Wytze P van der Gaast (original) (raw)

Papers by Wytze P van der Gaast

Food Control, 1999

Risk assessment and HACCP are related, but fundamentally dierent processes. Four major elements o... more Risk assessment and HACCP are related, but fundamentally dierent processes. Four major elements of risk assessment are commonly described (hazard identi®cation; exposure assessment; dose-response assessment or hazard characterization; and risk characterization). Some similarities exist between the inputs for the ®rst elements of risk assessment (hazard identi®cation) and HACCP (hazard analysis). However, HACCP involves the identi®cation of critical control points of a process for the purpose of producing a ÔsafeÕ product, and thus is essentially a risk management procedure that does not estimate risk with attendant uncertainty as in the formal structured procedure described for risk assessment. For quantitative models in microbial risk assessment, exposure assessment requires data for pathogen occurrence, density or level, and distribution in foods and live animals, parameters for growth and decline, and consumption information. A crucial dierence between chemical and microbial risk assessment is that for the latter, exposure models must account for pathogen growth and deactivation, termed predictive microbiology. This ®eld has emphasized prediction of the expected changes in a population of organisms and is extended by an example accounting for the stochastic or random variability of microbial growth in a given circumstance. Dose-response assessment, the third element of risk assessment, is the crucial link between exposure in food to adverse human health outcomes. Data, from controlled human studies with healthy adult volunteers to describe dose-response relationships, are limited. Dierences between human sub-populations may be inferred from animal studies, based on a common mechanism, such as the observed predisposition of antibiotic-treated animals to subsequent challenges with enteric pathogens. Professional organizations, such as the Society for Risk Analysis, can greatly assist governments, industry, academia, and stakeholders in scrutinizing the risk analysis processes of risk assessment, risk management, and risk communication. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.

Bij gelegenheid van de officiele inwerkingtreding van het Kyoto-protocol hebben Wageningen UR, KN... more Bij gelegenheid van de officiele inwerkingtreding van het Kyoto-protocol hebben Wageningen UR, KNMI, RIVM, NWO, VU en ECN een handzaam boekje uitgegeven met antwoorden op alle vragen die u maar over de zin en onzin van Kyoto kunt bedenken. Het boekje legt uit wat het protocol inhoudt en wat het betekent voor milieu, economie en samenleving. Ook het jargon dat door klimaatonderzoekers en in het internationale onderhandelingscircuit wordt gebruikt, wordt in begrijpelijke bewoordingen

Routledge eBooks, Feb 21, 2019

Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Jun 27, 2018

Under the Paris Agreement, countries are to develop nationally determined contributions (NDCs) ev... more Under the Paris Agreement, countries are to develop nationally determined contributions (NDCs) every 5 years, outlining their climate targets and plans. In order to ease this task, countries may use the experiences with the Technology Needs Assessment (TNA) program. In this paper, lessons with TNAs since 2001 are described, and it is analyzed how countries, with a focus on developing countries, may use these lessons in strengthening and implementing their successive NDCs. While some developing countries have already used the results of their TNA process in their NDC development, countries could benefit from following the TNA process, its stakeholder involvement, and the multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methodology, to strengthen their NDCs. Countries face challenges in their NDC with regard to the embedding of the contribution into the national development strategy, getting from plans to implementation, and the mobilization of finance. Through the positive and negative experiences with TNAs, countries can overcome these challenges. It is argued that all countries can use the TNA or parts thereof in their NDC process. For developing countries (mainly Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States) the TNA is useful for capacity building, strategy development, and the preparation of projects for investment with international support. Emerging markets and newly-industrialized countries can use the TNA as a participatory approach for strategy development. Developed countries generally do not need the entire TNA process, but the participatory approaches and MCDA can be used to fine-tune modeled strategies.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Oct 31, 2020

