Marzieh Asaadi; Mohammad Mahdi Lotfi Heravi
Abstract
Biotech-Economics is a new concept in the literature on Sustainable Development implying the revision of production processes using renewable bio-resources and technological innovations. Bioeconomic activities have two common features: resource sustainability and economic efficiency towards Sustainable ...
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Biotech-Economics is a new concept in the literature on Sustainable Development implying the revision of production processes using renewable bio-resources and technological innovations. Bioeconomic activities have two common features: resource sustainability and economic efficiency towards Sustainable Development Goals. Theoretical foundations related to the transition to Bio-Economics emphasize the Circular Economy as the theoretical-applied model. Given the growing trend of the Bio-Economics in the world, this research pursues two goals. First, explaining the theoretical foundations of Bio-Economics and evaluating the transition process. Second, to provide a framework for identifying and analyzing variables affecting transition, based on the Circular Economy and on the macroeconomic scale. Indicators of Bio-Economics are based upon the three indices of Sustainable Development including economic-social-environmental variables. Empirical research in Bio-Economics shows that due to data limitations and heterogeneity of index measurement methods, statistical analysis methods using cross-sectional data are the most applied methods. Accordingly, using Factor Analysis method and bio-economic data of the European Circle Economy, the variables explaining the transition process have been identified. The results suggest that the most important economic variables of the transition include the share of investment and value added in the Bio-Economics, the biomaterial trade, and the market sentiment index. The effective variables regarding social and environmental indicators include daily calorie per capita, biowaste recycling, organic farming and innovations, respectively. Finally, the necessity of Iran's economy for transition to Bio-Economics was analyzed from two perspectives: Oil Vulnerability Index and Sustainable Development Goals, emphasizing the necessity of the transition to the Bio-Economics.
Jamal Kakaie; Ali Faridzad; Farshad Momeni; Ali asghar banouei
Abstract
One of the essential indices for measuring sustainable development is ecological footprint. This paper which focuses on concept of ecological footprint of fossil fuels, tries to answer two important questions. The first question is wether the pattern of export and import of energy content in Iran confirms ...
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One of the essential indices for measuring sustainable development is ecological footprint. This paper which focuses on concept of ecological footprint of fossil fuels, tries to answer two important questions. The first question is wether the pattern of export and import of energy content in Iran confirms its comparative advantage? The second question is how much is the ecological footprint of Iranian economic sectors in year 2011? To measure ecological footprint of fossil fuels, we employ two different databases in this article, first activity by activity symmetric I-O table calculated by Iranian Statistical Center for year 2011 and second, Hydrocarbon Balance Sheet of year 2011. Our main results are presented based on two scenarios. In the first scenario, production technology is identical between Iran and other countries, and in the second scenario production technology isn’t the same. Our results based on two scenarios show that in macro level Iranian economy has trade surplus in fossil fuels content. But in sectoral level, 23 and 18 economic sectors have trade deficit in energy content based on first and second scenarios respectively. Ecological footprint based on our first scenario is more than 191 million hectares and the deficit per person is 2.3 hectare. In the second scenario the ecological footprint is 184 million hectares and the deficit per person is 2.2 hectares. Our conclusion is that because of low level of energy productivity in Iran, the results of second scenario are more realistic.