IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/1112.0758.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Confronting the Kaya Identity with Investment and Capital Stocks

Author

Listed:
  • Eric Kemp-Benedict

Abstract

Scaling relations, such as the IPAT equation and the Kaya identity, are useful for quickly gauging the scale of economic, technological, and demographic changes required to reduce environmental impacts and pressures; in the case of the Kaya identity, the environmental pressure is greenhouse gas emissions. However, when considering large-scale economic transformation, as with a shift to a low-carbon economy, the IPAT and Kaya identities and their cousins fail to capture the legacy of existing capital, on the one hand, and the need for new investment, on the other. While detailed models can capture these factors, they do not allow for rapid exploration of widely different alternatives, which is the appeal of the IPAT and Kaya identities. In this paper we present an extended Kaya identity that includes investment and capital stocks. The identity we propose is a sum of terms, rather than a simple scaling relation. Nevertheless, it allows for quick analysis and rapid exploration of a variety of different possible paths toward a low-carbon economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Eric Kemp-Benedict, 2011. "Confronting the Kaya Identity with Investment and Capital Stocks," Papers 1112.0758, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2012.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:1112.0758
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1112.0758
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marian R. Chertow, 2000. "The IPAT Equation and Its Variants," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 4(4), pages 13-29, October.
    2. Martínez-Alier, Joan & Pascual, Unai & Vivien, Franck-Dominique & Zaccai, Edwin, 2010. "Sustainable de-growth: Mapping the context, criticisms and future prospects of an emergent paradigm," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 1741-1747, July.
    3. van den Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M., 2011. "Environment versus growth -- A criticism of "degrowth" and a plea for "a-growth"," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(5), pages 881-890, March.
    4. Ekins, Paul, 2004. "Step changes for decarbonising the energy system: research needs for renewables, energy efficiency and nuclear power," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(17), pages 1891-1904, November.
    5. York, Richard & Rosa, Eugene A. & Dietz, Thomas, 2003. "STIRPAT, IPAT and ImPACT: analytic tools for unpacking the driving forces of environmental impacts," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 351-365, October.
    6. World Bank, 2011. "World Development Indicators 2011," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2315.
    7. Vollebergh, Herman R.J. & Kemfert, Claudia, 2005. "The role of technological change for a sustainable development," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(2-3), pages 133-147, August.
    8. Malte Meinshausen & Nicolai Meinshausen & William Hare & Sarah C. B. Raper & Katja Frieler & Reto Knutti & David J. Frame & Myles R. Allen, 2009. "Greenhouse-gas emission targets for limiting global warming to 2 °C," Nature, Nature, vol. 458(7242), pages 1158-1162, April.
    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. Annageldy Arazmuradov, 2016. "Economic prospect on carbon emissions in Commonwealth of Independent States," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 49(4), pages 395-427, November.
    2. Claudia García-García & Catalina B. García-García & Román Salmerón, 2021. "Confronting collinearity in environmental regression models: evidence from world data," Statistical Methods & Applications, Springer;Società Italiana di Statistica, vol. 30(3), pages 895-926, September.
    3. Casey, Gregory & Galor, Oded, 2017. "Is faster economic growth compatible with reductions in carbon emissions? The role of diminished population growth," MPRA Paper 76164, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Hwang, In Chang, 2013. "Stochastic Kaya model and its applications," MPRA Paper 55099, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Katsu Masaki, 2022. "Exploring the ‘Partial Connections’ between Growth and Degrowth Debates: Bhutan’s Policy of Gross National Happiness," Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, , vol. 34(1), pages 86-103, January.
    6. Jin Xue & Hans Jakob Walnum & Carlo Aall & Petter Næss, 2016. "Two Contrasting Scenarios for a Zero-Emission Future in a High-Consumption Society," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-25, December.
    7. Lizhuang Liang & Feng Chen & Lei Shi & Shukui Niu, 2018. "NDVI-derived forest area change and its driving factors in China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(10), pages 1-19, October.
    8. Xiaoxia Shi & Haiyun Liu & Joshua Sunday Riti, 2019. "The role of energy mix and financial development in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions’ reduction: evidence from ten leading CO2 emitting countries," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 36(3), pages 695-729, October.
    9. Figge, Frank & Thorpe, Andrea Stevenson, 2023. "Circular economy, operational eco-efficiency, and sufficiency. An integrated view," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(PB).
    10. José-Manuel Giménez-Gómez & Jordi Teixidó-Figueras & Cori Vilella, 2016. "The global carbon budget: a conflicting claims problem," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 136(3), pages 693-703, June.
    11. Larch, Mario & Löning, Markus & Wanner, Joschka, 2018. "Can degrowth overcome the leakage problem of unilateral climate policy?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 118-130.
    12. Fander Falconí & Rafael Burbano & Jesus Ramos-Martin & Pedro Cango, 2019. "Toxic Income as a Trigger of Climate Change," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-25, April.
    13. Gendron, Corinne, 2014. "Beyond environmental and ecological economics: Proposal for an economic sociology of the environment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 240-253.
    14. van Griethuysen, Pascal, 2012. "Bona diagnosis, bona curatio: How property economics clarifies the degrowth debate," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 262-269.
    15. Yanan Wang & Wei Chen & Minjuan Zhao & Bowen Wang, 2019. "Analysis of the influencing factors on CO2 emissions at different urbanization levels: regional difference in China based on panel estimation," 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. 96(2), pages 627-645, March.
    16. Ye-Ning Wang & Qiang Zhou & Hao-Wei Wang, 2020. "Assessing Ecological Carrying Capacity in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Based on a Three-Dimensional Ecological Footprint Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-18, November.
    17. Hoffmann, Christin & Hoppe, Julia Amelie & Ziemann, Niklas, 2022. "Faster, harder, greener? Empirical evidence on the role of the individual Pace of Life for productivity and pro-environmental behavior," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    18. Don Clifton, 2012. "Sustainable Business: Are We Heading in the Right Direction?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 4(4), pages 1-18, April.
    19. Yu Sang Chang & Sung Jun Jo & Yoo-Taek Lee & Yoonji Lee, 2021. "Population Density or Populations Size. Which Factor Determines Urban Traffic Congestion?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-21, April.
    20. Tokic, Damir, 2012. "The economic and financial dimensions of degrowth," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 49-56.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:arx:papers:1112.0758. 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: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    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.