In 1989, UNEP and the WMO initiated the preparations for negotiations on a framework convention o... more In 1989, UNEP and the WMO initiated the preparations for negotiations on a framework convention on climate change. The idea was that this convention would contain basic principles and agreements which could subsequently be worked out in further detail through amendments and protocols. As 2 The 400 ppmv level was measured on 9 May 2013 by NOAA (2013). 1.2.2. The Kyoto Protocol After 1992, negotiations under the UNFCCC continued in the form of annual sessions of the Conference of the Parties or COP. 5 The first session was held in March-April 1995 6 in Berlin and here it was concluded that industrialised countries' stabilisation targets as agreed under the Convention were inadequate. This conclusion was based on an analysis of the national GHG emission inventories submitted by 15 industrialised countries (together representing 41% of global GHG emissions), as well as insights from the IPCC Second Assessment Report (IPCC, 1995, p. 22), which concluded, among other findings, that:  Atmospheric GHG concentrations had continued to increase; 3 INC was established on 21 December 1990 by the UN General Assembly (Resolution 45/212). It was scheduled that INC would deliver a draft Convention text that would be ready for signature at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May-June 1992). 4 See footnote 3 5 The COP itself was established under the UNFCCC in Article 7 as the supreme body of the Convention with, among others, the task to periodically examine the obligations of the Parties. 6 The first COP in 1995 could only be organised after the entry-into-force of the UNFCCC on 21 March 1994, 90 days after deposit of the 50th instrument of ratification (by Portugal, 21 December 1993). During the early 2000s, industrialised countries' GHG emissions slightly increased again, both in EIT and non-EIT countries, which this took place despite the entry-into-force of the Kyoto Protocol in 2005. The strongest change in industrialised countries' GHG emissions took place between 2008 and 2011, which has been mainly due to the impacts of the economic recessions and corresponding drop in industrial production. Although this study has not conducted a detailed analysis to disentangle the importance of political, economic and policy interaction factors (e.g., other environmental policies positively or negatively affecting GHG emissions), from Figure 1-1 the impression can be obtained that industrialised countries' GHG emissions have not been very sensitive to UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol negotiation outcomes, whereas domestic (e.g., disintegration of centrally planned economic Turkey

Energy Sources Part B-economics Planning and Policy, Sep 10, 2020

Economisch Statistische Berichten, 1997

Sustainable earth, Mar 7, 2022

Background: The EU "Winter Package" sets out specific energy and climate goals and urged formatio... more Background: The EU "Winter Package" sets out specific energy and climate goals and urged formation of National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) by Member States for 2020 to 2030. Integrating scaled-up mitigation technologies within existing economic and social structures face numerous difficulties and require careful planning. While some options may be less suitable than others within a given country context, solutions exist to mitigate negative impacts and build local acceptance. We assess the resulting plans in the context of: (i) economic effects, the trade-offs arising from scaled-up technologies in terms of energy system-and macroeconomic effects; (ii) climate effectiveness, via assessment of carbon payback times of technologies, and (iii) social aspects, with a focus on identifying approaches for wider social adoption and acceptance of mitigation options. Assessment takes the form of case studies for Greece, Austria, and the Netherlands, three EU member states with very different preconditions. Results: In terms of economic efficiency, NECPs lack consideration of the unique properties inherent in large-scale renewable energy deployment, and we suggest a possible way forward for future macroeconomic assessment via incorporating integration costs. For economic efficiency, we find that countries may be overestimating their contributions to GHG reduction targets via failure to incorporate life-cycle based analysis. Addressing feasibility, we find that countries address acceptance to different extents, with Greece and Austria holding stakeholder workshops and allowing for public comment on draft NECPs, while the Netherlands undertook a more extensive effort to ensure local public acceptance and involvement in planning. Conclusions: The results illustrate that even though NECPs may be finalized, their success is far from ensured, and neglecting to consider key aspects of efficiency, effectiveness and feasibility may result in underestimation of impacts, failure to have as large an impact on GHG reduction as expected, or increasing public resistance to climate policies. We present approaches to deal with gaps in economic and environmental assessment, and highlight methods for improving public acceptance via examples from the case studies and related literature.

