Optimal control theory has been extensively used to determine the optimal harvesting policy for renewable resources such as fish stocks. In such optimisations, it is common to maximise the discounted utility of harvesting over time, employing a constant time discount rate. However, evidence from...

Cybernetics is the science of effective organization, i.e. the science that describes the general principles of growth, learning and adaptation in complex, dynamical systems.Stafford Beer regards his viable system model as a design for effective formal organization. He also declares that since...

Numerical weather forecast errors are generated by model deficiencies and by errors in the initial conditions which interact and grow nonlinearly. With recent progress in data assimilation, the accuracy in the initial conditions has been substantially improved so that accounting for systematic...

The purpose of this paper is to document the results of our application of the Edmonds-Reilly Model (ERM) using several scenarios provided for an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) project comparing global models. Because the output of this exercise is data-rich, most...

There is a growing acceptance that the environmentalbenefits of forests extend beyond traditional ecological benefits andinclude the mitigation of climate change. Interest in forestry mitigationactivities has led to the inclusion of forestry practices at the projectlevel in international...

The Australian Greenhouse Office contracted with the Collaborative Labeling and Appliance Standards Program (CLASP) for LBNL to compare US and Australian approaches to analyzing costs and benefits of minimum energy performance standards (MEPS). This report compares the approaches for three types...

Voluntary consumer decisions to buy electricity supplied from renewable energy sources represent a powerful market support mechanism for renewable energy development. In the early 1990s, a small number of U.S. utilities began offering 'green power' options to their customers. Since then, these...

Many countries and regions are introducing policies aimed at reducing the environmental footprint from the energy sector and increasing the use of renewable energy. In the United States, a number of initiatives have been taken at the state level, from renewable portfolio standards (RPSs) and...

Growth in renewable energy in the U.S. over the past decade has been propelled by a number of forces, including rising fossil fuel prices, environmental concerns, and policy support at the state and federal levels. In this article, we review and discuss what are arguably the two most important...

Electric vehicles could significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and dependence on imported petroleum. However, for mass adoption, EV costs have historically been too high to be competitive with conventional vehicle options due to the high price of batteries, long refuel time, and a...