Klimatet kan inte vänta – Kärnkraftens nyckelroll i ett fossilfritt samhälle
PublikationArtikel (utan peer review)
Bjuggren, P-O. (2020). Klimatet kan inte vänta – Kärnkraftens nyckelroll i ett fossilfritt samhälle. Ekonomisk Debatt, 2020(2), 72-76.
Bjuggren, P-O. (2020). Klimatet kan inte vänta – Kärnkraftens nyckelroll i ett fossilfritt samhälle. Ekonomisk Debatt, 2020(2), 72-76.
2021
Grafstrom, J. (2021). Kinas misslyckade vindkraftssatsning 1980–2016. Ekonomisk Debatt, 2021(7).
2020
Although the climate challenge requires proactive policies that spur innovation in the renewable energy sector, various countries commit vastly different levels of support for renewable energy R&D. This paper addresses the question why this may be the case. Specifically, the objective is to analyse the determinants of government support to renewable energy R&D in the European Union (EU), and, in doing this, we devote particular attention to the question of whether the level of this support tends to converge or diverge across EU Member States. The investigation relies on a data set of 12 EU Member States and a bias-corrected dynamic panel data estimator. We test for the presence of conditional β-convergence, and the impacts of energy dependence and electricity regulation on government R&D efforts. The findings display divergence in terms of government support to renewable energy R&D, and this result is robust across various model specifications and key assumptions. The analysis also indicates that countries with a low energy-import dependence and deregulated electricity markets tend to experience lower growth rates in government renewable energy R&D. The paper ends by discussing some implications of the results, primarily from an EU perspective.
2021
Despite high estimated gains of a circular economy implementation, progress on the macro, meso and micro level is sluggish. The purpose of this paper is to examine, from a theoretical economics perspective, how four barriers – technological, market, institutional and cultural – can prevent the implementation of a circular economy. The barriers that currently hinder a circular economy from developing are identified and a mapping of these barriers is performed to understand how they are interdependent and entangled. The conclusion is that even small barriers could stop the emergence of a circular economy. Even though a circular economy is different from our traditional “linear” economy, the theoretical analysis in this paper gives no reason to believe that a circular economy will not follow the same rules as a traditional economy. There will be property rights, rule of law and price signals guiding the economy. If some of the essential parts of a market are lacking, a weaker circular economy than otherwise possible will materialize.