Valentino Piana | University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland (HES-SO) Valais Wallis (original) (raw)
Books by Valentino Piana
Pathways of drastic cut in global emissions of greenhouse gases can become a great opportunity fo... more Pathways of drastic cut in global emissions of greenhouse gases can become a great opportunity for international cooperation, business growth, profits, employment, sustainable consumption, electoral consensus, and quality of life, provided that innovative economic policies are adopted and brought to success.
This book presents more than 20 innovative policies that, instead of framing mitigation as a burden, are conducive to the shift to a low-emission world-system that is sustainable in all its pillars (environment, society, economy), both in developed and in developing countries.
Papers by Valentino Piana
PLOS climate, Feb 6, 2023
The main themes of the Paris Agreement on climate and a selection of results at COP22 in Marrakec... more The main themes of the Paris Agreement on climate and a selection of results at COP22 in Marrakech in November 2016 are presented. The architecture of the global response to the threats of climate change is outlined, with an analysis of the text of the Paris Agreement and the subsequent sectoral agreements defined at the international level son greenhouse gas emissions reduction, and with a mention of the integration of climate policies into the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Overall the paper comments on how the international debate may constitute a framework for action at the national and sectoral level
A large expansion of renewable energy is key to zero-emissions electric generation, supporting fu... more A large expansion of renewable energy is key to zero-emissions electric generation, supporting further decarbonization in other sectors, such as mobility through electric vehicles. Utility-scale PV are now among the cheapest ways to produce electricity but require large surface extension, potentially in a conflictual way with other uses. Mountains have usually favourable conditions for solar energy and are, in some part, scarsely populated, but they have a high landscape value and several fragilities. Floating photovoltaic panels over dam reservoirs may provide a relatively inexpensive and highly upscalable increase of electricity supply, with synergies with existing hydro-plants (e.g. in transmission lines). In this work, after a brief description of the system and its general features, building on state-of-art world reports, an evaluation of the potential of Swiss artificial lakes for floating PV installation is explored, with particular attention to a broad and diverse set of soc...
Complete nomenclature of market share structures, as described in a submitted paper.
Decarbonization has become a crucial issue for all countries in the world, which have varied targ... more Decarbonization has become a crucial issue for all countries in the world, which have varied targets and strategies to deal with it, especially after the Paris Agreement. Around one-fifth of global carbon-dioxide emissions is originated from the transportation sector. Policy changes and new regulations are planned to reduce such emissions e.g. by reducing the use of fossil-fuel private cars. For railways, supply-side policies involving large scale and long-term investment have dominated the debate. In this paper, we focus on people-centric policies that could be, in principle, faster and less expensive. To test the potential success of mobilizing demand for low carbon solutions, we have been developing an agent-based computational economics (ACE) model for many modal choices (including railway, bikes, private cars, etc.). It contains a large number of agents, with realistic operative parameters, environment, and infrastructure, reflecting in this study the Swiss system. In this paper, we focus on the railway system. A description of the Swiss world-class railway system is presented and the dynamics in the model, covering the demand for railway mobility as derived from psycho-social-economic approaches, are explored. Innovations in preferences, emotional attitudes and innovative swaps in non-technological resource shift the simulated use of the railway system. Carbon-dioxide direct emission levels are computed. Dynamic and heterogeneous demands of the agents are investigated along with several scenarios, some of them lead to significant decarbonization. We argue, after the simulation results, that railway demand increase can contribute to decarbonization strategies, including those possibly included in the next wave of Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement. However, total decarbonization of the transport system will need to embrace further modes, such as e-vehicles and non-motorized transport.
SN Business & Economics, May 25, 2021
The author name was written incorrectly and has now been corrected to Schumann. No other changes ... more The author name was written incorrectly and has now been corrected to Schumann. No other changes to the article have been made.
