Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    These results provide initial, albeit weak, support for our conceptual framework. For high users, normative and injunctive feedbacks pull behaviour in the same direction, which results in a reduction in electricity almost twice as large as that in the average treatment effect. ...

    Options:
    A. For low electricity users, conforming to the reference groups' behaviour motivates a consumption increase ('boomerang'), but the injunctive feedback included in the eHER counterbalances the negative effect of the descriptive feedback.
B. The injunctive feedback therefore induces stronger behavioural reactions among high electricity users, who are also exposed to the supporting descriptive feedback, than that among low electricity users, for whom the two types of feedback are at odds.
C. Although such an interpretation is only suggestive based on the evidence presented so far, it shows how established findings are consistent with our conceptual framework.
D. We conducted two separate RD estimations, one for each cutoff, on the sample of treated customers who received the eHER sent in April-May 2018 (n = 256,487) to allow a direct comparison with the analysis presented below.
E. In each estimation, we compared users in the two feedback categories adjacent to the cutoff and estimated the marginal effect of receiving one additional thumbs up.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Even though the positive effect of public R&D grants to companies has been highlighted in recent studies, we still know little about how specific government R&D programmes impact cleantech innovation—especially programmes that provide more than just the financial resources, such as R&D grants and tax credits, offered by traditional subsidy programmes. ARPA-E was designed in the model of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), with expert programme staff who are hired on short-term rotation and empowered to craft solicitations in an area of technical need, select proposals and actively manage projects. ...

    Options:
    A. Based on DARPA's long track record of accomplishments, this funding model was expected to produce breakthrough innovations with the potential to transform the energy market.
B. We are particularly interested in innovation outcomes for startup companies, which can be more flexible and agile than larger firms or public organizations.
C. Startups have the ability to quickly respond to market opportunities and can provide solutions to urgent problems as long as they have access to adequate resources.
D. Public organizations and incumbent firms also play a key role for energy innovation, given their scale and breadth of capabilities.
E. However, previous research suggests that larger organizations respond to innovation opportunities later than entrepreneurial firms, due to inertia and legacy systems; and when they do move into new products or markets, they often harvest innovation from startups.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    We also collect data on companies that received awards from the DOE Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programme. Previous research on this programme found it had a positive impact on the likelihood of VC investment and patenting for small businesses. ...

    Options:
    A. However, in our data, we find that SBIR startups as a whole are fairly dissimilar to ARPA-E awardees and other cleantech startups.
B. Of the 82 startups funded by DOE SBIR in 2010, we are able to identify only 60% of them as cleantech companies, compared to 93% of EERE startups and 100% of ARPA-E startups from the same year.
C. When we perform coarsened exact matching on the ARPA-E 2010 awardees, only five SBIR companies remain in the matched sample.
D. For this reason, we exclude SBIR awardees from our main analysis; more information on these companies is provided in Supplementary Note 1.
E. However, previous research suggests that larger organizations respond to innovation opportunities later than entrepreneurial firms, due to inertia and legacy systems; and when they do move into new products or markets, they often harvest innovation from startups.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Because companies that apply for government grants differ from other companies in several ways, we compare ARPA-E awardees in 2010 to companies that were rejected by ARPA-E in the same year. These rejected applicants were publicly 'encouraged' by ARPA-E, which indicates that they were close to receiving the award. ...

    Options:
    A. We take this approach to be approximating the idea behind regression discontinuity design methods, although the agency does not assign differentiated scores within the rejected group or the awardees.
B. We find that rejected ARPA-E applicants were no more likely to patent than other cleantech startups.
C. This indicates that the increased post-award patenting activity of ARPA-E companies is not a product of self-selection of more innovative companies into the applicant pool.
D. For this reason, we exclude SBIR awardees from our main analysis; more information on these companies is provided in Supplementary Note 1.
E. We also test whether increased patenting is observed in the set of companies funded by EERE in 2010; these companies showed no advantage over other companies in terms of post-award patenting activity.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Following the connection-oriented approach of PMUY, most evaluations of the programme have discussed enrolment rates using government-provided data. Few studies have examined LPG use after adoption, and most of these have focused on average cylinder refill rates. ...

    Options:
    A. Government records indicate that about one-quarter of PMUY beneficiaries purchased five or more refills each year, suggesting the use of LPG as their primary cooking fuel, while another one-quarter did not purchase any refills in the first year, suggesting sparing use.
B. Adoption of a clean cooking fuel like LPG is a necessary first step in ensuring smoke-free kitchens and reducing the drudgery of biomass collection.
C. However, both sustained use of cleaner fuels and cessation of solid fuel use are required to achieve the stated health outcomes of PMUY.
D. Using panel data collected from the rural areas of six major energy access-deprived states in India in 2014-2015 and 2018, we assess the determinants of upward shifts in LPG use—from use as a minority fuel for cooking only, to the primary fuel and then as the exclusive cooking fuel.
E. By examining dynamic fuel stacking instead of LPG consumption,this study identifies factors that help households to transition away from solid fuel use and towards cleaner fuels.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Second, many previous analyses have focused only on the household's primary cooking fuel as the variable of interest. Current evidence suggests that the full health benefits of clean cooking fuel use are only obtained when used nearly exclusively. ...

    Options:
    A. Yet, many surveys have collected data only on households' primary cooking fuel; although this may be changing with recent efforts to incorporate multiple fuel use into surveys, worldwide.
B. Two additional studies employing panel multinomial logit models using multiple rounds of survey data are noteworthy.
C. The first uses three rounds of surveys to assess the socio-economic factors that determine cooking fuel choice in urban households in Ethiopia.
D. The authors find that household expenditures, fuel prices and education are key determinants of fuel stacking behaviour.
E. The second study uses three waves of panel data in Tanzania to model fuel choice for cooking and lighting.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Before concluding, we note some limitations of our research. We rely on primary survey data for our analysis, including self-reported information on quantitative variables, which could be affected by typical limitations and biases of survey-based reporting. ...

    Options:
    A. However, on the basis of a couple of robustness checks for our dependent variable, we can still claim that our self-reported variable is reasonable for this analysis.
B. While approaches such as stove-use monitors and in-field fuel measurements can potentially lead to even more precise estimates, these measurement strategies are costly and can be prone to the Hawthorne effect, where participants behave differently to usual because they are being observed.
C. In addition, we focused on fuel stacking, but only pertaining to cooking.
D. Future studies may investigate the end uses for each stove or fuel in the household.
E. At times, solid fuels are also used for other heating applications—space heating, water heating or food preparation of animals—that are not easily replicated by LPG or other clean cooking fuels.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Prior scholarship related to asthma and coal-fired power plant exposures often consisted of observational and cross-sectional studies that considered single air pollutants (usually SO2) and hospitalizations, pulmonary function or symptoms alone. Studies of symptoms lacked objective measures and usually relied on participant diaries. ...

