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THE BIOFUEL DELUSION: THE FALLACY OF LARGE SCALE AGRO-BIOFUELS PRODUCTION. By Mario Giampietro and Kozo Mayumi (Earthscan, August 2009). Faced with the twin threats of peak oil and climate change, many governments have turned to biofuels for an answer. Yet, increasingly, the progressive implementation of this solution demonstrates that the promise of biofuels as a replacement to fossil fuels risks leaving us short of power, short of food and doing as much damage to the climate as ever — let alone the consequent impact on biodiversity due to additional loss of habitat for agricultural production and on rural development due to the additional stress on traditional farming systems. In this exposé, Mario Giampietro and Kozo Mayumi present a theoretical framework and exhaustive evidence for the case against large-scale biofuel production from agricultural crops. Additional information on this book can be found at: http://www.earthscan.co.uk/?tabid=74734
TRADE POLICY FLEXIBILITY AND ENFORCEMENT IN THE WTO: A LAW AND ECONOMICS ANALYSIS. By Simon A. B. Schropp. Cambridge University Press, September 2009. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an incomplete contract among sovereign countries. Trade policy flexibility mechanisms are designed to deal with contractual gaps, which are the inevitable consequence of this contractual incompleteness. Trade policy flexibility mechanisms are backed up by enforcement instruments which allow for punishment of illegal extra-contractual conduct. This book offers a legal and economic analysis of contractual escape and punishment in the WTO. It assesses the interrelation between contractual incompleteness, trade policy flexibility mechanisms, contract enforcement, and WTO Members’ willingness to co-operate and to commit to trade liberalisation. It contributes to the body of WTO scholarship by providing a systematic assessment of the weaknesses of the current regime of escape and punishment in the WTO, and the systemic implications that these weaknesses have for the international trading system, before offering a reform agenda that is concrete, politically realistic, and systemically viable. For more information please refer to: http://www.amazon.com/reader/0521761204?_encoding=UTF8&ref_=sib_books_pg&qid=1250521024&query=simon%20schropp#reader
ENERGY TECHNOLOGY: TRANSITIONS FOR INDUSTRY. By the International Energy Agency, September 2009. Industry accounts for one-third of global energy use and almost 40 percent of worldwide CO2 emissions. Achieving substantial emissions reduction in the future will require urgent action from industry. What are the likely future trends in energy use and CO2 emissions from industry? What impact could the application of best available technologies have on these trends? Which new technologies are needed if these sectors are to fully play their role in a more secure and sustainable energy future? Energy Technology Transitions for Industry addresses these questions through detailed sectoral and regional analyses, building on the insights of IEA findings. It contains new indicators and methodologies as well as scenario results for the following sectors: iron and steel, cement, chemicals, pulp and paper and aluminium sectors. The report discusses the prospects for new low-carbon technologies and outlines potential technology transition paths for the most important industrial sectors. This publication is one of three new end-use studies, together with transport and buildings, which look at the role of technologies in transforming the way energy is used in these sectors. For more information, please refer to: http://www.iea.org/w/bookshop/forthcoming.htm
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