Sommario-La XXIII Conferenza della Parti della Convenzione quadro delle Nazioni Unite sul cambia-... more Sommario-La XXIII Conferenza della Parti della Convenzione quadro delle Nazioni Unite sul cambia-mento climatico (COP23), che si è svolta a Bonn nel novembre 2017, ha prodotto un risultato utile e bilan-ciato, dimostrando come la spinta della COP21 di Pari-gi non si sia spenta. Nei lavori della COP23 si è messo a punto un percorso condiviso mirato a definire i detta-gli dell'implementazione dell'Accordo di Parigi. Altri aspetti della COP23 sono comunque importanti per va-lutare il futuro del negoziato sul clima. Parole chiave: cambiamenti climatici, politiche ambientali, negoziati internazionali. Abstract-The 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP23) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which took place in Bonn in November 2017, produced a useful and balanced result, proving how the "spirit of Paris" which characterized COP21 has not extinguished. During COP23, a shared path has been developed, aimed at defining the implementation det...
– The 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP23) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climat... more – The 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP23) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which took place in Bonn in November 2017, produced a useful and balanced result, proving how the “spirit of Paris” which characterized COP21 has not extinguished. During COP23, a shared path has been developed, aimed at defining the implementation details of the Paris Agreement. However, other outcomes of COP23 are important to assess the future of climate negotiations.
Nature Energy, 2020
Mental accounting refers to the fact that people create mental budgets to organize their resource... more Mental accounting refers to the fact that people create mental budgets to organize their resource use and to create linkages between specific acts of consumption and specific payments. Research on financial decision-making and consumer behaviour shows that these mechanisms can have a large impact on decisions and behaviours, deviating from normative economic principles. Here we introduce a theoretical framework illustrating how mental accounting mechanisms may influence individual decisions and behaviours driving energy consumption and carbon emissions. We demonstrate the practical relevance of mental accounting in the context of designing carbon pricing mechanisms and discuss the ethical dimensions of applying the concept to intervention design. By bridging the mental accounting literature and research in the energy domain, we aim to stimulate the study of the cognitive mechanisms underlying energy-relevant decisions and the development of novel theory-based interventions targeting reductions of energy use and carbon emissions
SN Business & Economics, 2021
The complex nature of agent-based modeling may reveal more descriptive accuracy than analytical t... more The complex nature of agent-based modeling may reveal more descriptive accuracy than analytical tractability. That leads to an additional layer of methodological issues regarding empirical validation, which is an ongoing challenge. This paper offers a replicable method to empirically validate agent-based models, a specific indicator of “goodness-of-validation” and its statistical distribution, leading to a statistical test in some way comparable to the p value. The method involves an unsupervised machine learning algorithm hinging on cluster analysis. It clusters the ex-post behavior of real and artificial individuals to create meso-level behavioral patterns. By comparing the balanced composition of real and artificial agents among clusters, it produces a validation score in [0, 1] which can be judged thanks to its statistical distribution. In synthesis, it is argued that an agent-based model can be initialized at the micro-level, calibrated at the macro-level, and validated at the ...
L'Italia Forestale e Montana, 2012
Climate change has been recognised as "one of the greatest challenges of our time" (Copenhagen Ac... more Climate change has been recognised as "one of the greatest challenges of our time" (Copenhagen Accord, 2009; UNFCC Convention, 1992). Its deep, wide and only partially understood consequences will shape the "operative space" in this century and afterwards (rockström et al., 2009) in strong connection with the need of sustainable development (as underlined in the Cancún Agreements-2010) across all actions of mitigation, adaptation, technology, finance and capacity-building. While a number of policies begin to be available and proven to boost mitigation technologies in the energy sector (IPCC, 2011), much wider global, regional, national and sub-national approaches, plans and strategies will be needed to cope with the overall transformation of the economy. A larger number of stakeholders will need to be involved than it was envisaged explicitly
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2001
Pathways of drastic cut in global emissions of greenhouse gases can become a great opportunity fo... more Pathways of drastic cut in global emissions of greenhouse gases can become a great opportunity for international cooperation, business growth, profits, employment, sustainable consumption, electoral consensus, and quality of life, provided that innovative economic policies are adopted and brought to success.
