Low-carbon future opens opportunities for water sector

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Neville Tawona
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Capture ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Carbon Capture And Storage ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Low Carbon Economy ◽  
Low Emission

The list of countries that have committed to net-zero emissions by 2050 is growing. All Australian states and territories have committed to this target. It has prompted businesses in both the public and private sectors to begin developing and investing in strategies that contribute to a low carbon future. The global climate policy instruments, particularly the Paris Agreement, provides the legal framework for countries to plan and deliver on their commitments to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. While the traditional energy sources (coal, gas, oil, solar and wind) will continue to play an important role in Australia’s future, the transition to a low carbon economy will require a diverse mix of other transformational low emission technologies. Energy-from-waste technologies like direct combustion, gasification and anaerobic digestion will play a major role in the waste management sector to support state and national resource recovery goals including the transition to a circular economy. Renewable gas and hydrogen production, as well as carbon capture and storage will complement current efforts to decarbonise the industrial, transport, domestic and energy sectors. This paper presents an overview of the policies relating to climate change and emissions reduction strategies in Australia, as well as a review of low emission technologies and investment opportunities for the water and waste sectors.

scholarly journals Financing climate change mitigation in agriculture: assessment of investment cases

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arun Khatri-Chhetri ◽  
Tek B Sapkota ◽  
Bojern O Sander ◽  
Jacobo Arango ◽  
Katherine Nelson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Private Sector ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Climate Finance ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Private Sector Investment ◽  
Low Emission ◽  
Rich Information

Abstract As with other sectors of the economy, agriculture should also contribute to meeting countries’ emission reduction targets. Transformation of agriculture to low-carbon food systems requires much larger investments in low emission development options from global climate finance, domestic budgets, and the private sector. Innovative financing mechanisms and instruments that integrate climate finance, agriculture development budgets, and private sector investment can improve and increase farmers' and other value chain actors’ access to finance while delivering environmental, economic, and social benefits. Investment cases assessed in this study provide rich information to design and implement mitigation options in agriculture through unlocking additional sources of public and private capital, strengthening the links between financial institutions, farmers, and agribusiness, and coordination of actions across multiple stakeholders. These investment cases expand support for existing agricultural best practices, integrate forestry and agricultural actions to avoid land-use change, and support the transition to market-based solutions.

What comes next: responding to recommendations from the task force on climate-related financial disclosures (TCFD)

2018 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiva Tyagi
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Capture ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Task Force ◽  
Carbon Capture And Storage ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Gas Industry ◽  
Low Carbon Economy

The task force on climate-related financial disclosures (TCFD) published its recommendations for disclosing climate-related risks in June 2017. The TCFD report represents a framework for companies to disclose climate-related information consistently in their mainstream financial filings. Reporting financial activity using the lens of climate-related risk would, according to the TCFD, help more appropriately price risks and allocate capital in the context of climate change. The initiative, while voluntary, would help speed the transition to a low-carbon economy, and help shift the corporate perspective beyond immediate concerns. The oil and gas industry can play a leading role in the transition to a low carbon economy through: carbon capture and storage, use of natural gas as a transition fuel and the implementation of large-scale renewable energy projects. Given the oil and gas industry’s global leadership in petroleum geology, resource extraction and pipeline transmission, the industry has a vital role in testing the feasibility of large-scale carbon capture and storage. Fossil fuels and renewable energy technologies have obvious complementary synergies and fossil fuels like natural gas are necessary for the reliable, affordable and low-cost transition to a low carbon transition pathway. The oil and gas industry may be the only sector with the requisite expertise and global scale of operations to test and implement large-scale renewable technology initiatives within a public-private partnership framework. Moreover, oil and gas companies are well positioned to be leaders in the effort to adapt and strengthen resilience to the effects and risks of climate change and reduce impacts.

Can biomass supply meet the demands of BECCS?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Jones
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Carbon Capture ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Carbon Capture And Storage ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Bioenergy Crops ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Carbon Efficiency ◽  
Negative Emissions

