Greenhouse gases, radiative forcing, global warming potential and waste management — an introduction

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from post-consumer waste and wastewater are a small contributor (about 3%) to total global anthropogenic GHG emissions. Emissions for 2004-2005 totalled 1.4 Gt CO2-eq year(-1) relative to total emissions from all sectors of 49 Gt CO2-eq year(-1) [including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and F-gases normalized according to their 100-year global warming potentials (GWP)]. The CH4 from landfills and wastewater collectively accounted for about 90% of waste sector emissions, or about 18% of global anthropogenic methane emissions (which were about 14% of the global total in 2004). Wastewater N2O and CO2 from the incineration of waste containing fossil carbon (plastics; synthetic textiles) are minor sources. Due to the wide range of mature technologies that can mitigate GHG emissions from waste and provide public health, environmental protection, and sustainable development co-benefits, existing waste management practices can provide effective mitigation of GHG emissions from this sector. Current mitigation technologies include landfill gas recovery, improved landfill practices, and engineered wastewater management. In addition, significant GHG generation is avoided through controlled composting, state-of-the-art incineration, and expanded sanitation coverage. Reduced waste generation and the exploitation of energy from waste (landfill gas, incineration, anaerobic digester biogas) produce an indirect reduction of GHG emissions through the conservation of raw materials, improved energy and resource efficiency, and fossil fuel avoidance. Flexible strategies and financial incentives can expand waste management options to achieve GHG mitigation goals; local technology decisions are influenced by a variety of factors such as waste quantity and characteristics, cost and financing issues, infrastructure requirements including available land area, collection and transport considerations, and regulatory constraints. Existing studies on mitigation potentials and costs for the waste sector tend to focus on landfill CH4 as the baseline. The commercial recovery of landfill CH4 as a source of renewable energy has been practised at full scale since 1975 and currently exceeds 105 Mt CO2-eq year(-1). Although landfill CH4 emissions from developed countries have been largely stabilized, emissions from developing countries are increasing as more controlled (anaerobic) landfilling practices are implemented; these emissions could be reduced by accelerating the introduction of engineered gas recovery, increasing rates of waste minimization and recycling, and implementing alternative waste management strategies provided they are affordable, effective, and sustainable. Aided by Kyoto mechanisms such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Joint Implementation (JI), the total global economic mitigation potential for reducing waste sector emissions in 2030 is estimated to be > 1000 Mt CO2-eq (or 70% of estimated emissions) at costs below 100 US$ t(-1) CO2-eq year(-1). An estimated 20-30% of projected emissions for 2030 can be reduced at negative cost and 30-50% at costs < 20 US$ t(-) CO2-eq year(-1). As landfills produce CH4 for several decades, incineration and composting are complementary mitigation measures to landfill gas recovery in the short- to medium-term--at the present time, there are > 130 Mt waste year(-1) incinerated at more than 600 plants. Current uncertainties with respect to emissions and mitigation potentials could be reduced by more consistent national definitions, coordinated international data collection, standardized data analysis, field validation of models, and consistent application of life-cycle assessment tools inclusive of fossil fuel offsets.

Accounting of emissions of greenhouse gas (GHG) is a major focus within waste management. This paper analyses and compares the four main types of GHG accounting in waste management including their special features and approaches: the national accounting, with reference to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the corporate level, as part of the annual reporting on environmental issues and social responsibility, life-cycle assessment (LCA), as an environmental basis for assessing waste management systems and technologies, and finally, the carbon trading methodology, and more specifically, the clean development mechanism (CDM) methodology, introduced to support cost-effective reduction in GHG emissions. These types of GHG accounting, in principle, have a common starting point in technical data on GHG emissions from specific waste technologies and plants, but the limited availability of data and, moreover, the different scopes of the accounting lead to many ways of quantifying emissions and producing the accounts. The importance of transparency in GHG accounting is emphasised regarding waste type, waste composition, time period considered, GHGs included, global warming potential (GWP) assigned to the GHGs, counting of biogenic carbon dioxide, choice of system boundaries, interactions with the energy system, and generic emissions factors. In order to enhance transparency and consistency, a format called the upstream-operating-downstream framework (UOD) is proposed for reporting basic technology-related data regarding GHG issues including a clear distinction between direct emissions from waste management technologies, indirect upstream (use of energy and materials) and indirect downstream (production of energy, delivery of secondary materials) activities.

