This doctoral thesis contains three essays on the economics of climate change and the electricity sector. The first essay deals with the subject of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and economic growth. The second essay addresses the issues of climate change policies, especially the role of the emergent innovative technologies, and the restructuring of the electricity sector. The third essay presents a model of transmission investments in electric power networks. Chapter One studies the impacts of climate change on economic growth in the world economies. The paper contains explicit formalization of the depletion process of exhaustible fossil fuels and the phase of technology substitution. The impacts of climate change on capital flows and welfare across countries are also investigated. The restructuring of the electricity sector is studied in Chapter Two. It also analyzes how climate change policies can benefit from emergent innovative technologies and how emergent innovative technologies can lower GHG emissions. It is shown that the price of electricity is strictly rising before emergent innovative firms with zero GHG emissions enter the market, but strictly declining as the entry begins. In Chapter Three, a model of electricity transmission investments from the perspective of the regulatory approach is formulated. The Mid-West region of Western Australia, a sub-system of the South West Interconnected System is considered. In contrast with most models in the literature that deal only with network deepening, this model deals with both network deepening and network widening. Moreover, unlike the conventional investment models which are static and deal only with the long run, this model is dynamic and focuses on the timing of the infrastructure investments. The paper is a study of an optimal transmission investment program which is part of the optimal investment program for an integrated model in which investments in transmission and investments in generation are made at the same time.

Buildings are a significant energy consumer and are responsible for an increasingly large percent of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, currently between 30 and 40 percent. Energy efficiency presents unique opportunities for building owners to reduce their environmental footprint and add value through cost savings, tax deductions, and increased market value. An analysis of 183 samples of efficiency measures in seven technology categories found that 74% of efficiency investments had a positive net present value. Building automation system and chiller plant improvements had the highest mean energy and carbon dioxide savings per square foot. Additionally, building automation systems had, on average the highest return on investment, approximately $800 above the cost of implementation per one thousand square feet. Only building envelope modifications had a negative mean return on investment. Building automation system upgrades avoided an average of 350 pounds of CO2e for every dollar spent, reducing a building’s total carbon footprint by as much as 28%. The results suggest that a significant opportunity for cost, energy, and emission savings is available across all technology categories.

This doctoral thesis contains three essays on the economics of climate change and the electricity sector. The first essay deals with the subject of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and economic growth. The second essay addresses the issues of climate change policies, especially the role of the emergent innovative technologies, and the restructuring of the electricity sector. The third essay presents a model of transmission investments in electric power networks. Chapter One studies the impacts of climate change on economic growth in the world economies. The paper contains explicit formalization of the depletion process of exhaustible fossil fuels and the phase of technology substitution. The impacts of climate change on capital flows and welfare across countries are also investigated. The restructuring of the electricity sector is studied in Chapter Two. It also analyzes how climate change policies can benefit from emergent innovative technologies and how emergent innovative technologies can lower GHG emissions. It is shown that the price of electricity is strictly rising before emergent innovative firms with zero GHG emissions enter the market, but strictly declining as the entry begins. In Chapter Three, a model of electricity transmission investments from the perspective of the regulatory approach is formulated. The Mid-West region of Western Australia, a sub-system of the South West Interconnected System is considered. In contrast with most models in the literature that deal only with network deepening, this model deals with both network deepening and network widening. Moreover, unlike the conventional investment models which are static and deal only with the long run, this model is dynamic and focuses on the timing of the infrastructure investments. The paper is a study of an optimal transmission investment program which is part of the optimal investment program for an integrated model in which investments in transmission and investments in generation are made at the same time.

For more than a century, public transportation has played a significant role in society. Transit agencies, like other service industries, are intent on improving their quality of service so as to increase transit ridership and attract passengers from other modes. In recent years transportation technologies have been improved which increase safety, mobility for people and goods, and reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. An evaluation of the impacts of these operational and technological advancements is required for transit agencies to capture the potential benefits for their systems. The Region Municipality of Waterloo (RMOW), a mid-size region in Ontario has implemented an express transit service (iXpress) in Sept, 2005. The service has longer distances between stops and incorporates advanced technologies. The goal is to increase transit ridership and, as a result, to reduce GHG emissions. This research has been conducted to study the iXpress service and to develop several methods to determine the impacts of high speed transit service on passenger attraction, operational efficiency, and regional air quality. In this research, the change in total cost of travel between origin destination pairs is correlated to changes in observed ridership. Further, several surveys were conducted in the RMOW to evaluate the travel pattern changes of residents who switched from other modes to iXpress. Based on fuel consumption data, a model of GHG emissions as a function of route and vehicle characteristics has been developed to capture the operational impacts of a new iXpress service. The iXpress service of Grand River Transit (GRT) has been successful in attracting riders despite delays in technology implementation. The cost analysis presented in this research shows that the introduction of iXpress resulted in approximately 30% reduction in overall cost of travel by transit. As a result, ridership (boardings) has increased by 11% and 46% in the northern and southern sections of the iXpress service area respectively, while accounting for overall growth in the system. An analysis of travel patterns and mode shifts suggest that travelers switching from auto mode to iXpress have resulted in annualized reduction of approximately 530 tonnes of GHG. A fuel consumption analysis indicates that buses on the iXpress route have an average fuel consumption rate of 0.54 L/km while, buses serving local route consumes fuel of a rate of 0.62 L/km.

An increased awareness about the global warming has created a demand for more information on how the climate is affected by different activities.This master thesis was initiated by Tricorona, a Swedish company that offers its customers analysis and calculation of their climate impact. Tricorona also supplies climate neutralisation with CERs, in accordance with the Kyoto protocol and controlled by the UN. This work demands updated emission factors for greenhouse gases. An emission factor gives information about the greenhouse gasintensity of a service or a product [kg CO2-eq./ functional unit].The purpose of this thesis is to examine how electricity, district heating, hotels, taxis, food and materials affect the climate and how emission factors for these areas can be calculated.This was done by reviewing and comparing different studies and by interviewing experts. The information was evaluated and recommendations on calculations and emission factors were made.The consumption of energy is the main source of greenhouse gas emissions for district heating, electricity, hotels, taxis and materials. For food production the biogenic greenhousegas emissions are also important, such as the emissions of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide from land use and the methane emissions from ruminants.For climate impact assessment of electricity, district heating, hotels and taxis it is recommended that the calculations should be based on an average consumption of energy. All types of energy carriers should be included in the calculations and the emission factors used should be based on Life Cycle Assessments. Climate impact assessments based on energy consumption is a simplification that underestimates the real greenhouse gas emissions. The recommended emission factors are associated with some uncertainties that originate from the quality of the data used, the assumptions made and the system boundaries that were chosen.Despite that, the recommended emission factors can be considered representative since they are based on the best available data. For food and materials it is recommended that emissionfactors from Life Cycle Inventories should be used.

This paper examines the informal economy’s greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions and whether it poses a problem to the effectiveness of international frameworks designed to reduce GHG emissions. With the results of a literature review conducted on the relation between the informal economy and regulations and results on 160 nations’ theoretical informal-economy emissions over time, this paper finds that the informal economy does hinder the ability of governments to manage GHG emissions. This paper then discusses how this aspect of the world’s economy limits the efficacy of international frameworks to reduce GHG emissions. Suggestions are made on how to incorporate this sector into the proposed frameworks. The paper concludes with summarizing the main findings and proposals for further research.

For more than a century, public transportation has played a significant role in society. Transit agencies, like other service industries, are intent on improving their quality of service so as to increase transit ridership and attract passengers from other modes. In recent years transportation technologies have been improved which increase safety, mobility for people and goods, and reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. An evaluation of the impacts of these operational and technological advancements is required for transit agencies to capture the potential benefits for their systems. The Region Municipality of Waterloo (RMOW), a mid-size region in Ontario has implemented an express transit service (iXpress) in Sept, 2005. The service has longer distances between stops and incorporates advanced technologies. The goal is to increase transit ridership and, as a result, to reduce GHG emissions. This research has been conducted to study the iXpress service and to develop several methods to determine the impacts of high speed transit service on passenger attraction, operational efficiency, and regional air quality. In this research, the change in total cost of travel between origin destination pairs is correlated to changes in observed ridership. Further, several surveys were conducted in the RMOW to evaluate the travel pattern changes of residents who switched from other modes to iXpress. Based on fuel consumption data, a model of GHG emissions as a function of route and vehicle characteristics has been developed to capture the operational impacts of a new iXpress service. The iXpress service of Grand River Transit (GRT) has been successful in attracting riders despite delays in technology implementation. The cost analysis presented in this research shows that the introduction of iXpress resulted in approximately 30% reduction in overall cost of travel by transit. As a result, ridership (boardings) has increased by 11% and 46% in the northern and southern sections of the iXpress service area respectively, while accounting for overall growth in the system. An analysis of travel patterns and mode shifts suggest that travelers switching from auto mode to iXpress have resulted in annualized reduction of approximately 530 tonnes of GHG. A fuel consumption analysis indicates that buses on the iXpress route have an average fuel consumption rate of 0.54 L/km while, buses serving local route consumes fuel of a rate of 0.62 L/km.

Activity-based travel demand model systems are increasingly being deployed to microsimulate daily activity-travel patterns of individuals. However, a critical dimension that is often missed in these models is that of vehicle type choice. The current dissertation addresses this issue head-on and contributes to the field of transportation planning in three major ways. First, this research develops a comprehensive vehicle micro-simulation framework that incorporates state-of-the-art household vehicle type choice, usage, and evolution models. The novelty of the framework developed is that it accommodates all the dimensions characterizing vehicle fleet/usage decisions, as well as accommodates all dimensions of vehicle transactions (i.e., fleet evolution) over time. The models estimated are multiple discrete-continuous models (vehicle type being the discrete component and vehicle mileage being the continuous component) and spatial discrete choice models that explicitly accommodate for multiple vehicle ownership and spatial interactions among households. More importantly, the vehicle fleet simulator developed in this study can be easily integrated within an activity-based microsimulation framework. Second, the vehicle fleet evolution and composition models developed in this dissertation are used to predict the vehicle fleet characteristics, annual mileage, and the associated fuel consumption and green-house gas (GHG) emissions for future years as a function of the built environment, demographics, fuel and related technology, and policy scenarios. This exercise contributes in substantial ways to the identification of promising strategies to increase the penetration of alternative-fuel vehicles and fuel-efficient vehicles, reduce energy consumption, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Lastly, this research captures several complex interactions between vehicle ownership, location, and activity-travel decisions of individuals by estimating 1) a joint tour-based model of tour complexity, passenger accompaniment, vehicle type choice, and tour length, and 2) an integrated model of residential location, work location, vehicle ownership, and commute tour characteristics. The methodology used for estimating these models allows the specification and estimation of multi-dimensional choice model systems covering a wide spectrum of dependent variable types (including multinomial, ordinal, count, and continuous) and may be viewed as a major advance with the potential to lead to redefine the way activity-based travel model systems are structured and implemented. / text

Canada’s emissions are nearly 30 per cent above its Kyoto target. Kathryn Harrison is looking to understand why some countries are leading the way and why others are falling short.

Recently, electric vehicles (EVs) have been gaining attention in passenger transportation due to their greater fuel economy and reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to conventional vehicles (CVs). The amount of GHG emissions reduction from EVs depends on the energy sources used to generate electricity. Wind is a clean, renewable energy source and EVs charged from wind-generated electricity do not produce any emissions. However, wind is variable in nature. This thesis examines the potential impact of EVs on reducing a jurisdiction’s vehicular GHG emissions using locally available wind-electricity. Four methods of charging EVs using wind-electricity are considered, with grid-electricity as a backup, and the overall well-to-wheels GHG emission reductions are discussed. The thesis includes a case study of Summerside. The results show that up to 68% of the EVs’ demands were met with wind-electricity, and Summerside’s vehicular GHG emissions were reduced by between 56% and 73% when compared to CVs.