scholarly journals Modelling of Regional Economic Metabolism

Climate ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Afonso Silva ◽  
Bruno Augusto ◽  
Sandra Rafael ◽  
Johnny Reis ◽  
Myriam Lopes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Economic System ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Urban Metabolism ◽  
Regional Economic ◽  
Amount Of Information ◽  
Future Developments ◽  
The World ◽  
Over Time

The current linear economic system has led Europe to unsustainable development, aggravating several issues, such as climate change, limitation of resources, and pollution. As a sustainable alternative, circular economy (CE) has been promoted around the world. This economic system allows for the maximization of a product’s life, thus decreasing its environmental impact and increasing its value. The main goal of this work is to scrutinise the concepts of CE over time, from the beginning of the concept, to its implementation in Europe and its application in Portugal. In addition, the requirement for strategies that led to studies on regional urban metabolism are addressed. Another goal is to examine Portugal and see how the country is dealing with the implementation of strategies for CE, moving from concept to practice. This part of the work resulted in the creation of the REMET-UA model, a tool to assess the regional economic metabolism, which also has the potential to evaluate synergies of materials in terms of fluxes between regions, maximizing the amount of information available at this scale for municipalities and enterprises to be used, having taken into account the purpose of circular economy. The results showed that REMET-UA is fully operational and corresponds to the goal for which the model was made. Future developments have been identified and are underway to improve the model and bring it as close to reality as possible.

Climate Change and the Circular Economy

2022 ◽  
pp. 1965-1983
Author(s):  
Aakriti Mathur ◽  
Kanwal Deepinder Pal Singh
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Sustainable Consumption ◽  
Consumption Patterns ◽  
Annual Rate ◽  
Consumption Behavior ◽  
Global Demand ◽  
The World ◽  
Ability To Regenerate ◽  
Climate Crisis

The world is presently facing a climate catastrophe of its own making through the unabated increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Global consumption patterns are to blame, as presently, the global annual demand for resources outpaces the annual rate of the earth's ability to regenerate those resources. Thus, there is an urgent need to reduce the global demand for resources to a sustainable level, through the adoption of a circular economy. Individual consumption behavior habits form the basis of global consumption patterns, and therefore, adoption of sustainable consumption habits and lifestyles are necessary for addressing the climate crisis. In this chapter, the authors assess the potential for addressing the climate crisis through the adoption of a circular economy and sustainable consumption behavior. The authors also evaluate the extent of adoption of sustainable consumption behavior in India and make recommendations for adopting a circular economy in India.

Climate change and supply-chain vulnerability

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Andreoni ◽  
Apollonia Miola
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
Economic System ◽  
Global Supply Chain ◽  
Economic Effects ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Large Set ◽  
Unexpected Events ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The World

Purpose – The increasing complexity of the present economic system and the strong interdependencies existing between production activities taking place in different world areas make modern societies vulnerable to crisis. The global supply chain is a paradigmatic example of economic structures on which the impacts of unexpected events propagate rapidly through the system. Climate change, which affects societies all over the world, is one of the most important factors influencing the efficiency of the present economic networks. During the last decades a large set of studies have been oriented to investigate the direct impacts generated on specific geographical areas or productions. However, a smaller number of analyses have been oriented to quantify the cascading and indirect economic effects generated all over the world. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The main objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the main studies, methodologies and databases used to investigate the climate vulnerability of the global supply chain. Findings – The great complexity of the global economic system, coupled with methodological and data gaps, makes it difficult to estimate the domino effects of unexpected events. A clear understanding of the possible consequences generated all over the world is, however, a fundamental step to build socio-economic resilience and to plan effective adaptation strategies. Originality/value – The information provided in this paper can be useful to support further studies, to build consistent quantification methodologies and to fill the possible data gap.

scholarly journals Is Ubiquitous Technology for Needs Data Management a Game Changer in Humanitarian Arena?

