Abstract

Abstract
Key message As climate change and forest management become the focus of various development agendas and the price of carbon rises in the market, the need for improving carbon sequestration and avoiding wildfires emissions increases. Prescribed burning interventions might play an important role in this context, as in some situations, it has been suggested that it can reduce overall fire emissions. In this study, the potential economic benefits associated with the practice are analyzed for five Mediterranean countries. Despite the uncertainty in the estimates, the results suggest that under some circumstances these interventions can be cost-effective from a carbon management perspective. Context Wildland fires are becoming a major concern for many European countries and are expected to become more prevalent due to climate change, affecting societies, ecosystems, and various ecosystem services provided by forests that are not valued by traditional markets, such as carbon sequestration. Aims The objective of this study is to evaluate the possibility of using carbon taxation to fund fire management measures in Mediterranean countries. Methods The analysis is done by converting prescribed burning savings in carbon emissions into their economic value. This is performed for France, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, which is studied in more detail, since the country has a National Prescribed Burning Program (NPBP) and a specific tax on carbon in place. Results The results indicate that most countries could potentially have benefits in the order of millions of euros from employing prescribed burning measures. In Portugal, NPBP has the potential to be a relevant policy instrument to reduce wildfire emissions, as well as economically since the carbon emissions savings can outweigh the prescribed burning costs in some circumstances. Also, the revenue from the country's Addition Tax on Carbon Emissions would be able to accommodate the foreseen prescribed burning costs. Conclusion There are still many uncertainties regarding the benefits of prescribed burning in terms of overall emission reductions, and more studies should be conducted on this topic. However, as the price of carbon rises in the markets and climate change becomes a more pressing concern, even small emissions reductions might be economically interesting. The analysis framework used in this study has the potential to be useful for other countries, especially in Mediterranean-type ecosystems.

Abstract
Brazil has been failing to offer the most favorable conditions for the implementation of onshore wind farms, due to the presence of multiple barriers. However, the country has observed a fast and expressive wind energy (WE) diffusion (the installed WE capacity grew 37 times in the last decade). Furthermore, its onshore wind farms have reached impressive capacity factors (with productivity levels much higher than the average around the world) and a very low levelized cost of electricity. This study aims at identifying how wind developers plan onshore wind farms to overcome existing barriers. Based on forty-one interviews with relevant stakeholders of the Brazilian WE sector, the study identified efforts targeted at overcoming twenty-four previously identified barriers. Although most barriers may be overcome directly through developer initiatives, addressing higher level barriers, namely an unstable macroeconomic environment, a poor transmission infrastructure, and inadequate access to capital, depends on government actions.

Abstract
Onshore wind energy (WE) has achieved a significant diffusion worldwide, in spite of the existence of multiple barriers to the large-scale implementation of wind farms. These barriers have been reported in a large number of studies, but the literature is lacking a systematized overview of their categories and locations. Based on a framework for the analysis of barriers to the penetration of renewable energy sources proposed by Painuly [363], this systematic literature review contributes to addressing this gap, identifying barriers to the large-scale implementation of onshore wind farms by category (market failures, market distortions, economic and financial, institutional, technical, social and other barriers) and location (countries around the world), and characterizing them by the level of economic development (least developed, developing, in transition, and developed) and stage of diffusion (recent or advanced) in their locations. The framework showed a high level of fit with the case of WE and allowed the identification of 31 barriers in 159 countries. The barriers were found to be mostly present in developing economies with recent diffusion, although some barriers were found to occur broadly across developed economies, regardless of the stage of diffusion. The three most frequently observed barriers were the inadequate consideration of externalities, uncertain and unsupportive governmental policies, and insufficient transmission grids.

Abstract