Procurement of low carbon municipal solid waste infrastructure in India through public-private partnerships

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 449-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tharun Dolla ◽  
Boeing Singh Laishram

Purpose The Low carbon (LC) agenda has captured interest across governments and research communities. But such focus is not addressed so far in the operation of municipal solid waste (MSW) infrastructure in India. The purpose of this paper is to draw focus on the promotion of low carbon infrastructure by improving the procurement process of the public–private partnership (PPP) approach. Design/methodology/approach The current study employed a case study methodology. This paper develops and validates a “five-fold framework,” comprising of selection, financial, operational, standards and targets measures, for integrating LC principles in the procurement of infrastructure projects. Findings The public sector fails to understand the importance of the need to incorporate climate change mitigation strategies due to poor procurement competencies. With respect to the operationalization of the framework, funding of viability gap in operations instead of construction, allowing renegotiation clauses to cater possible future LC technological improvements and incorporating emission reduction targets at the local and national levels were highlighted. Research limitations/implications LC principles presented in this paper are not exhaustive and are verified using a single Indian PPP case. Future research endeavor can focus on the relevancy and operationalization of these principles using a more elaborate set of indicators and extend the study to other sectors and countries. Originality/value This paper seeks to act as guidelines for governments on how to create and improve LC MSW PPP infrastructure projects to facilitate simultaneous achievement of both climate change mitigation and infrastructure delivery goals. The current study could add value to the current emphasis on LC transitions by policymakers, government agencies and regulators.

Author(s):  
John Tzilivakis ◽  
Kathleen Lewis ◽  
Andrew Green ◽  
Douglas Warner

Purpose – In order to achieve reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, it is essential that all industry sectors have the appropriate knowledge and tools to contribute. This includes agriculture, which is considered to contribute about a third of emissions globally. This paper reports on one such tool: IMPACCT: Integrated Management oPtions for Agricultural Climate Change miTigation. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – IMPACCT focuses on GHGs, carbon sequestration and associated mitigation options. However, it also attempts to include information on economic and other environmental impacts in order to provide a more holistic perspective. The model identifies mitigation options, likely economic impacts and any synergies and trade-offs with other environmental objectives. The model has been applied on 22 case study farms in seven Member States. Findings – The tool presents some useful concepts for developing carbon calculators in the future. It has highlighted that calculators need to evolve from simply calculating emissions to identifying cost-effective and integrated emissions reduction options. Practical implications – IMPACCT has potential to become an effective means of provided targeted guidance, as part of a broader knowledge transfer programme based on an integrated suite of guidance, tools and advice delivered via different media. Originality/value – IMPACCT is a new model that demonstrates how to take a more integrated approach to mitigating GHGs on farms across Europe. It is a holistic carbon calculator that presents mitigation options in the context other environmental and economic objectives in the search for more sustainable methods of food production.


Futures ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 93 ◽  
pp. 14-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandra Elizondo ◽  
Vanessa Pérez-Cirera ◽  
Alexandre Strapasson ◽  
José Carlos Fernández ◽  
Diego Cruz-Cano

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 587-603 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuomas Ylä-Anttila ◽  
Juho Vesa ◽  
Veikko Eranti ◽  
Anna Kukkonen ◽  
Tomi Lehtimäki ◽  
...  

Building on theories of valuation and evaluation, we develop an analytical framework that outlines six elements of the process of consolidation of an idea in the public sphere. We then use the framework to analyse the process of consolidation of the idea of climate change mitigation between 1997 and 2013, focusing on the interplay between ecological and economic evaluations. Our content analysis of 1274 articles in leading newspapers in five countries around the globe shows that (1) ecological arguments increase over time, (2) economic arguments decrease over time, (3) the visibility of environmental nongovernmental organizations as carriers of ecological ideas increases over time, (4) the visibility of business actors correspondingly decreases, (5) ecological ideas are increasingly adopted by political and business elites and (6) a compromise emerges between ecological and economic evaluations, in the form of the argument that climate change mitigation boosts, rather than hinders economic growth.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-58
Author(s):  
Didem Gunes Yilmaz ◽  

Paris Agreement of December 2015 was the last official initiative led by the United Nations (UN) as the driver of climate change mitigation. Climate change was hence linked with an increase in the occurrence of natural hazards. A variety of initiatives were consequently adopted under different themes such as sustainable cities, climate-friendly development and low-carbon cities. However, most of the initiatives targeted by global cities with urban areas being the focus in terms of taking action against global warming issues. This is due to the structural and environmental features of cities characterized by being populated, as such, they not only generate a large number of carbon emissions but also happens to be the biggest consumer of natural resources. In turn, they create a microclimate, which contributes to climate change. Masdar City, for example, was designed as the first fully sustainable urban area, which replaced fuel-based energy with the electric-based energy. China, as another example, introduced the Sponge Cities action, a method of urban water management to mitigate against flooding. Consequently, architects and urban planners are urged to conform to the proposals that would mitigate global warming. This paper, as a result, examines some of the models that have been internationally adopted and thereafter provide the recommendations that can be implemented in large urban areas in Turkey, primarily in Istanbul.


