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Andrea Tabi
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Tabi
First name
Andrea
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+41 71 224 2538
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1 - 10 of 12
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PublicationType: journal articleJournal: Energy Research & Social ScienceVolume: 88Issue: 102508
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PublicationKeep it Local and Fish-Friendly: Social acceptance of hydropower projects in SwitzerlandHydropower is the largest source of renewable electricity in the world, but despite being a mature and clean energy technology it has also been the subject of ecological and social conflict. Literature suggests that the social acceptance of renewable energy can be increased by respecting procedural justice (fair, participatory planning processes) and distributional justice (fairly allocating costs and benefits). However, empirical evidence about how justice considerations are related to the expansion of hydropower is scarce, pre-existing studies being mostly qualitative in nature. We contribute to filling the gap in the current literature by describing in this paper how choice experiments with 1004 Swiss residents were undertaken to explore the influence of procedural and distributional justice on acceptance, relative to other attributes of hydropower projects. We find that while considerations about justice do play a role in decisions to accept, respondents in Switzerland care most about ecological impacts, and secondly about local ownership.Type: journal articleJournal: Renewable & sustainable energy reviewsVolume: 68Issue: Part 1
Scopus© Citations 97 -
PublicationEnvironmental damage evaluation in a willingness-to-accept scenario: A latent-class approach based on familiarityIn this paper we report on the results of the application of a latent class model that was designed to identify and characterize unobserved preference heterogeneity in the context of a willingness-to-accept (WTA) framework involving negative environmental externalities stemming from the expansion of the Port of Valencia. We investigated the hypothesis that respondents with greater familiarity with the targeted good and any related environmental damage would demand more compensation; that is, they would have a significantly higher WTA. Based on respondents' familiarity with the Port of Valencia and their pre-existing knowledge about the negative consequences of its potential expansion three clusters based on six indicators are identified. Results show that, contrary to what might be expected, familiarity with a public good does not in all cases have a significant effect on stated WTA.Type: journal articleJournal: Ecological EconomicsVolume: 116Issue: 1
Scopus© Citations 12 -
PublicationWhat makes people seal the green power deal? - Customer segmentation based on choice experiment in GermanyConsumers have the power to contribute to creating a more sustainable future by subscribing to green electricity tariffs. In order to reach consumers 'beyond the eco-niche', identifying the drivers that positively influence the adoption of green electricity is of fundamental importance. This paper examines various factors that help to explain the extent to which green electricity subscribers differ from those that display strong preferences towards green electricity but have not yet 'walked the talk'. By making use of a latent class segmentation analysis based on choice-based conjoint data, this paper identifies three groups of potential green electricity adopters with varying degrees of preference for renewable energy. Findings indicate that socio-demographic factors play a marginal role in explaining the differences between green electricity subscribers and potential adopters, with the exception that actual adopters tend to be better educated. Analysis of psychographic and behavioral features reveals that adopters tend to perceive consumer effectiveness to be higher, place more trust in science, tend to estimate lower prices for green electricity tariffs, are willing to pay significantly more for other eco-friendly products and are more likely to have recently changed their electricity contract than non- adopters. Policy recommendations associated with these findings are provided.Type: journal articleJournal: Ecological EconomicsVolume: 107Issue: 1
Scopus© Citations 109 -
PublicationDoes pro-environmental behaviour affect carbon emissions?The primary focus of this research is to explore the effect of pro-environmental behaviour on CO2 emissions in relation to heating, electricity and transport activities in the residential sector. Changing such behaviour has considerable potential for conserving energy and is an important target of environmental policies which are designed to decrease energy consumption. It is hypothesized that people who consciously act in a pro-environmental way do not necessarily have lower CO2 emissions more than those who do not undertake environmental activities. Data about residential energy use is based on a survey carried out in Hungary in 2010 with a sample of 1012 people. Latent cluster analysis (LCA) was conducted based on data about the reported pro-environmental behavior in the survey and four clusters were identified. Relevant sociostructural and structural factors were also investigated. Results of the data analysis show that no significant difference is found between the impacts of environmentally aware and environmentally unaware consumers, i.e. both ‘Brown' and ‘Supergreen' consumers consume approximately the same amount of energy and produce approximately the same amount of carbon emissions because the motivation-driven activities of ‘Supergreens' are offset by structural factors.Type: journal articleJournal: Energy PolicyVolume: 63Issue: 1
Scopus© Citations 38 -
