News

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...

MAGIC proudly launches its Uncomfortable Knowledge Hub (UKH), a legacy of more than four years of interdisciplinary environmental and social research into the water-energy-food-environment (WEFE) nexus. A key experience of the MAGIC project was that many WEFE Nexus issues, in policy domains such as the common agricultural policy, energy...

In a new article published in the journal 'Ecological Economics', MAGIC researchers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona take a close look at the virtual labour hours embodied in the goods and services traded by the EU, USA and China. Human labor is a crucial yet often overlooked biophyscial limit to sustainable growth. While in...

A new article by MAGIC researchers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona takes a critical look at the narratives around biofuels production in the European Union. The authors seek to clarify the confusion created by the simultaneous use of non-equivalent policy discourses and address the inconsistency between long-term goals and...