Oikos

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• What happened to Oikos?

  Apologies to my loyal and very attractive readers for a lack of posts here lately. I'm acting in a new position at work which I'm loving but it's been a learning curve and a lot of work! Free time has largely been devoted to my thesis (first chapter now 4 [...]

  Posted: September 12, 2007, 3:07am EDT

• Can markets predict global warming?

  It's been a little quiet at Oikos lately, as work has been particularly busy. I've also started researching for my thesis on whether prediction markets could effectively predict climate change and its impacts - something I've previously talked about. Could a well-functioning market in future temperatures or sea level [...]

  Posted: August 22, 2007, 11:36pm EDT

• Australian Conservation Foundation looking for Economic Adviser

  An illustration of how economics is becoming increasingly important in environmental debates, ACF is advertising for an economist to fill the apparently newly-created position of Economic Adviser.
  
  According to ACF:
  
  

  ACF’s advocacy to protect the environment increasingly involves economic analysis, and ACF has set a long-term strategic priority [...]

  Posted: August 10, 2007, 3:11am EDT

• Kenneth Arrow and Thomas Schelling on Climate Change

  The latest issue of The Economists' Voice is out, with two articles on the economics of climate change by Nobel Prize-winning economists.
  
  The first is an excellent primer on climate change by Kenneth Arrow: Global Climate Change: A Challenge to Policy. I'd really recommend reading it [...]

  Posted: July 18, 2007, 7:10pm EDT

• Exposing the hidden costs of pollution

  An article in today’s Sydney Morning Herald, which questions whether the Australian states could undermine national action on climate change, illustrates just why a broad-based national emissions trading scheme would be effective.
  
  

  Environment groups said the Opposition Leader, Kevin Rudd, needed to explain how he would curb rising [...]

  Posted: July 16, 2007, 12:05am EDT

• Live Earth concert this Saturday

  
  Only 4 sleeps to go until the Live Earth concerts around the world - in New York, London, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney and Hamburg on 7/7/07 - this Saturday!
  
  By the way, I have a couple of spare tickets to the [...]

  Posted: July 03, 2007, 3:19am EDT

• Cheap ways to reduce greenhouse emissions

  
  An interesting article in The Economist last month took a look at the cost of various options for reducing greenhouse emissions (summarised in the graph above).
  

  Two things are particularly notable:

  • There are a number of options that have a negative cost. In other words, [...]

  Posted: June 27, 2007, 11:06pm EDT

• Coming soon to an Australian high school near you?

  
  Click picture to enlarge. More nuclear fun at Ethan Persoff's site. [...]

  Posted: June 24, 2007, 7:17pm EDT

• Should carbon taxes be linked to global temperatures?

  I’ve mentioned before the possibility of creating markets in long-term weather – that is, betting on future climate change – as a method of predicting and insuring against climate change. Betting markets are good at predicting future outcomes – you can look at the odds on horses in a [...]

  Posted: June 17, 2007, 10:59pm EDT

• Review of Environmental Economics and Policy

  
  The first issue of the Review of Environmental Economics and Policy is out and articles can be downloaded for free.
  
  The Review
  
  

  ...seeks to fill the gap between traditional academic journals and the general interest press by providing a widely accessible yet [...]

  Posted: June 14, 2007, 12:09am EDT

• Happy World Environment Day!

  
  [...]

  Posted: June 05, 2007, 2:08am EDT

• Who do you trust with the challenge of climate change?

  
  
  That’s what Australia’s Prime Minister John Howard asked yesterday, when announcing his Government’s policy on climate change for the next election:
  
  
  

  We must get this right. If we get this wrong, it will do enormous damage to [...]

  Posted: June 04, 2007, 2:41am EDT

• Emissions trading - the report is out

  
  The Prime Minister's Task Group on Emissions Trading has handed down its final report and it is now available.
  
  It recommends an emissions trading scheme based on the following principles:
  
  

  
  
  • a long-term aspirational emissions abatement goal and associated pathways to provide [...]

