摘要 :
We examine the opportunities for using catastrophe-linked securities (or equivalent forms of nondebt contingent capital) to reduce the total costs of funding infrastructure projects in emerging economies. Our objective is to elabo...
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We examine the opportunities for using catastrophe-linked securities (or equivalent forms of nondebt contingent capital) to reduce the total costs of funding infrastructure projects in emerging economies. Our objective is to elaborate on methods to reduce the necessity for. unanticipated (emergency) project funding immediately after a natural disaster. We also place the existing explanations of sovereign-level contingent capital into a catastrophic risk management framework. In doing so, we address the following questions. (1) Why might catastrophe-linked securities be useful to a sovereign nation, over and above their usefulness for insurers and reinsurers? (2) Why are such financial instruments ideally suited for protecting infrastructure projects in emerging economies, under third-party sponsorship, from low-probability, high-consequence events that occur as a result of natural disasters? (3) How can the willingness to pay of a sovereign government in an emerging economy (or its external project sponsor), who values timely completion of infrastructure projects, for such instruments be calculated? To supplement our treatment of these questions, we use a multilayer spreadsheet-based model (in Microsoft Excel format) to calculate the overall cost reductions possible through the judicious use of catastrophe-based financial tools. We also report on numerical comparative statics on the value of contingent-capital financing to avoid project disruption based on varying costs of capital, probability and consequences of disasters, the feasibility of strategies for mid-stage project abandonment, and the timing of capital commitments to the infrastructure investment. We use these results to identify high-priority applications of catastrophe-linked securities so that maximal protection can be realized if the total number of catastrophe instruments is initially limited. The article concludes with potential extensions to our model and opportunities for future research.
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摘要 :
A field campaign was conducted in Ny-Alesund (78°54'N, 11°53'E), Svalbard (Norway) during April and May 2005. An Atmospheric Mercury (Hg) Depletion Event (AMDE) was observed from the morning of April 24 until the evening of Apri...
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A field campaign was conducted in Ny-Alesund (78°54'N, 11°53'E), Svalbard (Norway) during April and May 2005. An Atmospheric Mercury (Hg) Depletion Event (AMDE) was observed from the morning of April 24 until the evening of April 27. Transport of already Hg and ozone (O_3) depleted air masses could explain this observed depletion. Due to a snowfall event during the AMDE, surface snow Hg concentrations increased two fold. Hg deposition took place over a short period of time corresponding to 3-4 days. More than 80% of the deposited Hg was estimated to be reemitted back to the atmosphere in the days following the event. During the campaign, we observed night and day variations in surface snow Hg concentrations, which may be the result of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) oxidation to divalent Hg at the snow/air interface by daylight surface snow chemistry. Finally, a decrease in the reactive Hg (Hg_R) fraction of total Hg (Hg_T) in the surface snow was observed during spring. We postulate that the transformation of Hg_R to a more stable form may occur in Arctic snow during spring.
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摘要 :
To evaluate a new N-monitoring program in the framework of the UN-ECE ICP-Vegetation program using mosses as bioindicators, 490 moss samples were collected at 220 sites in Austria and analyzed for total N (N content) and δ~(15)N ...
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To evaluate a new N-monitoring program in the framework of the UN-ECE ICP-Vegetation program using mosses as bioindicators, 490 moss samples were collected at 220 sites in Austria and analyzed for total N (N content) and δ~(15)N signatures. Within-site variability of N content and δ~(15)N signatures was tested for the first time on a large scale and was extremely low compared to between-site variability. N content in moss tissue ranged between 0.76% and 1.99% and δ~(15)N signatures between -10.04 and -2.45. Altitude was significantly correlated with N content (P = 0.021) and δ~(15)N signatures (P < 0.001). When comparing moss data to deposition data from 35 measurement sites, significant correlations between N content and N deposition [P = 0.014) were found. Increasing δ~(15)N signatures provided evidence for a change in N source and its respective isotopic composition with altitude, e.g., due to longdistance transport of reactive N or as a result of changes in the wet:dry deposition ratio. Our study underlines that N deposition can generally be estimated by N content in mosses on a large scale, but that this approach has certain limitations, especially in areas with large differences in altitude and precipitation.
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