This book presents more than 20 innovative policies that, instead of framing mitigation as a burden, are conducive to the shift to a low-emission world-system that is sustainable in all its pillars (environment, society, economy), both in developed and in developing countries.
PLOS climate, Feb 6, 2023
The main themes of the Paris Agreement on climate and a selection of results at COP22 in Marrakec... more The main themes of the Paris Agreement on climate and a selection of results at COP22 in Marrakech in November 2016 are presented. The architecture of the global response to the threats of climate change is outlined, with an analysis of the text of the Paris Agreement and the subsequent sectoral agreements defined at the international level son greenhouse gas emissions reduction, and with a mention of the integration of climate policies into the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Overall the paper comments on how the international debate may constitute a framework for action at the national and sectoral level
A large expansion of renewable energy is key to zero-emissions electric generation, supporting fu... more A large expansion of renewable energy is key to zero-emissions electric generation, supporting further decarbonization in other sectors, such as mobility through electric vehicles. Utility-scale PV are now among the cheapest ways to produce electricity but require large surface extension, potentially in a conflictual way with other uses. Mountains have usually favourable conditions for solar energy and are, in some part, scarsely populated, but they have a high landscape value and several fragilities. Floating photovoltaic panels over dam reservoirs may provide a relatively inexpensive and highly upscalable increase of electricity supply, with synergies with existing hydro-plants (e.g. in transmission lines). In this work, after a brief description of the system and its general features, building on state-of-art world reports, an evaluation of the potential of Swiss artificial lakes for floating PV installation is explored, with particular attention to a broad and diverse set of soc...
Complete nomenclature of market share structures, as described in a submitted paper.
Decarbonization has become a crucial issue for all countries in the world, which have varied targ... more Decarbonization has become a crucial issue for all countries in the world, which have varied targets and strategies to deal with it, especially after the Paris Agreement. Around one-fifth of global carbon-dioxide emissions is originated from the transportation sector. Policy changes and new regulations are planned to reduce such emissions e.g. by reducing the use of fossil-fuel private cars. For railways, supply-side policies involving large scale and long-term investment have dominated the debate. In this paper, we focus on people-centric policies that could be, in principle, faster and less expensive. To test the potential success of mobilizing demand for low carbon solutions, we have been developing an agent-based computational economics (ACE) model for many modal choices (including railway, bikes, private cars, etc.). It contains a large number of agents, with realistic operative parameters, environment, and infrastructure, reflecting in this study the Swiss system. In this paper, we focus on the railway system. A description of the Swiss world-class railway system is presented and the dynamics in the model, covering the demand for railway mobility as derived from psycho-social-economic approaches, are explored. Innovations in preferences, emotional attitudes and innovative swaps in non-technological resource shift the simulated use of the railway system. Carbon-dioxide direct emission levels are computed. Dynamic and heterogeneous demands of the agents are investigated along with several scenarios, some of them lead to significant decarbonization. We argue, after the simulation results, that railway demand increase can contribute to decarbonization strategies, including those possibly included in the next wave of Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement. However, total decarbonization of the transport system will need to embrace further modes, such as e-vehicles and non-motorized transport.
SN Business & Economics, May 25, 2021
The author name was written incorrectly and has now been corrected to Schumann. No other changes ... more The author name was written incorrectly and has now been corrected to Schumann. No other changes to the article have been made.
