An innovative indicator of carbon dioxide emissions for developing countries: A study of Taiwan

Taking Stock of Strategies on Climate Change and the Way Forward: A Strategic Climate Change Framework for Australia

Major US electric utility climate pledges have the potential to collectively reduce power sector emissions by one-third

Mitigating Curtailment and Carbon Emissions through Load Migration between Data Centers

There are two types of approaches for analyzing various aspects related to green-house gas (GHG) emissions, i.e., top-down and bottom-up approaches. Although the top-down approach focuses on macro-economic perspectives, the bottom-up approach is more suitable to investigate GHG emissions at an industry level utilizing domain-specific knowledge. For example, a bottom-up analysis requires a wide variety of data such as energy demands, conversion factors, and energy efficiency, which may be obtained by analyzing industrial process data. This study aims to provide a bottom-up approach for analyzing GHG emissions from shipbuilding processes in Korea. Reference energy system and energy balance for shipbuilding processes are derived for bottom-up modeling. Based on the midterm forecast on energy demands of the Korean shipbuilding industry, it is shown that the business-as-usual GHG emissions may be obtained. Relevant mitigation measures are then investigated to analyze their mitigation potentials for low-carbon ship production. 1. Introduction Global climate change has recently drawn an increasing attention due to its adverse effects on our environment. Since the inception of Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Frame-work conventions on climate change, local and international experts have long called for more international cooperation in coping with global warming. The main idea of international cooperative efforts is to impose binding obligations for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on participating countries. Even though some countries have withdrawn their commitment and others have been reluctant to adopting definite targets for emission reduction, many countries have already established a designated national authority to manage their GHG emissions. Korea has also established a national authority called "GHG Inventory and Research Center (GIR)" in 2010. One of the most important roles of GIR is to manage the national GHG emission levels and set the abatement target of various sectors through an efficient and integrated management of GHG-related information. Recently, GIR has conducted a series of research projects to analyze GHG emissions of industrial sectors in cooperation with a group of experts. This study presents the results from the analysis of GHG emissions and mitigation potentials for the shipbuilding processes in Korea. It should be noted that the scope of this study is limited to constructions processes in a shipyard even though the shipbuilding industry may encompass a broader range of industrial sectors such as steel production and transport. Adopting Model for Energy Supply Strategy Alternatives and their General Environmental Impacts (MESSAGE) developed by International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in 1980s (Messner 1997), a bottom-up mathematical programming model is generated to derive the business-as-usual (BAU) GHG emissions in the construction processes in a shipyard. Abatement potentials of several technical abatement measures are also analyzed to help shipbuilders effectively cope with the issue of climate change.

The decrease in the level of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from industry and agriculture is one of the biggest challenges that European Union (EU) countries have to face. Their economic development should occur under the conditions of limiting the pressure on the environment. The agricultural and industrial sectors play a key role in ensuring food security, technological progress, job security, social well-being, economic competitiveness, and sustainable development. The main purpose of this article was to identify and compare the level, trends, and variability in greenhouse gas emissions from industry and agriculture in EU countries in 2010–2019, to create classes of countries with similar gas emissions, and to analyze the average values of their economic conditions. The original contribution to the article was to investigate whether there is a relationship between the level of greenhouse gas emissions and the economic development of countries and other economic indicators characterizing the sectors of industry and agriculture. Empirical data were obtained from the Eurostat and Ilostat databases. Basic descriptive statistics, classification methods, multiple regression, and correlation methods were used in the study. The industrial and agricultural sectors in EU countries emit similar amounts of greenhouse gases into the environment. In the years 2010–2019, the percentage share of emissions from these sectors in total gas emissions was growing dynamically, but no evidence was found indicating that those countries that emitted the most greenhouse gases significantly reduced their emissions in the decade under review. Moreover, EU countries are still significantly and invariably differentiated in this respect. Greenhouse gas emissions from industry and agriculture are influenced by the economic characteristics of these sectors, such as the level of GDP per capita, the scale of investment by enterprises, the expenditure on research and development, as well as employment in these sectors. The findings of this study show that total greenhouse gas emissions from all sources increase with countries’ economic growth, while a higher level of support of EU countries for research and development, and a greater share of employment in both industry and agriculture, translate into higher greenhouse gas emissions from these sectors. These conclusions may be useful for decision makers in developed and developing countries, as well as those in the industrial and agricultural sectors, in controlling and verifying the possible causes of greenhouse gas emissions in terms of the need to reduce their negative role on the environment and human health.