<p>In order to reach the reduced carbon emission targets proposed by the Paris agreement one of the widely proposed decarbonizing strategies, referred to as negative emissions technologies (NETs), is the production and combustion of second-generation bioenergy crops in conjunction with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). The international research on NETs has grown rapidly and publications have ranged in scope from reviewing potential and assessing feasibility to technological maturity and discussions on deployment opportunities. However, concerns have been increasingly raised that ungrounded optimism in NETs potential could result in delayed reductions in gross CO<sub>2</sub> emission, with consequent high-risk of overshooting global temperature targets. Negative emissions as a consequence of BECCS are achieved when the CO<sub>2</sub> absorbed from the atmosphere during the growth cycle of biomass is released in combustion and energy production and then captured and stored indefinitely. The simplistic vision of BECCS is that one ton of CO<sub>2</sub> captured in the growth of biomass would equate to one ton of CO<sub>2</sub> sequestered geologically- which we can regard as a carbon efficiency of 1. However, biomass crops are not carbon neutral as GHG emissions are associated with the cultivation of biomass.  Furthermore, throughout the BECCS value chain carbon ‘leaks’. Some life cycle analyses of the entire value chain for a BECCS crop to final carbon storage in the ground have shown leakage of CO<sub>2</sub> to be greater than the CO<sub>2</sub> captured at the point of combustion and thus it has low carbon efficiency. The deployment of BECCS is ultimately reliant on the availability of sufficient, sustainably sourced, biomass for an active CCS industry operating at scale and a favourable policy and commercial environment to incentivise these investments. It has been suggested that the theoretical global demand for biomass for BECCS could range from 50 EJ/yr up to more than 300 EJ/yr, although the technical and economic potential will be significantly less and will be dependent on uncertain social preferences and economic forces. The two most important factors determining this supply are land availability and land productivity. These factors are in turn determined by competing uses of land and a myriad of environmental and economic considerations. It is suggested that removing 3.3 GtC/year with BECCS could annually require between 360 and 2400 Mha of marginal land. The upper bounds correspond to 3x the world’s harvested land for cereal production. The conclusion is that estimates of biomass availability for the future depends on the evolution of a multitude of social, political, and economic factors including land tenure and regulation, trade, and technology. Consequently, the assumptions, in future climate scenarios, that high rates of NETs can be achieved across many countries and land types is not yet demonstrated.</p><p> </p>

scholarly journals Greenhouse Gas Inventory of a Typical High-End Industrial Park in China

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Chen ◽  
Guoxuan He ◽  
Jing Qi ◽  
Meirong Su ◽  
Shiyi Zhou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Carbon Sources ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Industrial Park ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Low Carbon Economy ◽  
Production Factors ◽  
Set Up

Global climate change caused by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which severely limits the development of human society and threatens the survival of humanity, has drawn the international community's long-term attention. Gathering the most important production factors in the region, an industrial park usually represents the development level of specific industries in the region. Therefore, the industrial park should be regarded as the base unit for developing a low-carbon economy and reducing GHG emissions. Focusing on a typical high-end industrial park in Beijing, we analyze the carbon sources within the system boundary and probe into the emission structure in view of life-cycle analysis. A GHG inventory is thereby set up to calculate all GHG emissions from the concerned park. Based on the results, suggestions are presented to guide the low-carbon development of the high-end industrial park.

scholarly journals LEAP-Based Greenhouse Gases Emissions Peak and Low Carbon Pathways in China’s Tourist Industry

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 1218
Author(s):  
Dandan Liu ◽  
Dewei Yang ◽  
Anmin Huang
Keyword(s):  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Growth Potential ◽  
Planning System ◽  
Tourist Industry ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Carbon Reduction ◽  
Co2 Equivalent

China has grown into the world’s largest tourist source market and its huge tourism activities and resulting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are particularly becoming a concern in the context of global climate warming. To depict the trajectory of carbon emissions, a long-range energy alternatives planning system (LEAP)-Tourist model, consisting of two scenarios and four sub-scenarios, was established for observing and predicting tourism greenhouse gas peaks in China from 2017 to 2040. The results indicate that GHG emissions will peak at 1048.01 million-ton CO2 equivalent (Mt CO2e) in 2033 under the integrated (INT) scenario. Compared with the business as usual (BAU) scenario, INT will save energy by 24.21% in 2040 and reduce energy intensity from 0.4979 tons of CO2 equivalent/104 yuan (TCO2e/104 yuan) to 0.3761 Tce/104 yuan. Although the INT scenario has achieved promising effects of energy saving and carbon reduction, the peak year 2033 in the tourist industry is still later than China’s expected peak year of 2030. This is due to the growth potential and moderate carbon control measures in the tourist industry. Thus, in order to keep the tourist industry in synchronization with China’s peak goals, more stringent measures are needed, e.g., the promotion of clean fuel shuttle buses, the encouragement of low carbon tours, the cancelation of disposable toiletries and the recycling of garbage resources. The results of this simulation study will help set GHG emission peak targets in the tourist industry and formulate a low carbon roadmap to guide carbon reduction actions in the field of GHG emissions with greater certainty.

scholarly journals Energy-Related Behaviour of Consumers from the Silesia Province (Poland)—Towards a Low-Carbon Economy