Sommario-La XXIII Conferenza della Parti della Convenzione quadro delle Nazioni Unite sul cambia-... more Sommario-La XXIII Conferenza della Parti della Convenzione quadro delle Nazioni Unite sul cambia-mento climatico (COP23), che si è svolta a Bonn nel novembre 2017, ha prodotto un risultato utile e bilan-ciato, dimostrando come la spinta della COP21 di Pari-gi non si sia spenta. Nei lavori della COP23 si è messo a punto un percorso condiviso mirato a definire i detta-gli dell'implementazione dell'Accordo di Parigi. Altri aspetti della COP23 sono comunque importanti per va-lutare il futuro del negoziato sul clima. Parole chiave: cambiamenti climatici, politiche ambientali, negoziati internazionali. Abstract-The 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP23) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which took place in Bonn in November 2017, produced a useful and balanced result, proving how the "spirit of Paris" which characterized COP21 has not extinguished. During COP23, a shared path has been developed, aimed at defining the implementation det...
– The 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP23) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climat... more – The 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP23) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which took place in Bonn in November 2017, produced a useful and balanced result, proving how the “spirit of Paris” which characterized COP21 has not extinguished. During COP23, a shared path has been developed, aimed at defining the implementation details of the Paris Agreement. However, other outcomes of COP23 are important to assess the future of climate negotiations.
Nature Energy, 2020
Mental accounting refers to the fact that people create mental budgets to organize their resource... more Mental accounting refers to the fact that people create mental budgets to organize their resource use and to create linkages between specific acts of consumption and specific payments. Research on financial decision-making and consumer behaviour shows that these mechanisms can have a large impact on decisions and behaviours, deviating from normative economic principles. Here we introduce a theoretical framework illustrating how mental accounting mechanisms may influence individual decisions and behaviours driving energy consumption and carbon emissions. We demonstrate the practical relevance of mental accounting in the context of designing carbon pricing mechanisms and discuss the ethical dimensions of applying the concept to intervention design. By bridging the mental accounting literature and research in the energy domain, we aim to stimulate the study of the cognitive mechanisms underlying energy-relevant decisions and the development of novel theory-based interventions targeting reductions of energy use and carbon emissions
SN Business & Economics, 2021
The complex nature of agent-based modeling may reveal more descriptive accuracy than analytical t... more The complex nature of agent-based modeling may reveal more descriptive accuracy than analytical tractability. That leads to an additional layer of methodological issues regarding empirical validation, which is an ongoing challenge. This paper offers a replicable method to empirically validate agent-based models, a specific indicator of “goodness-of-validation” and its statistical distribution, leading to a statistical test in some way comparable to the p value. The method involves an unsupervised machine learning algorithm hinging on cluster analysis. It clusters the ex-post behavior of real and artificial individuals to create meso-level behavioral patterns. By comparing the balanced composition of real and artificial agents among clusters, it produces a validation score in [0, 1] which can be judged thanks to its statistical distribution. In synthesis, it is argued that an agent-based model can be initialized at the micro-level, calibrated at the macro-level, and validated at the ...
L'Italia Forestale e Montana, 2012
Climate change has been recognised as "one of the greatest challenges of our time" (Copenhagen Ac... more Climate change has been recognised as "one of the greatest challenges of our time" (Copenhagen Accord, 2009; UNFCC Convention, 1992). Its deep, wide and only partially understood consequences will shape the "operative space" in this century and afterwards (rockström et al., 2009) in strong connection with the need of sustainable development (as underlined in the Cancún Agreements-2010) across all actions of mitigation, adaptation, technology, finance and capacity-building. While a number of policies begin to be available and proven to boost mitigation technologies in the energy sector (IPCC, 2011), much wider global, regional, national and sub-national approaches, plans and strategies will be needed to cope with the overall transformation of the economy. A larger number of stakeholders will need to be involved than it was envisaged explicitly
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2001
In particular, we distribute the list of high proximities and the overall matrix of proximities, ... more In particular, we distribute the list of high proximities and the overall matrix of proximities, where many hundreds of products are evaluated in their distance from each other. To locate where your country is at the present, we add the competitive positioning of all countries in the world for the same products as well as a wider database, which includes the destination countries. ... More importantly, in this paper we outline the kind of strategies that can make use of these data to contribute to deliver a strategy of diversification of national economies and firm ...