    Options:
    A. Some studies overcame a portion of these limitations; for example, Smargiassi et al. used a case-crossover design to evaluate the relationship between SO2 concentrations and ERVs and hospitalizations among young children who lived near a refinery.
B. Among populations that live near coal-fired power plants and fossil fuel refineries, some, though not all, epidemiological studies found a relationship between higher SO2 levels and uncontrolled asthma11, respiratory symptoms and respiratory-related hospitalizations.
C. Residential proximity to such facilities alone, without assessed air quality, was also identified as a risk factor for asthma exacerbation.
D. The discrete nature of these energy transitions and the ensuing abrupt changes in emissions present circumstances for a 'natural experiment' to study related changes in health in the time frame and population exposed to emissions from the coal-fired power plants.
E. The key feature is that the transition-induced change in exposure occurs for reasons unrelated to a health investigation and produce exposure changes that more closely resemble an experiment than a typical observational study.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Four coal-fired power plants—Cane Run, Clifty Creek, Mill Creek and Rockport—with emissions that impacted air quality in Jefferson County, Kentucky (which fully contains Louisville), either retired or installed SO2 controls between 2012 and 2016. We quantified monthly ZIP-code variability in SO2 emissions exposure from these plants using the HYSPLIT Average Dispersion (HyADS) model, which aggregates the results from 146,000 HYSPLIT runs per power plant. ...

    Options:
    A. During the study period, the quarterly median unitless HyADS exposure was 6,553 (interquartile range (IQR), 2,283 and 9,702; maximum, 31,781).
B. Power plant energy transitions resulted in declining levels over time.
C. Data from the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District confirmed that retirements at Cane Run and scrubbers at Mill Creek reduced the annual SO2 emissions by 9.6 and 12.9 million kg, respectively.
D. Comparing years pre- and post-control installations, SO2 emissions also declined at Clifty Creek (-90%) and Rockport (-50%).
E. The key feature is that the transition-induced change in exposure occurs for reasons unrelated to a health investigation and produce exposure changes that more closely resemble an experiment than a typical observational study.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Uniquely, this study found that exposure reductions to coal-fired power plant emissions were consistently associated with a reduced asthma morbidity at two spatial and temporal resolutions: monthly average daily SABA use within individuals and acute quarterly ERVs and hospitalizations at the ZIP-code level. Acute outcomes, such as hospitalizations, represent an important, yet more infrequent, severe and costly signal of asthma morbidity. ...

    Options:
    A. SABA use can represent the daily burden of disease and the future risk of adverse outcomes.
B. Power plant energy transitions resulted in declining levels over time.
C. In the spring of 2015, coal-fired power plant units retired at Cane Run and SO2 controls were installed at Mill Creek and Rockport.
D. These energy transitions resulted in approximately three fewer hospitalizations and ERVs per ZIP code per quarter in the following year, which translates into nearly 400 (-2.8 per ZIP quarter x 4 quarters x 35 ZIPs) avoided hospitalizations and ERVs in Jefferson County annually
E. At the individual level, the Mill Creek SO2 scrubber installed in June 2016 was associated with immediate reductions in SABA use and a marginally declining trend in use through May 2017.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    NYC has been a leader in this regard, and has implemented two informational regulations in its efforts to reduce building energy use and cut GHG emissions. The first, set forth in Local Law 84 of 2009 (LL84), requires property owners of large buildings to release annual energy consumption data used to benchmark building energy performance. ...

    Options:
    A. The second, known as Local Law 87 (LL87), introduced a mandatory energy audit requirement for buildings larger than 50,000 ft2.
B. Each covered property must conduct an audit, also referred to as an Energy Efficiency Report, once every 10 years and report its findings, which include detailed energy end-use infor- mation and recommended energy conservation measures (ECMs).
C. Roughly 10% of regulated buildings have been required to conduct an audit each year since 2013, and annual deadlines are randomly assigned based on the last digit of the property's Borough-Block-Lot (BBL) tax parcel identifier.
D. LL87 also requires owners to implement certain retrocommissioning measures to 'tune-up' existing systems at the time of audit, such as to ensure that light fixtures are clean and water pumps are operating as designed.
E. As new construction represents a small fraction of the building stock of a given city in any year, city energy policies are increasingly focused on ways to improve the efficiency of existing buildings.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Many of the available energy efficiency retrofit measures, whether technological or behavioural, are shown to have relatively short payback periods, after which they are expected to confer net cost savings. For larger commercial or multifamily buildings, several common ECMs, such as upgrading building controls and replacing lighting, are estimated to have payback periods of five years or less and, in many cases, less than one year. ...

    Options:
    A. Despite the apparent eco- nomic case for retrofits, adoption has been slow.
B. Scholars have long theorized that the energy efficiency gap is due, at least in part, to information deficits.
C. Three distinct types of deficits are believed to be at play.
D. First, building owners may lack information about the energy performance of their buildings, which includes information about strategies to reduce consumption, and thus may not be knowledgeable about energy efficiency investment opportunities.
E. Second, even where building owners are so informed, they may withhold relevant information from their tenants. Landlords may have an incentive to withhold such information where tenants pay their own utility bills because, in such instances, landlords will bear the cost of energy efficiency upgrades, whereas their tenants receive the benefits through lower utility payments.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Given higher initial average EUI, office buildings experience larger absolute decreases, on average, in energy use over time when compared to multifamily residential buildings. The ANOVA results, as shown in Table 1, demonstrate statistically significant coefficients for the interaction term (time period and intervention) for both office and multifamily buildings at the 95 and 90% confidence levels, respectively. ...

    Options:
    A. Although these results suggest that audits do have an impact on energy use over time, they represent a relatively coarse quantification of the audit policy's impact because they do not account for other factors that could influence building energy use in the postaudit period.
B. In Table 2, we show that Bayesian regression model coefficient means and the 95% highest posterior density (HPD) intervals for NYC's office and multifamily housing building stock.
C. We note that in both cases, when controlling for factors that might affect changes in energy consumption over time, the average value of the coefficient related to audits (that is, audited property) is negative.
D. Specifically, audited office buildings tend to reduce their EUI by 4.86% compared to non-audited properties, and multifamily prop- erties are found to have a 2.47% reduction.
E. From the intercept of the two models, however, we notice diverging results.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Beyond market fundamentals, oil prices may respond to geopolitical events and structural changes6. The structure of the oil market changes when the 'Seven Sisters', a group of seven international oil companies that dominated the world oil market between the 1940s and the early 1970s, sign 50-50 profit-sharing agreements with producing countries and changes again when producing countries nationalize properties owned by the Seven Sisters. ...

    Options:
    A. But analyses that focus on such changes largely ignore market fundamentals, which they represent by assuming that prices revert to a constant mean or follow a deterministic trend.
B. Here, we identify the price effects of speculative bubbles and changes in market governance and property rights by defining regimes as two or more consecutive quarters when oil prices move away from the level implied by market fundamentals.
C. To identify regimes, we start with a simple assumption: in a world without regimes, a stable long-run cointegrating relation translates market fundamentals into an equilibrium price for oil.
D. Statistically significant deviations from market fundamentals (that is, regimes) are identified by an indicator saturation technique.
E. This methodology identifies nine regimes that we tie to a speculative bubble in 2007-2008 (and 2010), changes in property rights, such as OPEC nations gaining control of oil resources from the Seven Sisters, and changes in market gov- ernance, such as the extensive US energy legislation in the 1970s.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    The saturation indicator technique identifies periods when prices move away from the level implied by market fundamentals for two or more consecutive quarters. Regimes start in the quarter when a step (SIS) changes the equilibrium price and end when the next step either moves the equilibrium price back towards or further away from the equilibrium that is implied by market fundamentals. ...

