Assessment of environmental and economic benefits of packaging waste system in Italy

The paper quantifies social costs and social benefits of packaging waste management system in Italy from 2015 to 2030. Future social costs and benefits are estimated based on the growth of waste generated and on the stringency of recycling and landfilling targets. Packaging waste generation is projected based on macroeconomic factors, consumer practices and technological eco-innovations. Social benefits are derived by the reduction of externalities' correspondent to the achievement of packaging waste management targets. We quantify two environmental ben-efits: avoided emissions and raw materials saved. We find that social costs may rise substan-tially in the future, as total system's operations costs in 2030 may increase by 48% with re-spect to 2015, due to the growth in the quantities of packaging waste generated. Meeting recy-cling and landfilling targets set by the new Circular Economy Package would imply a further 5% increase in total social costs in 2015. This latter increase is more than compensated by so-cial benefits related to the reduction in externalities due to more stringent targets.

Evaluating net benefits of electricity generating technologies

Typically, the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) has been used to compare different electricity generation technologies. As LCOE does not account for intermittency and reliability, the updated net benefits methodology has been used. For various electricity generation technologies, with the use of the updated net benefits methodology, the net benefits of avoided emissions benefits, avoided energy cost benefits, avoided capacity cost benefits, energy costs, capacity costs and other costs at a per MW per year basis have been calculated. The results showed that nuclear generation had the highest net benefits in all of the scenarios considered. The net benefits of solar and wind generation increase when high coal and natural gas fuel price and with technological improvement which would increase the capacity factor and decrease the capital costs. Renewable and nuclear generation sources should play a significant role in the future electricity generation mix.

A burning question: Can natural climate solutions and carbon financing save the lion from extinction?

Lions (Panthera leo) in Africa have lost nearly half their population in just the last two decades, and effective management of the protected areas where lions live will cost an estimated USD $1 B/year in new funding. We explore the potential for natural climate solutions to fill this funding gap by introducing early dry season fire management programs to generate carbon credits. Potential carbon revenue from a single method (avoided emissions) or from multiple sequestration methods could provide annual revenue of USD $59.6-$655.9 M (at USD $5/ton) or USD $155.0 M–$1.7 B (at USD $13/ton). The top twenty PAs with lions and the greatest PCR could generate annually between USD $2.0–$57.5 M per PA, and PAs with the greatest potential for lion numbers between USD $1.5–$44.4 M per PA. We highlight priorities for investments and pilot projects to realize this potential in Africa.