Mannheim Institute for Sustainable Energy Studies - MISES

19/03/2024

📌 Invitation to our on March 25, 2024

Maximilian Auffhammer from University of California, Berkeley will give a talk on "To See or Not to See: The Visual (Dis)amenity of Wind Turbines"

‪👀 This event will take place online only. To join virtually, please register in advance using this link: https://uni-mannheim.zoom.us/meeting/register/u50kfuGppj0pHdGjjd2uvz_-E3nVIzVtDw85 #/registration

We look forward to seeing you in the seminar! ‪

12/02/2024

Research Presentation at Washington State University by Amadeus Bach🎓📈

This January, Amadeus presented and discussed his research project at a seminar hosted by the Accounting Department of Washington State University, which took place during his two-month visit in Pullman, WA. Throughout his stay, Amadeus engaged in numerous meetings, actively participating in and contributing to discussions on various research projects with members of the department. 💬

08/02/2024

Paper by Gunther Glenk, Anton Kelnhofer, Rebecca Meier, and Stefan Reichelstein is 2023 Haas Sustainability Research Prize finalist 🏅📊

In the paper “Cost-Efficient Pathways to Decarbonizing Portland Cement Production,” the researchers developed an economic model for identifying cost-efficient pathways for decarbonization. The Haas Sustainable Business Research Prize encourages serious research with timely, real-world business practice applications among business school faculty around the world related to responsible business, sustainability, and ESG.

🏆 More about the Haas Sustainability Research Prize: https://newsroom.haas.berkeley.edu/inaugural-haas-sustainable-business-research-prize-awarded-to-paper-on-biodiversity-risk/

📝 Full summary of the paper: https://haas.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/CRB-Research-Prize-Brief-4-Glenk_Final.pdf?_gl=1*1ot7yam*_ga*MzU1MDg3NDkyLjE3MDcyNDgzMDU.*_ga_EW2RSBHHX6*MTcwNzI5ODAzNy4yLjEuMTcwNzI5ODA2Ni4zMS4wLjA.

Berkeley — A team of researchers who developed tools for investors, academics, and businesses to measure economic risks from the loss of the planet’s

31/01/2024

Internship and Master Thesis Opportunity in Cooperation with Mercedes-Benz AG 🚙💨

MISES is excited to offer master thesis opportunities in cooperation with Mercedes-Benz AG. These theses will focus on the carbon footprint (Scope 3 emissions) of Mercedes-Benz's global dealership network.

Potential topics include:
🖋 CO2 Measurement and Reporting
🖋 Decarbonization Pathways
🖋 The Role of Carbon Offsets
🖋 Affecting Scope 3 Emissions through Third-Party Entities

Have we sparked your interest? Comprehensive information on composing your thesis at MISES can be found here: https://lnkd.in/dbRjZ3q5

12/12/2023

Earlier this week, Matteo Gasparini from University of Oxford talked about "Are financial markets pricing the net zero carbon transition? A reconsideration of the carbon premium" 💰📉

👉🏼 The abstract of the seminar sheds light on the question of the pricing of the net zero carbon transition:
Prior research has highlighted a positive correlation between realised returns and carbon emissions. This paper shows that this carbon premium might be partially due to mispricing produced by climate policy uncertainty. For this reason, realised returns may not be representative of expected returns. To show that, I develop an asset pricing model with uncertain expectations about the future cash flows of fossil fuels firms. The price-dividend ratio increases with uncertainty about a climate policy regime shift. This proposition is confirmed empirically using data on analysts’ forecasts. I find that analysts’ forecasts disagreement – as a proxy for climate policy uncertainty – might explain part of the valuations of a large sample of fossil fuels stocks. Using my model, I show with forward-looking scenarios that cash flows expectations implied in the valuations of fossil fuels firms may not be consistent with a net zero carbon transition.

👀 Have a read of the full paper here: https://lnkd.in/e9hn7wjA

07/12/2023

Invitation to the last but not least episode of our Decarbonization Seminar this semester on December 11, 2023

Matteo Gasparini from University of Oxford will talk about "Are financial markets pricing the net zero carbon transition? A reconsideration of the carbon premium”.

‪👀 The talk will take place in room O 129 (i.e., in the castle, building Ostflügel, level 1, room 29). To join virtually, please register here: https://lnkd.in/gZN-nWnu

We look forward to seeing you in the seminar! ‪

08/11/2023

📌 Invitation to the next episode of our Decarbonization Seminar on November 13, 2023

Marcin Kacperczyk from Imperial College London will talk about "Carbon-Transition Risk and Net-Zero Portfolios”.