  Posted: May 31, 2007, 11:39pm EDT

• PM's Emission Trading Task Group - report out midday today

  I've just been informed that the report will be posted on the Task Group's website at midday today.
  
  Today's Sydney Morning Herald has a brief summary and the recommendations are a little disappointing (if not surprising). The good point is that it recommends a domestic cap-and-trade system [...]

  Posted: May 31, 2007, 9:31pm EDT

• The Prime Minister's Task Group on Emissions Trading

  The Prime Minister’s Task Group on Emissions Trading gives its report to the PM today and is expected to recommend the introduction of a national emissions trading scheme in Australia.
  
  I have been pretty sceptical about the taskgroup, given its membership: of the twelve members, five are [...]

  Posted: May 30, 2007, 8:52pm EDT

• Carbon offsets

  
  From GeekCulture, via env-econ.net. [...]

  Posted: May 23, 2007, 12:00am EDT

• Live Earth tickets on sale tomorrow (Australia)

  
  You've probably heard about the Live Earth concerts around the world on 7/7/07 to "engage people on a mass scale to combat our climate crisis".
  
  Tickets for the Australian show in Sydney go on sale tomorrow morning at 9 am. $99 including [...]

  Posted: May 17, 2007, 3:02am EDT

• More on weather markets and climate change

  I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the possbility of long-term weather markets helping us to understand and prepare for climate change.
  
  I've since found a smattering of information on this topic elsewhere, although not as much as I'd expect given the large amount of information on [...]

  Posted: May 14, 2007, 11:05pm EDT

• Oikos 101: Price elasticities

  
  Welcome to the first in what I intend to be a regular series: Oikos 101.
  
  Here I’ll attempt to explain useful economic, ecological or environmental policy concepts in a way that’s simple but still accurate. (If it’s not simple or is inaccurate, please let [...]

  Posted: May 08, 2007, 11:15pm EDT

• Will climate change get a run in tonight's budget?

  Federal Treasurer Peter Costello hands down his 10th(?) budget tonight. Will climate change get a mention?
  
  Not much, according to the budget 'leaks' so far: there seems to be an extension to the solar rebate and little else.
  
  Anyway, have a punt at the Greenpeace website on [...]

  Posted: May 08, 2007, 12:02am EDT

• Could long-term weather markets help us understand the risks of climate change?

  Markets are good at aggregating information. When individuals - each acting according to their own personal preferences, ideas and knowledge - interact in a market, the market price that is set for a commodity reflects society’s best guess about the commodity's value. For example, shares in Telstra can (probably) be [...]

  Posted: May 03, 2007, 2:44am EDT

• John Howard’s climate policy: Que sera, sera

  When the federal opposition announced a target last week of reducing Australia’s emissions by 60% by 2050, John Howard described it as “crazy”:
  
  

  "You've got this ridiculous situation where the Greens are advocating an 80 per cent cut by 2050, the Labor Party is only slightly less radical [...]

  Posted: April 30, 2007, 11:07pm EDT

• A crude analogy

  Today I’d like to pose a scenario to think about. Imagine you live with your family in an enormous 5 bedroom house in a small, mostly self-sufficient development. There are 3 other properties in the development. There’s an apartment block with 12 small apartments. There’s a little complex of 12 [...]

  Posted: April 29, 2007, 11:00pm EDT

• Environment, economy and climate change

  I was part of a discussion panel on this issue on Triple J’s current affairs show Hack on Tuesday night, concentrating particularly on the economic implications of setting a target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. There were some interesting perspectives.
  
  You can listen to it here on the [...]

  Posted: April 26, 2007, 3:14am EDT

• EcoLibertarians?

  Via the new Ecocene blog, I’ve been alerted to an ‘ecolibertarian’ blog authored by David Reevely, a Canadian journalist with the Ottawa Citizen. David is “working out how to be a libertarian and an environmentalist at the same time” and has some great posts about environmental economics and [...]

