This paper examines global carbon dioxide (CO2) efficiency by employing a stochastic cost frontier analysis of about 170 countries in 1997 and 2007. The main contribution lies in providing a new approach to environmental efficiency estimation, in which the efficiency estimates quantify the...

Climate changes are caused directly or indirectly by the human activities that determine the modification of the global atmosphere composition to which it is added the natural climate variability observed through a comparable period of time. The effects are visible especially by the increase of...

Based on the interdependencies that exist between world economies, the effects of the Europe 2020 strategy is going to affect every company no matter if it operates or not in an EU member state. The purpose of this paper is to forecast the level of achieving the new European strategy by every...

With declining system costs and assuming a short energy payback period, photovoltaics (PV) should, at face value, be able to make a meaningful contribution to reducing the emission intensity of Australia’s electricity system. However, solar is an intermittent power source and households remain...

This paper examines the relationship between space heating energy efficiency and two related but distinct measures; greenhouse mitigation, and peak demand. The historic role of Melbourne’s space heating provides an opportunity to assess whether improvements in energy efficiency lead to...

Shifting consumer preferences towards ‘green’ consumption is promoted by many governments and environmental groups. Rebound effects, which reduce the effectiveness of such actions, are estimated for cost-saving ‘green’ consumption choices using Australian data. Cases examined are:...

If long-term greenhouse gas emissions in Australia are to be reduced, renewable energy is likely to be critical. This is particularly so if deep cuts are eventually implemented. Current government policies ( including emissions trading and electricity, the feed-in tariffs announced in 2008), are...

This paper explores the potential of utility-scale PV power, and, specifically, the opportunity that may arise for concentrating photovoltaics (CPV). In the 1990s, sales of PV modules were dominated by small-size applications such as PV-powered water pumping, emergency telephones, and...