Search Results (8)

The theoretical literature on credit reallocation has yielded conflicting predictions on both the extent and the efficiency of reallocations during economic downturns. We borrowed the methodology of measuring job reallocation to measure credit reallocation and examine which predictions are consistent with the data. We reported the following findings: (1) the extent of credit reallocation is smaller in recessions than in expansions, which is attributable to the decreasing extent of credit creation; (2) this tendency was more pronounced during the Lost Decade of the 1990s; (3) credit reallocation generally is efficiency-enhancing, but at a lower rate in recessions and turns to efficiency-reducing during the Lost Decade, possibly due to financial assistance by banks to large but low-quality firms (e.g., through zombie lending). These findings indicate that the inefficient credit reallocation during the Lost Decade was characterized by efficiency-reducing reallocation to large firms. Full article

Excess associated gas from unconventional wells is typically flared while excess produced water is injected underground. In this work, flare gas recovery is integrated with produced water desalination and a solar pre-heater. The solar module with a beam splitter preheats the produced water. Aspen Plus process modeling, economic analysis, and greenhouse gas analysis were performed. The solar flare gas recovery desalination (Solar-FGRD) process can conserve water resources and reduce the brine injection by 77%. The accompanying solar farm results in excess solar electricity for exporting to the grid. The process burner combustion efficiency (CE) is 99.8%, with a destruction and removal efficiency (DRE) of 99.99% for methane as opposed to a flare CE of 80–98% (and a methane DRE of 91–98%). The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for CO₂ and methane, in terms of CO₂ equivalent (CO₂e), can be reduced by 45% for US North Dakota and Texas flaring and 13% for North Sea flaring by employing the Solar-FGRD process. Comprehensive financial analysis demonstrates the financial–economic feasibility of the investment project with or without tax credits. Best-case and worst-case scenarios provide a realistic range that investors can consider before making investment decisions. Full article

With the degradation of the environment due to increasing ecological destruction and pollution, sustainable development has become the paramount objective of social progress. As a result, the concept of green development has garnered considerable attention, which is an important starting point for China to achieve stable economic development and sustainable ecological development. To achieve high-quality economic progress while advancing environmentally friendly practices, it is imperative to formulate and uphold a sound green credit system. However, the phenomenon of greenwashing by enterprises still exists, which compromises the efficacy of green credit and hinders the long-term sustainable and well-organized progress of green finance. Building on the background of green credit, considering the existence of blockchain and government subsidies and adopting the method of tripartite evolutionary game, this paper examines the strategic decisions made by the government, financial institutions, and small and medium-sized enterprises in the context of greenwashing. An emphasis is placed on the impact of blockchain technology on the three parties involved in the green credit market. The findings demonstrate that blockchain technology can diminish the likelihood of greenwashing by businesses and enhance the impact of government subsidies. However, it cannot replace the regulatory authority of the government in sustainable development. Moreover, excessive subsidies can stimulate more greenwashing practices, but eliminating subsidies does not eradicate the root of greenwashing. To encourage sustainable economic development and minimize corporate defaults, the government ought to reinforce supervision and establish a robust social surveillance and publicity mechanism. This paper broadens the research perspective on the effectiveness of green credit and provides some empirical and theoretical references for further promoting the green transformation of SMEs and the sustainable development of the ecological environment. Full article

Initiated by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) more than a decade ago in North Kivu, single-species plantations of Eucalyptus saligna and Grevillea robusta constitute, with other village plantations, the current legal source of wood-energy for the communities bordering the Virunga National Park (PNVi). This study assesses the growth and productivity of these plantations in two sites with different soil and climatic conditions to predict their production over time. The study also assesses the carbon stock and long-term CO₂ fixation in the biomass of the studied plantations to deduce their contribution to climate change mitigation. Non-destructive inventories were carried out during three consecutive years in 20 E. saligna and 12 G. robusta plantations in Sake and Kirumba. Analysis of the data revealed that both species have similar diametric growth while height growth and productivity were significantly higher in the E. saligna plantations. The productivity of E. saligna was also higher in Kirumba than in Sake, while that of G. robusta was higher in Sake than in Kirumba. The differences observed were mainly related to species, silviculture, altitude and concentration of bioavailable elements in the soils. The analysis of productivity evolution over time allowed us to determine optimal rotations at 8 and 12 years, respectively, for E. saligna and G. robusta plantations. The relationships between biomass or carbon stock and tree diameter were not different between the studied species but were significantly different at the stand level. If silviculture was standardized and plantations carefully monitored, carbon stock and long-term CO₂ fixation would be higher in G. robusta plantations than in E. saligna plantations. These results indicate that while for productivity reasons E. saligna is the favoured species in wood-energy plantations to quickly meet the demand of the growing and disadvantaged population living in the vicinity of PNVi, carefully monitored G. robusta plantations could be more interesting in terms of carbon credits. To simultaneously optimise wood-energy production and carbon storage in the plantations initiated in North Kivu, E. saligna and G. robusta should be planted in mixture. In addition, species and site characteristics adapted silvicultural management practices must be applied to these plantations, which are very important for the region, its population and its park. Finally, the economic profitability as well as the sustainability of the plantations should be assessed in the longer term in North Kivu. Full article