  Posted: April 25, 2007, 6:43am EDT by David Jeffery

• Water water everywhere… except the catchments

  
  Rain has been bucketing down in Sydney over the last couple of days but it has been a different story in the catchments that receive the water for Sydney’s water supply. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, 80 millimetres has fallen in the city’s [...]

  Posted: April 24, 2007, 8:40am EDT by David Jeffery

• Should women be taxed at a lower rate than men?

  A fascinating article by economics writer John Garnaut in the Sydney Morning Herald today argues that women should be taxed at lower rates than men.
  
  The reason is that women are more responsive to tax rates than men. If we assume that markets generally work pretty efficiently to [...]

  Posted: April 23, 2007, 5:32am EDT by David Jeffery

• Lawyers leading the way on climate change?

  
  People around the world are starting to sue each other over climate change. There have been some interesting cases and there are more in the pipeline: probably the biggest is California's action against car manufacturers.
  
  There's an article by Richard Ackland in today's Sydney [...]

  Posted: April 20, 2007, 8:44am EDT by David Jeffery

• Hot rocks: a cheap and clean energy solution?

  There’s been a flurry of media reports in recent weeks about the promise of geothermal energy in Australia:
  
  

  PEOPLE could be using "green nuclear" energy in their homes within three years as entrepreneurs rush to produce zero-emissions electricity. Geodynamics Ltd told the Australian Stock Exchange yesterday it had [...]

  Posted: April 12, 2007, 9:18am EDT by David Jeffery

• Earth Hour: The wrap up

  On Friday I posted about why I’d be turning off the lights for Earth Hour. Cat and I celebrated Sydney’s Earth Hour on Saturday night at our place with some friends and candlelit drinks and nibbles. It was very pleasant.
  
  It seems to have been quite a success. [...]

  Posted: April 02, 2007, 12:42pm EDT by David Jeffery

• Why I’ll be turning my lights off for Earth Hour tomorrow night

  
  Tomorrow night in Sydney is ‘Earth Hour’: 60 minutes when tens of thousands of people and businesses turn out their lights for an hour to demonstrate their concern about climate change.
  
  Something that has surprised me is the many negative responses that I’ve [...]

  Posted: March 30, 2007, 7:44am EDT by David Jeffery

• Australian ecological economics conference in July

  The Australia New Zealand Society for Ecological Economics is holding a conference on Queensland's Sunshine coast on 3 to 6 July this year, with the theme Re-inventing Sustainability: A climate for change.
  
  The conference program is here. Some of the topics sounds pretty interesting:
  

  • Resilience, thresholds and surprise [...]

  Posted: March 28, 2007, 5:42am EDT by David Jeffery

• Other people's money

  I’ve been thinking about the role of government in environmental policy. And in economic, social, health and education policy. When should governments provide services? When should they regulate activities? When should they just leave things alone?
  
  There’s the environmental questions: Should they ban incandescent light gloves? Should they [...]

  Posted: March 21, 2007, 9:55am EDT by David Jeffery

• New Australian green living site

  Check out futuremakers.com.au, a great new site for anyone looking for tips for a green lifestyle.
  
  The site, created by WWF (and with a lot of work from Grant Young from the Synapse Chronicles blog), is a place where people can share their ideas for living sustainably. [...]

  Posted: March 08, 2007, 7:30am EST by David Jeffery

• The environmentally destructive tax rort for cars

  Did you know that Australians get bigger tax cuts the more they drive their cars?
  
  Canberra economic journalist Peter Martin reprinted on his blog this media release he received from accounting firm Deloittes, urging people to consider driving their car as much as possible in the next month [...]

  Posted: March 07, 2007, 7:56am EST by David Jeffery

• Green ethanol – from coal?!

  An interesting development from the US:
  
  

  ( The latest trend in the green world of ethanol is a surprising one: coal.
  
  Minnesota's first coal-fired ethanol plant soon will begin operation in Heron Lake, and it won't be the last. The high price of natural gas is enticing [...]