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-97
Author(s):  
Punya Prasad Sapkota ◽  
Kashif Siddiqi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Data Entry ◽  
Humanitarian Assistance ◽  
Dynamic Changes ◽  
The World ◽  
Collection And Management ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Game Changer

One in every 70 people around the world is caught up in a crisis (natural disasters, conflict, climate change, etc.) and urgently needs humanitarian assistance and protection according to the OCHA. The humanitarian community assists millions of people every year based on emerging humanitarian needs. Most of the time, the conditions inside the countries, once the humanitarian needs data is collected, are not very conducive and required simple ways to collect data like paper-based data collection with simple questions. This data is later entered into a database or spreadsheet using rigorous and time-consuming data entry efforts. Dynamic changes in needs of people; numbers of partners involved; the complexity of evolving processes; and emerging technologies over time has led to a change in processes for data collection and management. This article is an attempt to capture humanitarian data collection best practices and the use of different technologies in managing data to facilitate humanitarian needs assessment processes for the Syria crisis.

scholarly journals Circular cities: an evidence map of research between 2010 and 2020

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fedra Vanhuyse ◽  
Neal R. Haddaway ◽  
Maryna Henrysson
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Wastewater Management ◽  
Evidence Map ◽  
Searchable Database ◽  
Recovery Strategies ◽  
The World

AbstractWorldwide, cities are implementing circular economy (CE) strategies to reduce the resources they consume and their environmental impact. To understand the CE strategies and sectors cities have been focusing on, we have conducted an evidence map describing the literature published in the last ten years. The main outputs are a searchable database comprising 178 publications showing which cities have been discussed, what CE strategy they are focusing on, and the sectors under review. The results show that most research has focused on European countries. Those efforts mainly concentrate on waste and wastewater management, and recycling and recovery strategies are considered the “lower-level” strategies in the CE taxonomy. It highlights the potential for further research in other cities and regions, looking across sectors and analyzing strategies that tackle the “higher-level” CE strategies. Higher-level strategies include reducing, repurposing, remanufacturing and reusing opportunities to achieve the potential attributed to a CE model by governments across the world.

scholarly journals Plastics as a materials system in a circular economy

2020 ◽  
Vol 378 (2176) ◽  
pp. 20190268 ◽  
Author(s):  
David G. Bucknall
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Large Volume ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Business Practice ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Environmental Disaster ◽  
Technical Developments ◽  
The World ◽  
Technical Issues

Plastics have transformed our modern world. With a range of outstanding properties, they are used in an ever-widening range of applications. However, the linear economy of their use means that a large volume of plastics is discarded after use. It is believed that approximately 80% of the estimated total 6.3 Bt of plastics ever produced have been discarded, representing not only a huge loss of valuable resources, but mismanaged waste is also the origin of an ever-increasing environmental disaster. Strategies to prevent loss of materials resources and damage to the environment are elements of a circular plastics economy that aims to maintain plastics at their highest value for the longest time possible and at the same time improve the economy and prevent detrimental environmental impact. The latter in particular is driving recent changes in policies and legislation across the world that are rapidly being introduced in order to solve these environmental issues. The achievement of a circular economy will require not only innovative technical developments, but also major economic investment and changes to business practice coupled with significant changes in social behaviour. This paper summarizes the complex and highly interrelated technical issues and provides an overview of the major challenges, potential solutions and opportunities required to achieve and operate a circular plastics economy. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Science to enable the circular economy’.

scholarly journals Green Growth Is Trusted To Fix Climate Change

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 01-08
Author(s):  
Robert Skopec
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Economic System ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Green Growth ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Main Strategy

'Greening' our current economic system can only take us so far. GTS/Shutterstock You may have missed it, but a recent report declared that the main strategy of world leaders for tackling climate change won’t work. It’s called green growth, and it’s favoured by some of the largest and most influential organisations in the world, including the United Nations and the World Bank.

scholarly journals The Circular Economy of E-Waste in the Netherlands: Optimizing Material Recycling and Energy Recovery