Poverty is a universal reality, and no one can deny the omnipresence of it all over the world. It is considered as the most harmful economic and social problem of human beings since their creation. It affects individuals as well as society as a whole in a very destructive way, and it is considered that poverty is the mother of all human rights violations. Perhaps no one would argue against the notion that microfinance can be a very useful apparatus in human, social, economic, political and national development. Microfinance has been established to fill the gap of a missing credit market for the poor. Among all other anti-poverty strategies, it has become one of the most important and successful tools for poverty elimination throughout the world. In this study, we investigate the impact of microfinance on poverty alleviation for the economy of Pakistan. The literacy is very poor for the area of Pakistan, so our research will help policy makers in making the right decisions in order to help the people that are living below the poverty line. Primary data of 300 households from Khushhali Microfinance Bank Limited were collected. The findings reveal that microfinance imparts a vital role in poverty eradication where the poverty level has decreased from 42.67% in comparison household (CHH) to 29.33% in the program household (PHH). Finally, it unveils the fact that there is a negative association between the provision of microfinance and poverty level of the household. The availability of micro financing facilities to the poor has declined the poverty rate from 42.67 percent to 29.33 percent. The Logistic Regression model implies that poverty has a negative association with the duration of microfinance, education and existence of a market in the locality, whereas it is positively related to family size and gender of the respondent. Full article

In the Philippines, popular belief has it that the image of the Virgen de Caysasay was fished out of the Pansipit River in 1603. Since then, many miraculous healing events, mostly involving water, have been credited to it. The prevalence of water highlights the vulnerability of physical bodies against the onslaught of environmental destruction that comes with climate change. In the Climate Links Report on Climate Change Vulnerability (2017), it was shown that the Philippines’ agricultural and water resources are already strained due to multiple factors, including susceptibility to extreme weather conditions. Using the example of the Virgen de Caysasay, this paper examines Catholic engagement with climate change, specifically the pastoral letters of the Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) pertaining to climate change and the various responses of the faithful vis-a-vis the extreme vulnerability of the different bodies of water in the Caysasay region. I argue that, in the case of the Virgen de Caysasay, the vulnerabilities of the community—of the bodies of water and of sacred spaces by virtue of them being assigned as such due to religious practices—reveal the dissonance between what the local Catholic Church imparts and communicates through its CBCP pastoral letters on the environment to the faithful community and the realities on the ground. Full article

Natural disasters and catastrophes not only cost the loss of human lives, but adversely affect the progress toward sustainable development of the country. As soon as disaster strikes, the first and foremost challenge for the concerned authorities is to make an expeditious response. Consequently, they need to be highly-organized, properly-trained, and sufficiently-equipped to effectively respond and limit the destructive effects of a disaster. In such circumstances, communication plays a vital role, whereby the consequences of tasks assigned to the workers for rescue and relief services may be streamlined by relaying necessary information among themselves. Moreover, most of the infrastructure is either severely damaged or completely destroyed in post-disaster scenarios; therefore, a Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET) is used to carry out the rescue operation, as it does not require any pre-existing infrastructure. In this context, the current work proposes and validates an effective way to relay the crucial information through the development of an application and the deployment of an experimental TestBed in a vehicular environment. The TestBed may able to provide a way to design and validate the algorithms. It provides a number of vehicles with onboard units embedded with a credit-card-size microcomputer called Raspberry Pi and a Global Positioning System (GPS) module. Additionally, it dispatches one of the pre-defined codes of emergency messages based on the level of urgency through multiple hops to a central control room. Depending on the message code received from a client, the server takes appropriate action. Furthermore, the solution also provides a graphical interface that is easy to interpret and to understand at the control room to visualize the rescue operation on the fly. Full article

The National REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation-Plus) Strategy in Indonesia highlights the importance of local participation and the reform of land tenure in the success of forest conservation. National parks are a main target area for REDD+. National parks in Indonesia have been suffering from forest destruction and conflicts between governments and local communities. This study investigated: (1) the historical process of developing the REDD+ project in collaboration with multiple stakeholders including government authorities, local NGOs, and local people; (2) the social and economic impacts of the REDD+ project on local people; and (3) the local awareness of and motivations to participate in the REDD+ project in Meru Betiri National Park in Indonesia. Interviews of stakeholders including village leaders, NGO staff, and park staff were conducted to obtain an overview of the REDD+ project in the national park. Interviews with a questionnaire were also conducted among randomly selected heads of households who participated or did not participate in the REDD+ project and lived adjacent to the national park. Our analysis revealed that participants in the project obtained the right to use illegally harvested bared lands for intercropping while planting trees to recover forest ecosystems inside the national park. This opportunity could have contributed to a drastic increase in income, particularly for economically disadvantaged people, and to the recovery of forest ecosystems. Although local people did not fully recognize the meaning of REDD+ or carbon credits, they were enthusiastic to join in managing and patrolling forests because of their satisfaction with the income generated by the national park. However, the challenge is how both the recovery of forests and income generation from the project can be maintained in a situation of insufficient funding from donors and unsettled arguments about the benefit of sharing carbon credits with local people. Full article