Greenhouse gas emissions during the construction phase of a building: a case study in China

Mitigating Curtailment and Carbon Emissions through Load Migration between Data Centers

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).

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

The Earth's surface temperature is steadily increasing due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases, a phenomenon known as global warming. Human activities are the root cause of this significant global issue. Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is one of the most critical actions in climate change mitigation. Organizations can engage in activities that promote change and reduce greenhouse gases by acknowledging the significance of addressing climate change. By reducing GHG emissions and promoting the use of renewable energy, organizations can begin to address environmental issues. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation is to assess the reduction of GHG emissions in an educational institution by substituting electricity consumption from the electrical grid with renewable energy in the form of a solar PV rooftop on-grid system. The School of Renewable Energy's GHG emissions were assessed, covering three scopes of GHG emissions activities: direct emissions, indirect emissions, and other indirect emissions. The organization's activity data were collected over a 12-month period. Without installing a solar panel system, the organization reported total GHG emissions of 310.40 tCO2e, relying solely on imported electricity for internal use. The highest GHG emissions were from Scope 2, amounting to 239.38 tCO2e, primarily due to electricity importation. Scope 3 had the second highest GHG emissions, totaling 65.76 tCO2e, resulting from employee commuting and the use of purchased goods such as paper and tap water. Scope 1 had the lowest GHG emissions at 5.26 tCO2e, produced by the combustion of diesel and gasoline in both stationary and mobile sources, as well as CH4 emissions from the septic tank. The percentage of GHG emissions from Scope 2 activities was 77.12%, which was considered to have a significant environmental impact and contribute to global warming. This was because 478,851 kWh of electricity were imported. The installation of on-grid solar cells for power generation reduced imported electricity to 113,120 kWh. Consequently, GHG emissions from Scope 2 decreased to 56.55 tCO2e, leading to an overall reduction in the organization's GHG emissions to 127.57 tCO2e. The organization's GHG emissions decreased by 182.83 tCO2e as a result of using alternative energy to generate electricity. This assessment can serve as a database for educational institutions and prepare the government to report greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, it can serve as carbon credits for trading and exchanging carbon with other organizations to offset GHG emissions from various activities. In addition, it endorses the government's goal of achieving carbon neutrality and net zero emissions in the future.

Kupang city is growth rapidly and located in a strategic position between Australia and Timor Leste. A sharp increase of GHG emission along with environmental pollution, contamination of water, air and improper waste disposal practices as its consequence to the global environment. The city's government ambition to evaluate impact of economic activity on greenhouse gases (GHG) emission contribution. This paper outlined pollutant sectors that contribute substantially to GHG emission in Kupang along with its structure, and count an estimated amount of emission coefficients for 27 economy sectors. More in-depth explanation about indirect coefficient pollutant emission which beneficial not only for calculation of the emission amount but more as inventory data for LCA. The paper is investigated review the trends of some priority sectors, then introduction of indirect coefficients of pollutant sectors, and showed the Pollutant Emission Structure for Kupang. After that, an estimated amount of Kupang GHG emission under BAU is also counted and confirmed. The paper only considers GHG emission issues while air pollutant emission only be provided as inventory data but will not be used as exogenous data for this paper. In the final part a brief explanation and implications of GHG emission policy in Kupang are identified. A detailed of input-output data for individual process are provided includes all groups of processes or industry sectors relevant to economy activities in Kupang City. A time period for Global Warming Potential (GWP) 20 year and 100 years are used to forecasted amounts share of total GHG emission in Kupang and Indonesia by 2020 compared to 2010. As results first, the GHG emission and air pollutant coefficients for 27 sectors in Kupang based on method is presented in NIES which use to count the GHG emission. These also become an Inventory data for researchers of regional science in Indonesia, however, geography and socioeconomic conditions in every region is different, so that some criteria will be applied. Second, found total GHG emission in Kupang is $1.0164\mathrm{x} 10^{-3}$ Gt or around 0.047% compared to total GHG emission by 2010 and 0.034% compared to total GHG emission by 2020 in Indonesia. The study suggests to government consider a proper method in decide a reliable environmental policy and technical measures to reach GHG emission targets by 2020. Third, total share of CO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> e in Indonesia emitted from Kupang for GWP 20 years and 100 years respectively were came out as follow.

