IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/teinso/v32y2010i4p288-294.html

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the British Columbia forest industry, 1990–2005

Author

Listed:
  • Aben, Kyle
  • Hartley, Ian D.
  • Wilkening, Ken

Abstract

What are the drivers and determinants of technological changes related to climate change? We investigated the motivations for technological change which led to major reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the British Columbia forest industry between 1990 and 2005. We found that the technological changes that brought these reductions were induced technological changes and were characterized primarily by the adoption of ‘large leap’ (i.e., big GHG reduction) technologies. Some of the motivations for the induced changes are related to climate change (carbon neutrality, consumer demand, and corporate responsibility), others were not (cost savings, government regulation, and consumer demand). The results of our study should give policymakers more confidence to promulgate policies that stimulate invention, improvement, and adoption of GHG-reducing technologies. In addition, our study reveals how it is possible to avoid tradeoffs between economics and the environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Aben, Kyle & Hartley, Ian D. & Wilkening, Ken, 2010. "Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the British Columbia forest industry, 1990–2005," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 288-294.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:32:y:2010:i:4:p:288-294
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2010.10.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X10000722
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techsoc.2010.10.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rosenberg, Nathan, 1973. "Innovative Responses to Materials Shortages," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 63(2), pages 111-118, May.
    2. Carraro, Carlo & Gerlagh, Reyer & Zwaan, Bob van der, 2003. "Endogenous technical change in environmental macroeconomics," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 1-10, February.
    3. Dowlatabadi, Hadi, 1998. "Sensitivity of climate change mitigation estimates to assumptions about technical change," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(5-6), pages 473-493, December.
    4. Cohen, Avi J., 1987. "Factor substitution and induced innovation in north American kraft pulping: 1914-1940," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 197-217, April.
    5. Ruttan, Vernon W, 1997. "Induced Innovation, Evolutionary Theory and Path Dependence:," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 107(444), pages 1520-1529, September.
    6. Grubb, M. & Kohler, J., 2000. "Induced Technical Change: Evidence and Implications for Energy-Environmental Modelling and Policy," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0031, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ana Beatriz Lopes de Sousa Jabbour & Diego Vazquez‐Brust & Charbel José Chiappetta Jabbour & Daniela Andriani Ribeiro, 2020. "The interplay between stakeholders, resources and capabilities in climate change strategy: converting barriers into cooperation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 1362-1386, March.
    2. Callegari, Beniamino & Nybakk, Erlend, 2022. "Schumpeterian theory and research on forestry innovation and entrepreneurship: The state of the art, issues and an agenda," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Loschel, Andreas, 2002. "Technological change in economic models of environmental policy: a survey," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2-3), pages 105-126, December.
    2. Kemfert, Claudia, 2005. "Induced technological change in a multi-regional, multi-sectoral, integrated assessment model (WIAGEM): Impact assessment of climate policy strategies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(2-3), pages 293-305, August.
    3. Iriarte-Goñi, Iñaki & Ayuda, María-Isabel, 2012. "Not only subterranean forests: Wood consumption and economic development in Britain (1850–1938)," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 176-184.
    4. Kemfert, Claudia & Truong, Truong, 2008. "Corrigendum to "Impact assessment of emissions stabilization scenarios with and without induced technological change" [Energy Policy 35 (2007) 5337-5345]," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 2292-2292, June.
    5. Rosendahl, Knut Einar, 2004. "Cost-effective environmental policy: implications of induced technological change," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 1099-1121, November.
    6. Giuseppe Travaglini, 2010. "The dynamic effects of technological and non technological shocks in the energy sector: a case study for Italy," Working Papers 1001, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Department of Economics, Society & Politics - Scientific Committee - L. Stefanini & G. Travaglini, revised 2010.
    7. Stavins, Robert & Jaffe, Adam & Newell, Richard, 2000. "Technological Change and the Environment," Working Paper Series rwp00-002, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    8. Antonelli, Cristiano, 2013. "Globalization Localized Technological Change and the Knowledge Economy," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201325, University of Turin.
    9. Francesco Macheda, 2025. "China’s Road towards Decarbonization: Unrealistic Promise or a Credible Commitment?," Forum for Social Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(3), pages 354-382, July.
    10. Zhang, Yumei & Diao, Xinshen, 2020. "The changing role of agriculture with economic structural change – The case of China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    11. Oscar Afonso & Ana Catarina Afonso, 2015. "Endogenous Growth Effects of Environmental Policies," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 62(5), pages 607-629, December.
    12. Bob van der Zwaan & Reyer Gerlagh, 2004. "Climate Uncertainty and the Necessity to Transform Global Energy Supply," Working Papers 2004.95, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    13. Melissa Haller & David L. Rigby, 2020. "The geographic evolution of optics technologies in the United States, 1976–2010," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(6), pages 1539-1559, December.
    14. Bhattarai, Charan Raj & Kwong, Caleb C.Y. & Tasavori, Misagh, 2019. "Market orientation, market disruptiveness capability and social enterprise performance: An empirical study from the United Kingdom," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 47-60.
    15. Alexander Golub & Oleg Lugovoy & Anil Markandya & Ramon Arigoni*Ortiz and James*Wang, 2013. "Regional IAM: analysis of risk-adjusted costs and benefits of climate policies," Working Papers 2013-06, BC3.
    16. Francesco Macheda, 2022. "Industrial Policies and State-Owned Enterprises: The Foundations of China’s Path Towards Decarbonization," L'industria, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 4, pages 581-619.
    17. Davide Antonioli & Sandro Montresor, 2021. "Innovation persistence in times of crisis: an analysis of Italian firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 1739-1764, April.
    18. Polterovich, Victor & Tonis, Alexander, 2005. "Innovation and Imitation at Various Stages of Development: A Model with Capital," MPRA Paper 20067, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Sidney G. Winter, 2002. "Toward an Evolutionary Theory of Production," LEM Papers Series 2002/27, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    20. Antonelli, Cristiano, 2013. "The Economic Complexity of Innovation as a Creative Response," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201326, University of Turin.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:32:y:2010:i:4:p:288-294. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/technology-in-society .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.