‪👀 The talk will take place online only. To join virtually, please register in advance using this link: https://lnkd.in/eWpKnasE

We look forward to seeing you in the seminar! ‪

20/10/2023

Earlier this week, Hans-Peter Röttig from Mercedes-Benz AG talked about Decarbonization of Automotive Retail from OEM´s perspective as part of the Decarbonization Seminar 🚗💨

The abstract of the seminar provides a glimpse of the main points of this significant topic:
With Ambition 2039 Mercedes-Benz has set the target of making the fleet of new vehicles net carbon-neutral over the vehicles´ entire life cycle by 2039. Mercedes-Benz´ Sales Organization and Retail Network are an important part of the value chain. Besides an introduction of the Decarbonization strategy for the Retail Network we will discuss open questions and challenges which came up during the strategy design.

09/10/2023

📌 Invitation to the next episode of our on October 16, 2023

Hans-Peter Röttig from Mercedes-Benz AG will talk about "Decarbonization of Automotive Retail from OEM´s perspective”.

‪👀 The talk will take place at 05:15 – 06:30 PM (CEST) in room O 129 (i.e., in the castle, building Ostflügel, level 1, room 29). You can also join the talk via zoom: https://lnkd.in/ePAwhXiS

We look forward to seeing you in the seminar! ‪

25/09/2023

Last week, Caroline Flammer from Columbia University, presented the paper “Biodiversity Finance” 💰📈

The abstract of her paper provides a glimpse into the insights of her research. If you want to delve deeper into the challenges and opportunities of the new practice of Biodiversity Finance, take a moment to read it:

The use of private capital to finance biodiversity conservation and restoration is a new practice in sustainable finance. This study sheds light on this new practice. First, we provide a conceptual framework that lays out how biodiversity can be financed by i) pure private capital and ii) blended financing structures. In the latter, private capital is blended with public or philanthropic capital, whose aim is to de-risk private capital investments. The main element underlying both types of financing is the “monetization” of biodiversity, that is, the extent to which investments in biodiversity can generate a financial return for private investors. Second, we provide empirical evidence using deal-level data from a leading biodiversity finance institution. We find that projects with higher expected returns tend to be financed by pure private capital. Their scale is smaller, however, and so is their expected biodiversity impact. For larger-scale projects with a more ambitious biodiversity impact, blended finance is the more prevalent form of financing. While these projects have lower expected returns, their risk is also lower. This suggests that the blending – and the corresponding de-risking of private capital- is an important tool for improving the risk-return tradeoff of these projects, thereby increasing their appeal to private investors. Finally, we examine a set of projects that did not make it to the portfolio stage. This analysis suggests that, in order to be financed by private capital, biodiversity projects need to meet a certain threshold in terms of both their financial return and biodiversity impact. Accordingly, private capital is unlikely to substitute for the implementation of effective public policies in addressing the biodiversity crisis.

15/09/2023

A Second Life for Electric Car Batteries 🚙🔋
MISES researchers develop a decision model for retired lithium-ion batteries

Used lithium-ion batteries are not always a case for the recycling yard. In many cases, the batteries still retain around 80 to 90 percent of their original capacity after they have been used in an electric car. They can be used, for example, as energy storage in buildings or for charging stations for electric cars. Since the batteries are responsible for a considerable share of the costs and emissions of an electric car, battery manufacturers and car owners have an economic and ecologic interest in repurposing these batteries.

For their new use, batteries must first be tested and evaluated. Together with colleagues from Stanford University, Amadeus Bach and Stefan Reichelstein of the MISES have developed a decision model to evaluate old batteries from an economic and technical point of view. These guidelines with the title “A Decision-Making Model for Retired Li-ion Batteries“ is now available on the MISES website as well as in the Social Science Research Network (SSRN).

Their simulations show how the lifetime and the price of used lithium-ion batteries can be evaluated, depending on the current state of the battery and the type of future use. The simulated lifetime of repurposed batteries is between 1 and 6 years. The study is a comprehensive comparison of different strategies to demonstrate the most economical way to handle retired batteries. For example, the authors found out that the most profitable application is frequency regulation, a short-term power balancing.

Find the original publication here: https://lnkd.in/eYFrvjH7

11/08/2023

Join Stefan Reichelstein and Gunther Glenk at the Accountability in a Sustainable World Conference 2023 which returns this year during Climate Week NYC on September 20 – 21, 2023, as a digital event. The conference will provide opportunities for practitioners to communicate with academics
and influence their work. 🌱🌏

✏️ Register today: https://events.climateaction.org/care-conference/registration/

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