Implementing the EU Climate Law via the ‘Fit for 55’ package

ABSTRACT To implement the European Union (EU) Climate Law’s newly established 55% greenhouse gas reduction objective for 2030, the EU Commission suggests a wave of reforms to the European energy and climate legislation. The contribution aims to describe the EU Commission’s 16 initial legislative and strategic proposals regarding the major pillars of the European energy and climate legislation and intends to give an overview on the suggested reforms. By comparing the legal status quo with the legal framework de lege ferenda as presented by the Commission’s proposals, the planned major changes to the legal structures are identified. To achieve the 55% greenhouse gas reduction objective for 2030, all existing legal climate and energy acts are planned to be tightened by amending their targets as well as scopes and revising their structures. The suggested reforms concern the existing EU emissions trading system, effort sharing system between the Member States, energy taxation, energy efficiency and renewable energies. Additionally, the implementation of new instruments, such as the second EU emissions trading system for the sectors buildings and transport, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and the Social Climate Fund, is proposed. The design of the package shows that the Commission still generally pursues a climate legislation characterized by a mix of instruments and policies being both price based and regulatory. So, even though the major proposed change—the introduction of a second separate emissions trading system—would strengthen the role of carbon pricing, the Commission still relies on a mix of instruments without defining a leading instrument.

Miscible Gas Injection EOR Complex Challenges – A CCUS Hub Approach to Unlock Value for a Multi Reservoir Onshore Field

Miscible CO2 flood is a well-established proven EOR recovery mechanism. There have been a large number of CO2 EOR developments worldwide, in both carbonate and clastic reservoirs. Potential control or influence factors on incremental production and incremental recovery over water flood are well documented in the published literature. Some of the published CO2 EOR developments have reported relatively high incremental recoveries. ADNOC is a leader in miscible gas injection EOR in carbonate reservoirs. There are a number of ongoing miscible gas injection EOR developments within its portfolio contributing a significant amount of production. Miscible CO2 flood is a key EOR development for ADNOC. Following intensive screening studies and laboratory experiments, the first CO2 EOR pilot in the MENA region was conducted as early as 2009 in one of ADNOC Onshore fields. This paved the way for further large-scale deployment and CO2 WAG pilots starting in 2016, both onshore. Appreciable progresses have been made since 2009. This bodes well with the significant initiatives undertaken by the UAE towards carbon emissions and greenhouse gas reduction, climate control and sustainable development. There are broad consensus that climate changes are now and will continue to affect all countries on all continents. Potential global warming can disrupt national economies and adversely impact on lives, costing people, communities and countries already today and perhaps more in the future. Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) technologies have been making headlines and attracting increasing amount of renewed attention, because they are in line with meeting global greenhouse gas reduction goals, and contributing towards climate control and sustainable development. The giant Abu Dhabi onshore field consists of 6 carbonate reservoirs. Several pilots, immiscible hydrocarbon gas injection and CO2 WAG, and a pattern immiscible gas injection WAG flood have been executed. Miscible gas injection EOR is therefore field proven. However, due to large field size, surface congestion constraints, geological and fluid variations, miscible gas injection EOR development by reservoir individually becomes complex and economically challenging. This paper presents a comprehensive study and recommends an integrated CCUS Hub development approach - enabling field-wide EOR development with several hundred million-barrels of incremental recovery. The study follows a step-by-step systematic method. Existing water flood performances were assessed first. History matched full field simulation then leads to identification of CO2 EOR targets by area/flank for each reservoir. These are referred to as sweet development areas. Available advanced PVT data were analysed and a multi-reservoir single equation of state developed. It has been found that only CO2 is miscible across all six reservoirs, while hydrocarbon gas is also miscible for the deepest two reservoirs. Dedicated fine scale sector models (EOR history matched where applicable) were developed to generate multiple CO2 EOR development scenarios, for example, depending on water flood maturity at the time of CO2 EOR start-up, and potential impact on incremental oil production, incremental oil recovery due to reservoir heterogeneity. First results from sector modelling show that quite a few areas/flanks would be sub-economical if CO2 EOR development on a stand-alone basis. Hence the concept of a CCUS Hub is proposed, which would allow sweet development areas in any or all of the six reservoirs to be developed from a single common surface Cluster. There is potential space for development phasing, allowing additional CO2 EOR developments within the same cluster area once ullage and CO2 supply becomes available. The CCUS Hub development approach facilitates optimization and sharing of injection/production flow-lines; surface space, gathering and processing facilities, CO2 supply, CO2 recovery unit deployment coupled with produced gas re-injection into the 2 deepest reservoirs. Compared to a more conventional development approach of reservoir by reservoir, considerable scope for CAPEX and OPEX savings was found. Assuming a constant future oil price, a reduction in development costs would allow more sweet development areas to pass the threshold of economical development, leading to an increase in overall incremental production and recovery from CO2 EOR.

