欧盟碳配额现货与期货价格关系及对中国的借鉴

基于欧盟碳市场配额现货与期货的发展经验和对我国统一碳市场建设的借鉴,本文以2005-2012年欧盟碳排放权交易体系(EU ETS)欧盟配额的现货和期货价格为样本研究二者之间的关系。本文运用单位根检验(ADF检验)的方法验证现货与期货价格的序列平稳性,并在序列平稳的前提下基于协整理论研究现货价格与期货价格的长期均衡关系,反映了二者间的静态关系。但短期内这一静态关系并不成立,反而表现出一定的动态性,短期价格的变动能够真实地反映市场需求,对价格的形成起着重要作用,因而采用向量误差修正模型重点研究二者间的短期动态关系。研究表明:1碳现货价格与期货价格间有着不同程度的影响,二者存在长期均衡,但短期内受市场特定因素的影响,二者又有所偏离;2期货价格反应灵敏,偏离均衡后调整速度快于现货,而且期货的滞后期价格对现货价格影响显著,这更加突显了碳期货的价格发现作用;3期货市场涉及了投资者对市场的预期和判断,较现货交易包含了更多的投机性,价格更为灵活,波动频繁,增加了市场风险。最后,根据结论对我国碳市场建设提出一些启示和建议:针对现货与期货价格之间的动态关系,应当积极开发和利用碳期货市场,通过期货的价格发现功能形成合理碳价,同时需要增强期货市场与现货市场的透明度,实现信息的传递与分享,最终实现期货市场对现货市场的补充和完善;为规避期货价格的波动性所带来的风险,需要建立一套完善的风险防控体系,在风险可控的前提下利用期货价格对市场进行预期,及时引导市场价格,形成完善的价格机制,为全国统一碳市场建设提供价格基础。     

Can oil prices help estimate commodity futures prices? The cases of copper and silver

There is an extensive literature on modeling the stochastic process of commodity futures. It has been shown that models with several risk factors are able to adequately fit both the level and the volatility structure of observed transactions with reasonable low errors.     

Copper marketing with forward and futures contracts: state-owned and private Chilean firms during the 1990s

The use of futures in copper marketing became common during the 1990s, but little attention has been put on the reasons for it and its relationship with other elements of marketing such as forward sales and premiums. This study focuses on these issues and the benefit of futures relative to annual forward contracts. It argues futures complement annual forward contracts to secure the average market price rather than to maximize revenue. The paper analyzes empirical evidence for the six largest Chilean copper producers. This sample reflects well the entire Chilean industry during the 1990s. The analysis shows that forward sales became more volatile and futures seem to be the instrument to avoid income fluctuation at the end of the marketing process. However, the benefits of futures compared to forward sales are very modest. In the last section we suggest a better marketing instrument to maximize revenue may be premiums.     

“Alternative futures”: a methodology for integrated sustainability considerations,the case of Nuremberg West,Germany

In the context of the desire to steer urban transformation towards sustainability transition, the development of proposals for alternative futures assists policy-makers and practitioners in focusing on impact by organising the various drivers, particularly spatial ones that cause an interactive urban system to transit. This paper presents the methodology that has been developed by the Chair for Urban Development, Munich University of Technology (TUM) as it was working within an inter-disciplinary research team on a project commissioned by the municipality of Nuremberg. The objective of this project was to develop ideas for regenerating the formerly industrial area of Nuremberg West (NW) under the guiding theme of sustainable urban development. This methodology focuses on the development of proposals of positive and possible transformations of NW in the year 2050 based on the analysis of economy, housing and space at various scales and a systematic assessment of trends. These alternative futures became framing and guiding narratives to internalise and anchor the debate in-between the various disciplines involved in this project.     

