Iran is currently experiencing serious water problems. Frequent droughts coupled with over-abstraction of surface and groundwater through a large network of hydraulic infrastructure and deep wells have escalated the nation’s water situation to a critical level. This is evidenced by drying lakes, rivers and wetlands, declining groundwater levels, land subsidence, water quality degradation, soil erosion, desertification and more frequent dust storms. This paper overviews the major drivers of Iran’s water problems. It is argued that while climatic changes and economic sanctions are commonly blamed as the main drivers of water problems, Iran is mainly suffering from a socio-economic drought—i.e. “water bankruptcy,” where water demand exceeds the natural water supply. In theory, this problem can be resolved by re-establishing the balance between water supply and demand through developing additional sources of water supply and implementing aggressive water demand reduction plans. Nevertheless, the current struc...

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Iran’s Socio-economic Drought: Challenges of a Water-Bankrupt Nation

Slowing climate change requires overcoming inertia in political, technological, and geophysical systems. Of these, only geophysical warming commitment has been quantified. We estimated the commitment to future emissions and warming represented by existing carbon dioxide–emitting devices. We calculated cumulative future emissions of 496 (282 to 701 in lower- and upper-bounding scenarios) gigatonnes of CO 2 from combustion of fossil fuels by existing infrastructure between 2010 and 2060, forcing mean warming of 1.3°C (1.1° to 1.4°C) above the pre-industrial era and atmospheric concentrations of CO 2 less than 430 parts per million. Because these conditions would likely avoid many key impacts of climate change, we conclude that sources of the most threatening emissions have yet to be built. However, CO 2 -emitting infrastructure will expand unless extraordinary efforts are undertaken to develop alternatives.

Future CO2 Emissions and Climate Change from Existing Energy Infrastructure

The role of environmental entrepreneurship for sustainable development: Evidence from 35 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Highlights
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We conducted a meta-analysis on field-experiments using social norms to encourage pro-environmental behaviors.

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Results of 91 field-experiments (N = 227′730) revealed a positive main effect of social norms on pro-environmental behaviors compared to no-treatment control conditions.

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Moderation analysis found that social norms induced implicitly were more influential than social norms induced explicitly and that social norms tended to be more influential in individualistic countries than in collectivistic countries.

A meta-analysis of field-experiments using social norms to promote pro-environmental behaviors

Are BRICS countries pollution havens? Evidence from a bootstrap ARDL bounds testing approach with a Fourier function

Using social norm to promote energy conservation in a public building

Mainstream economists have used various growth models to predict the interaction between sustainable economic growth and the endless accumulation of capital while environmental concerns and their negative externalities are left out, in most cases. In this paper, I present a structural economic model that explicitly allows for the interaction between an economy and an ecosystem. The proposed model indicates that—given a wide range of development and socio-economic infrastructure—while population growth might be a reason for the constant growth trajectory, it has an adverse effect due to the constraints of resources and the environment. This is because economic activities and population growth increase ecological disordering as they downgrade the environment, while the later element has a negative impact on living standards. The collected data focusing on different economic components show that the growth rate of GDP per capita may fall below zero as the population grows with the rate of capital accumulation and environmental depletion. Finally, considering different scenarios of utilizing solar energy for economic growth, a feasible endurance factor for sustainable development might promote the methods of using the substituted energy, focusing on solar energy. This, however, cannot be accomplished given the current speed and direction of technological progress and energy utilization.

Solar impacts on the sustainability of economic growth

Environmental degradation and increased poverty are just some of the effects of climate change (CC). As these effects batter the world, the call to mitigate CC is becoming louder. In responding to ...

Clearing up the benefits of a fossil fuel sector diversified board: A climate change mitigation strategy

The impact of social norms on cross-state energy regime changes

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Faraz Farhidi

Papers

Using social norm to promote energy conservation in a public building

Solar impacts on the sustainability of economic growth

Clearing up the benefits of a fossil fuel sector diversified board: A climate change mitigation strategy

The impact of social norms on cross-state energy regime changes

Essays in Environmental and Energy Economics