This paper presents a new concept, the APRAISE 3E method, to assess the performance of environmen... more This paper presents a new concept, the APRAISE 3E method, to assess the performance of environmental policy instruments. The concept aims at an improved understanding of the economic, social and environmental context of a policy, as well as of the design, implementation and evaluation cycle of policy instruments and possible interactions with other policy instruments. As such, the APRAISE 3E method helps to explain possible differences between observed and expected or targeted results. With these insights, policy makers can subsequently make better informed assumptions about the efficacy of an environmental policy instrument. Efficacy, as defined in this paper, refers to policy makers' anticipations prior to the implementation of a policy or policy instrument in terms of expected effects and impacts. The actual outcome may differ from the anticipated outcome of a policy or policy instrument due to a range of possible reasons, such as: lower or higher than expected economic growth, increased or decreased environmental awareness among consumers, stronger or weaker enforcement procedures, or positive or negative interactions with other environmental policy instruments. The paper briefly presents the APRAISE 3E method and will apply it to examples of small hydropower expansion in Austria and Slovenia. Special emphasis is given to contextual factors and policy instruments interactions. The method allows to conclude whether the policy instrument was susceptible to impacts of contextual factors or showed adaptability and flexibility and where adaptions need to be made in order to increase the efficacy and thus the effectiveness and efficiency of environmental policy instruments.

1 The terms low carbon and low emission development strategies are used interchangeably in litera... more 1 The terms low carbon and low emission development strategies are used interchangeably in literature. Low carbon development strategies is used in the Cancun Agreements (1/CP.16.6 and 65), but several studies and programs use the term low emissions development strategies as it better reflects the emissions of different GHGs as defined in Annex A of the Kyoto Protocol.

Narratives of Low-Carbon Transitions, 2019

Carbon & Climate Law Review, 2009

Energy Efficiency, 2011

Emission reduction activities in the European Union (EU) in-and outside the European Trading Syst... more Emission reduction activities in the European Union (EU) in-and outside the European Trading System (ETS) thus far have largely taken place separately. One possibility to combine the two is through linking NonETS offset project-based crediting schemes in the form of Joint Implementation or domestic offset (DO) projects with the EU ETS. Linking would allow nonETS offset project-based CO 2 credits to be traded within the ETS market. This paper discusses the merits and drawbacks of the implementation of a DO scheme in the built environment in the Netherlands. The built environment can be characterised as a sector with a great diversity and significant energy savings potential. Emphasis is paid on the modalities for estimating energy savings under DO projects. The authors discuss if next to existing EU, national or regional policies in the Netherlands, DO could spur initiatives in sub-sectors or market areas that are difficult to reach with conventional policy instruments. Thus, despite the existing policy framework in this sector, there could be still space for DO to reach the untapped energy savings potential. DO can support activities and technologies that are not covered by other policy instruments, either because they are not part of the instruments focus or are above the minimum requirements of the incumbent policy targets. It is expected that some lessons from this study in the Netherlands can be taken into account also by other countries facing similar market circumstances, which have implemented several policy instruments and are considering DO schemes as an alternative for capturing part of the untapped energy saving potential in their end use sectors. Another possible advantage of DO is that is has the potential to reduce public spending on existing policy goals, when it is considered in conjunction with existing public financing instruments. In order to tap into this potential, there are a series of hurdles in place, like additionality and the current CO 2 price levels, while transaction and administration costs must be kept low.

Asia Europe Journal, 2008

The Asian region accounts for already over 40% of the global economy, and is becoming the world’s... more The Asian region accounts for already over 40% of the global economy, and is becoming the world’s main manufacturing hub. Unprecedented changes in economic growth and trade in the last couple of decades have resulted in severe degradation of the regional, as well as the global environment that could offset the advantages that economic growth has brought to the countries