Assessment of renewable energy and energy efficiency plans in Thailand’s industrial sector

Since the adoption of Bali Roadmap in 2007, the efforts to reduce Green House Gases (GHGs) Emissions are growing with concern of new agreement against climate change. Under Kyoto Protocol, Annex I parties which have received mandatory target of GHG emissions implement lots of policies for reducing GHG emissions. Beside Annex I parties, many countries set their own GHG emissions target and make efforts to achieve the target in many ways. Each country introduces voluntary agreements and negotiated agreements to reduce GHG emissions in industrial sector that occupies a large part of national GHG emissions. As the demand on reduction of GHG emission is strengthening, climate change policies come up in form of negotiated agreements. The existence of the obligation affects countries’ GHG reduction policies’ intensity. According to recent discussion about post-Kyoto protocol, it is expected that some countries as China, South Korea, and India would receive the mandatory target of GHG emission.

The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the global ceramic production is estimated at more than 400 Mt CO2/year, which have increased steadily from economic growth. Among ceramic industries, ceramic tableware industry (CTI) is a highly energy-intensive and high GHG emissions industry. Thailand was the fourth highest ranking ceramic tableware exporting country in the world. However, information on GHG emission from this industry was limited. This research aimed to investigate the carbon dioxide(CO2) intensity of CTI in Thailand and the annual projections of GHG emission during 2017–2050 with different GDP growths. Then, the energy saving potentials and GHG mitigation measures with their GHG abatement cost for small and large-scale CTI were proposed. The results indicated that the average CO2 intensity of Thailand CTI was 1.75 kg CO2e/kg of product. The projections for GHG emissions of ceramic tableware production with gross domestic production (GDP) growth rates of 1.5, 3.5 (BAU), and 5.5%, reached their maximum emissions at 220,500 t CO2 in 2029, 2022, and 2020, respectively. Under a BAU scenario, ceramic tableware production in 2022 would emit GHG at a rate approximately 1.37 times greater compared to the emissions in 2016. The maximum GHG reduction (100% implementation) was 48,902 t CO2e, accounting for 22% of GHG emissions in 2030. The average mitigation cost was 6.64 USD/t CO2e reduction. This study provided a guideline for the assessment of CO2 intensity and the technical information for long-term GHG emission projection in CTI which could be applied in worldwide.

BackgroundPolicies to mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can yield public health benefits by also reducing emissions of hazardous co-pollutants, such as air toxics and particulate matter. Socioeconomically disadvantaged communities are typically disproportionately exposed to air pollutants, and therefore climate policy could also potentially reduce these environmental inequities. We sought to explore potential social disparities in GHG and co-pollutant emissions under an existing carbon trading program—the dominant approach to GHG regulation in the US and globally.Methods and findingsWe examined the relationship between multiple measures of neighborhood disadvantage and the location of GHG and co-pollutant emissions from facilities regulated under California’s cap-and-trade program—the world’s fourth largest operational carbon trading program. We examined temporal patterns in annual average emissions of GHGs, particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, volatile organic compounds, and air toxics before (January 1, 2011–December 31, 2012) and after (January 1, 2013–December 31, 2015) the initiation of carbon trading. We found that facilities regulated under California’s cap-and-trade program are disproportionately located in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods with higher proportions of residents of color, and that the quantities of co-pollutant emissions from these facilities were correlated with GHG emissions through time. Moreover, the majority (52%) of regulated facilities reported higher annual average local (in-state) GHG emissions since the initiation of trading. Neighborhoods that experienced increases in annual average GHG and co-pollutant emissions from regulated facilities nearby after trading began had higher proportions of people of color and poor, less educated, and linguistically isolated residents, compared to neighborhoods that experienced decreases in GHGs. These study results reflect preliminary emissions and social equity patterns of the first 3 years of California’s cap-and-trade program for which data are available. Due to data limitations, this analysis did not assess the emissions and equity implications of GHG reductions from transportation-related emission sources. Future emission patterns may shift, due to changes in industrial production decisions and policy initiatives that further incentivize local GHG and co-pollutant reductions in disadvantaged communities.ConclusionsTo our knowledge, this is the first study to examine social disparities in GHG and co-pollutant emissions under an existing carbon trading program. Our results indicate that, thus far, California’s cap-and-trade program has not yielded improvements in environmental equity with respect to health-damaging co-pollutant emissions. This could change, however, as the cap on GHG emissions is gradually lowered in the future. The incorporation of additional policy and regulatory elements that incentivize more local emission reductions in disadvantaged communities could enhance the local air quality and environmental equity benefits of California’s climate change mitigation efforts.

