Energy Approach to Measure the Region’s Assimilative Capacity

Irina Belik (), Natalya Starodubets () and Alena Yachmeneva
Additional contact information
Irina Belik: UrFU
Alena Yachmeneva: Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin

Economy of region, 2017, vol. 1, issue 4, 1211 - 1220

Abstract: One of the important problems of the environmental economics is the development of methodology for quantifying the assimilative capacity (AC) of a territory. The article analyzes the existing approaches to determining and assessing the AC of a territory. We justify the advantages of using the energy approach. The authors’ method consists in using the maximum permissible energy load (MPEL) for quantitative assessment of the AC of a territory. MPEL is a value that the ecological and economic system can withstand for a long time without changing its properties. We determine MPEL on the basis of data on the ability of various categories of land to absorb greenhouse gases (GHG), as well as the specific GHG emissions per ton of conventional fuel. Further, we compare the calculated value of MPEL in fuel equivalents with the actual consumption of fuel resources for the needs of the national economy. These values ratio can serve as a standard for measuring and balancing the environmental and economic system. The authors have validated the described method on the example of the Sverdlovsk region, which is characterized by a high level of man’s impact. Calculations show that the actual consumption of fossil fuels in the region exceeds MPEL. That indicates an imbalance in the ecological and economic system and may lead to further deterioration of the environmental quality in the region. The proposed methodological approach and calculations can be used when developing strategic planning documents for a territory, including its energy strategy

Keywords: sustainable development; assimilative capacity; man’s impact; energy approach; maximum permissible energy load; greenhouse gas emissions; absorbing capacity of the territory; fuel and energy balance; energy saving; energy strategy; regional planning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://economyofregion.ru/Data/Issues/ER2017/Decem ... er2017_1211_1220.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ura:ecregj:v:1:y:2017:i:4:p:1211-1220

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Economy of region from Centre for Economic Security, Institute of Economics of Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Alexey Naydenov ().