Unpacking the ‘green’ recovery spending: an assessment of likely implications on greenhouse gas emissions towards 2030 for key emitters

Abstract This paper analyses how fiscal stimulus spending in response to the COVID-19 pandemic supports the low-carbon transition. We developed a new framework to categorize rescue and recovery spending measures according to their level of greenness and their type of expected impact on greenhouse gas emissions. This framework allows to better capture how measures’ emission impacts may unfold over time and to identify the share of fiscal spending missing robust conditions or incentives to be considered low-carbon. We assess nearly 2,500 measures announced by 26 emitters as of May 2021, representing around 65% of global GHG emissions in 2018. Our findings show that the largest share (35%) of spending with potential GHG emission implications went to measures that supported the status quo in the respective countries when there were low-carbon alternatives. Our assessment reveals the different magnitudes to which the emitters have missed the opportunity for a green recovery. While low-carbon spending is also significative in size (22%) across countries, almost two-thirds of it can be considered enabling or catalytic in nature and will rather unfold its impact over time. This fiscal spending will trigger transformational change over time but will not necessarily lead to direct emission reduction impacts before 2030.

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IMPORTANCE OF THE CARBON TAX FOR THE ENERGY SECTOR AND REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS IN UKRAINE

ΛΌГOΣ МИСТЕЦТВО НАУКОВОЇ ДУМКИ ◽

10.36074/2663-4139.16.13 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

V. Pekkoiev

Keyword(s):

Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Development Strategy ◽

Carbon Tax ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Energy Sector ◽

Low Carbon ◽

Gas Emissions ◽

Increase Energy Efficiency ◽

Low Carbon Development

The article analyzes the current state of the energy sector of Ukraine, identifies key issues that need urgent consideration. Trends in greenhouse gas emissions in Ukraine are analyzed. The urgency of the carbon tax for Ukraine is higher than ever, as we have made a number of climate commitments (the Paris Agreement) to the EU. We strive to follow European values and significantly reduce GHG emissions by 2050. At the same time, Ukraine is focused on low-carbon development, which is reflected in the Low-Carbon Development Strategy until 2050 and the Energy Strategy until 2035. The rational use of carbon taxation can accumulate funds to modernize the energy sector and increase energy efficiency. Using an instrument such as the general equilibrium model for Ukraine, the economic impact of implementing various low-carbon policies to curb global warming at 1.5 and 2 ° C was assessed. The results show that the carbon tax plays an important role in increasing Ukraine's GDP in 2050 by 12-15% in 2050.

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Analysis of the Potential for Reducing Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Motor Fuels

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14133744 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (13) ◽

pp. 3744

Author(s):

Delfina Rogowska ◽

Artur Wyrwa

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Low Carbon ◽

Fuel Production ◽

Gas Emissions ◽

Motor Fuels ◽

Process Heating ◽

The Impact

The assessment of life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of motor fuels is important due to the legal obligations and corporate social responsibility of the petroleum industry. Combining the Life-Cycle Assessment with optimization methods can provide valuable support in the decision-making process. In this paper, a mathematical model of a refinery was developed to analyze the impact of process optimization on GHG emissions at the fuel production stage. The model included ten major refinery units. Fuel production costs were minimized by taking into account the number of constraints. The analysis was performed in two steps. First, the model was run for the reference case of fuels composition. Then, more than twelve thousand model runs were performed. In each model, the fuel composition was changed. This change represented the exogenous pressures and resulted in different flows of mass, energy and GHG emission at the refinery. The most favorable results in terms of GHG emissions were then identified and analyzed. Additionally, the impact of using low-carbon fuels for process heating was evaluated. The study showed that fuel blending management could lead to the reduction of GHG emissions by 0.4 gCO2-eq/MJ while the use of low-carbon fuel for process heating results in a reduction of GHG emissions by 2 ca. gCO2-eq/MJ.