Kybernetes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob A. Miller

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explain the US society’s insignificant mitigation of climate change using Niklas Luhmann’s (1989) autopoietic social systems theory in ecological communication. Specifically, the author’s analysis falls within the context of Luhmann re-moralized while focusing on particular function systems’ binary codes and their repellence of substantive US climate change mitigation policy across systems. Design/methodology/approach The author achieves this purpose by resituating Luhmann’s conception of evolution to forgo systems teleology and better contextualize the spatial-temporal scale of climate change; reinforcing complexity reduction and differentiation by integrating communication and media scholar John D. Peters’s (1999) “communication chasm” concept as one mechanism through which codes sustain over time; and applying these integrated concepts to prominent the US climate change mitigation attempts. Findings The author concludes that climate change mitigation efforts are the amalgamation of the systems’ moral communications. Mitigation efforts have relegated themselves to subsystems of the ten major systems given the polarizing nature of their predominant care/harm moral binary. Communication chasms persist because these moral communications cannot both adhere to the systems’ binary codes and communicate the climate crisis’s urgency. The more time that passes, the more codes force mitigation organizations, activist efforts and their moral communications to adapt and sacrifice their actions to align with the encircling systems’ code. Social implications In addition to the conceptual contribution, the social implication is that by identifying how and why climate change mitigation efforts are subsumed by the larger systems and their codes, climate change activists and practitioners can better tool their tactics to change the codes at the heart of the systems if serious and substantive climate change mitigation is to prevail. Originality/value To the author’s knowledge, there has not been an integration of a historical communication concept into, and sociological application of, ecological communication in the context of climate change mitigation.


Author(s):  
Basanta K. Pradhan ◽  
Joydeep Ghosh

This paper compares the effects of a global carbon tax and a global emissions trading regime on India using a dynamic CGE framework. The sensitivity of the results to the value of a crucial elasticity parameter is also analysed. The results suggest that the choice of the mitigation policy is relatively unimportant from an efficiency perspective. However, the choice of the mitigation policy and the value of the substitution elasticity between value added and energy were found to be important determinants of welfare effects. Global climate change mitigation policies have the potential for promoting low carbon and inclusive growth in India.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 2715 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Padilla-Rivera ◽  
Ben Amor ◽  
Pierre Blanchet

The design and study of low carbon buildings is a major concern in a modern economy due to high carbon emissions produced by buildings and its effects on climate change. Studies have investigated (CFP) Carbon Footprint of buildings, but there remains a need for a strong analysis that measure and quantify the overall degree of GHG emissions reductions and its relationship with the effect on climate change mitigation. This study evaluates the potential of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the building sector by evaluating the (CFP) of four hotpots approaches defined in line with commonly carbon reduction strategies, also known as mitigation strategies. CFP framework is applied to compare the (CC) climate change impact of mitigation strategies. A multi-story timber residential construction in Quebec City (Canada) was chosen as a baseline scenario. This building has been designed with the idea of being a reference of sustainable development application in the building sector. In this scenario, the production of materials and construction (assembly, waste management and transportation) were evaluated. A CFP that covers eight actions divided in four low carbon strategies, including: low carbon materials, material minimization, reuse and recycle materials and adoption of local sources and use of biofuels were evaluated. The results of this study shows that the used of prefabricated technique in buildings is an alternative to reduce the CFP of buildings in the context of Quebec. The CC decreases per m2 floor area in baseline scenario is up to 25% than current buildings. If the benefits of low carbon strategies are included, the timber structures can generate 38% lower CC than the original baseline scenario. The investigation recommends that CO2eq emissions reduction in the design and implementation of residential constructions as climate change mitigation is perfectly feasible by following different working strategies. It is concluded that if the four strategies were implemented in current buildings they would have environmental benefits by reducing its CFP. The reuse wood wastes into production of particleboard has the greatest environmental benefit due to temporary carbon storage.


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