Carbon footprint, mitigation costs, and economic burden of global ICT industry

We update a previously presented Linear Programming (LP) methodology for estimating state level costs for reducing CO2 emissions from existing coal-fired power plants by cofiring switchgrass, a biomass energy crop, and coal. This paper presents national level results of applying the methodology to the entire portion of the United States in which switchgrass could be grown without irrigation. We present incremental switchgrass and coal cofiring carbon cost of mitigation curves along with a presentation of regionally specific cofiring economics and policy issues. The results show that cofiring 189 million dry short tons of switchgrass with coal in the existing U.S. coal-fired electricity generation fleet can mitigate approximately 256 million short tons of carbon-dioxide (CO2) per year, representing a 9% reduction of 2005 electricity sector CO2 emissions. Total marginal costs, including capital, labor, feedstock, and transportation, range from $20 to $86/ton CO2 mitigated,with average costs ranging from $20 to $45/ton. If some existing power plants upgrade to boilers designed for combusting switchgrass, an additional 54 million tons of switchgrass can be cofired. In this case, total marginal costs range from $26 to $100/ton CO2 mitigated, with average costs ranging from $20 to $60/ton. Costs for states east of the Mississippi River are largely unaffected by boiler replacement; Atlantic seaboard states represent the lowest cofiring cost of carbon mitigation. The central plains states west of the Mississippi River are most affected by the boiler replacement option and, in general, go from one of the lowest cofiring cost of carbon mitigation regions to the highest. We explain the variation in transportation expenses and highlight regional cost of mitigation variations as transportation overwhelms other cofiring costs.

Cost–benefit analysis of China’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions based on carbon marginal cost curves

Effects of soluble and particulate substrate on the carbon and energy footprint of wastewater treatment processes

<abstract> Process-level modeling at the farm scale provides a tool for evaluating strategies for both mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change. The Integrated Farm System Model (IFSM) simulates representative crop, beef, or dairy farms over many years of weather to predict performance, economics, and environmental impacts including various emissions and a farm-gate life cycle assessment of carbon, energy, water, and reactive nitrogen footprints of the feed, meat, or milk produced. To illustrate use of the model, a representative dairy farm in central New York was simulated over 25 years of recent historical weather to determine the environmental benefits and economic costs of alternative manure handling strategies. Use of an enclosed manure storage with a flare to burn the methane produced decreased the farm-gate carbon footprint of the milk produced by 20% at an increased annual cost of $42 cow^-1. Using an anaerobic digester to produce gas and electricity used on the farm reduced the carbon footprint by 19% and reduced profitability by $56 cow^-1. The addition of subsurface injection of manure along with a reduction in N fertilizer use greatly reduced ammonia emission from the farm and increased annual profit by $9 cow^-1. Climate change is projected to affect many aspects of dairy production, including growing season length, crop growth processes, harvest timing and losses, cattle performance, nutrient emissions and losses, and ultimately farm profitability. Climate projections for high and low emission scenarios were downscaled from nine general circulation models. IFSM was then used to simulate the same New York dairy farm over 25-year periods using recent, mid-century, and late century climate projected by each of the climate models. Simulations were done without and with adaptation through modified crop varieties and planting and harvest dates. Forage production normally increased with projected climate change and corn grain yields decreased, and together feed production was maintained. Warmer temperatures increased volatile loss of ammonia N, and changes in precipitation patterns increased nutrient runoff losses in surface water. The reactive N footprint of the milk produced was increased by 2% to 11% with the change in climate, but other environmental footprints were relatively unaffected. With appropriate adaptation to climate change, annual farm profitability increased by about $100 cow^-1. However, for the high emission, late century projection, profit decreased by $10 cow^-1 and the risk or annual variance in profit increased by 34%, reflecting greater annual variation in crop and animal productivity. Whole-farm and climate models provide useful tools for studying the benefits and costs of greenhouse gas mitigation and the adaptation of farms to changing climate.