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Golsteijn ◽  
Elsa Valencia Martinez
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Energy Recovery ◽  
Waste Recycling ◽  
Material Recycling ◽  
Large Household ◽  
Avoided Emissions ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Do So

In the Netherlands, waste electric and electronic equipment (e-waste) is an important point for discussion on the circular economy agenda. This paper shows the Dutch example of how “waste” can be turned into a resource, and the climate change benefits from appropriate collection and recycling. It describes the avoided emissions of CO2-equivalents due to e-waste recycling and appropriate removal and destruction of (H)CFCs contained in cooling and freezing appliances. Six different e-waste categories were included, and the results of 2016 were compared to previous years (2009–2015). In 2016, 110,000 tonnes of e-waste were collected. 80% of this was recycled to useful materials. Additionally, it resulted in 17% energy recovery. That year, the recycling of e-waste and the removal of (H)CFKs resulted in approximately 416,000 tonnes of avoided emissions of CO2-equivalents. Although the phasing out of cooling and freezing appliances with (H)CFKs led to a general decrease in the quantity of avoided CO2 emissions over time, removal of (H)CFKs still explained most of the avoided CO2 emissions. Material recycling appeared particularly beneficial for cooling and freezing appliances and small and large household appliances. The paper ends with reasons to further close the loop and ways forward to do so.

The World

2019 ◽  
pp. 132-151
Author(s):  
Thomas K. Rudel
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
World War ◽  
Focusing Events ◽  
The World ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Focusing Event ◽  
Over Time

Comparable environmental reforms have never occurred at the global scale of governance. Segments of the dynamic described in the four case studies have taken place at the global scale. A focusing event, World War II, spurred the creation of a global governance institution, the United Nations, which later became the organizational sponsor for the ongoing international effort to counter climate change. Different kinds of focusing events, extreme weather in the form of droughts or storms, have over time contributed to an increase in the number of nations advocating for radical reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. These changes suggest that, over time, an international “climate club” could emerge. These trends, while fragmentary and so far unsuccessful in producing mandatory global-scale reforms, are consistent with the theoretical dynamic that has driven the national-scale reforms analyzed in the case studies.

scholarly journals Containing climate change: The new governmental strategies of catastrophic environments

2020 ◽  
pp. 251484862090238
Author(s):  
Nicholas Beuret
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Economic System ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
World Economy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Choice ◽  
The World ◽  
To Come ◽  
Dangerous Climate Change

The only existing plans to arrest dangerous climate change depend on either yet to be invented technologies to keep us below 2°C or on crashing the world economy for decades to come. The political choice appears to be between doing what is scientifically necessary or what is politically realistic; between shifting to an entirely different kind of global socio-economic system or suffering catastrophe. We are thus in a moment of governmental impasse, caught between old and still-emerging political rationalities. Working through the liminal governmental role of environmental non-governmental organisations, this paper explores the shift from governmental regimes centred on biopower to ones that work through the register of geopower, from governing life to governing the conditions of life. Confronted with climate change as an irresolvable problem, what we find emerging are techniques that aim to contain the worst effects of climate change without fundamentally transforming the global economy.

scholarly journals Changes in the energy production to reduce the environmental impact

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-52
Author(s):  
Gábor Hornyák ◽  
Péter Bencs
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
European Union ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Energy Production ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
The World ◽  
Climate Neutrality

One of the most debated topics of our time is climate change. For this reason, the European Union and the countries of the world are taking several steps to reduce and reverse the effect. When we talk about climate change or sustainable development, it is very important to also talk about the energy sector. The European Union aims to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, which will require significant changes in our lives, it will be a major challenge for mankind. In 2019, fossil fuels accounted for 80% of the world’s energy production. The production of energy from fossil fuels has several negative effects aside from climate change. When fossil fuels are burned, gases and particles harmful to human health are released into the air and some of the fossil fuels are raw materials to produce plastics, for example. If we use it for energy production, we waste our raw materials. What are the options for reducing the environmental impact? How can coal-based energy production be replaced? What are other ways to reduce the environmental impact? These topics are discussed in the article.

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