Documents production 155 results

"In this article, we review recent developments in the extensive literature on territorially embedded production systems in the developed world, with a particular eye towards changes that have (or have not) occurred over the last decade. Improvements in transportation and communication technologies and the advent of global production networks have put newly into play the degree to which industrial communities must be located in specific and discretely bounded territories. What had been a relatively territorially circumscribed, and thus fundamentally organizational, fragmentation of production has acquired a more pronounced spatial dimension in recent years. This has raised new questions for regional economic governance that require new study of links not only within regions and sectors, but also between them. In particular, there is a need to understand whether and how local sources of competitive advantage can be transposed to include global dimensions."

"This project provides an initial overview of a group of PFASs, namely the per- and polyfluoroalkylether substances (PFAEs). The study shows that a large variety of PFAEs have been produced and used and their marketplace is complex. They have very diverse uses in a variety of industries and have a wide range of industrial and commercial applications including cosmetic products, food contact materials, lubricants, metal plating, paints and high-tech applications. PFAEs as a sub-group of PFASs merit further scrutiny, based on emerging evidence about the risks associated with some of the substances (such as GenX), their widespread use and their high persistence in the environment. Although many of these chemicals are produced/imported in small quantities in the EU, their combined impact may still present a significant risk to environment and health."

"Economists dream of equilibrium. It's time to wake up.
In mainstream economics, markets are ideal if competition is perfect. When supply balances demand, economic maturity is orderly and disturbed only by shocks. These ideas are rooted in doctrines going back thousands of years yet, as James K. Galbraith and Jing Chen show, they contradict the foundations of our scientific understanding of the physical and biological worlds.
Entropy Economics discards the conventions of equilibrium and presents a new basis for thinking about economic issues, one rooted in life processes--an unequal world of unceasing change in which boundaries, plans, and regulations are essential. Galbraith and Chen's theory of value is based on scarcity, and it accounts for the power of monopoly. Their theory of production covers increasing and decreasing returns, uncertainty, fixed investments over time, and the impact of rising resource costs. Together, their models illuminate key problems such as trade, finance, energy, climate, conflict, and demography.
Entropy Economics is a thrilling framework for understanding the world as it is and will be keenly relevant to the economic challenges of a world threatened with disorder."

"Limited availability of freshwater could become a stumbling block for rapid development of shale resources through hydraulic fracturing. Using information from the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas, WRI provides the first global and country-specific resource to help stakeholders evaluate freshwater availability across shale plays worldwide. Innovation in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling techniques is driving the rapid development of shale resources (which include shale gas, natural gas liquids, and tight oil) across the United States and Canada. Already, known shale deposits worldwide have significantly increased the volume of the world's natural gas and oil resources. Governments from Argentina and the United Kingdom, to Mexico and China, have started to explore the commercial viability of their shale reserves. The potential for expansion is huge: known shale gas deposits worldwide add 47 percent to the global technically recoverable natural gas resources, and underground stores of tight oil add 11 percent to the world's technically recoverable oil. But as countries escalate their shale exploration, limited availability of freshwater could become a stumbling block. Extracting shale resources requires large amounts of water for drilling and hydraulic fracturing. In most cases, these demands are met by freshwater, making companies developing shale significant users and managers of water at local and regional levels, often in competition with farms, households, and other industries. Although experts agree that critical environmental risks and impacts are associated with developing shale, the risks and impacts specific to surface and groundwater availability have been thinly documented. With Global Shale Gas Development: Water Availability and Business Risks, the World Resources Institute (WRI) fills this gap, providing the first publicly available, global and country-specific analysis to help evaluate freshwater availability across shale resources worldwide."

"OECD Factbook 2014 is a comprehensive annual statistical publication. More than 100 indicators cover a wide range of topics including new indicators on trade in value added and climate change.



Data are provided for all OECD member countries (including area totals), and for Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, the Russian Federation and South Africa. For each indicator, there is a two-page spread: a text page includes a short introduction followed by a detailed definition of the indicator, comments on comparability of the data, an assessment of long-term trends related to the indicator and a list of references for further information on the indicator; the second page contains a table and a graph providing, at a glance, the key message conveyed by the data. Each indicator includes "StatLinks" which allow readers to download the corresponding data."