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 2218
Author(s):  
Sylwia Słupik ◽  
Joanna Kos-Łabędowicz ◽  
Joanna Trzęsiok
Keyword(s):  
Classification Model ◽  
Attitudes And Beliefs ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Low Carbon Economy ◽  
The Public ◽  
Second Stage ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
Low Emission ◽  
Energy Behaviour ◽  
Carbon Economy

The issue of energy behaviour among Polish consumers, and especially the motives and attitudes they manifest, is relatively under-researched. This article attempts to identify individual attitudes and beliefs of energy consumers using the example of the residents of the province of Silesia (Poland). The authors conducted the expert segmentation of respondents in terms of their motivation for saving energy, based on the results of their proprietary survey. The second stage of the study involved using a classification model that allowed for the characterisation of the obtained groups. Psychological and financial factors were of greatest significance, which is confirmed by the results of other studies. Nonetheless, the obtained results explicitly indicate the specificity of the region, which requires transformation towards a low-emission economy. Despite the initial stage of changes both in the awareness of the consumers and the public interventions of the authorities, it should be emphasized that a majority of the respondents—at least to a basic extent—declared taking energy-saving measures. Financial motives are predominant among the respondents, although pro-environmental motives can also be noticed, which might translate into increased involvement and concern for the environment and climate.

Alternative scenarios for the future of the Canadian boreal zone1

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
James W.N. Steenberg ◽  
Peter N. Duinker ◽  
Irena F. Creed ◽  
Jacqueline N. Serran ◽  
Camille Ouellet Dallaire
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Adaptive Capacity ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Boreal Zone ◽  
Low Carbon Economy ◽  
Carbon Economy

In response to global climate change, Canada is transitioning towards a low-carbon economy and the need for policy approaches that are effective, equitable, coordinated, and both administratively and politically feasible is high. One point is clear; the transition is intimately tied to the vast supply of ecosystem services in the boreal zone of Canada. This paper describes four contrasting futures for the boreal zone using scenario analysis, which is a transdisciplinary, participatory approach that considers alternative futures and policy implications under conditions of high uncertainty and complexity. The two critical forces shaping the four scenarios are the global economy’s energy and society’s capacity to adapt. The six drivers of change are atmospheric change, the demand for provisioning ecosystem services, the demand for nonprovisioning ecosystem services, demographics, and social values, governance and geopolitics, and industrial innovation and infrastructure. The four scenarios include: (i) the Green Path, where a low-carbon economy is coupled with high adaptive capacity; (ii) the Uphill Climb, where a low-carbon economy is instead coupled with low adaptive capacity; (iii) the Carpool Lane, where society has a strong capacity to adapt but a reliance on fossil fuels; and (iv) the Slippery Slope, where there is both a high-carbon economy and a society with low adaptive capacity. The scenarios illustrate the importance of transitioning to a low-carbon economy and the role of society’s adaptive capacity in doing so. However, they also emphasize themes like social inequality and adverse environmental outcomes arising from the push towards climate change mitigation.

scholarly journals Competency Gaps of Employees in the Construction Sector in Terms of the Requirements of a Low-Carbon Economy. Polish and Czech Case

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (23) ◽  
pp. 7868
Author(s):  
Honorata Howaniec ◽  
Łukasz Krzysztof Wróblewski ◽  
Hana Štverková
Keyword(s):  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emission ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Construction Sector ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Low Carbon Economy ◽  
Low Emission ◽  
Carbon Economy

Environmental policy obliges modern society to transition to a low-carbon economy. After entering to life, the Paris Agreement obligated the signatories to prepare the first nationally determined contributions (NDCs). The NDCs aim first to reduce greenhouse gas emission targets under the UNFCCC and they apply equally to both developed and developing countries. Countries voluntarily indicate what actions will be taken to achieve the declared goals. The construction sector is an industry that is under scrutiny due to its negative impact on the environment, but it also has the potential to reduce it. Activities that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions can be carried out at various levels in the construction industry. One of them is the appropriate preparation of the staff, including equipping them with the so-called green skills. This research aimed to determine the competency gaps of people employed in the construction industry, including competencies in the field of low-emission economy. For the purposes of the study, a questionnaire survey was carried out in Poland and the Czech Republic and based on the results obtained the appropriate competencies were determined that should be possessed by people employed in the construction sector, including competencies related to a low-emission economy. Competency profiles for people employed in the construction sector were built and competency gaps of these people were determined. In both countries, no competencies have been identified in any of checked areas that meet or exceed the requirements of managers according to specific competency profiles.

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