Environmental sustainability in South Africa: Understanding the criticality of economic policy uncertainty, fiscal decentralization, and green innovation

Submitted by Michelle Blanc… on
EfD Authors:

South Africa, like most developing nations, is confronted with choosing between the need to advance their economy and the need to protect the environment. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs-7, 11, 12 & 13) provide a strong foundation for this investigation. To this end, the current research investigates the combined impacts of economic policy uncertainty, fiscal decentralization, and green innovation on environmental sustainability for the instance of South Africa with yearly frequency data from 1960 to 2020.

Climate Change, Policy Design, Urban

Urban agriculture for an inclusive green economy model in Tanzania

Submitted by Petra Hansson on

According to the inclusive green economy (IGE) model, no one should be left out of the green economy revolution. To support an IGE approach, the Tanzanian government must develop policies to support urban agriculture ecosystems because, firstly, Tanzania is an agricultural country. Secondly, agriculture provides many benefits for households, such as boosting livelihoods and improving food security. Third, urban agriculture enhances urban biodiversity and produces ecosystem services needed for urban resilience to climate change and increases tree cover which absorbs greenhouse gases.

Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land, Policy Design, Urban

Association between long-term air pollution exposure and COVID-19 mortality in Latin America

Submitted by Petra Hansson on

Recent studies have shown a relationship between air pollution and increased vulnerability and mortality due to COVID-19. Most of these studies have looked at developed countries. This study examines the relationship between long-term exposure to air pollution and COVID-19-related deaths in four countries of Latin America that have been highly affected by the pandemic: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico. Our results suggest that an increase in long-term exposure of 1 μg/m3 of fine particles is associated with a 2.7 percent increase in the COVID-19 mortality rate.

Air Quality, Covid-19

We can incorporate agriculture ecosystems into urban green economy in Tanzania: Dar es Salaam households are willing to pay

Submitted by Petra Hansson on

We are living in a crisis era, with competing land use for finite land and ill-informed myopic urban land-use policies that remain stagnant, in a world with a rapidly changing urban environment, such as the mushrooming urban agriculture. While smallholder farms in and around cities, in sub-Saharan Africa, provide many ecosystem services including boosting household income and nutrition, and access to land constraints these benefits. This paper examines the willingness to pay for urban farm plots, using a random parameter logit model.

Agriculture, Climate Change, Land, Policy Design, Urban