مجله اقتصاد محیط زیست و منابع طبیعی
پیاپی 5 (تابستان 1398)

Modern agriculture more than ever is dependent on energy, especially fossil fuels. Considering the importance of agricultural products in Iran, the present study aims to investigate the energy consumption and energy indices during the tea production in Lahijan County. Required data were collected through questionnaire. Results show that the average input energy and output energy is 11755. 8 Mj. ha-1 and 6064. 87 Mj. ha-1 for the tea product in the said region, respectively. The average energy efficiency, energy productivity, specific energy and added energy related to tea production were calculated as 0. 86, 1. 079, 1. 81 and 5711, respectively. In addition, the comparison of the effect of renewable and non-renewable energy sources show that the energy effect of non-renewable energies on yield is more than the energy effect of renewable inputs. We have also demonstrated that the energy efficiency in the tea farms under the study is low, implying that for these farms the increase in inputs has exceeded the yield increase. Therefore, it causes a reduction in energy consumption efficiency in intended farms.

Renewable energies have become a major substitute for fossil fuel energy sources. It has important advantages such as decreasing the dependence on foreign oil imports, providing additional markets and creating job opportunities. An examination of the current structure of Iranian industrial sector reveals the fact that with the exemption of food and beverage industries, the major Iranian industrial sub-sectors are based on oil, gas and minerals industries. In this study, 22 industries are studied amongst the industrial workplaces. In addition, two nonpolluting inputs, i. e., capital and labor and two polluting energy inputs including nine different types of energies, i. e., gasoline, gas oil, kerosene, residual fuel oil, LPG, charcoal, coal, natural gas, and electricity together with the pollutant input which is the carbon dioxide are studied in the production process. We have used the Translog Cost Fuction in the modeling of inputs. Having the model estimated using the SUR sumultaneous equations, five types of elasticity of substitution including inputs own elasticity, cross elasticity, Allen, Morishima, and McFadan shadow elasticities are calculated and the input relationships are investigated. The results show that the capital input is substitutable with all the considered inputs, the labor input substitutalbe with all the other inputs except for the complementary polluting input. And finally, the polluting inputs have an inter-complementary relation.

Vehicles have different technical, safety, and physical features. In the hedonic price model car prices are determined by a combination of prices for the various features. The main objective of this study is to specify the factors which affect the price of vehicles in Iran, with an emphasis on environmental factors using the Hedonic price model. For this purpose, 19 vehicle models have been studied and the impact of various factors is measured. The results indicate that the volume of engine has the greatest effect on car prices. The lack of significant impact of carbon dioxide emissions from cars in the model indicates the market failure. Therefore, planning and policy-making in this area are essential due to  air pollution which affects many cities in Iran. Asymmetric information between different industries and society is one of the causes of market failure; hence, social awareness policies are necessary. In this regard, policy recommendations are suggested based on the use of energy and environmental labels in the automobile industry.

Sustainable development of coastal tourism in the coral islands requires environmental considerations, cost reductions in energy supplies, and comfort for tourists. Regarding the fact that in the physical development of tourist beaches buildings are the prime energy consumer as well as waste, sewage and environmental pollutants producers, it is therefore necessary to provide appropriate policies aimed at correcting the pattern of consumption pattern and as well as reducing the pollution. In this research, by analyzing the ecosystem of the coral island of Honduran and considering its climatic and environmental parameters, an optimal model for designing residential and public buildings with the prime objective of reducing energy consumption and pollutants has been presented. The research methodology is based on bioclimatic and energy analysis as well as the relationship between building and the environment through field studies and simulation. By using the Design Builder software under the conditions of non-dynamic, the amount of energy needed is evaluated internally and externally. The results show that passive methods can reduce a significant portion of the required energy by interacting with the environment, hence reducing the energy consumption. Moreover, by using a combination of vertical and horizontal shades, creating ventilation shutters, continuously made porches, lightweight building material, homogeneous and polymer insulators, utilizing the atrium and rotation towards coastal wind would reduce the cost of generating energy by up to 75 Kwh/m2  yearly while reducing the cooling load significantly. We have also demonstrated that the implementation of the proposed strategies would indirectly lead to a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions of up to 126 tons per year for the simulated sample.

In this paper, we examine the impact of the rate of water utilization on economic growth. There has not been an adequate attention paid to the issue of natural resources and their importance for economic growth. In this study, the instrument for water measurement is the water utilization rate. Other explanatory variables used in the model include the share of water exports, the share of water activities, and the share of gross capital. The necessary data are compiled according to the time series method and for the years 1964-2014. The hypothesis in this study is based on the Barro and Sala-i-Martin model (1990) developed by Barbier (2004), which is proposed for two groups of countries. The first group is the countries that are not constrained by water resources and the second group is the countries with inherent constraints on water resources. The effect of the rate of water utilization on economic growth for the first group is inversely proportional to the U-curve. However, for countries in the second group such as Iran, the relationship between water utilization rates and economic growth may or may not be similar to the U curve, which necessarily demands for proper testing. In this study, ARDL econometric method is used with the estimation boundary test. The results show that the relationship between water utilization rate and economic growth in Iran is not similar to inverse U curve and the form of this relationship is linear and upward.

Climate change is the most important phenomenon that directly affects the environment worldwide. The effect of this global phenomenon varies across countries. Some of the consequences of climate change worth mentioning are disappearing of glaciers, the sea level rise and the declining crop yields in Iran being located in an arid and semi-arid area in the Middle East region as well as facing the water crisis hence will not be immune to climate change and its consequences. In this paper, we investigate the effect of climate variables such as temperature and precipitation on GDP growth in 27 provinces in Iran. The labor force, investment and energy consumption are the control variables. We have estimated the panel data model for the years 2000 to 2015. The results indicate a negative effect of temperature on GDP growth with or without the oil production. We have also demonstrated that the rising rainfall contributes to GDP growth.