GEAR Members Jorge Zafrilla, Ángela García-Alaminos, and Fabio Monsalve have recently published a new book chapter. You can find “The Sustainability Challenge of Dairy Livestock Systems” inside the book Sustainable and Environmentally Friendly Dairy Farms, edited by Santiago García-Yuste, it is part of the SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology book series.

The book, Sustainable and Environmentally Friendly Dairy Farms, presents an innovative environmental proposal. While chiefly focusing on dairy farms, the environmental solution it describes applies to the entire livestock sector. This book is divided into five chapters elaborated by eight authors. The first chapter -written by the GEAR members listed above – describes the current situation of the global dairy livestock industry under the influence and challenge of the commitments of the so-called Paris Agreement and addresses the carbon footprint of dairy farms. Firstly, the key points of the Agreement affecting the livestock and dairy systems are discussed within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals. Next, a detailed analysis of the evolution of the activity and the greenhouse gas emissions of the industry is presented. Finally, a summary of current environmental solutions and bioeconomy alternatives will contribute to enriching the discussion.

This contribution is part of the collaboration of the GEAR group in a UCLM’s multidisciplinary research group. Together with chemists and engineers, who are working on techniques for the capture and use of CO2.

LINK to the ebook: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-46060-0

GEAR members Mateo Ortiz, Maria Ángeles Cadarso and Luis Antonio López carried out a study on the carbon footprint associated with the activities of multinational companies operating in the European Union. The paper entitled ”The carbon footprint of foreign multinationals within the European Union” is part of the GEAR’s project to evaluate the role of multinational enterprises as key actors in the fight against climate change and the reduction of carbon emissions along global supply chains. A previous paper related to this project was already published in Nature Communications.

In this new paper, the authors reveal that, during 2015, the emissions directly and indirectly generated by multinational’s foreign affiliates operating within the European Union are estimated at 714 Mt of CO2, which accounts for 17% of the total carbon footprint of the European Union. Although most of these carbon emissions are generated by foreign affiliates located in the United Kingdom and Germany, the findings suggest that low-income EU-members receive higher amounts of emissions in relation to the value added created by the foreign affiliates they host.

The paper also provides valuable insights into the potential for multinational corporations to become actors of change in terms of reducing global emissions by taking responsibility for the environmental impacts of their affiliates and suppliers worldwide and by spreading low-carbon practices across countries and industries.

We strongly encourage you to read this great article on a very interesting topic. We hope you like it!

LINK: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jiec.13017

The GEAR members Manuel Tomás, Luis A. López and Fabio Monsalve, have recently published the article entitled «Carbon footprint, municipality size and rurality in Spain: Inequality and carbon taxation» in Journal of Cleaner Production.

In this paper, the authors assess the Spanish households’ carbon footprint for the 2008-2017 period considering the municipality size as well as the urban or rural residential zone. In light of the results, they test whether the carbon footprint inequality among households could lead to asymmetric regressive impacts based on where families live.

We hope you enjoy it!

Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095965262031845X 

GEAR group members Luis Antonio López, Maria Ángeles Cadarso and Mateo Ortiz carried out a study on the evolution of CO₂ emissions embodied in Spain’s imports and exports during 2005-2014. In the paper entitled ‘The carbon footprint of the Spanish international trade’ the authors quantify and analyse the CO₂ emissions associated with Spain’s traded products and provide valuable insights on the role played by international trade in the Spanish and European pursuit for low-carbon production and consumption.

Please, CLICK HERE to read the full paper (only available in Spanish). We hope you like it.

ICE, Journal of Economics is an academic journal published by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism of Spain whose scope is to contribute to the debate of economic policy.

The GEAR members Luis Antonio López (UCLM) and Guadalupe Arce (Complutense University), in collaboration with Xuemei Jiang (Capital University of Economics and Business of Beijing), have recently published «Mapping China’s flows of emissions in the world’s carbon footprint: A network approach of production layers» in Energy Economics. 

In this paper the authors propose a combination of the environmental extended Multiregional Input-Output Model (EE-MRIO), applying a Structural Path Analysis, with the complex network analysis to adequately identify different types of communities or clusters of sector as boost and suppliers of carbon emissions by type of sector (processing exports, non-processing exports and China normal production), type of final demand (consumption and investment) and the different stages of production. 

This approach is an important novelty in the input-output literature because, in our opinion, the research is useful to assess the scope of possibilities that companies of different sectors have regarding reducing their carbon footprint and the limit implied for the transmission of technology between companies in the same sector or companies that relocate their production to China.

We hope you enjoy it!

LINK: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988320300785