    Options:
    A. For models that specify a linear (or squared) relation between price and capacity utilization by producer organizations, the gets procedure within the R package of that name identifies 12 steps, which define nine regimes.
B. The start and end dates of the regimes identified by the nine models are similar, except for Regime 5, which starts either in the first or third quarter of 1981, and the end of Regime 8, which starts in the third or fourth quarter of 2009 or the first quarter of 2010.
C. Eight regimes are identified in models that specify UtilTRC3.
D. Statistically significant deviations from market fundamentals (that is, regimes) are identified by an indicator saturation technique.
E. Finally, the regimes identified by Model 1 are robust to the sample period, the variables used to measure price and/ or crude oil inventories, and the frequency of the observations.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    To understand price regimes in Model 1, we relate each to realworld events and explain why some changes noted by previous analyses do not appear in Table 2. For regimes prior to 2000, expla- nations borrow heavily from a chronology of the world oil market7; after 2000, explanations rely heavily on articles in the industry newsletter Petroleum Intelligence Weekly. ...

    Options:
    A. We recognize that associating real-world events to regimes represents post hoc explanations.
B. This cannot be avoided because there is no a priori definition for a price regime and it is very difficult to quantify time series that could represent such regimes.
C. Regime 1, 1946:1-1949:3, witnesses a price reduction by an average of US$9.26 relative to the equilibrium price implied by market fundamentals.
D. This reduction is opposite the price increase that is associated with the elimination of price controls on motor gasoline after World War II.
E. During the war, controls create a lack of capacity, as indicated by chronic shortages in drilled wells and transportation facilities.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    These recent developments emphasize the importance of understanding how the community energy sector is financed. However, there is currently very limited empirical evidence on the financing of community energy activities. ...

    Options:
    A. Studies in Germany and Belgium note the mixture of motivations reported by citizens investing in community energy; further studies in Germany note the substantial size of the renewable energy cooperative sector there and its success in raising finance from cooperative members.
B. The growth of the sector in the UK has been driven by a combination of the decreasing cost of renewable energy technologies and government policies.
C. However, more recently, government support for small-scale renewables has been substantially scaled back.
D. Most notably, Feed-in Tariff scheme (FITs) rates fell more than 50% from 2015 to 2016 for many technologies and the scheme is now closed to new projects.
E. In this challenging low-subsidy environment, project development and investment have slowed significantly.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Of the 153 projects, the majority (139) are electricity generation projects, with a total capacity of about 41 MW. Two of these projects also involved heat generation, and there are a further five that are exclusively heat generation projects. ...

    Options:
    A. Nine projects involve no direct energy generation.
B. Other surveys of the sector found 228 community energy organizations in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2018, of which 204 were engaged in electricity generation, with a total of 168MW operational capacity.
C. In Scotland, there was a total of 81MW of community-owned renewable electricity generating capacity in 2017.
D. Our survey dataset therefore captures approximately one-sixth of the UK community energy sector in terms of installed generation capacity.
E. Our analysis first provides a taxonomy of the project business models employed in the community energy sector.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    These findings are striking because, unlike conventional equity, community shares are neither saleable to third parties for profit, nor do they necessarily give the holder a claim to the proceeds of a sale of the issuing company's assets. Therefore, the prospect of capital gains, which might encourage conventional shareholders to accept lower interest payments, is not available to community shareholders. ...

    Options:
    A. Further, there do not appear to be many cases of community shares refinancing risky early-stage loans: most projects that issued community shares did not use loans at all.
B. We now turn to the marketing mechanisms employed to attract funds.
C. Despite the growth of online alternative finance platforms, such as Ethex or Crowdfunder, that can reach potential investors across the UK, around half the community share issues in our data- set were made using local marketing only, for example, through local newspapers and the organization's own website.
D. Many others were marketed nationally, but through community energy networks rather than general alternative finance online platforms.
E. There is a clear gap between the scale of funds raised by these different mechanisms, with general large-scale marketing raising the largest sums.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    However, there has been no objective evaluation of the extent to which PMUY has actually induced a transition away from solid fuels15. Assessments of LPG use, beyond just acquisition, are critical, as the health, social, economic and environmental benefits of a transition are conditional on the extent to which solid fuels are replaced by LPG16. ...

    Options:
    A. Typically, a clean cooking transition starts with the purchase of an LPG starter kit and partial fuel stacking.
B. To tackle these negative externalities, India recently launched the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (hereafter, PMUY) to promote liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
C. The programme provides poor women with a one-time subsidy and an optional loan to cover the initial upfront cost.
D. PMUY's deployment in lowincome, rural settings is unmatched in terms of scale and pace in the history of modern cooking energy access.
E. Seventy million poor households took advantage of PMUY to purchase LPG stove kits within 35 months since its launch.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    An increase in LPG consumption with experience would conform to patterns of technology adoption in other sectors, but there are few studies that directly measure this for cooking fuels. One recent Indian study does find an increase in LPG consumption with experience, based on self-reported data. ...

    Options:
    A. As PMUY consumers in this region have not yet completed two years since enrolment, we cannot assess their use over time.
B. However, we do have up to five years of data for general customers, and for these users we do not find a discernible increase in LPG cylinder purchases over this interval.
C. The median refill rates and distribution of refills remain nearly constant over this period.
D. PMUY's deployment in lowincome, rural settings is unmatched in terms of scale and pace in the history of modern cooking energy access.
E. Seventy million poor households11 took advantage of PMUY to purchase LPG stove kits within 35 months since its launch.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    We find that a standard deviation (s.d.) increase in distributor (up-front) price reduces normalized monthly sales by 0.27 s.d. We also see a comparable effect of seasonal factors in explaining the variation in refill sales. ...

    Options:
    A. A shift from 'no cropping' season to cropping or harvest season increases monthly refill sales by 0.22 or 0.26s.d. respectively, everything else remaining equal.
B. Refill rates in summer, when agricultural activity is limited, are ~10% lower than rates during cropping and harvest seasons when people are busy with agricultural work.
C. During the cropping season, people are busy preparing fields, planting and weeding.
D. They place a high value on their time and meals tend to be quick, which is conducive to cooking with LPG. Later, during the harvest season, people have cash in hand, making LPG purchases easier.
E. Seventy million poor households took advantage of PMUY to purchase LPG stove kits within 35 months since its launch.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Being widely available and replenishable, wastes and biomass residues from agricultural, dairy, forestry and household activities seem to contain the basic attributes of a sustainable energy resource, in stark contrast to bioenergy from food crops. The US Department of Energy 2016 Billion-Ton Study estimates an annual availability of 233 million tonnes (Mt) of dry waste. ...

    Options:
    A. To put this in perspective, the approximately 60 billion litres of corn ethanol produced in the United States in 2017 required about 150 Mt of corn (assuming a yield of 402 l ethanol per Mt).
B. However, these policies had two major flaws.
C. First, appropriation of edible crops for biofuel (mainly corn and sugarcane for ethanol, and soybean, canola and palm for biodiesel) was an important factor responsible for food price inflation alongside other factors such as rising income that drove rapid growth in food demand (especially meat demand), rising energy prices, adverse weather shocks, currency fluctuations and trade policies, the consequences of which were particularly severe for poorer households in developing countries.
D. Second, these crops required intensive use of land, water, nitrogen and other farm chemicals, which meant low, and in the worst case uncertain, net environmental benefits.
E. Being widely available and replenishable, wastes and biomass residues from agricultural, dairy, forestry and household activities seem to contain the basic attributes of a sustainable energy resource, in stark contrast to bioenergy from food crops.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Looking into each broad waste category, for agricultural and forest residues, combined heat and power generation (CHP) offers both the greatest net energy gain and the greatest climate benefits. For municipal solid waste (MSW), CHP offers the highest net energy gain while anaerobic digestion returns more climate benefits than other pathways. When compared with current management practices, all conversion pathways result in climate benefits for agricultural residues. ...