  Posted: March 06, 2007, 7:49am EST by David Jeffery

• Solving climate change: the truth is out there

  This is a little leftfield:
  

  A former Canadian defence minister says be believes advanced technology from extraterrestrial civilizations offers the best hope to "save our planet" from the perils of climate change.

  Paul Hellyer, 83, is calling for a public disclosure of alien technology obtained during alleged UFO crashes -- [...]

  Posted: March 02, 2007, 12:10pm EST by David Jeffery

• Weekly blog roundup

  Energy saving light globes
  
  Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull wants to change the standards for lights to phase out the old-school electricity-chewing incandescent globes by 2010. This seems to me a sensible move that will make a modest impact at a modest cost. Joshua Gans is underwhelmed [...]

  Posted: February 23, 2007, 11:33am EST by David Jeffery

• Does emissions trading spur innovation or hinder it?

  Same day, two different perspectives.
  
  Gar Lipow at the Gristmill blog examines a number of trading schemes that have previously been hailed as successes and comes to the conclusion that they’re not all they’re cracked up to be:
  
  

  Compare the success of the often-touted sulfur dioxide trading [...]

  Posted: February 21, 2007, 12:52pm EST by David Jeffery

• “Why be carbon neutral when you can be carbon optimal?”

  So asks Tim Harford in The Undercover Economist, which is a very readable and entertaining introduction to how economists view the world. (I did, however, find it dogmatic and rather preachy in tone.)
  
  Last week I looked at some of the issues around the ethics and effectiveness of [...]

  Posted: February 20, 2007, 4:47am EST by David Jeffery

• Carbon offsets: good, bad or ugly?

  Yesterday I talked about CheatNeutral: a spoof website that offers people the ability to compensate for their infidelity by investing in projects that will help other people stay faithful. Their message is that that makes about as much sense as offsetting carbon emissions.
  
  The fundamental difference of course [...]

  Posted: February 14, 2007, 8:31am EST by David Jeffery

• The 'low carb economy'

  Steve Burrell in the Age says that “both sides of politics, and much of the business community, now agree that Australia must move to a "low carb"economy… like an economic version of [a low carb diet,] it's tough getting used to, but you are supposed to be better for [...]

  Posted: February 13, 2007, 12:20pm EST by David Jeffery

• Carbon offsetting: neutral shmeutral?

  As you may have heard, the Oxford American Dictionary declared “carbon neutral” the word of the year in 2006 (shouldn’t that be ‘phrase of the year?’). It pipped other words / phrases such as “dwarf planet” (poor Pluto) and “elbow bump” (a greeting in which two people touch elbows, [...]

  Posted: February 13, 2007, 8:18am EST by David Jeffery

• Did the Cross City tunnel put the cart before the horse?

  Large cities throughout the world have problems with congestion in the city centre, resulting in lost time, lower productivity, higher costs to individuals and businesses, and more air pollution.
  
  There are two ways to address this problem: you can introduce measures to discourage driving in the city or you [...]

  Posted: February 08, 2007, 7:39am EST by David Jeffery

• Did the Cross City tunnel put the cart before the horse?

  Large cities throughout the world have problems with congestion in the city centre, resulting in lost time, lower productivity, higher costs to individuals and businesses, and more air pollution.
  
  There are two ways to address this problem: you can introduce measures to discourage driving in the city or you [...]

  Posted: February 07, 2007, 8:39pm EST

• Parking fees – fighting climate change?

  Today’s Sydney Morning Herald reports that a number of local councils in Sydney are considering – or have introduced – graded parking fees based on a car’s fuel consumption:
  
  

  INNER-CITY councils will be urged to charge residents with petrol guzzling cars more for their parking permits - a [...]

  Posted: February 01, 2007, 12:26pm EST by David Jeffery

• What a week

  I'm back from a most enjoyable and relaxing few days in Hobart and Eaglehawk Neck in Tassie, with my girlfriend Cat and her family. It's a beautiful part of the world. We packed a lot in, with some great walks - Mt Wellington in Hobart and a couple [...]

