A Sustainability Index of Mining Countries

“矿业”国家的可持续性指数

Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 179, 1 April 2018, Pages 278-291

Issaka Dialga

摘要：This paper discusses the issue of Sustainable Development (SD) in countries having abundant natural resources with the aim of constructing a Sustainability Index of Mining Countries (SIMC). The SIMC is based on the Hartwick (1977) weak sustainability theoretical framework and the Brundtland et al. (1987) vision of SD. The specific studies on mining and Top down/Bottom-up approach allow us to identify five dimensions of sustainability concerning mining countries. These are an economic dimension, a social dimension, an environmental dimension, a transverse dimension and a dimension involving governance, political and institutional issues. Each dimension is declined into measurable indicators and then the indicators are weighted and aggregated. An implementation of the constructed tool with Burkina Faso and Niger data reveals a dichotomy between perceived rents and development indicators. A sensitivity and robustness analysis of the SIMC with other development indicators confirms the strength of the tool.

Characterising green employment: The impacts of ‘greening’ on workforce composition

绿色就业特征：“绿色”对劳动力构成的影响

Energy Economics, Volume 72, May 2018, Pages 263-275

Alex Bowen, Karlygash Kuralbayeva, Eileen L. Tipoe

摘要：This paper estimates the share of jobs in the US that would benefit from a transition to the green economy, and presents different measures for the ease with which workers are likely to be able to move from non-green to green jobs. Using the US O*NET database and its definition of green jobs, 19.4% of US workers could currently be part of the green economy in a broad sense, although a large proportion of green employment would be ‘indirectly’ green, comprising existing jobs that are expected to be in high demand due to greening, but do not require significant changes in tasks, skills, or knowledge. Analysis of task content also shows that green jobs vary in ‘greenness', with very few jobs only consisting of green tasks, suggesting that the term ‘green’ should be considered a continuum rather than a binary characteristic. While it is easier to transition to indirectly green rather than directly green jobs, greening is likely to involve transitions on a similar scale and scope of existing job transitions. Non-green jobs generally appear to differ from their green counterparts in only a few skill-specific aspects, suggesting that most re-training can happen on-the-job. Network analysis shows that the green economy offers a large potential for short-run growth if job transitions are strategically managed.

Green total factor productivity of China's mining and quarrying industry: A global data envelopment analysis

中国矿业的绿色全要素生产率：全局数据包络分析

Resources Policy, In press, corrected proof, Available online 5 January 2018

Xuehong Zhu, Ying Chen, Chao Feng

摘要：China's mining and quarrying industry is characterized by “high pollution, high energy consumption, and high emissions.” Improving this sector's green total factor productivity (TFP) is of great importance for furthering the sustainable development of China's economy. Using a global data envelopment analysis (DEA), this paper analyzes the green TFP of China's mining and quarrying industry for the period of 1991–2014 with regard to technology, scale, and management. The following results are found. First, during the sample period, the green TFP of China's mining and quarrying industry increased by 71.7%. Technological progress was the most important contributor, and the decline in scale efficiency and management efficiency were two inhibitors. Fortunately, in recent years, management efficiency has gradually improved and become a new impetus for green TFP growth. Second, the characteristics of the green TFPs in the sub-industries vary considerably. During the sample period, the green TFPs of the mining and processing of ferrous metal ores (MPFMO), the mining and processing of non-ferrous metal ores (MPNFMO), and the mining and processing of nonmetal ores (MPNO) grew rapidly and became the benchmarks, whereas those of the mining and washing of coal (MWC) and the extraction of petroleum and natural gas (EPNG) remained very low. Third, the returns to scale of the sub-industries also varied. EPNG, MPNFMO, MPNO were in the stage of increasing returns to scale or constant returns to scale during the entire period, whereas MWC and MPFMO have recently entered the stage of decreasing returns to scale.

Energy security and renewable energy policy analysis of Pakistan

巴基斯坦能源安全与可再生能源政策分析

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Volume 84, March 2018, Pages 155-169

Tauseef Aized, Muhammad Shahid, Amanat Ali Bhatti, Muhammad Saleem, Gabrial Anandarajah

摘要：Sustainable energy supply is an important factor for continued economic growth of any society. Pakistan is among those developing countries which are facing severe shortages of energy now-a-days. The current and past governments in the country have designed various energy policies to fulfill energy demands but could not fill the demand-supply gap; there has been a shortage of about 5000 MW of electrical supply during summer 2016. A policy for development of renewable energy was framed in 2006 which was aimed to supply sustainable energy to all consumers including those households which have not been supplied electricity and natural gas in rural and far-flung areas. The policy was extended for implementation in 2011 and is still in use. The basis of this policy rests on energy security and self-sufficiency, social equity and economic benefits. This study aims at analyzing renewable energy policy of Pakistan and examining and finding the ways to secure energy supplies in future using LEAP. Four Scenarios, business-as-usual, green Pakistan, nuclear and optimization, have been developed to assess the validity of the energy plans. The study concludes that green Pakistan scenario employing renewable energy technologies, having minimum operation and externality costs, is the most suitable option in future.