    Options:
    A. For animal manure, only anaerobic digestion producing either methane (M2) or electricity and heat (E4) yields climate benefits.
B. This corresponds to previous studies, which indicate that anaerobic digestion is the optimal conversion pathway for animal manure.
C. Although some pathways appear not to contribute to climate-change mitigation (that is, result in positive net GWP), all conversion pathways for forest residues yield smaller net GWP relative to burning them on site.
D. When compared with landfilling without any methane flaring or capture, all conversion pathways for MSW result in smaller negative effects on the climate.
E. However, landfilling with methane capture and on-site CHP would greatly reduce the GHG emissions of landfilling and become more attractive than renewable-dieselrelated conversion pathways.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    The county-level distribution of renewable energy production, net energy gain and its associated climate benefits also indicates that most counties would lose a relatively small amount of energy production potential from MEP to MER, while most coun- ties would see a greater increase in terms of emission reduction. Maximizing energy production would result in negative net energy in 125 counties and emission increase in 532 counties. ...

    Options:
    A. Therefore, maximizing either net energy or emission reduction would lead to better utilization of wastes and residues relative to maximizing renewable energy.
B. In contrast to other categories of wastes, optimal use of MSW feedstocks would require a greater number of conversion technology pathways depending on specific feedstock.
C. Non-biogenic carbon in MSW is concentrated in three feedstocks plastics, rubber and leather, and textiles.
D. Thus, the non-biogenic carbon is immediately emitted into the atmosphere when processing these feedstocks instead of being stored in landfills.
E. While the inclusion of biogenic CO2 reduces net GWP for forest residues and MSW, it does not change the ranking of conversion pathways under the three scenarios.

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Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Low-income households face pressure to curtail energy costs, often with negative impacts. For instance, during winter months with high heating bills, low-income households curtail energy use to thermally uncomfortable levels. ...

    Options:
    A. Electricity shut-offs that result from utility debt can exacerbate both physical and mental health conditions5, and low incomes are linked to a higher likelihood of mortality during extreme heat events.
B. Further, energy-vulnerable groups face energy injustices: procedural injustice in limited access to information, policy participation and legal rights; distributional injustice in inequalities in income, energy prices and housing efficiency; and injustice in recognition, which is a lack of recognition of the differential needs of energy vulnerable groups, and an unequal accordance of respect.
C. Walker and Day14 provide in-depth discussions of these topics.
D. Below, we draw on energy poverty and energy justice literature to define vulnerability indicators.
E. Energy poverty can be considered a state of being in which households face an inability to meet both energy and other costs necessary to live a decent life.

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Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    People with disabilities face higher rates of energy poverty. Compared to the general population, people with disabilities may need more energy to realize a range of essential capabilities. ...

    Options:
    A. Illness or disability can limit freedom of movement, which raises energy costs due to people being at home more.
B. Although previous work has not found disability to predict mortality during heat events, financial pressure to curtail electricity use may contribute to poorer health outcomes.
C. The energy needs of those with disabilities vary greatly depending on the individual and disability, but are likely to involve a higher energy use.
D. Yet, the needs of individuals with disabilities are often systematically disregarded by decision makers (recognition and procedural injustices).
E. Finally, racial and ethnic minorities face procedural injustices in the form of discrimination in areas such as housing, employment and credit, in addition to a lack of informed consent for energy projects, lack of representation in the decision-making and lack of access to information.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    The results suggest distributional, procedural and recognition injustices that differ across groups, which highlights the importance of considering specific subpopulations in the design and rollout of DSR programmes. The greater cost increases experienced by households vulnerable on the disability and elderly indicators assigned to TOU, relative to their non-vulnerable counterparts, suggest recognition injustices. ...

    Options:
    A. Cost increases faced by these households probably stem from inability to shift use times, as evidenced in our findings that households vulnerable on the disability indicator reduced on-peak use less than their non-vulnerable counterparts, and households vulnerable on both disability and elderly indicators reported less AC curtailment compared to their non-vulnerable counterparts.
B. Households vulnerable on low-income and disability indicators face worse health and comfort outcomes than the outcomes faced by non-vulnerable counterparts, regardless of rate assignment, which probably stems from ongoing procedural and distributional injustices.
C. The energy needs of those with disabilities vary greatly depending on the individual and disability, but are likely to involve a higher energy use.
D. However, TOU appears to widen the difference in health outcomes between those vulnerable on the disability indicator and their non-vulnerable counterparts, which suggests recognition injustices given that this group already struggles to keep homes cool under current distributional injustices.
E. Finally, racial and ethnic minorities face procedural injustices in the form of discrimination in areas such as housing, employment and credit30, in addition to a lack of informed consent for energy projects, lack of representation in the decision-making and lack of access to information.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    As private markets will not spur such necessary developments on their own, government policies play an important role in phasing out coal. However, in democratic countries, such policies may face public opposition. ...

    Options:
    A. While several studies suggest that the global energy transition (that is, shifting from non-renewable to renewable energies) is likely to lead to net job creation in most economies8, the closure of coal mines and coal-fired power plants may lead to temporary and regionally concentrated job losses.
B. The anticipation of negative employment effects could lead to opposition by those working in the sector.
C. Moreover, the coal industry has become an identity-shaping symbol deeply engrained in the culture of some communities and countries, such as in the German region of Lusatia, Silesia in Poland or Appalachia in the United States.
D. Opposition to a phase-out of coal is also likely to be fuelled by the economic actors that have to bear parts of the costs, such as utilities whose business models depend on coal, and labour unions representing coal workers.
E. Given their desire to be re-elected, democratic governments may be responsive to these concerns.

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Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    First, we investigate how citizens' support for a coal phase-out is affected by different timelines and other features of a phase-out and examine the moderating influences of political orientation and climate change-related beliefs. Second, we explore the preferences of citizens living in Germany's two largest coal regions, Rhineland and Lusatia. ...

    Options:
    A. Our analysis suggests that compared with the recommendations of the Coal Commission, a more ambitious timeline for phasing out coal would actually have been better aligned with citizens' preferences.
B. In light of recent concerns about populist backlash against climate policy, some observers consider the proposed timeline a reasonable compromise between public acceptance and climate change mitigation.
C. Although the compromise has been praised for representing a broad societal consensus, given the urgency of ambitious climate action, some members of the Coal Commission have criticized the plan as not ambitious enough to deliver on Germany's climate policy targets.
D. Opposition to a phase-out of coal is also likely to be fuelled by the economic actors that have to bear parts of the costs, such as utilities whose business models depend on coal, and labour unions representing coal workers.
E. In early 2019, this group recommended to phase out coal-fired power generation by 2038, proposing an array of measures to support the coal regions in restructuring their economies.

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Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    As the discussions of the Coal Commission showed, the main question about phasing out coal is not if, but when, the phase-out is going to happen. Hence, the following analyses focus specifically on the question of timing. ...

    Options:
    A. While Fig. 2 indicates that the timeline does indeed have a considerable effect on citizens' preferences, there may be differences between population subgroups.
B. In particular, it has been suggested that party identification structures people's energy policy preferences.
C. Germany's party elites represent opposing views on the coal phase-out, ranging from the Greens' position for an early phase-out to the conservative parties tending to defend the status quo.
D. In the context of the 2017 federal elections, the partisan divide on the topic became highly visible, and the question of tim- ing was one of the reasons why the negotiations for a government coalition of the Christian Democrats, the Liberal Democrats (FDP) and the Green Party failed in November 2017.
E. Figure 3a shows that there is some variation among partisans with regard to the strength of their timing preferences.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Three alternative paradigms govern investments in generation capacity: vertical integration, energy-only markets and installed capacity (ICAP) markets. In traditional vertically integrated systems, investors are guaranteed a rate of return by a regulatory process, which effectively shifts most risk to ratepayers and creates the incentive for excess investment. ...

