Using data representing one-third of the world’s population, we find that extreme hot and cold days cause substantial labor supply declines for weather-exposed workers, but not for weather-protected workers. With these results and a simple theoretical framework, we calculate that the value of a weather-protected job’s thermal comfort varies widely globally but is worth 2.9% of annual income on average. We project that climate change will increase worker thermal discomfort by 1.8% of global GDP in 2099 under a very high emissions scenario and 0.5% under an intermediate scenario, demonstrating the importance of this new category of climate damages.

This paper develops the first globally comprehensive and empirically grounded estimates of worker disutility due to future temperature increases caused by climate change. Harmonizing daily worker-level data from seven countries representing nearly a third of the world's population, we first evaluate the causal effect of daily temperature on labor supply, recovering an inverted U-shaped relationship where extreme cold and hot temperatures lead to labor supply losses for workers in weather-exposed industries. We then develop the first micro-founded, global estimates for how future climate change will impact workers, accounting for expected shifts in the global workforce towards less weather-exposed industries. Interpreting labor supply impacts of climate change through a simple theoretical framework, we monetize the implied disutility to workers of a warmer climate, a welfare cost not captured in any existing estimates. Under a high emissions scenario, we estimate the increase in labor disutility is valued at roughly 1.8% of global GDP in 2099, with damages being especially large in today's poor and/or hot locations while cold locations benefit. Finally, we estimate that the release of an additional ton of CO2 today will cause expected labor disutility damages of $17.0 under a high emissions scenario and $10.8 under a moderate scenario, using a 2% discount rate that is justified by US Treasury rates over the last two decades. Accounting for uncertainty in these marginal damages when individuals are risk averse increases their value by 31% (high emissions scenario) and 62% (moderate scenario) under a standard parameterization of the utility function.

Remote Sensing affords the opportunity to monitor and evaluate data scarce regions where field collection efforts are costly. A particular challenge is monitoring and evaluation in regions with smallholder agricultural systems (-1 ha) that are often subsistence focused, vulnerable to food insecurity and data scarce. Using multi-day moderate resolution Sentinel-2 and Random Forest models, this study shows that crop type and rice yields in Burkina Faso can be predicted with greater than-80% accuracy in the rainy season. Model optimization using varying spectral and vegetation index inputs can increase crop type and yield prediction accuracy in the dry season where denser cultivation is a challenge for the 10-20 m resolution of Sentinel-2. However, there is a trade-off between opting for very high-resolution imagery (< 2 m) or the number of bands offered by Sentinel-2 as the bands that occupy and vegetation indices that utilize the red through NIR ranges were most important across all models. In addition, model type, linear Regression or nonlinear Random Forest, matters little when estimating yield in these landscapes, unless Har-monic regression is utilized for the linear model. This study also showed that a model trained with high quality 2019 dry season crop cut data can predict the subsequent dry season's interannual crop type with overall accuracy as high as 60%, comparable to crop type models trained with 2020 survey data and used to estimate crop type in the concurrent season, as the survey collection. This indicates some utility in leveraging the calibrated Random Forest models to make skillful predictions of interannual crop type and ultimately food availability of nearby commu-nities for years with no training data. Given increasing global food prices and restricted com-modity trade, understanding local agricultural productivity using affordable and timely remote sensing-based methods is essential for ensuring appropriate humanitarian interventions.

New technologies can have distributional consequences that narrow or widen existing inequalities. In this paper, I estimate the effect of India’s Green Revolution on the gender wage gap in village labor markets. Widely considered the country’s most important episode of agricultural technical change, productivity gains from the Green Revolution were due largely to the introduction of high-yielding variety seeds (HYVs). Their sensitivity to water conditions advantaged locations with reliable irrigation access, which I exploit by constructing a novel dataset of historical groundwater resources as a source of exogenous variation in Green Revolution adoption. Using data from 1956-1987 in a difference-in-differences framework, I estimate that groundwaterrich districts experienced large and significant increases in HYV adoption, crop revenues, and cropping intensity. These productivity gains affected labor markets, with male wages rising, but female wages declining, jointly raising the male wage premium an average 17 percent. Additionally, census and microdata results show women substituted away from wage work, and increased their time in unpaid own-farm work and home production. These outcomes are most likely driven by the sharp yield gains achieved with wheat HYVs. As a male labor-biased crop, the expansion of wheat production contributed to declines in female wage labor participation. These findings document how new technology shocks can generate winners and losers, and offers an example of productivity growth that exacerbated gender disparities.