The Economic Impacts of Climate Change

Quantifiability of the pecuniary change regarding the climatic change is foreseen yet the ignorable fact of the century. This did not lead to a catastrophic change; however, it paved the path to the change in the governance of the conditions which led to moderate methodologies. This research contrasts directly with the immediate public discussion and greenhouse gas reduction expenditures. These forecasts demonstrate that climate change initially improves economic stability. But these advantages are declining. In the later century, the effects will be more negative. The global average effects will be equivalent in poorer economies to the health loss of a few percent of income. The marginal cost of carbon dioxide pollution is estimated at over two hundred. The social costs of carbon are quite elusive. The estimated price of $50/tc is somewhat lower than in the EU but far higher than the price for carbon elsewhere for a normal discount rate. Current forecasts are incomplete, with optimistic and negative prejudices on harm costs from climate change. The indirect consequences of climate change on economic growth, large-scale destruction of habitats, low chance, the effects of global change on violence and war are among the most important of the lost impacts. The effect of climate change is troublesome from the welfare point of view because it has an endogenous population, and because policy assessments can divide impatience, risk aversion, and inequality within and within nations.

Phenological Classification Using Deep Learning and the Sentinel-2 Satellite to Identify Priority Afforestation Sites in North Korea

The role of forests to sequester carbon is considered an important strategy for mitigating climate change and achieving net zero emissions. However, forests in North Korea have continued to be cleared since the 1990s due to the lack of food and energy resources. Deforestation in this country has not been accurately classified nor consistently reported because of the characteristics of small patches. This study precisely determined the area of deforested land in North Korea through the vegetation phenological classification using high-resolution satellite imagery and deep learning algorithms. Effective afforestation target sites in North Korea were identified with priority grade. The U-Net deep learning algorithm and time-series Sentinel-2 satellite images were applied to phenological classification; the results reflected the small patch-like characteristics of deforestation in North Korea. Based on the phenological classification, the land cover of the country was classified with an accuracy of 84.6%; this included 2.6 million ha of unstocked forest and reclaimed forest. Sites for afforestation were prioritized into five grades based on deforested characteristics, altitude and slope. Forest area is expanded and the forest ecosystem is restored through successful afforestation, this may improve the overall ecosystem services in North Korea. In the long term, it will be possible to contribute to carbon neutrality and greenhouse gas reduction on the Korean Peninsula level through optimal afforestation by using these outcomes.

Reducing provincial GHG emissions through reductions in energy use and demand: the case of the restaurant industry in Toronto.

In the absence of a national greenhouse gas reduction strategy, the provinces and territories of Canada have adopted legislated or policy-based reduction targets largely related to energy source, the adoption of carbon pricing models and by working with municipal governments. Municipalities have acknowledged their responsibility in emissions reduction by implementing a range of GHG reduction programs but they are limited by their area of influence and by financial constraints. The major focus of this thesis is a study to assess the contribution of the Toronto-based independent restaurant industry to municipal energy use based on an original survey; it was found that the restaurant industry contributes approximately 2.4% of Toronto’s GHG emissions and 0.3% nationally. While GHG emissions related to electricity use has decreased as greater energy efficiency is achieved, similar trends are not seen in GHG emissions related to natural gas use demonstrating the need for further research in this area.

Reducing provincial GHG emissions through reductions in energy use and demand: the case of the restaurant industry in Toronto.

In the absence of a national greenhouse gas reduction strategy, the provinces and territories of Canada have adopted legislated or policy-based reduction targets largely related to energy source, the adoption of carbon pricing models and by working with municipal governments. Municipalities have acknowledged their responsibility in emissions reduction by implementing a range of GHG reduction programs but they are limited by their area of influence and by financial constraints. The major focus of this thesis is a study to assess the contribution of the Toronto-based independent restaurant industry to municipal energy use based on an original survey; it was found that the restaurant industry contributes approximately 2.4% of Toronto’s GHG emissions and 0.3% nationally. While GHG emissions related to electricity use has decreased as greater energy efficiency is achieved, similar trends are not seen in GHG emissions related to natural gas use demonstrating the need for further research in this area.

Fair National Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Under Multiple Equity Perspectives - A Synthesis Framework

Equity is one of the key principles underpinning the global climate regime and is all the more essential given the heterogenous, self-differentiated nature of the Paris Agreement. The scientific community has proposed several effort-sharing schemes to operationalise equity – reflecting not only the multi-faceted nature of the problem but also a long history of disagreement that continues to date. We outline a synthesis framework that draws on existing estimates in the literature to develop a “fair share range” for each country within which we identify a common position, which, when applied to the ranges of all countries, results in the collective achievement of the desired temperature goal. A series of methodological choices regarding the treatment of the underlying literature and translation into a temperature equivalence are tested. We demonstrate the consistency of this framework (across different methodological choices) with the principle of “Common but Differentiated Responsibilities” – members of the OECD have the most stringent allocations, while only a few African and Asian countries (including India) have emission allocations that are above their 2010 emission levels. A few OECD members, including the European Union and Great Britain, have emission allocations in 2030 that are either close to, or less than zero. Consistency with their fair share of mitigation will require them to provide appropriate levels of international finance and support to facilitate emission reductions in developing countries. These conclusions are robust to various methodological choices.