Better information on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and mitigation potential in the agricultural sector is necessary to manage these emissions and identify responses that are consistent with the food security and economic development priorities of countries. Critical activity data (what crops or livestock are managed in what way) are poor or lacking for many agricultural systems, especially in developing countries. In addition, the currently available methods for quantifying emissions and mitigation are often too expensive or complex or not sufficiently user friendly for widespread use.The purpose of this focus issue is to capture the state of the art in quantifying greenhouse gases from agricultural systems, with the goal of better understanding our current capabilities and near-term potential for improvement, with particular attention to quantification issues relevant to smallholders in developing countries. This work is timely in light of international discussions and negotiations around how agriculture should be included in efforts to reduce and adapt to climate change impacts, and considering that significant climate financing to developing countries in post-2012 agreements may be linked to their increased ability to identify and report GHG emissions (Murphy et al 2010, CCAFS 2011, FAO 2011).

Environmental innovations hold promise for cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but most technology investments are made in large technologically leading countries. Thus, emission reductions in small open economies, such as the Nordic countries, depend on not only domestic technological development, but also technology spillovers from foreign countries. The present study analysed how the development of climate change technologies affected the Nordic countries' GHG emissions from the industrial and energy sectors during a particular time frame. Consequently, while controlling for economic growth and population, domestic and foreign technological development's effects on industrial and energy sector GHG emissions were examined from the 1990–2019 period. The results revealed that both domestically developed environmental technologies and technology spillovers from foreign economies mitigated GHG emissions from these nations' energy and industrial sectors, thereby providing an efficient pathway to achieving sectoral environmental sustainability. In particular, domestic environmental technologies were found to be more efficient in driving environmental sustainability in the industrial sector, whereas impacts from domestic and foreign technological development did not differ significantly in the energy sector. Furthermore, given that economic growth plays a vital role in GHG emissions, environmental Kuznets curve (EKC; inverted U-shaped and U-shaped) relationships have been observed in the energy and industrial sectors, respectively. This suggests that the examined countries' industrial sectors have more environmental quality hurdles to overcome.

Green house gas (GHG) emission has been one of hot topics for international society because of its close relationship with economic growth, China has ranked first on GHG emission in the world for its numerous population and rapid growth of industry. As the capital of China, Beijing's government pay great attention to energy saving and GHG reduction which already acts as paragon in China. GHG emission mainly comes from energy consumption, this paper takes CO2 as the research object and analyzes the current energy consumption and GHG emission in Beijing. The application of environmental management in this field can promote the emission-reducing effect which can be proven from five aspects of economy, technology, law, policy and education combining with the projects on industry, traffic, building, green energy and forest.

BackgroundThe Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) of Thailand intends to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 20 to 25% from the projected business as usual level by 2030 with the deployment of renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency improvement measures in both the supply and demand sectors. However, in order to contribute towards meeting the long-term goal of the Paris Agreement to stay well below 2 °C, ambitious mitigation efforts beyond 2030 are needed. As such, it is necessary to assess the effects of imposing more stringent long-term GHG reduction targets in Thailand beyond the NDC commitment.MethodsThis paper analyses the macroeconomic effects of limiting the GHG emissions by using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model on Thailand’s economy during 2010 to 2050. Besides the business as usual (BAU) scenario, this study assesses the macroeconomic effects of ten low to medium GHG mitigation scenarios under varying GHG reduction targets of 20 to 50%. In addition, this study also assesses three different peak emission scenarios, each targeting a GHG reduction of up to 90% by 2050, to analyze the feasibility of zero GHG emissions in Thailand to pursue efforts to hold the global temperature rise to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, as considered in the Paris Agreement.ResultsAccording to the BAU scenario, the GHG emissions from the electricity, industry, and transport sectors would remain the most prominent throughout the planning period. The modeling results indicate that the medium to peak emission reduction scenarios could result in a serious GDP loss compared to the BAU scenario, and therefore, the attainment of such mitigation targets could be very challenging for Thailand. Results suggest that the development and deployment of energy-efficient and renewable energy-based technologies would play a significant role not only in minimizing the GHG emissions but also for overcoming the macroeconomic loss and lowering the price of GHG emissions.ConclusionsThe results reveal that without a transformative change in the economic structure and energy system of Thailand, the country would have to face enormous cost in reducing its GHG emissions.

