News

Despite the concerted efforts of the scientific community and politicians to contain greenhouse gas emissions, the CO2 level in the atmosphere continues to increase monotonically. This raises the question whether the scientific representations and related knowledge claims used to inform EU energy policy have been incomplete or incorrect. In a new...

A new MAGIC publication in the journal 'Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change' reports on the potential of the European Union (EU) to produce advanced biofuels. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the European Union (EU) has set targets for utilizing energy from renewable sources. By 2030, a minimum of 3.5% of the energy in the...

In a freshly released article, MAGIC researchers from the UAB report on their experiences in applying Quantitative Storytelling (QST) to assess innovations with a strong nexus component. Innovations are central instruments of EU sustainability policies. They project future visions onto technological solutions and enable win-win framings of complex...

In a just-released paper, MAGIC researchers present the insights from carrying out a pan-EU sustainability assessment using Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) data (the old wine) with societal metabolism accounting (SMA) processes (the new bottles). The SMA was deployed as part of a transdisciplinary study with EU policy stakeholders of how EU...

A new publication from MAGIC researchers of the University of Twente examines to what extent crop residues can provide fuel for future transport. Bioethanol production from non-crop based lignocellulosic material has reached the commercial scale and has been increasingly advocated as a possible solution to decarbonize the transport sector....

A new publication from MAGIC researchers from Wageningen University and Research and University of Bergen analyses the policy coherence between agro-food and bioeconomy policies. The European Union envisions a bioeconomy, a model of the economy based on replacing fossil-based products with biomass-based products, to address challenges such as...

A new publication by MAGIC researchers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona questions the material coherence of electric vehicle justification narratives in the EU. Electric vehicles are a dominant policy solution in the EU. In policy documents, the transition to electric vehicles is justified through promises of economic, environmental,...

This coming April 14th, 2021, Erik Reinert and Andrea Saltelli join the discussion on Uncomfortable Knowledge, offering insights on how the Cartesian and Ricardian dreams have contributed to the modern crisis in science and economics. They will address the following questions among others: Until around 1900 most US economists got their education...

In a new article published in Energy Strategy Reviews, MAGIC researchers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona propose a novel conceptual framework to assess the performance of energy systems with a strong focus on biofuels. The proposed framework integrates four key aspects of biofuel systems: (1) the social factors determining...

The economy is approaching near-term collapse, not peak oil. The result is quite different. UKH webinar, 23 February 2021, 16:00 – 17:30 (CET) // 10:00 – 11:30 (EST), Invited speaker: Gail Tverberg, Moderator: Mario Giampietro. Most people assume that the limit on fossil fuel production is determined by the size of oil reserves available in...