Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
10
result(s) for
"O'Keefe, Philip, author"
Sort by:
The Future of Energy Use
Following the success of its predecessor, this second edition of The Future of Energy Use provides essential analysis of the use of different forms of energy and their environmental and social impacts. It examines conventional, nuclear and renewable sources and technologies, using relevant case studies and providing a vital link between technology and related policy issues. The new edition has been comprehensively developed and updated, including new text, diagrams and tables, with entire new sections that reflect the significant changes that have occurred since the first edition.
New material includes: a stronger focus on climate change policy and energy security; a discussion of the long run marginal costs of oil; coverage of the biofuels debate in both the developed and developing worlds; an outline of developments in the built environment (including transport issues); and the relationship between behaviour and energy use. It reviews policy shifts with relation to energy efficiency, carbon capture and storage, combined heat and power, and combined cycle gas turbines. There is new coverage of nuclear waste, storage and proliferation, and new material on microgeneration and biofuels, as well as essential new information on carbon markets and the hydrogen economy. The result is a unique introduction and guide to all the vital issues within energy for students, academics and professionals new to the field.
eBook
China's pension system
China is at a critical juncture in its economic transition. A comprehensive reform of its pension and social security systems is an essential element of a strategy aimed toward achieving a harmonious society and sustainable development. Among policy makers, a widely held view is that the approach to pension provision and reform efforts piloted over the last 10-15 years is insufficient to enable China's economy and population to realize its development objectives in the years ahead. This volume suggests a national pension system that no longer distinguishes along urban and rural locational or hukou lines yet takes account of the diverse nature of employment relations and capacity of individuals to make contributions. This volume is organized as follows: the main text outlines this vision, focusing on summarizing the key features of a proposed long-term pension system. It first examines key trends motivating the need for reform then outlines the proposed three-pillar design and the rationale behind the design choices. It then moves on to examine financing options. The text continues by discussing institutional reform issues, and the final section concludes. The six appendixes provide additional analytical detail supporting the findings in the main text. The pension system design can play an important role in supporting or constraining such economic and demographic transitions: 1) fragmentation and lack of portability of rights hinder labor market efficiency and contribute to coverage gaps; 2) multiple schemes for salaried workers, civil servants, and, in some areas, migrants similarly impact labor markets; 3) legacy costs that are largely financed through current pension contributions weaken incentives for compliance and accurate wage reporting; 4) very limited risk pooling and interurban resource transfers limit the insurance function of the urban pension system and create spatial disparities in old-age income protection; 5) low retirement ages affect incentives and benefits and undermine fiscal sustainability; and 6) relatively low returns on individual accounts result in replacement rates significantly less than anticipated while at the macro level, are likely to inhibit wider efforts to stimulate higher domestic consumption.
eBook
Managing Adaptation to Climate Risk
Climate change is the single largest threat to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and sustainable development. Addressing climate risk is a challenge for all. This book calls for greater collaboration between climate communities and disaster development communities. In discussing this, the book will evaluate the approaches used by each community to reduce the adverse effects of climate change. One area that offers some promise for bringing together these communities is through the concept of resilience. This term is increasingly used in each community to describe a process that embeds capacity to respond to and cope with disruptive events. This emphasizes an approach that is more focused on pre-event planning and using strategies to build resilience to hazards in an adaptation framework. The book will conclude by evaluating the scope for a holistic approach where these communities can effectively contribute to building communities that are resilient to climate driven risks.
eBook
Festal Letters 13-30
Twenty-nine in all, these letters cover all but three of Cyril's years as a bishop.The first twelve were published in 2009 (Fathers of the Church 118).The present volume completes the set.Festal letters were used in Alexandria primarily to announce the beginning of Lent and the date of Easter.
eBook
Redefining sustainable development
Development and assistance in disasters is about helping people to help themselves. It is to do with facilitating 'sustainable livelihoods' and addressing the ills of social discrimination. These seem to be self-evident propositions. In fact, they are a minefield.
If development workers intervene to assist in the creation of environmentally sustainable livelihoods, what judgemental codes are contained in the everyday cultural and linguistic assumptions of development practitioners? What account do they give of the environment and people’s relationship to it? If livelihoods are to be economically sustainable, by which economic criteria is the judgement made? Is the objective to keep projects going until the funds run out, or, like cancer patients, to survive for five years, or to knit people into the world’s trading systems? If projects are to be sustainable, they must be socially just. By whose justice do we judge? At present, much development and disaster relief work derives its importance solely from providing opportunities for honing survival skills.
The authors of this book examine these questions and others in detail and argue that the assumptions of the social-democratic world, including those of international NGOs, are tied to the perpetuation of capitalism. Neil Middleton and Phil O’Keefe suggest that the issue, in the face of anarchic global financial power, is to rethink the nature of class in a late capitalist world and to recognise indigenous NGOs as the new political vehicles for its struggle.
eBook
Rio Plus Ten
The World Summit on Sustainable Development took place in Johannesburg, South Africa in September 2002. In this book, the authors look at the agenda established since the original Rio conference in 1992 and cover the events of the intervening years: global warming and the unfolding arguments over climate change, energy, water and sanitation, patents and many other issues. They examine what progress, if any, has been made.
Offering a critical analysis of the links between neoliberal economics and transnational organisations, the authors expose the poverty of so-called international protocols and resolutions which claim to offer solutions.
They show how, in virtually every case, these resolutions remain part of the problem of continuing poverty and environmental degradation in the non-Western world.
eBook
Enhancing job opportunities : Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union
Enhancing Job Opportunities: Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union addresses why labor market outcomes have been disappointing during the transition and suggests policy interventions that can foster job creation and reduce unemployment. In many countries in the Region, productive job opportunities are scarce, despite the resurgence of economic growth. The book argues that the primary cause of this outcome is defensive enterprise restructuringenterprises are improving productivity largely by shedding redundant labor. For the creation of more and better jobs, enterprises should move towards strategic restructuring, so as to turn productivity gains into new investment and expansion. This shift from defensive to strategic restructuringas well as the creation of new activitiesrequires improvements in the investment climate. Governments need to remove key obstacles to firm entry, operation, and growth. The authors recommend that countries in the Region pursue a two-pronged strategy: first and foremost, lower the costs of doing business to encourage investment, firm growth, and job creation; and second, develop an adaptable labor market, where employers have incentives to hire and workers have incentives and skills to take available jobs. With contributions by Arup Banerji , Gaëlle Pierre , Milan Vodopivec , Philip O'Keefe.
eBook