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Low-Carbon Russia: Prospects after the Crisis

Voprosy Ekonomiki ◽

10.32609/0042-8736-2009-10-107-120 ◽

2009 ◽

pp. 107-120 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

I. Bashmakov

Keyword(s):

Economic Growth ◽

Potential Energy ◽

Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Low Carbon ◽

Modeling Tools ◽

Gas Emissions ◽

Scenario Approach

On the eve of the worldwide negotiations of a new climate agreement in December 2009 in Copenhagen it is important to clearly understand what Russia can do to mitigate energy-related greenhouse gas emissions in the medium (until 2020) and in the long term (until 2050). The paper investigates this issue using modeling tools and scenario approach. It concludes that transition to the "Low-Carbon Russia" scenarios must be accomplished in 2020—2030 or sooner, not only to mitigate emissions, but to block potential energy shortages and its costliness which can hinder economic growth.

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Greenhouse gas emissions from the water–air interface of a grassland river: a case study of the Xilin River

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-81658-x ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Xue Hao ◽

Yu Ruihong ◽

Zhang Zhuangzhuang ◽

Qi Zhen ◽

Lu Xixi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Carbon Dioxide ◽

Land Use ◽

Nitrous Oxide ◽

Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Nitrous Oxide Emissions ◽

Gas Emissions ◽

Sand Land ◽

Very High

AbstractGreenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from rivers and lakes have been shown to significantly contribute to global carbon and nitrogen cycling. In spatiotemporal-variable and human-impacted rivers in the grassland region, simultaneous carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide emissions and their relationships under the different land use types are poorly documented. This research estimated greenhouse gas (CO2, CH4, N2O) emissions in the Xilin River of Inner Mongolia of China using direct measurements from 18 field campaigns under seven land use type (such as swamp, sand land, grassland, pond, reservoir, lake, waste water) conducted in 2018. The results showed that CO2 emissions were higher in June and August, mainly affected by pH and DO. Emissions of CH4 and N2O were higher in October, which were influenced by TN and TP. According to global warming potential, CO2 emissions accounted for 63.35% of the three GHG emissions, and CH4 and N2O emissions accounted for 35.98% and 0.66% in the Xilin river, respectively. Under the influence of different degrees of human-impact, the amount of CO2 emissions in the sand land type was very high, however, CH4 emissions and N2O emissions were very high in the artificial pond and the wastewater, respectively. For natural river, the greenhouse gas emissions from the reservoir and sand land were both low. The Xilin river was observed to be a source of carbon dioxide and methane, and the lake was a sink for nitrous oxide.

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Prospects for land-use sustainability on the agricultural frontier of the Brazilian Amazon

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2012.0171 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 368 (1619) ◽

pp. 20120171 ◽

Cited By ~ 39

Author(s):

Gillian L. Galford ◽

Britaldo Soares-Filho ◽

Carlos E. P. Cerri

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

State Government ◽

Environmental Sustainability ◽

Forest Restoration ◽

Brazilian Amazon ◽

Low Carbon ◽

Gas Emissions ◽

Non Governmental Organizations

The Brazilian Amazon frontier shows how remarkable leadership can work towards increased agricultural productivity and environmental sustainability without new greenhouse gas emissions. This is due to initiatives among various stakeholders, including national and state government and agents, farmers, consumers, funding agencies and non-governmental organizations. Change has come both from bottom-up and top-down actions of these stakeholders, providing leadership, financing and monitoring to foster environmental sustainability and agricultural growth. Goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from land-cover and land-use change in Brazil are being achieved through a multi-tiered approach that includes policies to reduce deforestation and initiatives for forest restoration, as well as increased and diversified agricultural production, intensified ranching and innovations in agricultural management. Here, we address opportunities for the Brazilian Amazon in working towards low-carbon rural development and environmentally sustainable landscapes.

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Remotely sensed temperature is a proxy of greenhouse gas emissions in intact and managed peatlands

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-4474 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ain Kull ◽

Iuliia Burdun ◽

Gert Veber ◽

Oleksandr Karasov ◽

Martin Maddison ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Soil Temperature ◽

Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Water Table ◽

Ecosystem Respiration ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Remotely Sensed ◽