    Options:
    A. One goal behind deregulation was to encourage a more efficient allocation of this risk.
B. Under the energy-only design, generators earn all their revenue through the sale of energy and ancillary services.
C. Prices rise substantially during times of scarcity, which allows generators to recover their fixed costs.
D. In practice, a lack of price-responsive demand, combined with inconsistencies between the market clearing process and actions taken by opera- tors on the grounds of reliability, hampered the formation of efficient scarcity prices.
E. With the exception of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, wholesale market operators in the United States opted for the third paradigm.

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Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    To illustrate the impact that incomplete markets in risk may have on the capacity mix that arise in equilibrium, we developed two simple test systems. The first features two technologies: a baseload resource with a high capital cost but a low and certain operating cost, and a peaking resource with a low capital cost but a high and uncertain operating cost. ...

    Options:
    A. The second example, developed in the next section, adds a renewable resource with variable availability.
B. In the context of current US markets, these three technologies can be thought of as existing nuclear plants, many of which are considering retirement in the near term, and new gas plants and wind farms, which are being constructed at a rapid rate.
C. With that said, the parameters were chosen to best illustrate the impact of risk trading, rather than to recreate or predict market outcomes.
D. In keeping with US market design principles, the focus is on economic efficiency, with no explicit environmental goals within the market.
E. Support mechanisms for carbon-free generation are assumed to be reflected through the investment and energy costs associated with each technology.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    To illustrate the impact that incomplete markets in risk may have on the capacity mix that arise in equilibrium, we developed two simple test systems. The first features two technologies: a baseload resource with a high capital cost but a low and certain operating cost, and a peaking resource with a low capital cost but a high and uncertain operating cost. ...

    Options:
    A. The second example, developed in the next section, adds a renewable resource with variable availability.
B. In the context of current US markets, these three technologies can be thought of as existing nuclear plants, many of which are con- sidering retirement in the near term, and new gas plants and wind farms, which are being constructed at a rapid rate.
C. With that said, the parameters were chosen to best illustrate the impact of risk trading, rather than to recreate or predict market outcomes.
D. In keeping with US market design principles, the focus is on economic efficiency, with no explicit environmental goals within the market.
E. Support mechanisms for carbon-free generation are assumed to be reflected through the investment and energy costs associated with each technology.

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Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    During the same time, we observe a decline in the general interest rate resulting in lower costs of capital that had a substantial effect on the economic attractiveness of RETs. Finally, we estimate that 41% of total solar PV LCOE reductions and 40% of wind onshore LCOE reductions between 2000-2005 and 2017 were due to lower financing costs. ...

    Options:
    A. These result from three effects: lower capital expenditures (CAPEX) to be financed (strongest effect for solar PV), lower general interest rate (strongest effect for wind onshore), and financing experience.
B. While individual investors know their cost of capital (CoC), typically this information remains unavailable to researchers, especially concerning developments over time.
C. This paper addresses this gap, by analysing the German solar PV and onshore wind power financing market, which has a particularly long investment history.
D. First, using newly compiled project data, we depict the CoC and its components and analyse the changes over 18 years.
E. Second, we use qualitative insights from in-depth interviews with 41 invest- ment professionals to identify the drivers of the observed changes in financing conditions.

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Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    The cost of debt of a RET project can be decomposed into two elements covering the baseline country risk and project specific risk40. Figure 5 shows the yields of a 10-year German government bond (the best proxy for baseline country risk) and the estimated debt margins (the best proxy for project specific risk). ...

    Options:
    A. While the bond yields are driven by monetary policy and exogenous to renewable energy deployment, the debt margins reflect dynamics related to experience with deployment and financing of RET.
B. First, the change in debt margins seems small compared with government bond yields but is economically substantial.
C. While government bond yields decreased by 5 percentage points, debt margins have declined by 1.5 percentage points for solar PV projects and 1 percentage point for wind onshore projects between 2000 and 2017.
D. For comparison, this experience-driven decrease corresponds to a change in the corporate ratings of a financial service firm from B+ to AAA for solar PV or from BBB to AAA for wind onshore.
E. Second, Fig. 5 reveals different dynamics between the two technologies.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    For policymakers, our findings stress the importance of policies that are conducive to favourable financing conditions for RETs. First, our results suggest an important co-benefit of deployment policies: the acceleration of technological change by allowing the finance industry to experiment and learn. ...

    Options:
    A. RET investments are long-term, and the finance industry typically struggles to assess long-term risks of new technologies without a track record.
B. The three effects differ in importance between the two studied technologies.
C. The large reduction in solar PV CAPEX during the period of our study led to lower financing costs, which contributed roughly one-third (36%) of LCOE reductions.
D. Conversely, onshore wind CAPEX stayed relatively constant, increasing the relative importance of the general interest rate effect, which contributed one-fifth (20%) of LCOE reductions.
E. Thus, the channels through which financing costs contribute to lowering LCOEs vary according to the relative reductions in CAPEX.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Early studies were subject to several methodological issues that compromised the internal and external validity of the results, overestimating the savings potential of these feedback interventions. For instance, a meta-analysis of 156 field trials on energy conservation found substantially smaller savings effects of 1.99% for high-quality studies with adequate controls, compared to studies without such controls (9.57%). ...

    Options:
    A. Likewise, a meta-analysis of 33 field trials on in-home displays found weighted mean conservation effects of 2.61% for high-quality ('class A') studies using representa- tive sampling techniques, compared to 8.21% for 'class C' studies characterized by small samples of volunteers and a high degree of involvement from study administrators8.
B. Although randomized controlled trials eliminate most threats to the internal validity of studies, the external validity of the results may still be compromised if the people who choose to participate in a study differ from the study's intended population.
C. The vast majority of feedback programmes on energy consumption use opt-in recruitment strategies, where participants actively register to take part in those programmes.
D. As digitization advances, it becomes increasingly feasible to monitor the energy consumption of households, specific appliances or activities in real time.
E. As a result, digitally enabled behavioural interventions can be deployed at population scale and become more powerful through personalization and context specificity.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    To get an understanding of the effects of the six hotels with their different infrastructure and setting, we also computed a fixed effects model with dummy variables for the individual hotels. The results are presented in Table 4 and show that the treatment effect is highly significant, albeit slightly smaller than in models (1)-(3). ...

    Options:
    A. Only in hotel 5, the energy use per shower differs significantly from the other hotels, which may be due to different infrastructure (for example, more low-flow shower heads) or guest characteristics.
B. Furthermore, we conducted a cost-benefit analysis for installing the metering device in the hotels' showers based on the treatment effect estimated in model (1).
C. We assumed a retail price of 40 CHF for the smart shower meter and fuel cost for water heating of 0.128 CHF kWh-1 and water cost of 3.8 CHF m-3, as in Tiefenbeck et al..
D. As digitization advances, it becomes increasingly feasible to monitor the energy consumption of households, specific appliances or activities in real time.
E. If we extrapolate from the treatment effect of 0.21kWh and 3.56l per shower and assume on average 1.2 showers per day per room, as observed during the period of our study, this results in an amortiza- tion time of 2.2 years.