Energy-related activities are a major contributor of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A growing body of knowledge clearly depicts the links between human activities and climate change. Over the last century the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil and other human activities has released carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and other heat-trapping GHG emissions into the atmosphere and thus increased the concentration of atmospheric CO2 emissions. The main human activities that emit CO2 emissions are (1) the combustion of fossil fuels to generate electricity, accounting for about 37% of total U.S. CO2 emissions and 31% of total U.S. GHG emissions in 2013, (2) the combustion of fossil fuels such as gasoline and diesel to transport people and goods, accounting for about 31% of total U.S. CO2 emissions and 26% of total U.S. GHG emissions in 2013, and (3) industrial processes such as the production and consumption of minerals and chemicals, accounting for about 15% of total U.S. CO2 emissions and 12% of total ...

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 impact of uncertainties on predicted greenhouse gas emissions of dairy cow production systems

The evaluation of GHG emissions from Shanghai municipal wastewater treatment plants based on IPCC and operational data integrated methods (ODIM)

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

Understanding the greenhouse gas emissions from China’s wastewater treatment plants: Based on life cycle assessment coupled with statistical data

Well-to-wheel greenhouse gas emissions of electric versus combustion vehicles from 2018 to 2030 in the US

Climate-smart livestock production at landscape level in Kenya

Hidden greenhouse gas emissions for water utilities in China's cities

The body of life cycle assessment (LCA) literature is vast and has grown over the last decade at a dauntingly rapid rate. Many LCAs have been published on the same or very similar technologies or products, in some cases leading to hundreds of publications. One result is the impression among decision makers that LCAs are inconclusive, owing to perceived and real variability in published estimates of life cycle impacts. Despite the extensive available literature and policy need formore conclusive assessments, only modest attempts have been made to synthesize previous research. A significant challenge to doing so are differences in characteristics of the considered technologies and inconsistencies in methodological choices (e.g., system boundaries, coproduct allocation, and impact assessment methods) among the studies that hamper easy comparisons and related decision support. An emerging trend is meta-analysis of a set of results from LCAs, which has the potential to clarify the impacts of a particular technology, process, product, or material and produce more robust and policy-relevant results. Meta-analysis in this context is defined here as an analysis of a set of published LCA results to estimate a single or multiple impacts for a single technology or a technology category, either in a statisticalmore » sense (e.g., following the practice in the biomedical sciences) or by quantitative adjustment of the underlying studies to make them more methodologically consistent. One example of the latter approach was published in Science by Farrell and colleagues (2006) clarifying the net energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of ethanol, in which adjustments included the addition of coproduct credit, the addition and subtraction of processes within the system boundary, and a reconciliation of differences in the definition of net energy metrics. Such adjustments therefore provide an even playing field on which all studies can be considered and at the same time specify the conditions of the playing field itself. Understanding the conditions under which a meta-analysis was conducted is important for proper interpretation of both the magnitude and variability in results. This special supplemental issue of the Journal of Industrial Ecology includes 12 high-quality metaanalyses and critical reviews of LCAs that advance understanding of the life cycle environmental impacts of different technologies, processes, products, and materials. Also published are three contributions on methodology and related discussions of the role of meta-analysis in LCA. The goal of this special supplemental issue is to contribute to the state of the science in LCA beyond the core practice of producing independent studies on specific products or technologies by highlighting the ability of meta-analysis of LCAs to advance understanding in areas of extensive existing literature. The inspiration for the issue came from a series of meta-analyses of life cycle GHG emissions from electricity generation technologies based on research from the LCA Harmonization Project of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), a laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, which also provided financial support for this special supplemental issue. (See the editorial from this special supplemental issue [Lifset 2012], which introduces this supplemental issue and discusses the origins, funding, peer review, and other aspects.) The first article on reporting considerations for meta-analyses/critical reviews for LCA is from Heath and Mann (2012), who describe the methods used and experience gained in NREL's LCA Harmonization Project, which produced six of the studies in this special supplemental issue. Their harmonization approach adapts key features of systematic review to identify and screen published LCAs followed by a meta-analytical procedure to adjust published estimates to ones based on a consistent set of methods and assumptions to allow interstudy comparisons and conclusions to be made. In a second study on methods, Zumsteg and colleagues (2012) propose a checklist for a standardized technique to assist in conducting and reporting systematic reviews of LCAs, including meta-analysis, that is based on a framework used in evidence-based medicine. Widespread use of such a checklist would facilitate planning successful reviews, improve the ability to identify systematic reviews in literature searches, ease the ability to update content in future reviews, and allow more transparency of methods to ease peer review and more appropriately generalize findings. Finally, Zamagni and colleagues (2012) propose an approach, inspired by a meta-analysis, for categorizing main methodological topics, reconciling diverging methodological developments, and identifying future research directions in LCA. Their procedure involves the carrying out of a literature review on articles selected according to predefined criteria.« less