Water Table Depth ◽

Gas Emissions

Besides water table depth, soil temperature is one of the main drivers of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in intact and managed peatlands. In this work, we evaluate the performance of remotely sensed land surface temperature (LST) as a proxy of greenhouse gas emissions in intact, drained and extracted peatlands. For this, we used chamber-measured carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) data from seven peatlands in Estonia collected during vegetation season in 2017&#8211;2020. Additionally, we used temperature and water table depth data measured in situ. We studied relationships between CO2, CH4, in-situ parameters and remotely sensed LST from Landsat 7 and 8, and MODIS Terra. Results of our study suggest that LST has stronger relationships with surface and soil temperature as well as with ecosystem respiration (Reco) over drained and extracted sites than over intact ones. Over the extracted cites the correlation between Reco CO2 and LST is 0.7, and over the drained sites correlation is 0.5. In natural sites, we revealed a moderate positive relationship between LST and CO2 emitted in hollows (correlation is 0.6) while it is weak in hummocks (correlation is 0.3). Our study contributes to the better understanding of relationships between greenhouse gas emissions and their remotely sensed proxies over peatlands with different management status and enables better spatial assessment of GHG emissions in drainage affected northern temperate peatlands.

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Energy Consumption and Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Nickel Products

Energies ◽

10.3390/en13215664 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (21) ◽

pp. 5664

Author(s):

Wenjing Wei ◽

Peter B. Samuelsson ◽

Anders Tilliander ◽

Rutger Gyllenram ◽

Pär G. Jönsson

Keyword(s):

Energy Consumption ◽

Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Process Model ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Primary Energy ◽

Nickel Metal ◽

Gas Emissions ◽

Nickel Smelting ◽

Ore Grade

The primary energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from nickel smelting products have been assessed through case studies using a process model based on mass and energy balance. The required primary energy for producing nickel metal, nickel oxide, ferronickel, and nickel pig iron is 174 GJ/t alloy (174 GJ/t contained Ni), 369 GJ/t alloy (485 GJ/t contained Ni), 110 GJ/t alloy (309 GJ/t contained Ni), and 60 GJ/t alloy (598 GJ/t contained Ni), respectively. Furthermore, the associated GHG emissions are 14 tCO2-eq/t alloy (14 tCO2-eq/t contained Ni), 30 t CO2-eq/t alloy (40 t CO2-eq/t contained Ni), 6 t CO2-eq/t alloy (18 t CO2-eq/t contained Ni), and 7 t CO2-eq/t alloy (69 t CO2-eq/t contained Ni). A possible carbon emission reduction can be observed by comparing ore type, ore grade, and electricity source, as well as allocation strategy. The suggested process model overcomes the limitation of a conventional life cycle assessment study which considers the process as a ‘black box’ and allows for an identification of further possibilities to implement sustainable nickel production.

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Urban greenhouse gas emissions from the Berlin area: A case study using airborne CO2 and CH4 in situ observations in summer 2018

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-3363 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Theresa Klausner ◽

Mariano Mertens ◽

Heidi Huntrieser ◽

Michal Galkowski ◽

Gerrit Kuhlmann ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Capital City ◽

Detailed Knowledge ◽

Emission Flux ◽

Gas Emissions ◽

Mixing Ratios

Urban areas are recognised as a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). The total amount of urban GHG emissions, especially for CH4, however, is not well quantified. Here we report on airborne in situ measurements using a Picarro G1301-m analyser aboard the DLR Cessna Grand Caravan to study GHG emissions downwind of the German capital city Berlin. In total, five aircraft-based mass balance experiments were conducted in July 2018 within the Urban Climate Under Change [UC]2 project. The detection and isolation of the Berlin plume was often challenging because of comparatively small GHG signals above variable atmospheric background concentrations. However, on July 20th enhancements of up to 4 ppm CO2 and 21 ppb CH4 were observed over a horizontal extent of roughly 45 to 65 km downwind of Berlin. These enhanced mixing ratios are clearly distinguishable from the background and can partly be assigned to city emissions. The estimated CO2 emission flux of 1.39 &#177; 0.75 t s-1 is in agreement with current inventories, while the CH4 emission flux of 5.20 &#177; 1.61 kg s-1 is almost two times larger than the highest reported value in the inventories. We localized the source area with HYSPLIT trajectory calculations and the high resolution numerical model MECO(n) (down to ~1 km), and investigated the contribution from sewage-treatment plants and waste deposition to CH4, which are treated differently by the emission inventories. Our work highlights the importance of a) strong CH4 sources in the surroundings of Berlin and b) a detailed knowledge of GHG inflow mixing ratios to suitably estimate emission rates.

