Suchergebnisse

Local Energy Governance: Opportunities and Challenges for Renewable and Decentralised Energy in France and Japan examines the extent of the energy transition taking place at a local level in France and Japan, two countries that share ambitious targets regarding the reduction of GHG emissions, their share of renewable energy and their degree of market liberalization. This book observes local energy policies and initiatives and applies an institutional and legal analysis to help identify barriers but also opportunities in the development of renewable energies in the territories. The book will highlight governance features that incubate energy transition at the local level through highly interdisciplinary contributions that offer legal, political, sociological and technological perspectives. Overall, the book will draw conclusions that will also be informative for other countries aiming at promoting renewable energies. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of energy policy and energy governance.

"This book provides a wealth of information and a critically required framework for sustainable automobile policy development in major Asian countries. It also gives a wide ranging policy options, ranging from technological and institutional solutions to automobile emission problems, based on empirical case studies and comparative policy and regulatory analysis. It is a useful reference with valuable insights on how rapidly changing economies are adopting their policy and regulatory structure, to cope with the progressively severe environmental impacts as a result of automobile increase."

There are increasing expectations of community-based financing for local renewable projects in Japan and in France: In both France and Japan, it has been about 10-20 years since the power market has been open to competition, where France is ahead, having fully liberalized its market to households in 2007, compared with that of Japan in 2016. With this as a background, a number of local governments are now able to establish power producer suppliers (PPS) to develop and supply renewable energy. Local renewable projects of the PPS, if properly designed, can function as a mechanism to create circular financial flow, where profits associated with electricity sales and the associated financial benefits may stay in the communities to form a shared stock for residential benefits. This paper illustrates cases in Japan and France, where both electricity markets were once centralized but are now open to new entrants, to identify if and how the projects have come about, and what the key factors are of creating community benefits. It also analyzes financial and credibility barriers through the case studies, to draw lessons for further community renewable development. The findings will help to understand the importance of community financial flow for community sustainability, and how the communities gained access to finance and investment.

Cities concentrate a large part of the world economy today. Understanding how the urban economy and its decision making function as well as how they are connected to a larger world (regional, national, global) is fundamental to create governance mechanisms and the institutions to move the world towards a green economy. This paper analyzes the city through its key economic processes of the transformation of space; circulation (transport); consumption and production and social, knowledge and ecosystem services. Transforming urban processes will only be achieved with better urban governance. As governance is embedded in institutions, it is the foundation for building the legitimate political and social mechanisms to green socio-ecological and economic systems. Yet the question of whether or not current governance systems in these processes are steering cities towards a greener economy, or if they are, how are they affecting people and ecosystems is yet to be addressed. Thus, we propose a set of governance indicators to assess the greening of urban processes that go beyond the decision-making procedures and include the capacity to implement change, the results of greening the economy and final outcomes on the ground. We also look at the obstacles, achievements and lessons in the greening of the direct and indirect economic processes in cities. (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Cities concentrate a large part of the world economy today. Understanding how the urban economy and its decision making function as well as how they are connected to a larger world (regional, national, global) is fundamental to create governance mechanisms and the institutions to move the world towards a green economy. This paper analyzes the city through its key economic processes of the transformation of space; circulation (transport); consumption and production and social, knowledge and ecosystem services. Transforming urban processes will only be achieved with better urban governance. As governance is embedded in institutions, it is the foundation for building the legitimate political and social mechanisms to green socio-ecological and economic systems. Yet the question of whether or not current governance systems in these processes are steering cities towards a greener economy, or if they are, how are they affecting people and ecosystems is yet to be addressed. Thus, we propose a set of governance indicators to assess the greening of urban processes that go beyond the decision-making procedures and include the capacity to implement change, the results of greening the economy and final outcomes on the ground. We also look at the obstacles, achievements and lessons in the greening of the direct and indirect economic processes in cities. (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd.