The purpose of this paper is to investigate the causal relationship between GDP and renewable energy. In order to find a significant relationship, a literature review is first analyzed in order to select the right methods for analysis. A simple model of GDP determination is chosen to inspect the relationship of society and sustainable energy production, as well as account for externalities on the environment by including emissions as an explanatory variable. The UN framework of sustainable development is used to highlight the need for action in the renewables energy sector. Concepts of emergy and transformity are employed to give a better understanding on the nature of energy and its crucial importance to economic development. The validity of these affirmations in terms of the nexus of causality will be done through economic methods: critical tests such as Pedroni cointegration, Granger causality and others will be used. These findings lead to useful policy implications for countries attempting to promote renewable energy and energy development. Unidirectional causality running from GDP growth to growth in the percentage of renewable energy consumption is found.

Le développement continu d’outils pour mesurer le développement durable a conduit à la théorie éMergétique. L’éMergie d’une ressource ou d’un produit est définie en convertissant toutes les ressources (matières premières) et les entrées d’énergie sous la forme de leurs équivalents énergétiques solaires (solar energy unit seJ), cf Odum (1996, 2000). L'objectif principal de cette thèse est d'adapter la méthode d'analyse éMergétique aux pratiques de recyclage industriel. La principale contribution scientifique de cette étude peut être résumée comme suit: contribution à la théorie éMergétique en temps discret appliquée au recyclage. Sous certaine hypothèses, l’émergie d'un produit recyclé peut être exprimée sous la forme d’une série géométrique. L'éMergétique d'un produit se détériorant, il existe un prix éMergétique au recyclage et une analogie avec l’énoncé de Carnot peut être faite. En conséquence, un nouveau «facteur» est introduit, ce dernier peut être inclus dans les tables d'évaluation éMergétique, pour tenir compte des accroissements de transformité dû aux recyclages multiples. Enfin, l'approche développée est appliquée avec succès à l'utilisation de matériaux de recycle dans un bâtiment basse énergie. / The continuous development of tools to measure sustainability led to the eMergy theory. The Emergy of a resource or product is defined by converting all resource (raw materials) and energy inputs in the form of solar energy equivalents (solar energy unit, seJ), cf Odum (1996, 2000). The main objective of this thesis is to adapt the method of emergy evaluation to industrial recycling practices. The principal scientific contribution from the study can be summarized as: contribution to th eMergy theory in discrete time applied to recycling. Under certain assumptions, the emergy of a recycled product can be expressed in the form of a geometric series. If the emergy of a product deteriorates, there is a cost to the emergy of recycling with similarities to the Carnot principle. As a result, a ‘factor’ is introduced which could be included on emergy evaluation tables to reflect increases in transformity due to multiple recycling. Fi nally, the developed approach is successfully applied to the use of recycle materials in a Low Energy Building.

Orientador: Enrique Ortega Rodrigues / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia de Alimentos / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-11T15:20:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Pereira_LucasGoncalves_M.pdf: 2565497 bytes, checksum: 8db6ace0d2a0733af548a5bd59fb8a4e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Resumo: O homem está enfrentando um desafio sem precedentes: há um consenso de que os ecossistemas da Terra não podem sustentar os níveis de atividade econômica e de consumo de energia atuais. Para determinar o impacto das atividades humanas sobre o meio ambiente e seus níveis de sustentabilidade são necessários parâmetros ou indicadores obtidos por metodologias que cumpram esses objetivos. A Análise Emergética pode avaliar o capital natural e os serviços ecossistêmicos. O método é capaz de quantificar o trabalho feito pela natureza na produção de bens e recursos. Por outro lado, a Pegada Ecológica vem sendo promovida como uma ferramenta de planejamento da sustentabilidade. Apesar de ser um dos métodos mais populares atualmente, ele tem recebido muitas críticas, especialmente devido à sua visão antropocêntrica. Um cálculo modificado combinando esses dois métodos foi proposto por Zhao et al. (2005), mas não foi suficiente para solucionar todas as deficiências encontradas na metodologia convencional da Pegada Ecológica. O objetivo desse trabalho é sugerir modificações e incluir não só o conceito, mas o método da Análise Emergética nos cálculos. A biocapacidade foi estimada como função dos recursos renováveis disponíveis no sistema. O consumo foi agrupado em categorias: cultivo, produtos florestais, produtos animais e recursos energéticos. Todos os fluxos de energia foram calculados em Joules e depois convertidos para emergia solar (seJ/ano) utilizandose o fator de conversão chamado de ¿transformidade¿ (seJ/J). Os fluxos de emergia foram, então, divididos pela densidade emergética global (seJ/ha) para se obter uma área equivalente global da pegada. Para demonstrar o mecanismo da metodologia proposta, aplicou-se para o caso do Brasil. Os resultados obtidos foram que o país apresenta uma pegada de 41,88 gha/pessoa e uma biocapacidade de 64,71 gha/pessoa. Comparando-se com o método convencional da Pegada Ecológica, a abordagem emergética demonstrou resultados mais pessimistas para a realidade ecológica brasileira / Abstract: Mankind is facing a challenge without precedents: there is a consensus that Earth¿s ecosystems can no longer support today¿s levels of economic activities and energy consumption. In order to determine the impact of human activities on the environment and the levels of sustainability, parameters and indicators are necessary. Emergy accounting can evaluate natural capital and ecosystem services. It is able to quantify the work done by nature to produce resources. On the other hand, the Ecological Footprint method has been promoted as a planning tool for sustainability. Despite being one of the most popular methods nowadays, it has received many critiques, especially because of its anthropocentric point-of-view. A modified calculation combining those two methods was proposed by Zhao et al. (2005), but it is not adequate for solving all the problems found in the Ecological Footprint. The aim of this work is to suggest some modifications and include the full concept of emergy into the calculation. The biocapacity was estimated as function of the renewable resources available. Consumption was grouped in categories: cropland, forestry, animal products, and energy resources. All the energy flows were estimated in Joules and then transformed into solar emergy (seJ/year) using the conversion factor ¿transformity¿ (seJ/J). The emergy flows were divided by the ¿global emergy density¿ (seJ/gha) to obtain the ¿equivalent global area¿. To demonstrate the mechanics of this new method, we applied it to the case of Brazil. The results were that Brazil has an ecological footprint of 41,88 gha/cap and a biocapacity of 64,71 gha/cap. Compared with conventional footprint calculations, the emergy based approach showed more pessimist results for Brazilian ecological reality / Mestrado / Mestre em Engenharia de Alimentos