  Posted: February 01, 2007, 7:31am EST by David Jeffery

• Parking fees – fighting climate change?

  Today’s Sydney Morning Herald reports that a number of local councils in Sydney are considering – or have introduced – graded parking fees based on a car’s fuel consumption:
  
  

  INNER-CITY councils will be urged to charge residents with petrol guzzling cars more for their parking permits - a [...]

  Posted: February 01, 2007, 1:26am EST

• What a week

  I'm back from a most enjoyable and relaxing few days in Hobart and Eaglehawk Neck in Tassie, with my girlfriend Cat and her family. It's a beautiful part of the world. We packed a lot in, with some great walks - Mt Wellington in Hobart and a couple [...]

  Posted: January 31, 2007, 8:31pm EST

• McNaught Comet - spectacular spectacular!

  A bit off-topic, but for anyone in the southern hemisphere, make sure you don't miss the McNaught Comet. We're down in Tassie and caught it last night in Hobart. Big, bright and spectacular with a huge tail (apparently some 30 million km long!). You should be able to see [...]

  Posted: January 24, 2007, 1:42pm EST by David Jeffery

• McNaught Comet - spectacular spectacular!

  A bit off-topic, but for anyone in the southern hemisphere, make sure you don't miss the McNaught Comet. We're down in Tassie and caught it last night in Hobart. Big, bright and spectacular with a huge tail (apparently some 30 million km long!). You should be able to see [...]

  Posted: January 24, 2007, 2:42am EST

• Café standards for cars: Espresso Excels and latte Lexuses

  If you read much about energy issues in the US, you’ll see common references to CAFE standards for cars. What are they? Are they a good thing? And should we have them in Australia?
  
  What are they?
  
  CAFE stands for Corporate Average Fuel Economy and is the sales-weighted [...]

  Posted: January 23, 2007, 12:15pm EST by David Jeffery

• Café standards for cars: Espresso Excels and latte Lexuses

  If you read much about energy issues in the US, you’ll see common references to CAFE standards for cars. What are they? Are they a good thing? And should we have them in Australia?
  
  What are they?
  
  CAFE stands for Corporate Average Fuel Economy and is the sales-weighted [...]

  Posted: January 23, 2007, 1:15am EST

• Who’s to blame for the ‘housing crisis’?

  
  I’m a bit confused.
  
  There’s been a lot of talk recently, in the Sydney Morning Herald for example, about that perennial favourite of economic topics, home affordability. And someone always mentions property taxes.
  
  According to the Herald last week:
  
  

  IT IS [...]

  Posted: January 22, 2007, 12:12pm EST by David Jeffery

• Who’s to blame for the ‘housing crisis’?

  
  I’m a bit confused.
  
  There’s been a lot of talk recently, in the Sydney Morning Herald for example, about that perennial favourite of economic topics, home affordability. And someone always mentions property taxes.
  
  According to the Herald last week:
  
  

  IT IS [...]

  Posted: January 22, 2007, 1:12am EST

• Weekly Blog Roundup

  As I suggested last week, I’m planning to have a weekly roundup of interesting blog posts from the week on environmental and economic issues – concentrating particularly on Australian issues and on issues that are both environmental and economic.
  
  So here’s some of my favourites from this week:
  
  [...]

  Posted: January 19, 2007, 12:06pm EST by David Jeffery

• Weekly Blog Roundup

  As I suggested last week, I’m planning to have a weekly roundup of interesting blog posts from the week on environmental and economic issues – concentrating particularly on Australian issues and on issues that are both environmental and economic.
  
  So here’s some of my favourites from this week:
  
  [...]

  Posted: January 19, 2007, 1:06am EST

• Sydney to ship in drinking water?

  
  Giant water tankers shipping water to parched Sydney from verdant Tasmania? And you thought desalination was a wacky idea... This raises quite a few interesting economic and environmental issues, but for now I'll just say 'Wow, really?!'
  