How can distributed solar power best meet the energy needs of nonelectrified rural communities? In collaboration with a local technology provider, we conduct a techno‐economic comparison of three different models of distributed solar power in rural India. We compare a centralized charging station with two solar microgrids, one based on prepaid electricity purchases and the other on a fixed monthly fee. Customers report higher levels of satisfaction and fewer technical problems with the microgrids, but the capital cost of the microgrids is much higher than that of the centralized charging station. The prepaid system exhibits poor economic performance because the customers spend very little money on electricity. These results suggest that new business models and technological innovations are needed to strike the right balance between customer needs and commercial viability. WIREs Energy Environ 2016, 5:640–648. doi: 10.1002/wene.209 This article is categorized under: Photovoltaics > Economics and Policy Solar Heating and Cooling > Economics and Policy Energy Research & Innovation > Systems and Infrastructure

We summarize recent statistical analyses that link agricultural yields to weather fluctuations. Similar to other sectors, high temperatures play a crucial role in predicting outcomes. Climate change is predicted to significantly increase high temperatures and thereby reduce yields. How good are such models at predicting future outcomes? We show that a statistical model estimated using historic US data on corn and soybean yields from 1950 to 2011 is very capable of predicting aggregate US yields for the years 2012–2015, where 2012 was much hotter than normal and is expected to become the new normal under climate change. We conclude by discussing recent studies on the implication of predicted yield declines with a special focus on adaptation and commodity prices.

Compared to firewood, charcoal is a relatively clean and convenient fuel. Nevertheless, the mass production of charcoal can contribute substantially to deforestation, rendering it imperative to regulate charcoal use. This article uses nationally representative panel data on Tanzania conducted in 2008 and 2010 to examine how charcoal expenditures change over time within any given household. The focus of the analysis will be on identifying certain socio-economic factors that affect charcoal use at the household level. The framing of the analysis on variation in time within each household addresses the omitted variable bias that often undermines inference from comparisons across different households. We find that while charcoal expenditures increase with household income, the rise in charcoal use with income is relatively gradual. Household size is unrelated to charcoal expenditures, but urban–rural differences in fuel choice are large even though we include household fixed effects in all specifications. In this regard, policymakers and urban planners need to pay particular attention to the role of urbanization in predicting trends in charcoal expenditures in developing countries like Tanzania.

This article correlates energy policy and practice with the multidimensional concept of energy security and empirical performance over forty years. Based on an analysis of 22 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development between 1970 and 2010, it concludes that many industrialized countries have made limited progress toward the goal of achieving secure, reliable and affordable supplies of energy while also transitioning to a low-carbon energy system. However, some national best practices exist, which are identified by examining the relative performance of four countries: the United Kingdom and Belgium (both with noteworthy improvements), and Sweden and France (both with limited improvements). The article concludes by offering implications for energy policy more broadly and by providing empirical evidence that our four dimensions (availability, affordability, energy efficiency, and environmental stewardship) envelop the key strategic components of energy security.

This article investigates the climate vulnerabilities of four least developed Asian countries Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, and the Maldives-before discussing how efforts are underway to strengthen infrastructural, organizational, and community-based adaptation. Infrastructural adaptation refers to the assets, technologies, or "hardware" that can withstand climate change impacts, such as climate-proofed irrigation systems, roads, or electricity networks. Organizational adaptation refers to the endurance of an effective institution or set of institutions, usually government ministries or departments, in charge of planning and policy, as well as its capacity to develop and revise climate policies. Social adaptation refers to the cohesion of communities and the livelihoods of the people that compose them. We argue that resilient adaptation infrastructures can recover quickly from climate disruptions, resilient organizations can cope with new stresses and changes and still function, resilient communities have assets such as education or wealth that enable them to survive or even thrive in the face of climate-related challenges. Ongoing adaptation efforts in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, and the Maldives are examples of projects that simultaneously attempt to enhance all three dimensions of adaptation. Data for these cases comes primarily from a review of country National Adaptation Programs of Action (NAPAs) supplemented with research interviews and site visits. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Solar home systems (SHS) can provide energy services to rural households more cost effectively than extending national grids, and without relying on polluting fuels such as kerosene, diesel and coal. This study explores four recent SHS programmes supported by the World Bank’s Asia Sustainable and Alternative Energy Program in China, Laos, Mongolia and Papua New Guinea that budgeted $328.2 million to distribute a targeted 401,500 such systems to nomadic herders, fishers and teachers. It documents three approaches to promote such systems: a technology improvement and market development model, a cross-subsidization and energy service company model, and an end-user direct lending model. After explaining its primary methods of data collection – research interviews and in-country site visits – the study summarizes each programme before focusing on their benefits and implementation challenges. It then connects the successes and failures of these programs to broader lessons about energy development in general. The study finds that programmes dedicated to technology improvement, market development, cross-subsidization, and energy service companies met their targets, whereas the one programme based on end-user finance in Papua New Guinea performed poorly.