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).

Abstract. To track progress towards keeping global warming well below 2 ∘C or even 1.5 ∘C, as agreed in the Paris Agreement, comprehensive up-to-date and reliable information on anthropogenic emissions and removals of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is required. Here we compile a new synthetic dataset on anthropogenic GHG emissions for 1970–2018 with a fast-track extension to 2019. Our dataset is global in coverage and includes CO2 emissions, CH4 emissions, N2O emissions, as well as those from fluorinated gases (F-gases: HFCs, PFCs, SF6, NF3) and provides country and sector details. We build this dataset from the version 6 release of the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR v6) and three bookkeeping models for CO2 emissions from land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF). We assess the uncertainties of global greenhouse gases at the 90 % confidence interval (5th–95th percentile range) by combining statistical analysis and comparisons of global emissions inventories and top-down atmospheric measurements with an expert judgement informed by the relevant scientific literature. We identify important data gaps for F-gas emissions. The agreement between our bottom-up inventory estimates and top-down atmospheric-based emissions estimates is relatively close for some F-gas species (∼ 10 % or less), but estimates can differ by an order of magnitude or more for others. Our aggregated F-gas estimate is about 10 % lower than top-down estimates in recent years. However, emissions from excluded F-gas species such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) or hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) are cumulatively larger than the sum of the reported species. Using global warming potential values with a 100-year time horizon from the Sixth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), global GHG emissions in 2018 amounted to 58 ± 6.1 GtCO2 eq. consisting of CO2 from fossil fuel combustion and industry (FFI) 38 ± 3.0 GtCO2, CO2-LULUCF 5.7 ± 4.0 GtCO2, CH4 10 ± 3.1 GtCO2 eq., N2O 2.6 ± 1.6 GtCO2 eq., and F-gases 1.3 ± 0.40 GtCO2 eq. Initial estimates suggest further growth of 1.3 GtCO2 eq. in GHG emissions to reach 59 ± 6.6 GtCO2 eq. by 2019. Our analysis of global trends in anthropogenic GHG emissions over the past 5 decades (1970–2018) highlights a pattern of varied but sustained emissions growth. There is high confidence that global anthropogenic GHG emissions have increased every decade, and emissions growth has been persistent across the different (groups of) gases. There is also high confidence that global anthropogenic GHG emissions levels were higher in 2009–2018 than in any previous decade and that GHG emissions levels grew throughout the most recent decade. While the average annual GHG emissions growth rate slowed between 2009 and 2018 (1.2 % yr−1) compared to 2000–2009 (2.4 % yr−1), the absolute increase in average annual GHG emissions by decade was never larger than between 2000–2009 and 2009–2018. Our analysis further reveals that there are no global sectors that show sustained reductions in GHG emissions. There are a number of countries that have reduced GHG emissions over the past decade, but these reductions are comparatively modest and outgrown by much larger emissions growth in some developing countries such as China, India, and Indonesia. There is a need to further develop independent, robust, and timely emissions estimates across all gases. As such, tracking progress in climate policy requires substantial investments in independent GHG emissions accounting and monitoring as well as in national and international statistical infrastructures. The data associated with this article (Minx et al., 2021) can be found at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5566761.