Executive Summary: The California Climate Action Registry, which was initially established in 2000 and began operation in Fall 2002, is a voluntary registry for recording annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The purpose of the Registry is to assist California businesses and organizations in their efforts to inventory and document emissions in order to establish a baseline and to document early actions to increase energy efficiency and decrease GHG emissions. The State of California has committed to use its ''best efforts'' to ensure that entities that establish GHG emissions baselines and register their emissions will receive ''appropriate consideration under any future international, federal, or state regulatory scheme relating to greenhouse gas emissions.'' Reporting of GHG emissions involves documentation of both ''direct'' emissions from sources that are under the entity's control and indirect emissions controlled by others. Electricity generated by an off-site power source is consider ed to be an indirect GHG emission and is required to be included in the entity's report. Registry participants include businesses, non-profit organizations, municipalities, state agencies, and other entities. Participants are required to register the GHG emissions of all operations in California, and are encouraged to report nationwide. For the first three years of participation, the Registry only requires the reporting of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, although participants are encouraged to report the remaining five Kyoto Protocol GHGs (CH4, N2O, HFCs, PFCs, and SF6). After three years, reporting of all six Kyoto GHG emissions is required. The enabling legislation for the Registry (SB 527) requires total GHG emissions to be registered and requires reporting of ''industry-specific metrics'' once such metrics have been adopted by the Registry. The Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) was asked to provide technical assistance to the California Energy Commission (Energy Commission) related to the Registry in three areas: (1) assessing the availability and usefulness of industry-specific metrics, (2) evaluating various methods for establishing baselines for calculating GHG emissions reductions related to specific actions taken by Registry participants, and (3) establishing methods for calculating electricity CO2 emission factors. The third area of research was completed in 2002 and is documented in Estimating Carbon Dioxide Emissions Factors for the California Electric Power Sector (Marnay et al., 2002). This report documents our findings related to the first areas of research. For the first area of research, the overall objective was to evaluate the metrics, such as emissions per economic unit or emissions per unit of production that can be used to report GHG emissions trends for potential Registry participants. This research began with an effort to identify methodologies, benchmarking programs, inventories, protocols, and registries that u se industry-specific metrics to track trends in energy use or GHG emissions in order to determine what types of metrics have already been developed. The next step in developing industry-specific metrics was to assess the availability of data needed to determine metric development priorities. Berkeley Lab also determined the relative importance of different potential Registry participant categories in order to asses s the availability of sectoral or industry-specific metrics and then identified industry-specific metrics in use around the world. While a plethora of metrics was identified, no one metric that adequately tracks trends in GHG emissions while maintaining confidentiality of data was identified. As a result of this review, Berkeley Lab recommends the development of a GHG intensity index as a new metric for reporting and tracking GHG emissions trends.Such an index could provide an industry-specific metric for reporting and tracking GHG emissions trends to accurately reflect year to year changes while protecting proprietary data. This GHG intensity index changes while protecting proprietary data. This GHG intensity index would provide Registry participants with a means for demonstrating improvements in their energy and GHG emissions per unit of production without divulging specific values. For the second research area, Berkeley Lab evaluated various methods used to calculate baselines for documentation of energy consumption or GHG emissions reductions, noting those that use industry-specific metrics. Accounting for actions to reduce GHGs can be done on a project-by-project basis or on an entity basis. Establishing project-related baselines for mitigation efforts has been widely discussed in the context of two of the so-called ''flexible mechanisms'' of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Kyoto Protocol) Joint Implementation (JI) and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

_ Maritime transport accounts for around 3% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Well-to-Wake). These GHG emissions must be reduced by at least 50% in absolute values by 2050 to contribute to the ambitions of the Paris Agreement signed in 2015. Switching to zero-carbon fuels made from renewable sources (hydro, wind, or solar) is seen by many as the most promising option to deliver the desired GHG reductions. However, renewable energy is a scarce resource that gives a much larger GHG reduction spent within other sectors. This study explores how to reach the IMO 2050 GHG targets exclusively through energy efficiency measures. The results indicate that by combining wind-assisted ship propulsion (WASP) with a slender hull form, fuel consumption and GHG emissions can be reduced by 30–35%, at a negative abatement cost for speeds exceeding 8 knots. Where the cost saving increases with the speed because at higher speeds, the fuel accounts for a higher share of the total cost, which implies that the cost saving goes from zero at 8 knots, to 5% reduction at 11 knots average speed to 14% reduction of total cost with 15 knots average speed. In comparison, GHG reductions through zero-carbon fuels will increase transport costs by 50–200%. Introduction From the first days of our civilization, sea transport has enabled regional and global trades. Today, sea transport accounts for 80% of the global trade measured in ton-miles (UNCTAD 2021) and 3% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions measured Well-to-Wake (Lindstad et al. 2021). More than 40% of this sea trade is performed by dry bulkers, making them the real workhorses of the sea. Even though sea transport is energy efficient compared to other transport modes, all sectors need to reduce their GHG emissions by at least 50% in absolute values by 2050 to contribute to the Paris Agreement (UNFCCC 2015). According to Bouman et al. (2017), the desired energy and GHG reductions can be achieved through: Design and other technical improvements of ships; Operational improvements; Fuels with zero or low GHG footprints; or a combination of these.