Using Strategic Foresight to Assess Conservation Opportunity

The nature of conservation challenges can foster a reactive, rather than proactive approach to decision making. Failure to anticipate problems before they escalate results in the need for more costly and time‐consuming solutions. Proactive conservation requires forward‐looking approaches to decision making that consider possible futures without being overly constrained by the past. Strategic foresight provides a structured process for considering the most desirable future and for mapping the most efficient and effective approaches to promoting that future with tools that facilitate creative thinking. The process involves 6 steps: setting the scope, collecting inputs, analyzing signals, interpreting the information, determining how to act, and implementing the outcomes. Strategic foresight is ideal for seeking, recognizing, and realizing conservation opportunities because it explicitly encourages a broad‐minded, forward‐looking perspective on an issue. Despite its potential value, the foresight process is rarely used to address conservation issues, and previous attempts have generally failed to influence policy. We present the strategic foresight process as it can be used for proactive conservation planning, describing some of the key tools in the foresight tool kit and how they can be used to identify and exploit different types of conservation opportunities. Scanning is an important tool for collecting and organizing diverse streams of information and can be used to recognize new opportunities and those that could be created. Scenario planning explores how current trends, drivers of change, and key uncertainties might influence the future and can be used to identify barriers to opportunities. Backcasting is used to map out a path to a goal and can determine how to remove barriers to opportunities. We highlight how the foresight process was used to identify conservation opportunities during the development of a strategic plan to address climate change in New York State. The plan identified solutions that should be effective across a range of possible futures. Illustrating the application of strategic foresight to identify conservation opportunities should provide the impetus for decision makers to explore strategic foresight as a way to support more proactive conservation policy, planning, and management.     

Forecasting precious metal price movements using trader positions

In the early 2000s, the precious metal markets entered into a new phase where a steady rise of prices had been observed until the October 2008 crash. Given the size and importance of precious metal market, as well as the hedging capacity of precious metals due to their low correlation with equity markets (Draper et al., 2006), the question we want to arise is whether trader positions predict the direction of gold, platinum, and silver spot price movements. The forecasting content of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Commitment of Traders report for platinum, silver and gold prices using trader positions is investigated in a VAR framework. Granger causality tests are conducted to determine whether a relation between trader positions and market prices exists. An examination of the extreme trader positions on price movements is also conducted. The results indicate that market return is a significant parameter in explaining trader’s positions for all trader types in each of the precious metal markets under consideration after the beginning of 2000s where we detect a structural break for each of the market under study. Commercial traders are found to be negative feedback traders, that is, they sell when the prices increase in the market. On the other hand, in line with the previous literature, a positive correlation between returns and positions held by non-commercial and non-reporting traders is found. However, trader’s net positions do not lead market returns in general. There is some evidence on the forecasting ability of extreme trader positions on market returns.     

用期货市场思路建立南水北调水市场设想

南水北调是缓解北方水资源危机而实施的大规模调水工程 ,适应社会主义市场经济的要求 ,该工程中水资源配置将采用市场机制运作 ,但由于水价波动决定了价格风险的存在 ,而水价过高将给企业带来成本的提高或利润的下降。为此 ,针对南水北调中的水市场建设 ,尤其是对于城市工业用水 ,本文提出利用期货市场的基本功能来规避水价波动给企业带来的风险 ,有利于增强企业的国际竞争力     

The United Nations' humanitarian pillar: refocusing the UN's disaster and emergency roles and responsibilities

Changes in the nature of humanitarian crises and in the ways that the international community responds to such crises demand a radically overhauled role for the United Nations system. At a time when the UN and its member states are pursuing reform of some of that institution's most fundamental peace and security functions, this paper suggests that reform, too, is required to meet humanitarian crises of the future. This paper proposes a new type of operational role for the UN, while at the same time arguing that the UN has to place itself in the vanguard of humanitarian assistance as "the standard-bearer". The article draws many of its conclusions and recommendations from a recently completed study, requested by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, concerning the effect for the UN system of changes in humanitarian financing.     

Developing alternative land-use scenarios to facilitate natural resource management across jurisdictional boundaries

Scenario planning is an effective approach for examining possible futures by exploring the implications and consequences of different policy responses to landscape stressors. We present here a case study that explores plausible futures of urban growth in Southern Nevada, USA that illustrates how scenario analysis can be used to inform region-wide resource management by spatially modeling drivers of change, resource impacts, and potential policy responses. Using a suite of energy, water and biodiversity impact models, we assess the outcomes of the various futures on priority resources, resulting in a clear basis of comparison between alternative policies and their potential outcomes. This case study demonstrates the utility of scenario modeling for natural resource management by exploring crucial policy decisions that might be made in the near-term that could have lasting and sometimes conflicting influences on regional resources over the long term.