An assessment of opportunities for cogenerating electricity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the oil sands

Pitched battles are a regular occurrence in northern Alberta, Canada, as development of the province’s oil sands continues to expand. One ongoing battle—with another salvo launched in February 2011 with the leak of a European Commission report1—concerns how dirty oil sands are, relative to other fuels. Another concerns the influence of the oil sands industry in monitoring its own activity.2 In an effort to cut through the rhetoric of health advocates, industry representatives, environmentalists, government officials, and local residents, the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) selected and covered expenses for an expert panel to winnow out the facts. In a report issued 15 December 20103 the panel cited substantial evidence that efforts to extract oil from the Alberta deposits have degraded air, land, and water quality to varying degrees. The extent of the degradation is sometimes controversial; water quality data, in particular, are subject to differing interpretations and attributions of causality. However, the panel says that, based on publicly available evidence, there appear to be no significant human health threats to the general population either now or from development anticipated in the next decade or so. But the panel also warns that their conclusions come with a major caveat: there are major gaps in health and environmental data, risk assessments, government oversight, information transparency, industry efforts, and disaster preparedness. The health of the region could hinge on these gaps being addressed, particularly since, according to Travis Davies, a spokesman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, 97% of projected oil extraction and processing is still to come. After the RSC panel reviewed reams of publicly available information on factors such as health status, air and water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, land disturbance, and energy and water consumption, it concluded that “[t]he claim by some critics of the oil sands industry that it is the most environmentally destructive project on earth is not supported by the evidence. However, for Canada and Alberta, the oil sands industry involves major environmental issues on many fronts which must be addressed as a high priority.”3p293

Greenhouse gas emission abatement potential and associated costs of integrating renewable and low carbon energy technologies into the Canadian oil sands

Within the context of global initiatives to address climate change, the shipping industry is facing increasingly intensified pressure to decarbonize. The industry is engaging in the exploration and implementation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction measures, including energy efficiency technologies and alternative fuels, with the objective of accelerating the progression towards greenhouse gas mitigation. The application of various GHG emission reduction measures usually requires different levels of investment costs, and economic feasibility is a key factor influencing policy formulation and investment decisions. In this regard, this paper developed a cost-effective model for energy efficiency measures and alternative fuels based on the marginal abatement cost (MAC) methodology. This model can distinguish the differences between energy efficiency measures and alternative fuels in terms of Tank-to-Wake emissions and Well-to-Wake emissions in the GHG emission evaluation system. By taking typical ship types with significant emission contributions as study cases, i.e., bulk carriers (61–63K DWT), container ships (8000 TEU), product tankers (115K DWT), crude oil tankers (315–320K DWT), and Ro-Ro passenger ferries (3500 DWT), the GHG abatement cost-effective performance of major categories of measures such as operational measures, technical measures, renewable energy sources, and alternative fuels were calculated. According to the MAC results, the marginal abatement cost curves were plotted based on the ranking of energy efficiency measures and alternative fuels, respectively. The impacts of bunker fuel prices and carbon market prices on the cost-effectiveness were analyzed. The research results provided the GHG abatement potential of the integrated application of cost-effective energy efficiency measures, the cost-effectiveness ranking of alternative fuels, and the carbon emission price expected to bridge the price gap between alternative fuels and conventional bunker fuel. The presented methodology and conclusions can be used to assist shipping companies in selecting emission reduction measures, and to support maritime authorities in developing market-based measures.

Carbon pricing and firms’ GHG emissions: Firm-level empirical evidence from East Asia

Modelling the effect on chronic disease health of changing food prices based on greenhouse gas emissions

Assessment of energy demand-based greenhouse gas mitigation options for Canada's oil sands

Carbon prices and greenhouse gases abatement from agriculture, forestry and land use in Nepal

As traditional petroleum supplies dwindled and prices soared over the past few years, oil companies have shifted their attention to oil sands, a mix of sand, water, and a heavy, viscous hydrocarbon called bitumen that can be converted to oil. With the plunge in oil prices in fall 2008, many producers began canceling or postponing plans to expand oil sands development projects, but this turn of events could yet reverse, as Canada’s vast oil sands deposits are lauded as a secure source of imported oil for the United States. At the same time, however, oil sands present troubling questions in terms of the environmental health effects associated with their development.