Potential for greenhouse gas reduction and energy recovery from MSW through different waste management technologies

Methane emissions along biomethane and biogas supply chains are underestimated

Operationalizing marketable blue carbon

Cost-effective reductions of non-CO 2 greenhouse gases

This paper discusses the impact on climate change of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in fire suppression applications. Alternatives and substitutes for HFCs, perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and ozone depleting substances (ODSs) have recently been extensively evaluated. NFPA 2001 defines a clean fire extinguishing agent as an electrically non-conducting, volatile, or gaseous fire suppressant that does not leave a residue upon evaporation. A clean agent must have no known effect on the ozone layer and also, no effect on any human survival within an enclosure protected by a clean agent, and in normally occupied areas must be used in a concentration that is less than “no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL)”. NOAEL is a measure of clean agent toxicity to humans under test conditions. The HFCs that are projected for large volume use have global warming potentials (GWPs) lower than the replacing ODSs. GWPs of HFCs replacing ODSs ranges from 120 to 12,000 as per the year 2000 data of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). HFC-23 with a GWP of 12,000 is used as a replacement for ODSs to a very limited extent. However, there are relatively large emissions of HFC-23 from the HCFC-22 manufacturing process. However, the majority of HFCs have GWPs much lower than that of HFC-23. NFPA 2001 standard demonstrates the fact that the GWP value considered by itself does not provide an indication of the impact of fire extinguishing clean agent on climate change. Further, the paper briefly describes the clean agent fire extinguishing system design considerations to extinguish fires either by flame extinguishment or by inerting in accordance with the changing characteristics of fire hazard scenarios in building and industrial occupancies. An important finding of this brief study is that the value of 0.4858 kg/m3 is a total flooding factor for HFC-227ea fire extinguishing agent representing the quantity of halocarbon clean agent required to achieve a selected design fire extinguishing concentration of 6% at a specified ambient temperature of 21 °C. It is further important to understand that the impact of a fire extinguishing clean agent on climate change is a function of both the GWP of the gas and the amount of gas emitted. For example, carbon dioxide has one of the lowest GWP values of all greenhouse gas emissions (GWP = 1), yet emissions of CO2 account for approximately 85% of the impact of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The characteristics of fire hazard scenarios with respect to anticipated fires have been continuously changing in India due to emerging trends in the up gradation/modern furnishing and interior design considerations/requirements in almost all the urban, semi-urban, and rural occupancies. The data from IPCC and Asia Pacific Fire Magazine, October 25, 2011 showed that if nothing changes, the HFC emissions are likely to be equivalent to between 9 and 19% of global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which indicates that the impact of HFC fire extinguishing clean agents on climate change is minuscule. As a result, HFCs are expected to remain viable, sustainable, and environmentally acceptable replacements for Halon 1301, which was phased out due to ozone depletion potential problems under Montreal and other protocols.

ABSTRACTIncreasing population in many countries consumed natural resources and generates secondary product. These secondary products may be in the form of pollutants and liberated in the atmosphere. In this paper, an analysis was performed for green house gas (GHG) emission from municipal solid waste disposal for Faridabad city, India. Land filling and waste-to-energy methods were considered for GHG emission and analysis was performed based on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) model. GHG emission and linear pinch analysis (LPA) were performed based on the 50% collection efficiency in Faridabad city over a period of 10 years (2015–2025). Two scenarios of emission forecasting, such as land filling and waste to energy (incineration), were incorporated in this study. Hybrid analysis was presented for emission forecasting and emission reduction to develop a sustainable municipal solid waste management system for Faridabad. A target of 20% and 30% reduction in GHG emission was formulated with the help of LPA. The result shows that GHG in Faridabad city has been continuously changed from 2015 to 2025.The result represented here could be a decision support matrix for municipalities to develop integrated municipal solid waste management system for upcoming smart cities in India. Moreover, another novelty of this study reflects that cities having approximate same population, waste characteristics, and waste management technology could adopt this model for saving of GHG inventory and target-based reduction.