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Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Here, we provide robust empirical evidence that activity-specific real-time feedback can induce substantial behaviour change and resource conservation—even for a sample of individuals who neither volunteered to participate in an environmental study, nor reaped financial benefits from energy conservation. Given the debate on volunteer self-selection7 and the dwindling treatment effects of other feedback interventions once they are deployed among broader samples, this empirical validation is critical to provide solid recommendations for the design of future energy conservation programmes. ...

    Options:
    A. Information technology increasingly makes it possible to monitor behaviour in real time, to provide individuals with feedback on their ongoing activities and to collect granular data on the real-world impact of interventions from millions of individuals in the field4 at rapidly declining costs.
B. Furthermore, we conducted a cost-benefit analysis for installing the metering device in the hotels' showers based on the treatment effect estimated in model (1).
C. Despite our best efforts, there are limitations to our study.
D. Although we diversified our sample by including different types of hotel, with different comfort categories, room rates and primary target customers (business versus tourism), and in different locations, additional studies in other settings and other countries would be valuable.
E. Furthermore, despite our efforts to limit differences in potential Hawthorne effects by displaying real-time water temperature on the control-group devices, it is conceivable that the treatment with real-time feedback on resource consumption draws more attention to the fact that the smart shower meter measures data than does real-time information on water temperature, conveying a stronger feeling of being monitored among its users.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    The costs of electricity networks are mainly determined by their capacity, the maximum amount of energy that the grid is dimensioned to stand at any given point in time. Despite this, volumetric tariffs, which do not directly reflect the nature of these costs, are still widely applied. ...

    Options:
    A. In the past, when load profiles of residential users were approximately homothetic, the application of tariffs with a dominant volumetric charge was well justified.
B. As power grids are considered natural monopolies, the distribution of these costs between consumers is not achieved autonomously through market forces.
C. In many modern economies, defining the cost shares for providing transmission and distribution of electricity between the consumers is assigned to an authorized entity, for which most European Union nations have established a dedicated regulatory authority since the electricity market liberalization in 2003.
D. Commonly used and currently discussed network tariffs represent a combination of volumetric energy charges (charging customers for the amount of consumed electricity; € per kWh), fixed charges per customer (independent of their energy consumption but possibly varying over households based on their contracted capacity, but not relying on actual load measurements; € per household per year) and peak-demand charges (based on the actual measured capacity; € per kW peak load).
E. The costs of electricity networks are mainly determined by their capacity, the maximum amount of energy that the grid is dimensioned to stand at any given point in time.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Household-level data was gathered in two surveys among residential electricity customers, conducted between April 2010 and March 2011 in the region of Upper Austria, Austria. In the first survey, we contacted more than 10,000 households via mail and asked them to allow us to collect their 15-minute electricity load profiles. ...

    Options:
    A. We recruited 973 households for participation, all of which gave their distribution grid operator written permission to send us the households' individual 15-minute electricity load profiles measured by smart meter, for the full period of our survey.
B. In the second survey, the same households were offered €10 if they provided us with additional information about their socio-economic characteristics (income and composition of the household) and further information about their electric appliances.
C. In many modern economies, defining the cost shares for providing transmission and distribution of electricity between the consumers is assigned to an authorized entity, for which most European Union nations have established a dedicated regulatory authority since the electricity market liberalization in 2003.
D. The final dataset includes 765 observations (which we refer to as 'full sample'), for 406 of which we have additional information about the household's income (henceforth called 'subsample').
E. Details are provided in Supplementary Note 1 as well as Supplementary Tables 1 and 2.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Even when the households marked by open and filled triangles are considered as outliers in our sample, these cases are still observed in a relatively small sample of 765 households, suggesting that a relevant number of households may face significant additional burdens when/if household peak-load-based charges are introduced. We check how many households in the sample also tend to have increasing costs under some of the scenarios while experience cost savings in others. ...

    Options:
    A. We find that 321 households face lower costs in scenario e100 and higher costs in scenario pa100, which means that nearly 40% of the households consume relatively mod- erate volumes of energy in total, but at the same time frequently produce significant peak loads.
B. This example demonstrates that a different weighting of the volumetric, peak and fixed components can have strongly diametrical effects on the network expenditures of individual households.
C. When neglecting peak demand and applying scenario e100, which is determined by the volume of consumed energy only, the opposite effect occurs and these households would actually pay around 10% less than in the reference scenario.
D. The final dataset includes 765 observations (which we refer to as 'full sample'), for 406 of which we have additional information about the household’s income (henceforth called 'subsample').
E. While we do not think that this result shall prevent the application of such innovative network tariffs, before their introduction a careful impact assessment appears necessary, which may be followed by mechanisms balancing hardship cases during the transition period.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    The recent trend in solar electricity prices has been much more aggressive than that of hardware prices due to a number of factors. One part of the answer is better exploitation of the solar resource— the world's sunniest areas are increasingly being developed as PV projects become less dependent on state subsidies. ...

    Options:
    A. Other plant optimizations to maximize energy yield have become widely adopted, including single-axis tracking and high inverter-loading ratios (d.c. array capacity to a.c. inverter capacity) of ~1.3 for both tracking and non-tracking systems.
B. Even in this context of rapid pricing declines, the arrival of the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia soon afterwards, as leaders in cheap solar electricity surprised observers with the sheer scale of the price decrease in a region with little historical interest in renewable energy.
C. A closer look at the details of these projects begins to reveal the interplay of global and local conditions that lead to the observed prices.
D. The projects appear to have realized large reduc- tions in both capital and operating expenses by leveraging on a number of factors.
E. These implementations, coupled with falling hardware prices and tax incentives, were credited with bringing the levelized cost of solar electricity in sunny regions of the United States to around 5¢ kWh-1 in 201518.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Since in this analysis we are actually looking backwards to projections that were made in 2016, we consider what the project's hardware cost would be, assuming that the developers guessed future pricing trends more or less correctly. At the time of the current writing, both the Dubai and Abu Dhabi projects are in the middle of their construction timeline, with hardware procurement underway. ...

    Options:
    A. Therefore, we use current prices as a reasonable proxy for the average cost of hardware for the systems.
B. The CapEx includes a profit margin for the project developer, while the construction contractor's profit is implicitly included in the contractor markup.
C. The LCOE represents the cost to the project developer of building and operating the system, and of satisfying the debt and equity financers of the project with their required returns, and hence represents a minimum sustainable price for the sale of electricity.
D. The projects appear to have realized large reductions in both capital and operating expenses by leveraging on a number of factors.
E. The baseline assumptions are listed in the first column of Table 2.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Financial parameters are based on the public reports summarized in Table 1 and include a debt fraction of 80% and an interest rate of 3.5%, with a return on equity of 10%. Some observers have speculated that money was essentially given out for free to the project developers, to achieve headline-grabbing pricing milestones. ...

    Options:
    A. Our analysis shows that such extreme assumptions are not necessary to achieve the reported prices under today's conditions.
B. While the baseline includes a 5% sales tax on hardware, the lowcost model removes this in keeping with the tax-free conditions of the United Arab Emirates at the time these bids were offered.
C. The 2018 introduction of a 5% value-added tax may add this cost component back in future projects.
D. The LCOE model does not include income taxes, which often will primarily be felt (due to the narrow profit margins of these projects) through the effective reduction of the cost of debt, in countries where debt interest payments are tax-deductible.
E. Hence, the net impact of income taxes is often to reduce the effective cost of the project.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    To better measure government policy reforms, we adopt a novel approach. Like other scholars, we focus on consumer subsidies for gasoline, which can be calculated using the widely accepted price gap method. ...

