Will Border Carbon Adjustments Work?

Abstract and PDF report are also available on the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change website (http://globalchange.mit.edu/).The potential for greenhouse gas (GHG) restrictions in some nations to drive emission increases in other nations, or leakage, is a contentious issue in climate change negotiations. We evaluate the potential for border carbon adjustments (BCAs) to address leakage concerns using an economy-wide model. For 2025, we find that BCAs reduce leakage by up to two-thirds, but result in only modest reductions in global emissions and significantly reduce welfare. In contrast, BCA-equivalent leakage reductions can be achieved by very small emission charges or efficiency improvements in nations targeted by BCAs, which have negligible welfare effects. We conclude that BCAs are a costly method to reduce leakage but such policies may be effective coercion strategies. We also investigate the impact of BCAs on sectoral output and evaluate the leakage contributions of trade and changes in the price of crude oil.This study received support from the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, which is funded by a consortium of government, industry and foundation sponsors

Professional standards support for curriculum mentors: report on the TDA funded ‘Professional Standards Support for Curriculum mentors’ at the University of Southampton

A revised framework of professional standards for teachers was published by the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA). These standards replaced existing teacher standards in September 2007 and form a clear, progressive framework of standards for teachers. The standards are statements of a teacher's professional attributes, knowledge and understanding, and skills. Importantly they clarify expectations at each career stage helping teachers identify how they need to develop professionally to progress in their careers.• the awards of Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) (Q)• teachers on the main scale (Core) (C)• teachers on the upper pay scale (Post Threshold Teachers) (P)• Excellent Teachers (E)• Advanced Skills Teachers (ASTs) (A)The Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) made funding available to help support initial teacher training (ITT) providers in meeting the revised qualified teacher status (QTS) standards which came into effect in September 2007. A Guidance to accompany the standards for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) was also produced by the TDA<br/

Marginal Abatement Costs and Marginal Welfare Costs for Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions: Results from the EPPA Model

Abstract and PDF report are also available on the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change website (http://globalchange.mit.edu/).Marginal abatement cost (MAC) curves, relationships between tons of emissions abated and the CO2 (or GHG) price, have been widely used as pedagogic devices to illustrate simple economic concepts such as the benefits of emissions trading. They have also been used to produce reduced form models to examine situations where solving the more complex model underlying the MAC is difficult. Some important issues arise in such applications: (1) are MAC relationships independent of what happens in other regions? (2) are MACs stable through time regardless of what policies have been implemented in the past?, and (3) can one approximate welfare costs from them? This paper explores the basic characteristics of MAC and marginal welfare cost (MWC) curves, deriving them using the MIT Emissions Prediction and Policy Analysis (EPPA) model. We find that, depending on the method used to construct them, MACs are affected by policies abroad. They are also dependent on policies in place in the past and depend on whether they are CO2-only or include all GHGs. Further, we find that MACs are, in general, not closely related to MWCs and therefore should not be used to derive estimates of welfare change. It would be a great convenience if a reduced-form response of a more complex model could be used to reliably conduct empirical analysis of climate change policy, but it appears that, at least as commonly constructed, MACs may be unreliable in replicating results of the parent model when used to simulate GHG policies. This is especially true if the policy simulations differ from the conditions under which the MACs were simulated. Care is needed to derive MACs under conditions closely related to the policy under consideration. In such a circumstance they may provide approximate estimates of CO2 or GHG prices for a given policy constraint. They remain a convenient way to visualize responses to a range of abatement levels.Development of the EPPA model used here is in part supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and the Industry and Foundation Sponsors of the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change

A Note on Weak Double Dividends

A weak double-dividend is the proposition that the welfare improvement from a tax reform, where environmental taxes are used to lower distorting taxes, must be greater than the welfare improvement from a reform where the environmental taxes are returned in a lump sum fashion. A general consensus has emerged that the weak double-dividend is an uncontroversial idea. We show in this note that a weak double-dividend need not hold in a world with multiple distortions.environmental tax policy, second-best taxation, general equilibrium analysis

ppm Pd-catalyzed, Cu-free Sonogashira couplings in water using commercially available catalyst precursors.

A new catalyst that derives from commercially available precursors for copper-free, Pd-catalyzed Sonogashira reactions at the sustainable ppm level of precious metal palladium under mild aqueous micellar conditions has been developed. Both the palladium pre-catalyst and ligand are commercially available, bench stable, and highly cost-effective. The catalyst is applicable to both aryl- and heteroaryl-bromides as educts. A wide range of functional groups are tolerated and the aqueous reaction medium can be recycled. An application to a key intermediate associated with an active pharmaceutical ingredient (ponatinib) is discussed

Tax Distortions and Global Climate Policy

We consider the efficiency implications of policies to reduce global carbon emissions in a world with pre-existing tax distortions. We first note that the weak double-dividend, the proposition that the welfare improvement from a tax reform where environmental taxes are used to lower distorting taxes must be greater than the welfare improvement from a reform where the environmental taxes are returned in a lump sum fashion, need not hold in a world with multiple distortions. We then present a large-scale computable general equilibrium model of the world economy with distortionary taxation. We use this model to evaluate a number of policies to reduce carbon emissions. We find that the weak double dividend is not obtained in a number of European countries. Results also demonstrate the point that the interplay between carbon policies and pre-existing taxes can differ markedly across countries. Thus one must be cautious in extrapolating the results from a country specific analysis to other countries.