  Five years ago Solar Sailor won an [...]

  Posted: January 18, 2007, 3:52am EST by David Jeffery

• Sydney to ship in drinking water?

  
  Giant water tankers shipping water to parched Sydney from verdant Tasmania? And you thought desalination was a wacky idea... This raises quite a few interesting economic and environmental issues, but for now I'll just say 'Wow, really?!'
  

  Five years ago Solar Sailor won an [...]

  Posted: January 17, 2007, 4:52pm EST

• Phone book follies

  Amy Stodghill at It's the Environment, Stupid talks about the annual appearance of piles and piles of new phone books:
  

  I happened to be walking in my neighborhood and noticed a few guys frantically running to and from a slow moving budget rental truck. They were distributing stacks upon [...]

  Posted: January 17, 2007, 12:00pm EST by David Jeffery

• Phone book follies

  Amy Stodghill at It's the Environment, Stupid talks about the annual appearance of piles and piles of new phone books:
  

  I happened to be walking in my neighborhood and noticed a few guys frantically running to and from a slow moving budget rental truck. They were distributing stacks upon [...]

  Posted: January 17, 2007, 1:00am EST

• What do you want to see on Oikos?

  I’ve been thinking about the content on Oikos and I’m wanting to make it more regular and predictable.
  
  Some of my aims in starting Oikos a little over a year ago were to:
  

  • Get some discussion going on the economic aspects of environmental issues in Australia;
    
  • Educate people interested [...]

  Posted: January 12, 2007, 7:29am EST by David Jeffery

• What do you want to see on Oikos?

  I’ve been thinking about the content on Oikos and I’m wanting to make it more regular and predictable.
  
  Some of my aims in starting Oikos a little over a year ago were to:
  

  • Get some discussion going on the economic aspects of environmental issues in Australia;
    
  • Educate people interested [...]

  Posted: January 11, 2007, 8:29pm EST

• How do we resolve environmental disputes?

  A lot of environmental disputes are conflicts over resources and, underlying them, are conflicts over values – which of two things is more important.
  
  A browse through environmental news stories this morning gives a number of examples.
  In the US, the Fish and Wildlife Service has granted approval [...]

  Posted: January 08, 2007, 12:40pm EST by David Jeffery

• How do we resolve environmental disputes?

  A lot of environmental disputes are conflicts over resources and, underlying them, are conflicts over values – which of two things is more important.
  
  A browse through environmental news stories this morning gives a number of examples.
  In the US, the Fish and Wildlife Service has granted approval [...]

  Posted: January 08, 2007, 1:40am EST

• Big brother is watching your birdbath

  Today’s Sydney Morning Herald reports that New South Wales is out of step with other Australian states which are tightening water restrictions as the drought continues:
  
  

  WHILE other states are tightening water restrictions… NSW is steadfastly refusing to do the same, preferring to spend $1.3 billion to build [...]

  Posted: January 03, 2007, 12:39pm EST by David Jeffery

• Oikos is back!

  Happy new year everyone!
  
  Oikos has been silent for some weeks now as work and the silly season swamped me - and then I had a holiday!
  
  Anyway, I'm back and refreshed and Oikos will be back to regular posting (I'm aiming for daily).
  
  A theme of [...]

  Posted: January 03, 2007, 3:55am EST by David Jeffery

• Big brother is watching your birdbath

  Today’s Sydney Morning Herald reports that New South Wales is out of step with other Australian states which are tightening water restrictions as the drought continues:
  
  

  WHILE other states are tightening water restrictions… NSW is steadfastly refusing to do the same, preferring to spend $1.3 billion to build [...]

  Posted: January 03, 2007, 1:39am EST

• Oikos is back!

  Happy new year everyone!
  
  Oikos has been silent for some weeks now as work and the silly season swamped me - and then I had a holiday!
  
  Anyway, I'm back and refreshed and Oikos will be back to regular posting (I'm aiming for daily).
  
  A theme of [...]

  Posted: January 02, 2007, 4:55pm EST