在温度为30℃时HHMHC萃取Ni2+和Cu2+的最佳pH值分别为5.0、6.0,萃取平衡时间均为30min.用准二级动力学模型(R2>0.99)和Freundlich等温模型(R2>0.999)均可较好的拟合其萃取过程,通过计算萃取过程的热力学参数,得到Gibbs自由能(ΔG0)和焓变(ΔH0)均小于0,表明萃取反应是一个自发的放热反应.通过红外光谱图分析和考察溶液pH值对萃取分配比的影响,探讨HHMHC萃取Cu2+、Ni2+的机理,结果表明此萃取过程除了存在阳离子交换机理外,还存在与冠醚萃取相同的离子配位萃取,参与配位作用的主要是羟肟基团(–CONHOH).     

双酚A替代品与双酚A对非洲爪蛙急性毒性及其应激响应的比较

双酚F(bisphenol F, BPF)和双酚AF(bisphenol AF, BPAF)作为双酚A(bisphenol A, BPA)的替代品已被投入生产和使用,然而目前有关BPA替代品毒性的数据还很缺乏。本文从急性毒性和应激响应2个方面比较了BPF、BPAF与BPA对非洲爪蛙蝌蚪的毒性。结果表明,48 h的半致死浓度(LC_(50))顺序为BPF(11.01 mg·L~(-1))>BPA(7.54 mg·L~(-1))>BPAF(2.87 mg·L~(-1));对氧化应激水平的影响BPAF强于BPA,BPF与BPA相近;BPA和BPAF对热休克蛋白基因表达水平有影响,BPF没有影响。本研究提示,BPAF作为BPA的替代品,其毒性强于BPA,而BPF与BPA类似。     

Prediction of the PCDD/F and dl-PCB 2005-WHO-TEQ content based on the contribution of six congeners: Toward a new screening approach for fish samples?

Current European Union regulation regarding polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (dl-PCBs) in food and feed is based on Toxic Equivalent Quotient (TEQ) concept. For confirmatory purpose, the isotope-dilution method associated to a measurement by gas chromatography coupled with high resolution mass spectrometry is usually the method of choice for precisely measuring the 29 target congeners in three separated fractions. Time and cost related to these analyses are very significant. Various kinds of screening concepts can be considered. In the present study, we elaborated and validated a prediction model for the 2005 World Health Organization TEQ in fish, based on the measurement of 4 PCDD/F and 2 non-ortho dl-PCB congeners, potentially analyzable in a single extracted fraction by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. Large independent datasets have been used for model elaboration (n = 108) and validation (n = 363, n = 357 and n = 6).     

Corporate Social Responsibility and development in Africa: Redefining the roles and responsibilities of public and private actors in the mining sector

This paper revisits the role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), suggesting the usefulness of adopting a holistic and historical perspective. It underlines the importance of taking into account the evolving regulatory frameworks within which mining activities take place in order to consider the changing roles played by the various actors involved, whether multilateral, national or local, public or private. In this broad context it then becomes possible to revisit issues of legitimacy, responsibility, and accountability, which CSR strategies aim to address. The article draws attention to the shortcomings of strategies, whether bilateral or multilateral, public or private, which, in an attempt to respond to problems of risk and legitimacy faced by mining companies, have put forward measures in the name of CSR that do not address the origins that give rise to such problems and, in so doing, tend to mask the very nature of the difficulties at hand. The analysis leads to quite different conclusions as compared to those that result from the adoption of a shorter term and investment-led perspective.     

Optimum cutting age for timber resources with carbon sequestration

Determining the optimum cutting age for timber resources has proved to be a very challenging problem for both economists and silviculturists. Based upon Samuelson's seminal work on this issue, the majority of economists have concluded that the optimum felling age occurs at a time when the net marginal benefits fall below the current rate of interest. Recently, concern about climate change has increased the importance of forestry projects, since trees act as natural biological scrubbers by removing CO₂ from the atmosphere. By incorporating these carbon sequestration benefits, this paper re-determines the optimum cutting age using a multiple rotation model. The results of this reformulation show that, in afforestation projects, trees should remain in the ground longer than the period suggested by a timber-only model in order to absorb more CO₂.     

Chinese resource security policies and the restructuring of the Asia-Pacific iron ore market

This paper reviews the restructuring of the Asia-Pacific iron ore market in the wake of the rise of the Chinese steel industry. Prior to the 2000s, this market was characterised by two key features—high firm-level concentration on both the producer and consumer sides, and price determination through annually negotiated benchmark pricing between Australian mining and Japanese steel firms. However, owing to rapid growth in the Chinese steel industry and its emergence as the region's principal iron ore consumer, the Asia-Pacific iron ore market has been dramatically restructured during the last decade. This process has been accelerated since 2005 by Chinese governmental resource security policies, which have sought to address current record high iron ore prices through the use of foreign investment to sponsor new market entrants and the formation of an import cartel amongst the Chinese steel firms. This paper evaluates how these policies have driven restructuring in the Asia-Pacific iron ore market, through an analysis of the growth of China's steel industry, Chinese resource security policies aimed at lowering iron ore import costs, and their effects upon the regional market's ownership structure and price determination mechanisms. It argues that while Chinese investment and cartelisation policies have catalysed significant changes to the ownership and pricing structures of the Asia-Pacific iron ore market, they have carried only mixed benefits for the Chinese steel industry's resource security.     

Linkages to manufacturing in the resource sector: The case of the Angolan oil and gas industry

This paper discusses the current state and future prospects of backward production linkages to the manufacturing sector in the Angolan oil and gas industry. The paper finds that local value-added links are currently limited to labour and to a lesser degree in basic services. However, there is a realistic and strategic potential for local manufacturing linkages to expand in the oilfield services sector of the industry, which in turn can stimulate industrial development. For this to be achieved, the factors that are currently constraining the expansion and deepening of linkages have to be addressed, namely, a weak local content strategy, a weak local skills and industrial base and the integration of industrial and oil sector policies.     

PCDD/F formation from oxy-PAH precursors in waste incinerator flyash

The yield of PCDD/F in relation to the presence of oxygenated PAH in model waste incinerator flyash has been investigated in a fixed bed laboratory scale reactor. Experiments were undertaken by thermal treatment of the model flyash at 250 and 350 °C under a simulated flue gas stream for 2 h. After reaction, the PCDD/F content of the reacted flyash and the PCDD/F released into the exhaust gas, and subsequently trapped by XAD-II resin in a down-stream condensation system were analyzed. The PAHs investigated were, dibenzofuran and benzo[b]naphtho[2,3-d]furan and were spiked onto the model flyash as reactant precursors for PCDD/F formation. The results showed significant formation of furans from both of the PAH investigated, however except from some highly chlorinated dioxin congeners, the formation of dioxins was not so common. Benzonaphthofuran was significantly more reactive than dibenzofuran in PCDD/F formation, in spite of the fact that dibenzofuran is structurally more similar to that of PCDD/F. Thus, there was no clear attribution between the chemical structure of PAH used and the formation of PCDD/F. There were considerable differences between the yields of PCDD/F congeners in the gaseous species and those in the reacted flyash under the same operational conditions. The concentration of PCDD/Fs was reduced at the higher reaction temperature of 350 °C; however, the higher temperature resulted in the majority of the PCDD/F formed on the flyash being released into the gas phase.