PublicationUsing the stated preference method for the calculation of social discount rateThe aim of this paper is to build the stated preference method into the social discount rate methodology. The first part of the paper presents the results of a survey about stated time preferences through pair-choice decision situations for various topics and time horizons. It is assumed that stated time preferences differ from calculated time preferences and that the extent of stated rates depends on the time period, and on how much respondents are financially and emotionally involved in the transactions. A significant question remains: how can the gap between the calculation and the results of surveys be resolved, and how can the real time preferences of individuals be interpreted using a social time preference rate. The second part of the paper estimates the social time preference rate for Hungary using the results of the survey, while paying special attention to the pure time preference component. The results suggest that the current method of calculation of the pure time preference rate does not reflect the real attitudes of individuals towards future generations.Type: journal articleJournal: Society and EconomyVolume: 35Issue: 2
Scopus© Citations 2 -
PublicationModifying the yield factor based on more efficient use of fertilizer-The environmental impacts of intensive and extensive agricultural practicesThe aim of this article is to draw attention to calculations on the environmental effects of agriculture and to the definition of marginal agricultural yield. When calculating the environmental impacts of agricultural activities, the real environmental load generated by agriculture is not revealed properly through ecological footprint indicators, as the type of agricultural farming (thus the nature of the pollution it creates) is not incorporated in the calculation. It is commonly known that extensive farming uses relatively small amounts of labor and capital. It produces a lower yield per unit of land and thus requires more land than intensive farming practices to produce similar yields, so it has a larger crop and grazing footprint. However, intensive farms, to achieve higher yields, apply fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, etc., and cultivation and harvesting are often mechanized. In this study, the focus is on highlighting the differences in the environmental impacts of extensive and intensive farming practices through a statistical analysis of the factors determining agricultural yield. A marginal function is constructed for the relation between chemical fertilizer use and yield per unit fertilizer input. Furthermore, a proposal is presented for how calculation of the yield factor could possibly be improved. The yield factor used in the calculation of biocapacity is not the marginal yield for a given area, but is calculated from the real and actual yields, and this way biocapacity and the ecological footprint for cropland are equivalent. Calculations for cropland biocapacity do not show the area needed for sustainable production, but rather the actual land area used for agricultural production. The proposal the authors present is a modification of the yield factor and also the changed biocapacity is calculated. The results of statistical analyses reveal the need for a clarification of the methodology for calculating marginal yield, which could clearly contribute to assessing the real environmental impacts of agriculture.Type: journal articleJournal: Ecological IndicatorsVolume: 16
Scopus© Citations 70 -
PublicationRepresenting forest management dilemmas in the Ecological Footprint indicatorOver the last decade the ecological footprint (EF) methodology has become widely used for estimating the biocapacity and the impact of human consumption in terms of global hectares. Although it represents a very impressive method for calculating the EF and biocapacity of an area, problems can arise regarding the incorporation of ecological factors into the calculation process. In this study we point out some problematic issues with use of the current EF methodology from an ecological point of view, taking as our focus forest biocapacity in Hungary. The EF concept ignores the differences in productivity of different species and forest types and their associated ecological values as well. We argue that the ecological ‘quality' of different kinds of forests and tree species should be reflected in EF calculations in order to obtain a more accurate estimation of biocapacity. The presence of invasive and non-local species may reduce biodiversity and crowd out native tree species. As a result we distinguish between three main forest types (natural, cultural and energy forests) and additionally suggest the introduction of an additional parameter which refers to the ‘naturalness' of the specified forest types. Results show a 15% increase in forest biocapacity when incorporating the naturalness factor.Type: journal articleJournal: Applied Ecology and Environmental ResearchVolume: 10Issue: 1
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PublicationSustainability Management in HungaryIn Hungary the culture for sustainability management is quite diverse. Even large companies are usually subsidiaries or suppliers to large multinational companies and the influence of buyers and owners is substantial. As a result there are a number of different traditions in sustainability management in the country and correspondingly relatively few typical cultural attributes. The impacts of investors and shareholders are given high scores in the survey, while consumers are given a low score in motivating companies to pursue sustainability management. Community also has little influence because community involvement in sustainability management does not have a long tradition in Hungary. Thus two-way communication and participative methods of stakeholder management are less common. The responses show that Hungarian companies manage most environmental issues, especially emissions, more closely than the international average. Sustainability management tools are broadly known and applied in the country, and the general satisfaction with the number and level of tools indicates that there is no need for further development here. Basically, Hungarian companies are more skeptical towards the benefits of the implementation of corporate sustainability. This is especially true with regard to the prospective positive impacts on cost reduction, innovation, employee motivation as well as enhancing and safeguarding corporate reputation. In sum, Hungarian companies have already demonstrated expertise in most fields of sustainability management, but the development of a more participative collaboration with both internal and external stakeholders in sustainability management is still needed.Type: book sectionVolume: 31
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PublicationPublic acceptance of hydropower production in Switzerland( 2015-07-03)