Results from the Scottish report card on physical activity for children and youth

The Active Healthy Kids Scotland Report Card aims to consolidate existing evidence, facilitate international comparisons, encourage more evidence-informed physical activity and health policy, and improve surveillance of physical activity. Application of the Active Healthy Kids Canada Report Card process and methodology to Scotland, adapted to Scottish circumstances and availability of data. The Active Healthy Kids Scotland Report Card 2013 consists of indicators of 7 Health Behaviors and Outcomes and 3 Influences on Health Behaviors and Outcomes. Grades of F were assigned to Overall Physical Activity, Sedentary Behavior (recreational screen time), and Obesity Prevalence. A C was assigned to Active Transportation and a D- was assigned to Diet. Two indicators, Active and Outdoor Play and Organized Sport Participation, could not be graded. Among the Influences, Family Influence received a D, while Perceived Safety, Access, and Availability of Spaces for Physical Activity and the National Policy Environment graded more favorably with a B. The Active Healthy Kids Canada process and methodology was readily generalizable to Scotland. The report card illustrated low habitual physical activity and extremely high levels of screen-based sedentary behavior, and highlighted several opportunities for improved physical activity surveillance and promotion strategies

Mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) : new applications for an old measure

Mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) has a long history as a simple and valuable anthropometric marker of undernutrition, of particular value in resource-poor settings.1 Traditionally, low MUAC has been seen as a proxy for low fat-free mass,1 necessary because accurate measurement of fat-free mass in children is usually impractical in both clinical settings and resource-poor settings. An emerging body of evidence suggests that MUAC may have value beyond its traditional application in the assessment of undernutrition. The paper by Whitfield et al2 notes that accurate measurement of body weight is often not possible in resource-poor settings, and this is important clinically because it substantially increases the risk of inaccurate drug dosage (where dosage is dependent on body weight). Whitfield et al2 describe a study which suggests that MUAC, when combined with other anthropometric measures, could be a useful and accurate way of estimating body weight in children. In a sample of 775 predominantly HIV positive children and adolescents (from 18 months to 12 years of age) from Botswana, Whitfield et al made a range of anthropometric measures (height or length, ulnar and tibial lengths, MUAC and triceps skinfold,

Green Growth and the Efficient Use of Natural Resources

http://globalchange.mit.edu/research/publications/reportsThe relatively new concept of "green growth" can be fruitfully connected to concepts and theories in neoclassical economics including market externalities, Ricardian and Hotelling rents, and policies that would correct externalities such as Pigovian taxes or a cap and trade system set to achieve emissions reductions consistent with cost benefit assessment. Partial equilibrium concepts have been extended to general equilibrium models, including their realization in relatively detailed empirical models that faithfully adhere to theoretical concepts of neoclassical economics. With such models we are then able to see how resource depletion and environmental degradation are affecting the economy, and how efforts to reduce the impact of these environmental and resource constraints could improve economic growth and performance. The foundation for traditional computable general equilibrium models are the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPAs), input-output (I-O) tables, and expanded Social Accounting Matrices (SAMs). The basis for extending these to include environmental and resource assets and goods are so called Integrated Economic and Environmental Social Accounts (IEESAs). While environmental effects are often considered to be "non-market," many of the impacts of environment are often reflected in market accounts through damages that might include, for example, less labor (due to environment related health problems), reduced productivity of agroecosystems, or damage to infrastructure and other produced assets. The challenge is to make the environmental connection explicit so as to provide a guide to where changes in policies could provide benefit. However, some damages do not enter the accounts at all, and mainly this is because household labor and leisure time are generally not valued in traditional accounts. Hence the cost of illness in terms of reduced ability to contribute to household activities would be missed in the standard accounts. While the theoretical structure for expanding the accounts has been laid out in various reviews, the empirical challenge of doing so is substantial. Careful attention to expanding NIPA accounts, making it a regular part of government statistical agencies’ efforts would improve the foundation for analysis of potential "green growth" policies and measures.The Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change is funded by a number of federal agencies and a consortium of 40 industrial and foundation sponsors. (For the complete list see http://globalchange.mit.edu/sponsors/current.html)

Body fatness or anthropometry for assessment of unhealthy weight status? Comparison between methods in South African children and adolescents

A variety of methods are available for defining undernutrition (thinness/underweight/under-fat) and overnutrition (overweight/obesity/over-fat). The extent to which these definitions agree is unclear. The present cross-sectional study aimed to assess agreement between widely used methods of assessing nutritional status in children and adolescents, and to examine the benefit of body composition estimates. The main objective of the cross-sectional study was to assess underweight, overweight and obesity using four methods: (i) BMI-for-age using WHO (2007) reference data; (ii) BMI-for-age using Cole et al. and International Obesity Taskforce cut-offs; (iii) weight-for-age using the National Centre for Health Statistics/WHO growth reference 1977; and (iv) body fat percentage estimated by bio-impedance (body fat reference curves for children of McCarthy et al., 2006). Comparisons were made between methods using weighted kappa analyses. Subjects Individuals (n 1519) in three age groups (school grade 1, mean age 7 years; grade 5, mean age 11 years; grade 9, mean age 15 years). Results In boys, prevalence of unhealthy weight status (both under- and overnutrition) was much higher at all ages with body fatness measures than with simple anthropometric proxies for body fatness; agreement between fatness and weight-based measures was fair or slight using Landis and Koch categories. In girls, prevalence of unhealthy weight status was also higher with body fatness than with proxies, although agreement between measures ranged from fair to substantial. Methods for defining under- and overnutrition should not be considered equivalent. Weight-based measures provide highly conservative estimates of unhealthy weight status, possibly more conservative in boys. Simple body composition measures may be more informative than anthropometry for nutritional surveillance of children and adolescents