This study explores the socio-technical barriers to Solar Home Systems (SHS) in Papua New Guinea. The authors collected primary data through semi-structured research interviews conducted over the course of February 2010–April 2010. Respondents included government officials, financiers, planners, commercial distributors and companies, teachers and rural villagers in addition to members of civil society, academics, consultants, and trainers. These interviews were supplemented with site visits to Port Moresby, Goroka, and Madang, and field research in the villages of Akameku, Asaroka, Lufa, Kundiawa, Okifa, Simbu, and Talidig. The study draws from these interviews and visits to discuss four types of barriers. Technical barriers relate to substandard equipment and logistical problems. Economic barriers include high rates of poverty, misconceptions about the role of currency, and lack of financing. Political barriers include poor institutional capacity and a government commitment to fossil-fueled grid electrification. Social barriers encompass unrealistic expectations about what SHS can provide along with jealousy, theft, vandalism, and unfamiliarity with solar technology.

We present the results of a content analysis conducted on 2502 papers written by 5318 authors published between 1999 and 2008 in three leading energy studies journals: Energy Policy, The Energy Journal, and The Electricity Journal. Our study finds that authors were most likely to be male, based in North America, possess a background in science or engineering, and affiliated with a university or research institute. Articles were likely to be written by authors working within disciplinary boundaries and using research methods from an economics/engineering background. The US was the most written about country among papers that adopted a country focus and electricity was the most frequently discussed energy source. Energy markets and public policy instruments were the most popular focus areas. According to these findings, we identify five thematic areas whose further investigation could enhance the energy studies field and increase the policy-relevance of contemporary research.

The Lao People's Democratic Republic, a least developed land-locked country in Southeast Asia, was able to quadruple its electrification rate from 16% in 1995 to 63% in 2009. This has been achieved due to a series of projects undertaken by the government in conjunction with multilateral aid organizations. This study examines one such project undertaken recently by the Lao government and the World Bank called the Rural Electrification Project Phase I (REP I). Based on field research and research interviews conducted in Laos, the focus of this study is to understand this project's design and implementation, key success factors, and shortcomings. The authors derive lessons for both developing countries and those giving energy aid (such as multilateral financial institutions and development agencies) by laying out the dilemmas the project faced and emphasizing how key challenges were overcome. The study concludes by arguing that geographic and socio-economic data should be collected before electrification programs proceed, that programs must focus on the commercial viability of electricity suppliers, that fee-for-service models hold great promise, and that outsourcing can improve the efficiency and efficacy of electrification efforts.

From 2002 to 2007, more than 400,000 photovoltaic (PV) solar home systems (SHS) were sold in northwestern China under the US$316 million World Bank/Global Environment Facility-supported Renewable Energy Development Project (REDP). REDP has been hailed as a best practice example in SHS deployment for its unprecedented scale and the combination of technology improvement and market development support components to strengthen the country's renewable energy industry. While the World Bank has itself conducted post-project evaluations, our paper presents the first independent review with the intent of determining if anticipated project impacts have been sustained. We adopt a case study format supported by in-depth interviews with the project's relevant stakeholder groups and find that solar home systems (SHS) provide monetary and non-monetary benefits to users and that their portability complements the lifestyle of the region's nomadic herders. However, we also find that purchasing decisions are still based on price more than quality, after-sales service networks remain weak, and households in REDP's coverage area are gradually gaining access to hydropower-based grid electricity.

This study provides an index for evaluating national energy security policies and performance among the United States, European Union, Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and the ten countries comprising the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Drawn from research interviews, a survey instrument, and a focused workshop, the article first argues that energy security ought to be comprised of five dimensions related to availability, affordability, technology development, sustainability, and regulation. The article then breaks these dimensions down into 20 components and correlates them with 20 metrics that constitute a comprehensive energy security index. We find that the top three performers of our index for all data points and times are Japan, Brunei, and the United States and the worst performers Vietnam, India, and Myanmar. Malaysia, Australia, and Brunei saw their energy security improve the most from 1990 to 2010 whereas Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar saw it decline the most. The article concludes by calling for more research on various aspects of our index and its results.