On October 5th University of Wyoming’s Economics Professor Jason Shogren receives an honorary doctorate from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). Following the Doctorial lecture on October 4th in Uppsala, Shogren will visit SLU’s Umeå Campus and CERE to amongst other things, hold a lecture at the SLU library on the 8th of October at 13.00 (1.00 PM)
Ten years have passed since Professors Bengt Kriström and Runar Brännlund started a Centre bridging Umeå University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences to study the economics of environmental and natural resource management. A number of activities are planned to celebrate during the fall and winter.
September 18th, 2019 (2.45-4.00 pm) James Boyd visits CERE and have a sit down with high-school students at Minerva School in Umeå to talk about valuing ecosystem services.
September 19th, 2019 (1.15 pm) James Boyd holds a seminar at the SLU library. Title: The Future of Ecosystem Services Analysis: Barriers, Progress, and Priorities. In cooperation with ECOS
October 15-17, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå
The conference Barents Forest Forum titled: The Barents region in a biobased future, is a cooperation platform for forest sector stakeholders in the Barents region. Over the course of three days, participants from business, policy, research and development, and education will discuss the biobased future of Northern Europe with a particular focus on the Barents region.
The Swedish system for subsidizing renewable energy is a public financial loss. Consumers carry the financial burden through their electric bill and its certificate fee.
CERE Professors Bengt Kriström and Per-Olov Johansson let us in Dagens industri, August 26th 2019 know more about their cost-benefit analysis of the green certificate for renewable energy: “Our analysis show that the system for green certificates for renewable energy introduced in Sweden is not profitable for the public finance. Also, it is the consumers who pay the prize through increased electric bills via the green certificate fee.” (click on headline to read more)
The environmental taxes are criticized in fPLUS August 23, 2019 for damaging Swedish companies and failing to help the environment. One of the interviewees is CERE’s Runar Brännlund.
“The three environmental taxes identified as particularly unfortunate are: bonus-malus system on cars, air tax and chemical tax. Runar Brännlund, Professor of Economics at Umeå University says to fPlus that the environmental taxes completely miss the target. – Most of our environmental taxes are not even environmental taxes. They do not address the actual environmental issues in a good way. They are therefore more fiscal than governing.”
Read the full article (only in Swedish): Environmental taxes torn to shreds: Destructive for businesses and not helping the environment (Miljöskatterna sågas: Förstör för företagen och hjälper inte miljön)
The August issue of Forest Policy and Economics contains not one but two papers by recent CERE grads Jinggang Guo and Brian Danley. Jinggang, specializing in forest sector modelling, defended his thesis on October 12, 2018. Just a few months later on January 25, 2019, Brian Danley defended his thesis on ecosystem services and forest policy. Apart from publishing in the same issue of the same journal, and defending in close proximity, they have also both chosen to spend the next chapter of their research careers in the US.
CERE Professors Bengt Kriström and Per-Olov Johansson claim on Dagens industry (Industry Today) debate, June 20th, 2019 that Swedish air travelers are being taxed three times over. This while decreased emissions in Sweden means increased emissions somewhere else in the EES due to EU-ETS. This also means cheaper emission permits between other foreign EES airports as well as cheaper flight tickets.
Read the full article on Dagens industry (only in Swedish)
CERE's Runar Brännlund took on June 15th, 2019 part of a discussion regarding the planned battery factory in Skellefteå. Will it boost Norrland or will the revenues end up somewhere else? Runar finds it hard to believe that it will have any kind of influence on the large area that is Norrland, but if all goes as planned, it will certainly be a boost for Skellefteå and its vicinity.
The program is only available in Swedish. Runar can be heard 4.10 and 8.09 minutes into the program.
On 3-4 June 2019 the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)/ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Timber Section’s Team of Specialists (ToS) on Wood Energy met at the SLU campus in Umeå. Among its obligations, the ToS has a mandate to advise and support the joint UNECE/FAO Forestry and Timber Section’s activities regarding wood energy data and to contribute to a better understanding of wood energy statistics as a basis for sound policy making. The ToS recently released a report on wood energy as the largest source of bioenergy in the UNECE region.
We are proud to welcome Professor Brent Sohngen from Ohio State University as guest professor at CERE and SLU. Initially, he will be here from May 27 to June 23, but will return for monthly stays over the next three years. Brent will have his office up at the Department of Forest Economics at SLU. (Click on headline to read more)
