IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v123y2014icp378-386.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing the dynamic material criticality of infrastructure transitions: A case of low carbon electricity

Author

Listed:
  • Roelich, Katy
  • Dawson, David A.
  • Purnell, Phil
  • Knoeri, Christof
  • Revell, Ruairi
  • Busch, Jonathan
  • Steinberger, Julia K.

Abstract

Decarbonisation of existing infrastructure systems requires a dynamic roll-out of technology at an unprecedented scale. The potential disruption in supply of critical materials could endanger such a transition to low-carbon infrastructure and, by extension, compromise energy security more broadly because low carbon technologies are reliant on these materials in a way that fossil-fuelled energy infrastructure is not. Criticality is currently defined as the combination of the potential for supply disruption and the exposure of a system of interest to that disruption. We build on this definition and develop a dynamic approach to quantifying criticality, which monitors the change in criticality during the transition towards a low-carbon infrastructure goal. This allows us to assess the relative risk of different technology pathways to reach a particular goal and reduce the probability of being ‘locked in’ to currently attractive but potentially future-critical technologies. To demonstrate, we apply our method to criticality of the proposed UK electricity system transition, with a focus on neodymium. We anticipate that the supply disruption potential of neodymium will decrease by almost 30% by 2050; however, our results show the criticality of low carbon electricity production increases ninefold over this period, as a result of increasing exposure to neodymium-reliant technologies.

Suggested Citation

  • Roelich, Katy & Dawson, David A. & Purnell, Phil & Knoeri, Christof & Revell, Ruairi & Busch, Jonathan & Steinberger, Julia K., 2014. "Assessing the dynamic material criticality of infrastructure transitions: A case of low carbon electricity," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 378-386.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:123:y:2014:i:c:p:378-386
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2014.01.052
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261914000816
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2014.01.052?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tilton, John E. & Lagos, Gustavo, 2007. "Assessing the long-run availability of copper," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(1-2), pages 19-23.
    2. Laura Langbein & Stephen Knack, 2010. "The Worldwide Governance Indicators: Six, One, or None?," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(2), pages 350-370.
    3. M A Thomas, 2010. "What Do the Worldwide Governance Indicators Measure?," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 22(1), pages 31-54, February.
    4. Jim Hall & Paul Sayers & Richard Dawson, 2005. "National-scale Assessment of Current and Future Flood Risk in England and Wales," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 36(1), pages 147-164, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniel L. Bennett & Hugo J. Faria & James D. Gwartney & Daniel R. Morales, 2016. "Evaluating Alternative Measures of Institutional Protection of Private Property and Their Relative Ability to Predict Economic Development," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 31(Summer 20), pages 57-78.
    2. Knoll, Martin, 2013. "The heavily indebted poor countries and the multilateral debt relief initiative: A test case for the validity of the debt overhang hypothesis," Discussion Papers 2013/11, Free University Berlin, School of Business & Economics.
    3. Knoll, Martin & Zloczysti, Petra, 2012. "The Good Governance Indicators of the Millennium Challenge Account: How Many Dimensions are Really Being Measured?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 900-915.
    4. Ramin Dadasov, 2017. "European Aid and Governance: Does the Source Matter?," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 29(2), pages 269-288, April.
    5. Gutmann, Jerg & Voigt, Stefan, 2018. "The rule of law: Measurement and deep roots," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 68-82.
    6. Baranov, Alexey & Malkov, Egor & Polishchuk, Leonid & Rochlitz, Michael & Syunyaev, Georgiy, 2015. "How (not) to measure Russian regional institutions," Russian Journal of Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(2), pages 154-181.
    7. Jessie Lin & Insa Flachsbarth & Stephan von Cramon‐Taubadel, 2020. "The role of institutional quality on the performance in the export of coconut products," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 51(2), pages 237-258, March.
    8. Yen, Tze-Yu & André, Paul, 2019. "Market reaction to the effect of corporate social responsibility on mergers and acquisitions: Evidence on emerging markets," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 114-131.
    9. Claudio Detotto & Sauveur Giannoni & Claire Goavec, 2017. "Does good governance attract tourists?," Working Papers 002, Laboratoire Lieux, Identités, eSpaces et Activités (LISA).
    10. Wen, Jun & Yin, Hua-Tang & Jang, Chyi-Lu & Uchida, Hideaki & Chang, Chun-Ping, 2023. "Does corruption hurt green innovation? Yes – Global evidence from cross-validation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    11. Tobin Im & Youngmi Choi, 2018. "Rethinking National Competitiveness: A Critical Assessment of Governmental Capacity Measures," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 135(2), pages 515-532, January.
    12. José-Miguel Bello y Villarino, 2021. "Measuring Corruption: A Critical Analysis of the Existing Datasets and Their Suitability for Diachronic Transnational Research," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 157(2), pages 709-747, September.
    13. Huck-ju Kwon & Eunju Kim, 2014. "Poverty Reduction and Good Governance: Examining the Rationale of the Millennium Development Goals," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 45(2), pages 353-375, March.
    14. Futian Weng & Dongsheng Cheng & Muni Zhuang & Xin Lu & Cai Yang, 2024. "The effects of governance quality on renewable and nonrenewable energy consumption: An explainable decision frame," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(6), pages 2146-2162, September.
    15. de Janvry, Alain & Dethier, Jean-Jacques, 2012. "The World Bank and governance : the Bank's efforts to help developing countries build state capacity," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6275, The World Bank.
    16. Abdullah Erkul & İbrahim Külünk, 2022. "Vulnerable employment in developing economies: The case of sub‐Saharan African countries," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 34(3), pages 381-394, September.
    17. Ahmad Fawwaz Mohd Nasarudin & Bany Ariffin Amin Noordin & Siong Hook Law & Mohd Hisham Yahya, 2017. "Investigation of Herding Behaviour in Developed and Developing Countries: Does Country Governance Factor Matters?," Capital Markets Review, Malaysian Finance Association, vol. 25(2), pages 1-14.
    18. Marlène Guillon & Jacky Mathonnat, 2019. "Is there a Strategy in China’s Health Official Development Assistance to African Countries ?," Post-Print hal-03157281, HAL.
    19. Joseph Rajabu Kangile & Zena Theopist Mpenda & Reuben M. J. Kadigi & Charles Peter Mgeni, 2022. "The Effects of Trade Governance on Sugar Trade and Its Landscape of Policy Practices in Tanzania," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(3), pages 21582440221, September.
    20. Rabeea Sadaf & Judit Oláh & József Popp & Domicián Máté, 2018. "An Investigation of the Influence of the Worldwide Governance and Competitiveness on Accounting Fraud Cases: A Cross-Country Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-11, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:123:y:2014:i:c:p:378-386. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.