BackgroundSocietal pressures exist to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from farm animals, especially in beef cattle. Both total GHG and GHG emissions per unit of product decrease as productivity increases. Limitations of previous studies on GHG emissions are that they generally describe feed intake inadequately, assess the consequences of selection on particular traits only, or examine consequences for only part of the production chain. Here, we examine GHG emissions for the whole production chain, with the estimated cost of carbon included as an extra cost on traits in the breeding objective of the production system.MethodsWe examined an example beef production system where economic merit was measured from weaning to slaughter. The estimated cost of the carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e) associated with feed intake change is included in the economic values calculated for the breeding objective traits and comes in addition to the cost of the feed associated with trait change. GHG emission effects on the production system are accumulated over the breeding objective traits, and the reduction in GHG emissions is evaluated, for different carbon prices, both for the individual animal and the production system.ResultsMultiple-trait selection in beef cattle can reduce total GHG and GHG emissions per unit of product while increasing economic performance if the cost of feed in the breeding objective is high. When carbon price was $10, $20, $30 and $40/ton CO2-e, selection decreased total GHG emissions by 1.1, 1.6, 2.1 and 2.6% per generation, respectively. When the cost of feed for the breeding objective was low, selection reduced total GHG emissions only if carbon price was high (~ $80/ton CO2-e). Ignoring the costs of GHG emissions when feed cost was low substantially increased emissions (e.g. 4.4% per generation or ~ 8.8% in 10 years).ConclusionsThe ability to reduce GHG emissions in beef cattle depends on the cost of feed in the breeding objective of the production system. Multiple-trait selection will reduce emissions, while improving economic performance, if the cost of feed in the breeding objective is high. If it is low, greater growth will be favoured, leading to an increase in GHG emissions that may be undesirable.

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Evaluating long-term greenhouse gas mitigation opportunities through carbon capture, utilization, and storage in the oil sands

Developing farm-specific marginal abatement cost curves: Cost-effective greenhouse gas mitigation opportunities in sheep farming systems

Vietnam’s Green Growth Action Plan for the period 2014–2020 sets out an overall plan for the sustainable development of the country. One of the cornerstones of that plan is the development of a greenhouse gas inventory and emission reduction opportunity assessment for Ho Chi Minh City. This provides a basis for the roadmap towards green growth in Ho Chi Minh City, one of Vietnam’s largest cities. Marginal costs of 38 emission reduction measures were determined for two main economy sectors, namely energy (32 measures) and agriculture, forestry, and other land use (6 measures). From that analysis, a marginal abatement cost curve was compiled for the energy sector. The total emission reduction opportunities available in 2020 are estimated to be 8.97 million tCO2e, which represents a 14.7% reduction compared to business as usual. Even when the city only implements reduction measures with negative marginal costs (i.e., abatement that saves money), significant reductions of 5.25 MtCO2e (8.6% reduction compared to business as usual) would be achieved. There are significant similarities in abatement opportunities between Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital. The case study shows significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved in fast-growing cities with an appropriate level of investment and government support.

Cost-effectiveness analysis on improving fuel economy and promoting alternative fuel vehicles: A case study of Chongqing, China

In this paper, we used the life-cycle analysis (LCA) method to evaluate the energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of natural gas (NG) distributed generation (DG) projects in China. We took the China Resources Snow Breweries (CRSB) NG DG project in Sichuan province of China as a base scenario and compared its life cycle energy consumption and GHG emissions performance against five further scenarios. We found the CRSB DG project (all energy input is NG) can reduce GHG emissions by 22%, but increase energy consumption by 12% relative to the scenario, using coal combined with grid electricity as an energy input. The LCA also indicated that the CRSB project can save 24% of energy and reduce GHG emissions by 48% relative to the all-coal scenario. The studied NG-based DG project presents major GHG emissions reduction advantages over the traditional centralized energy system. Moreover, this reduction of energy consumption and GHG emissions can be expanded if the extra electricity from the DG project can be supplied to the public grid. The action of combining renewable energy into the NG DG system can also strengthen the dual merit of energy conservation and GHG emissions reduction. The marginal CO2 abatement cost of the studied project is about 51 USD/ton CO2 equivalent, which is relatively low. Policymakers are recommended to support NG DG technology development and application in China and globally to boost NG utilization and control GHG emissions.