Consumer (co-)ownership in renewable energy (RE) is essential to the overall success of Energy Transition. In June 2018, the European Union agreed on a corresponding enabling framework as part of a recast of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II). The transposition of these comprehensive rules – in particular those on local RE communities – requires developing, implementing and rolling out business models that broaden the capital participation of consumers. The challenge is to include municipalities and/or commercial investors like SMEs and advance to economies of scale while retaining the benefits of individual consumer participation. This book is addressed to energy consumers in local communities, their municipalities and to the policy makers who represent them. Additionally, non-EU countries, in particular those where rural areas have limited access to energy, e.g. in Asia, Africa and Latin America, may be interested in the benefits of consumer ownership. While demand for energy in developing countries is growing, access to energy is crucial for improving the quality of life. The editor of this book presents a new model of consumer ownership in RE for both the EU and countries worldwide. Part One describes the rationale for consumer ownership in RE with regard to social, organizational, legal and financial conditions. Part Two discusses the issue of financing RE and introduces a new financing technique, the Consumer Stock Ownership Plan (CSOP), comparing it to traditional models. Part Three provides 18 country studies from Europe, North America, South America and Asia, organized so as to enable a cross-country comparison of policy approaches and feasibility. Policy recommendations are based on the results of this survey. Part Four summarizes, compares the best practice cases, presents a cost-benefit analysis of “prosumage” and against this background evaluates the impact on future policy.

For a long time the topic of national development banks was limited to a debate between admirers and detractors of these institutions, often inserted into a more general debate of state versus markets. Since the 2007/8 North Atlantic financial crisis however, interest and support for these institutions has broadly increased in both developing and developed countries. Key issues such as understanding how development banks work, what their main aims are, and what their links with the private financial and corporate sector are have come to the forefront, and there is an increased interest in what instruments, incentives, and governance work better in general and in particular contexts. The Future of National Development Banks provides an in-depth study of several key examples of these institutions based in Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Germany, Mexico, and Peru. It explores horizontal issues such as their role in innovation and structural change, sustainable infrastructure financing, financial inclusion, and regulatory rules. It provides both research and policy-oriented perspectives on how these banks can make a significant contribution to a countries' development, and analyses their roles within broader economic policy, their governance, and the main instruments they use to perform their function. The Future of National Development Banks has important policy implications for countries that have these institutions and can improve them, and countries that do not have them yet and can learn from best practice.

The Struggle for Natural Resources traces the troubled history of Bolivia's land and commodity disputes across five centuries, combining local, regional, national, and transnational scales. Enriched by the extractivism and commodity frontiers approaches to world history, the book treats Bolivia's political struggles over natural resources as long-term processes that outlast immediate political events. Exploration of the Bolivian case invites dialogue and comparison with other parts of the world, particularly regions and countries of the so-called Global South. The book begins by examining three Bolivian resources at the center of political dispute since the early colonial period, namely land, water, and minerals. Carmen Soliz, Rossana Barragán, and Sarah Hines show that, as in the colonial and early republican past, these resources have remained the focus of political contention to the present day. Until the end of the nineteenth century, Bolivia's battle over natural resources was primarily concentrated in the highlands and inter-Andean valleys. Beginning in the 1860s, the bicycle and soon the automobile industries triggered demand for natural rubber found in the heart of the Amazon. José Orsag analyzes the impact of this extractive economy at the turn of the twentieth century. The book concludes by examining two resources that are central to understanding the last century of Bolivia's history. Kevin Young examines the fraught business of hydrocarbons, and Thomas Grisaffi analyzes the coca/cocaine circuit. Each chapter studies the social dynamics and political conflicts that shaped the processes of extraction, exchange, and ownership of each of these resources

The book is a collection of best selected research papers presented at the 5th International Conference on Inventive Material Science Applications (ICIMA 2022) organized by PPG Institute of Technology, Coimbatore, India, during May 6–7, 2022. The book includes original research by material science researchers toward developing a compact and efficient functional elements and structures for micro-, nano-, and optoelectronic applications. The book covers important topics like nanomaterials and devices, optoelectronics, sustainable electronic materials, nanocomposites and nanostructures, hybrid electronic materials, medical electronics, computational material science, wearable electronic devices and models, and optical/nanosensors.