Contribution of the transport sector to climate change mitigation: Insights from a global passenger transport model coupled with a computable general equilibrium model

The impacts of U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on the carbon emission space and mitigation cost of China, EU, and Japan under the constraints of the global carbon emission space

This study examines the carbon emission reduction goals of third-party logistics (3PL) firms for sustainable activities, assessing their effectiveness and impact on sustainability. It explores the goals and methods used by these companies, their implementation challenges, and the potential effects on sustainability outcomes like reduced emissions, improved operational efficiency, and increased stakeholder participation. This aims to understand how 3PL companies reduce their carbon footprints and identify opportunities. This study examines the leading 3PL providers in the global content market using a comprehensive analysis of literature articles. The effect of carbon footprints on efficiency in third-party logistics companies is examined in the present research. With an emphasis on carbon mitigation, the effects of carbon footprints on organisations, and the tactics 3PL entities employ to lower their carbon footprints, it included 76 research publications during 2019–2024. The study examines supply chain management, sustainability, and emission reduction using the theories of carbon management, stakeholders, and the environment. The outcomes demonstrate how well the retention of carbon techniques works to raise industrial sustainability standards. This study evaluates the interest and difficulties experienced by 3PL companies by comparing the results with those of other countries. Consequently, the goal of the research is to raise the general understanding of environmental issues and accomplish long-term sustainability objectives in the transportation industry, as a finding of this research, Direct, indirect, and fugitive carbon footprints have considerable impacts on the environment and economy. Compared to individuals, businesses are more responsible for global warming, which damages infrastructure, disrupts supply chains, and lowers productivity. 3PL companies can employ carbon mitigation strategies, such as waste reduction, renewable energy investments, and environmentally friendly transportation while interacting with stakeholders and governments to minimise the negative environmental effects. Likewise,20% of the world's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come from the transportation sector, which includes 3PL companies. Keywords: Carbon Footprint, GHG Emissions, Supply Chain Management, Sustainability, Sustainable Practices, Third-Party Logistics

Does reducing income inequality promote the decoupling of economic growth from carbon footprint?

Transportation sector has been one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas in China and the world. Highway has been one of the vital means of transport in China, which is significantly beneficial to promote economic development, energy saving, and carbon mitigation. This study investigates the ecological value of highway at regional scale by developing carbon footprint evaluation system of highway, based on expert knowledge and by focusing on the Jiangsu Province of China. Different parts of carbon footprint (CF) are estimated by five indicators, including carbon footprint of construction, carbon footprint of management, carbon footprint of driving, carbon footprint of traffic condition change, and carbon footprint of land use and cover change. The characteristics of and spatial and temporal change in the total carbon footprint for nine trunk highways in Jiangsu Province from 2000 to 2050 were analyzed, and the key factors impacting the recovery period of carbon (RC) of the highways were identified. The results show that an overall condition of CF of highways in Jiangsu Province is helpful to reduce CO2 emissions and recover their carbon emissions in 2031. G25 has the highest value in ecology, whereas G15 has the lowest at the individual level. This study also demonstrates that traffic demand is the fundamental determinant of RC and there is synchronization between RC and recovery period of investment (RI). These findings are helpful for policy makers in mitigating carbon emissions in planning and construction of highway. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 35: 1468–1475, 2016

Evaluating carbon emission performance of the construction industry is a significant prerequisite for developing regional carbon mitigation plans. Taking environmental and technical heterogeneities into account, this paper employed a meta-frontier method to measure the carbon emission efficiency, carbon mitigation potential, and costs of the construction sector in different regions of China from 2005 to 2016. The empirical results show that substantial disparities in carbon emission efficiency exist in the construction industry. The total carbon mitigation potential of this sector was 206.76 million tons, with the Lower Yellow river area accounting for the largest proportion at 27%. Meanwhile, the carbon mitigation costs of this sector increased from 584.94 to 1273.30 yuan/ton during 2005-2016. The highest mitigation costs occur in the Lower Yangtze River area and the South Coastal area, indicating it was more costly in these areas to conduct additional carbon emissions mitigation. The results could facilitate the policy formulation on regional-oriented carbon emissions mitigation of the construction industry in China.

Health Care and Climate Change: Challenges and Pathways to Sustainable Health Care.