    Options:
    A. We begin by calculating the average implicit gasoline tax or subsidy for all countries from 2003 to 2015, using the Ross-Hazlett Mahdavi dataset.
B. We then take as our sample those countries that, on average, were net subsidizers during this 13-year period.
C. These 21 countries account for 97% of all gasoline subsidies in the 2003-2015 period.
D. They constitute a 'most likely' sample: if progress has been made since 2016 in subsidy reform, we are most likely to find substantial reforms in these 21 countries.
E. Although they are all fossil fuel exporters, they vary widely in economic and social development.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    We refer to increases in the fixed price as price reforms and shifts from fixed to floating prices as fixity reforms. Because earlier studies suggest that many reforms are transitory, we measure both the initiation of reforms and their duration. ...

    Options:
    A. To measure changes, we compare the frequency and duration of reforms from the January 2000 to December 2015 period, leading up to the 2015 Paris conference, with the January 2016 to December 2023 period following the end of the conference.
B. While the final text of the Paris Agreement did not mention subsidy reform, the December 2015 conference was a landmark in the global effort to promote climate policies and provides a useful cut point for our analysis.
C. Our core results are similar if we use December 2014 instead.
D. They are also unchanged if we drop any country in our sample.
E. From 2000 to 2015, the countries in our sample collectively initiated an average of 0.24 price reforms per country year.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    The advantages of fixity reforms are self-evident: floating prices are not automatically eroded by inflation, currency depreciation or global oil shocks. In theory, fixity reforms should be more durable than price reforms. ...

    Options:
    A.  In practice, governments found it politically difficult to allow prices to float, especially when world oil prices rose too far.
B. Over the full 2000-2023 period, 80% of all reforms were price reforms and 20% were fixity reforms.
C. From 2000 to 2015, we found an average of just 0.024 new fixity reforms per country year.
D. From 2016 to 2023, however, they occurred at a rate of 0.13 new reforms per country year, a fivefold increase.
E. This ratio changed over time.

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Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Today, oceans are on the front line of new planned climate actions. These interventions are novel both in their deployment of new and often untested technologies (for example, genomics, altering ocean biogeochemistry, rights-based frameworks) and in new oceanic, climatic and social conditions. ...

    Options:
    A. In pursuing climate mitigation, the ocean is now a frontier for both clean energy creation (for example, offshore wind energy) and carbon removal (for example, ocean alkalinity enhancement) required to meet the Paris Agreement.
B. However, systematic and comparative understanding of marine-climate intervention development and deployment remains critically low.
C. In particular, there has been limited empirical investigation of the 'pacing problem' whereby innovation outpaces governance preparedness to anticipate and responsibly manage risk across the range of novel marine-climate interventions currently active or under consideration.
D. Governance preparedness involves public and private institutions and actors engaged in processes of responsible rule, steerage and guidance.
E. Any lag in the responsiveness of governance regimes is problematic because the rapid emergence and planned upscaling of novel marine-climate interventions29 presents an array of risks for marine ecosystems and coastal societies and rightsholders at local, regional and climate system and climate policy scales.

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Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Climate goals pursued through marine intervention included both mitigation and adaption, alongside non-climate goals (that is, bio- diversity protection). The most stated climate goal was to increase the biophysical adaptation or resilience of local marine ecosystems to climate-driven changes (57% of interventions, n = 211). ...

    Options:
    A. This climate goal was being pursued across all five intervention types, most commonly through coastal and marine restoration (for example, kelp forest and seagrass bed restoration), followed by marine bioengineering (for example, assisted evolution of coral).
B. Notably, biophysical adaptation and resilience was also being pursued through marine socio-institutional capacity building (for example, development of climate-adaptive fisheries management regimes).
C. In particular, there has been limited empirical investigation of the 'pacing problem' whereby innovation outpaces governance preparedness to anticipate and responsibly manage risk across the range of novel marine-climate interventions currently active or under consideration.
D. In terms of development, the majority of interventions identified were at pilot or full implementation stage (46% and 38%, respec- tively, n = 207 interventions) while 16% were at concept stage.
E. Development was most progressed for marine bioengineering and coastal and marine restoration interventions.

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Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    An open question in marine-climate research is what the proposed upscaling of novel marine-climate interventions means for climate action and long-term well-being of marine systems and marine-dependent people. Most governance arrangements in place are limited to formal risk assessments and regulatory and permitting processes based on retrospective understandings and technologies operating under high levels of uncertainty. ...

    Options:
    A. The observed low level of governance preparedness to responsibly govern the risks posed by novel and experimental marine-climate interventions indicates that the pacing problem is indeed present.
B. Responsible governance regimes are needed to avoid risks of maladaptation and the potentially high opportunity cost of marine-climate interventions.
C. Fortunately, gaps in responsible governance constitute a resolvable problem where public-interest actors have principles to guide them and, increasingly, the operational arrangements and practices to mandate and use.
D. Our analysis of practitioner observations highlights multiple reasons for and opportunities to address this gap.
E. Development was most progressed for marine bioengineering and coastal and marine restoration interventions.

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Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    To meet its dual carbon targets, China needs to implement these policies in tandem8. On the basis of the portfolios of mitigation poli- cies, China is projected to successfully achieve its dual carbon targets, with cumulative gross domestic product (GDP) losses of ~1.7-5.7%. ...

    Options:
    A. However, simply aggregating the (seemingly ideal) effects of multiple policies does not accurately reflect the actual policy outcome, as the trade-offs and synergies between policies can weaken or strengthen their effects.
B. Combining and sequencing policy implementation can largely impact the efficiency, stringency and externality of mitigation policies.
C. Nevertheless, most studies on achieving China's dual carbon targets have focused on the effectiveness and economic costs of mitigation policies, while the interactions between mitigation policies and their impacts on attaining China's carbon neutrality have been overlooked.
D. To ensure that the 1.5°C target of the Paris Agreement is met, effec- tive climate policies must be implemented at the national level.
E. As the largest CO2 emitter and the second-largest economy in the world, China has achieved its goal of a 45% reduction in carbon intensity relative to 2005 levels in 2020.

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Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    The ISSA results suggest that the most effective policy combinations for achieving the carbon neutrality target are dominated by the highest levels of A and E, or C and E, with an average attainment of carbon neutrality of 2053-2054. However, the most effective policy combination under ASIA is that of R and E, with an average timeline of reaching carbon neutrality by 2059. ...

    Options:
    A. The electrification of end uses is a key factor for attaining carbon neutrality, as the most potent portfolios must contain E policies under both AISA and ISSA.
B. Furthermore, in terms of the timeline for achieving carbon neutrality, all scenarios under ASIA are projected to achieve the target later than those under ISSA.
C. Nevertheless, most studies on achieving China's dual carbon targets have focused on the effectiveness and economic costs of mitigation policies, while the interactions between mitigation policies and their impacts on attaining China's carbon neutrality have been overlooked.
D. The average economic costs under ISSA and ASIA differ considerably.
E. As the largest CO2 emitter and the second-largest economy in the world, China has achieved its goal of a 45% reduction in carbon intensity relative to 2005 levels in 2020.

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Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Energy storage addresses the intermittency of renewable energy and grid load shortages, promoting renewable energy penetration and distributed grids. Compared with the baseline scenario, energy storage can increase emission reductions at a cost to the economy. ...

