The Environment and Natural Resources

Research activities in the research area “The Environment and Natural Resources” focus on the allocation of environmental and natural resources. We investigate the factors influencing the increasing scarcity of natural resources. Moreover, we assess their impact on the allocation of production factors and on the changes they bring to the world economy. The research focuses especially on the evaluation of international and national aspects of environmental policy measures leading to proposals for a rational and efficient use of environmental policy instruments. Under this general umbrella we specifically pay more attention to two main environmental economic themes, namely Climate and Energy and Globalization and the Environment.

The first theme “Climate and Energy” concentrates on the complex interaction of energy demand, the supply of exhaustible fossil energy and climate goals. In particular, we take into account the fact that the economies in the different regions of the world differ considerably with respect to their technologies and their energy intensities. Climate policies can utilize these differences by simultaneously improving energy efficiency and promoting GHG reductions through means such as technology transfer, emissions trading etc. Since future GHG emissions will primarily grow in the developing world while the potential for innovation in the energy sector is primarily found in the industrialized countries it is a challenge to frame the process of technological diffusion of energy efficiency improvements and non-fossil energy technologies from the industrial to the developing countries. Finally, important strategies for a global carbon management (renewable energy, sequestration of carbon dioxide, emission reductions in agriculture) are closely related to land-use issues, which are dealt with in the research theme "Climate and Energy" as well. Important research questions include:

• What are the economic impacts of different policies for controlling greenhouse gas emissions on the national and international allocation of goods and factors?
• What is the role of innovation and technology transfer in the energy sector in national and international climate policies?
• What are the factors that determine the development and use of non-fossil, alternative energy?
• What are the land-use conflicts that can be expected as a result of global carbon management and how can they be solved?

The second theme, Globalization and the Environment, focus on the environmental dimension of the economic phenomenon of global movements of capital and goods. The impact of globalization on the natural environment can be measured on different levels, world wide, regional or local. Due to the complex relationship of global economy and the environment, more research is needed in order to determine the overall effects that are caused by globalization. Most of the current studies stress the negative impact of globalization, but at the same time the increasing international division of labour induces environmental spillover effects that can support local objectives of maintaining a sustainable state of the environment.