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Comparison of RZWQM2 and DNDC Models to Simulate Greenhouse Gas Emissions under Combined Inorganic/Organic Fertilization in a Subsurface-Drained Field

Transactions of the ASABE ◽

10.13031/trans.13668 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 63 (4) ◽

pp. 771-787

Author(s):

Qianjing Jiang ◽

Zhiming Qi ◽

Chandra A. Madramootoo ◽

Ward Smith ◽

Naeem A. Abbasi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Soil Temperature ◽

Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Water Content ◽

Soil Water Content ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Measured Data ◽

Gas Emissions ◽

N Management ◽

Better Than

HighlightsRZWQM2 was compared with DNDC to predict greenhouse gas emissions.RZWQM2 was applied to simulate the greenhouse gas emissions under manure application.RZWQM2 performed better than DNDC in simulating soil water content and CO2 emissions.Abstract. N management has the potential to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Process-based models are promising tools for evaluating and developing management practices that may optimize sustainability goals as well as promote crop productivity. In this study, the GHG emission component of the Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM2) was tested under two different types of N management and subsequently compared with the Denitrification-Decomposition (DNDC) model using measured data from a subsurface-drained field with a corn-soybean rotation in southern Ontario, Canada. Field-measured data included N2O and CO2 fluxes, soil temperature, and soil moisture content from a four-year field experiment (2012 to 2015). The experiment was composed of two N treatments: inorganic fertilizer (IF), and inorganic fertilizer combined with solid cattle manure (SCM). Both models were calibrated using the data from IF and validated with SCM. Statistical results indicated that both models predicted well the soil temperature, but RZWQM2 performed better than DNDC in simulating soil water content (SWC) because DNDC lacked a heterogeneous soil profile, had shallow simulation depth, and lacked crop root density functions. Both RZWQM2 and DNDC predicted the cumulative N2O and CO2 emissions within 15% error under all treatments, while the timing of daily CO2 emissions was more accurately predicted by RZWQM2 (RMSE = 0.43 to 0.54) than by DNDC (RMSE = 0.60 to 0.67). Modeling results for N management effects on GHG emissions showed consistency with the field measurements, indicating higher CO2 emissions under SCM than IF, higher N2O emissions under IF in corn years, but lower N2O emissions in soybean years. Overall, RZWQM2 required more experienced and intensive calibration and validation, but it provided more accurate predictions of soil hydrology and better timing of CO2 emissions than DNDC. Keywords: CO2 emission, Corn-soybean rotation, Inorganic fertilization, Manure application, N2O emission, Process-based modeling.

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Carbon Emissions Constrained Energy Planning for Aluminum Products

Energies ◽

10.3390/en13112753 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (11) ◽

pp. 2753

Author(s):

Rok Gomilšek ◽

Lidija Čuček ◽

Marko Homšak ◽

Raymond R. Tan ◽

Zdravko Kravanja

Keyword(s):

Energy Source ◽

Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Co2 Emissions ◽

Carbon Emissions ◽

Electricity Consumption ◽

Primary Aluminum ◽

Energy Planning ◽

Low Carbon ◽

Gas Emissions

The production of primary aluminum is an energy-intensive industry which produces large amounts of direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, especially from electricity consumption. Carbon Emissions Constrained Energy Planning proved to be an efficient tool for reducing energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. This study focuses on energy planning constrained by CO2 emissions and determines the required amount of CO2 emissions from electricity sources in order to meet specified CO2 emission benchmark. The study is demonstrated on and applied to specific aluminum products, aluminum slugs and aluminum evaporator panels. Three different approaches of energy planning are considered: (i) an insight-based, graphical targeting approach, (ii) an algebraic targeting approach of cascade analysis, and (iii) an optimization-based approach, using a transportation model. The results of the three approaches show that approximately 2.15 MWh of fossil energy source should be replaced with a zero-carbon or 2.22 MWh with a low-carbon energy source to satisfy the benchmark of CO2 emissions to produce 1 t of aluminum slug; however, this substitution results in higher costs. This study is the first of its kind demonstrated on and applied to specific aluminum products, and represents a step forward in the development of more sustainable practices in this field.

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