Bioreducer use in Finnish blast furnace ironmaking – Analysis of CO2 emission reduction potential and mitigation cost

Larix principis-rupprechtii is a native tree species in North China with a large distribution; and its harvested timbers can be used for producing wood products. This study focused on estimating and comparing carbon flows and carbon footprints of different harvested wood products (HWPs) from Larix principis-ruppechtii based on the life cycle analysis (from seedling cultivation to HWP final disposal). Based on our interviews and surveys, the system boundary in this study was divided into three processes: the forestry process, the manufacturing process, and the use and disposal process. By tracking carbon flows of HWPs along the entire life cycle, we found that, for one forest rotation period, a total of 26.81 tC/ha sequestered carbon was transferred into these HWPs, 66.2% of which were still stored in the HWP when the rotation period had ended; however, the HWP carbon storage decreased to 0.25 tC/ha (only 0.9% left) in the 100th year after forest plantation. The manufacturing process contributed more than 90% of the total HWP carbon footprint, but it was still smaller than the HWP carbon storage. In terms of the carbon storage and the carbon footprint, construction products had the largest net positive carbon balance compared to furniture and panel products. In addition, HWP are known to have a positive impact on global carbon mitigation because they can store parts of the sequestered carbon for a certain period of time and they have a substitution effect on carbon mitigation. Furthermore, there still exist great opportunities for carbon mitigation from HWPs through the use of cleaner energy and increasing the utilization efficiency of wood fuel.

Climate change mitigation issues including China’s carbon emission status, the mitigation potential and cost in different sectors, the target of 40%–45% reduction of emission intensity of GDP in 2020 compared with the 2005 level, and conditions and uncertainties of the carbon emission peak are analyzed and assessed in the Third China National Climate Change Assessment Report and summarized in this paper. Economic structure adjustment has played and is expected to continue to play important role for carbon mitigation. Development of nuclear and renewable power would contribute to around 2 billion tons and 3.7 billion tons carbon reductions by 2020 and 2030 respectively. Key energy saving and low carbon technologies in the end-use sectors such as industry, transportation and building are listed and assessed. The mitigation potential and cost curve for steel is provided as an example to show that a large amount of carbon emissions could be reduced with minus mitigation cost partly resulting to energy saved. For industry process, carbon mitigation potentials would be around 420 million tons and 770 million tons by 2020 and 2030 respectively. Carbon mitigation potentials from LULUCF (Land use, land use change and forestry) are still uncertain and needed further research. For the assessment of 45% carbon intensity reduction target in 2020, it is concluded that economic structure adjustment, energy efficiency improvement, development of non-fossil energy, building and transportation would contribute to 33.4%, 28.5%, 20.4% and 17.3% of the total reductions. Assuming GDP growth rate as 6%–7% during 2010–2030, energy intensity reduction rate as 15% during 2015–2020, 14% during 2020–2025, and 13% during 2025–2030, the total primary energy consumption would be around 6 billion tons. To control coal use to less than 50% of the total primary energy consumption, while increasing the share of nature gas to over 10%, and the share of new and renewable energy to 20% or higher, carbon emissions would peak around 2030 at 11 to 12 billion tons. Finally, Climate change mitigation strategies to facilitate the achievement of China’s carbon emission peak target are proposed. It’s also suggested that measures are needed to accelerate the economy restructuring and development modes shift, to control the growth rate of total energy demand, to maintain a sustainable energy system with the new and renewable energy as its main components, and to achieve the carbon emission peak target by sector and region.

Climate mitigation has become a global issue and most countries have promised their greenhouse gas reduction target. However, after Trump took office as president of the United States (US), the US withdrew from the Paris Agreement. As the biggest economy, this would have impacts on the emission space of other countries. This paper, by using the integrated model of energy, environment and economy/computable general equilibrium (IMED/CGE) model, assesses the impacts of the US withdrawal from Paris Agreement on China, India in terms of carbon emission space and mitigation cost under Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and 2°C scenarios due to changed emission pathway of the US. The results show that, under the condition of constant global cumulative carbon emissions and fixed burden sharing scheme among the countries, the failure of the US to honor its NDC commitment will increase its carbon emission space and decrease its mitigation cost. However, the carbon emission space of other regions, including China and India, will be reduced and their mitigation costs will be raised. In 2030, under the 2°C target, the carbon price will increase by US$14.3 to US$45.3/t in China and by US $10.7 to US$33.9/t in India. In addition, China and India will incur additional GDP loss. Under the 2°C target, the GDP loss of China would increase by US$23.3 to US$72.6 billion (equivalent to US$17.4 to US$54.2/capita), and that of India would rise by US$14.2 to US$43.1 billion (equivalent to US$9.3 to US$28.2/capita).