    Options:
    A. Documents from the Chinese government outline goals for energy storage technology, with new energy storage technologies fully market-oriented by 2030.
B. However, China's financial and tax support for energy storage is still in the developmental stage and is mainly advisory, lacking comprehensive and long-term incentives, in contrast to the situation in developed countries such as the United States and Germany.
C. Additionally, the levelized cost in China among various types of storage facilities ranges from 0.12 to 0.27 US$ kWh-1. Among them, lithiumion batteries have relatively low costs, while hydrogen energy storage tends to be more expensive.
D. Thus, differentiated subsidy policies should be considered on the basis of the type of technology and the application scenario of storage energy facilities.
E. As the largest CO2 emitter and the second-largest economy in the world, China has achieved its goal of a 45% reduction in carbon intensity relative to 2005 levels in 2020.

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Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Mitigating climate change and coping with population aging are both critical goals for China in achieving sustainable development1,2. As the world's largest carbon emitter, China aims to have a carbon emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. ...

    Options:
    A. Currently, China is turning towards more sustainable development, with the deceleration of China's annual carbon emissions growth from 10% (2000=2010) to 2% (2010=2020).
B. In addition, China is one of the most populous countries in the world, with a population that is nearing its peak and aging rapidly.
C. In 2020, China's total fertility rate was only 1.3 births per woman, which is far below the replacement level (2.1) needed for a stable population.
D. At the same time, China is aging rapidly, with the proportion aged 65 years and above doubling from 7% in 2000 to 14% in 2020.
E. It is projected that China's population will peak at 1.45 billion in 2029 (with a range of 1.42 to 1.48 billion from 2025 to 2035), after which contraction is expected.

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Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    After examining the expenditure categories in greater detail, it is evident that the top two contributors to the average carbon footprint of all age groups are consumption related to residence and that related to transport. There are some meaningful differences across age groups not only absolutely but also proportionally, representing their differences in lifestyle choices and life stage. ...

    Options:
    A. For residence, the young people have the highest carbon footprint (1.08 tCO2 per capita in 2017) and contribute to the largest share of total residence-related footprint (46%), the majority of which is from renting or purchasing a house and using electronic devices; the older people have the highest proportional share of residence-related carbon footprint (41%) as they might be accustomed to using traditional energy-intensive devices for heating and cooking (such as Kang and stove) and spend much of their time at home (and thus have large household energy consumption).
B. For transport, the young people's transport-related footprint is the highest both absolutely (accounting for 50% of the total transport-related footprint by all groups) and proportionally (accounting for 25% of their own total footprint), largely from com- muting to work and from a few big trips each year (for example, from their workplace to their hometown).
C. Moreover, the absolute and pro- portional per capita carbon footprints related to clothing, goods and transport have decreased gradually with age; however, health-related carbon footprint has increased with age, as has education-related carbon footprint until the individual is in their 30s to 40s, after which it decreases.
D. The higher the index value is, the greater the inequality in terms of the distribution between age groups.
E. We further explore how unevenly the per capita carbon footprint is distributed among different age groups using the Theil index.

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Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    To evaluate the impacts of fertility and retirement policies on China's household carbon footprints, we first estimate the population of China and its 31 provinces up to 2060 by age (0-100+) and sex (male and female) under different fertility policies: previous two-child policy, the latest three-child policy and the assumed 'replacement-level' policy (with fertility rate reaching the replacement level of 2.1). Then we explore the potential effect of these fertility policies and their combination with retirement delay policies on the household carbon footprints. ...

    Options:
    A. We use retirement age as the threshold to classify older people and assume that such a retirement delay policy affects only the population age structure.
B. We find that the preceding two kinds of policies will both pose a challenge to carbon emissions mitigation.
C. As for fertility policies, they affect the population mainly in terms of size and structure, and thus affect the carbon footprints.
D. From 2017 to 2060, the total population will decrease from 1.40 billion to 1.15 billion (two-child policy), 1.30 billion (three-child policy) and 1.39 (replacement-level policy), which means the population differences are 12-20% under different policies.
E. The mean population age of a person will increase from 38 years to 51 years (two-child policy), 47 years (three-child policy) and 45 years (replacement-level policy), thus, the proportion of older people will increase from 17% to 42% (two-child policy), 37% (three-child policy) and 35% (replacement-level policy).

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Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    In the United States, state and local governments are primarily responsible for land-use and zoning decisions, but federal policies also play important roles in shaping development. Federal investments in roads, utilities and other infrastructure lay the groundwork for population growth. ...

    Options:
    A. Other government programmes, such as the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which offers flood insurance at sub- sidized rates in most locations, and disaster assistance programmes, which provide funding for disaster recovery, also affect location decisions.
B. By partially shifting disaster costs from property owners to the government, these programmes reduce the financial disincentives to development in risky areas.
C. Whether withdrawing some of these financial incentives would curb development, lower the costs of disasters and help communities prepare for climate change is unclear.
D. Many factors affect development decisions and federal incentives are only some of the factors at play.
E. Limiting exposure to climate risks is an important aspect of adaptation to climate change, particularly in coastal areas.

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Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    We develop an alternative method for estimating the causal effects of CBRS designations. We construct a control group to compare with the CBRS treatment group using a spatial machine learning technique known as regionalization in combination with a synthetic controls research design. ...

    Options:
    A. This procedure allows us to mimic the process by which natural resource planners determined CBRS boundaries based on geomorphic and development features, thus identifying a set of coastal areas that could have been selected for CBRS designation in 1982 but were not.
B. To illustrate our approach, we show one example of a CBRS treatment area and constructed control area, overlaid with parcel-level data on the value of properties.
C. Our analysis addresses several open questions about land-based climate adaptation.
D. First, it has long been suggested that federal incentives play a role in encouraging development in risky areas, yet quantitative research on this question is limited.
E. We evaluate whether the removal of these incentives on coastal lands has been a cost-effective adaptation strategy.

Answer with the letter (A-E) corresponding to the best continuation. **Strictly follow this format—do not include any explanations or additional text.**

Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    We estimate the impact of CBRS designation on nearby areas as a function of distance to the unit boundary. We find that removing federal subsidies causes denser development, higher property sales prices and higher assessed values per acre in neighbouring areas. ...

    Options:
    A. The effect on development densities is increasing in distance from the unit.
B. Within 1,000 m of CBRS units, we estimate an additional 0.03, or 4% more, buildings per acre.
C. Between 1,000m and 2,000m, the effect size increases to 0.15 (+20%) and 0.19 (+47%) buildings per acre.
D. In contrast, average sales prices and assessed values per acre are highest closer to the CBRS units and decline with distance.
E. Properties in the 0-500 m band, for example, sell at a US$377,000 premium, or 77% more than in control areas.

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Answer: A


Question:
You are given the start of a paragraph from a scientific research paper, ending in "...". Choose the most coherent continuation from the options below.

    Query:
    Tracking adaptation implementation and effectiveness is needed to enhance financial and technical support for climate action and mitigate risks of maladaptation4. The Paris Agreement established the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), aiming to enhance resilience, increase adaptative capacity and reduce vulnerability to climate change. ...

    Options:
    A. It also introduced the Global Stocktake (GST) to assess progress towards these objectives.
B. The Glasgow-Sharm el-Sheikh work programme (2022-2023) developed the GGA framework.
C. The first GST2, syntheses of adaptation science and government reports highlight limited evidence and ability to document adaptation progress and called for continued development of methods to track progress.
D. Capitalizing on this momentum and on the substantial work on adaptation tracking principles and frameworks, the UAE-Belém Work Program, established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2023, seeks to define indicators for assessing the GGA and the targets agreed upon in the framework.
E. Countries use various instruments to report planned adaptation targets, actions and support needed to the UNFCCC.

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Answer: A