Advanced wastewater treatment processes and novel technologies are adopted to improve nutrient removal from wastewater so as to meet stringent discharge standards. Municipal wastewater treatment plants are one of the major contributors to the increase in the global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and therefore it is necessary to carry out intensive studies on quantification, assessment and characterization of GHG emissions in wastewater treatment plants, on the life cycle assessment from GHG emission prospective, and on the GHG mitigation strategies. Greenhouse Gas Emission and Mitigation in Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants summarises the recent development in studies of greenhouse gases’ (CH4 and N2O) generation and emission in municipal wastewater treatment plants. It introduces the concepts of direct emission and indirect emission, and the mechanisms of GHG generations in wastewater treatment plants’ processing units. The book explicitly describes the techniques used to quantify direct GHG emissions in wastewater treatment plants and the protocol used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to estimate GHG emission due to wastewater treatment in the national GHG inventory. Finally, the book explains the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology on GHG emissions in consideration of the energy and chemical usage in municipal wastewater treatment plants. In addition, the strategies to mitigate GHG emissions are discussed. The book provides an overview for researchers, students, water professionals and policy makers on GHG emission and mitigation in municipal wastewater treatment plants and industrial wastewater treatment processes. It is a valuable resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students in the water, climate, and energy areas; for researchers in the relevant areas; and for professional reference by water professionals, government policy makers, and research institutes. ISBN: 9781780406305 (Print) ISBN: 9781780406312 (eBook) ISBN: 9781780409054 (ePUB)

Pemanasan global telah menyita perhatian dunia bahkan akan semakin bertambah besar dimasa yang akan datang mengingat akibat yang ditimbulkannya UNO, melalui program lingkungan UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) dan Organisasi Meteorologi Dunia (World Meteorological Organization, WMO) membentuk The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) pada 1988 untuk meneliti dan menganalisa isu-isu ilmu pengetahuan yang muncul. Makalah ini akan membahas tentang emisi GRK dari empat industri yaitu baja, aluminium, semen dan kimia.Guna mengantisipasi meningkatnya emisi GRK maka keempat industri ini perlu melakukan kerjasama. Model kerjasama apa yang paling tepat juga akan dibahas pada makalah ini.Selanjutnya alternatif solusi yang bisa. Ada beberapa emisi GRK dari sektor industri, mulai dari industri kimia, baja, semen dan alumunium. Dalam Protocol Kyoto, tersedia tiga mekanisme fleksibel dalam upaya pencapaian target penurunan emisi GRK, yaitu Emissions Trading (ET) atau perdagangan emisi antar negara maju, Joint Implementation (JI) atau pelaksanaan penurunan emisi secara bersama sama antar negara maju, dan Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) atau kerjasama antara negara maju dan negara berkembang. Studi ini menyimpulkan bahwa salah satu cara yang strategis untuk melindungi atmosfir adalah dengan cara mengontrol penggunaan sumber daya alam melalui emisi GRK.

SummaryMethods for carbon footprinting typically combine all emissions into a single result, representing the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) over the life cycle. The timing of GHG impacts, however, has become a matter of significant interest. In this study, two approaches are used to characterize the timing of GHG emission impacts associated with the production of energy from various biomass residues produced by the forest products industry. The first approach accounts for the timing of emissions and characterizes the impact using Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 100‐year global warming potentials (GWPs). The second is a dynamic carbon footprint approach that considers the timing of the GHG emissions, their fate in the atmosphere, and the associated radiative forcing as a function of time. The two approaches generally yield estimates of cumulative impacts over 100 years that differ by less than 5%. The timing of impacts, however, can be significantly affected by the approach used to characterize radiative forcing. For instance, the time required to see net benefits from a system using woody mill residues (e.g., bark and sawdust) is estimated to be 1.2 years when using a fully dynamic approach, compared to 7.5 years when using 100‐year GWPs, with the differences being primarily attributable to methane (CH4). The results obtained for a number of different biomass residue types from forest products manufacturing highlight the importance of using a fully dynamic approach when studying the timing of emissions impacts in cases where emissions are distributed over time or where CH4 is a significant contributor to the emissions.

Bioenergy from perennial grasses mitigates climate change via displacing fossil fuels and storing atmospheric CO2 belowground as soil carbon. Here, we conduct a critical review to examine whether increasing plant diversity in bioenergy grassland systems can further increase their climate change mitigation potential. We find that compared with highly productive monocultures, diverse mixtures tend to produce as great or greater yields. In particular, there is strong evidence that legume addition improves yield, in some cases equivalent to mineral nitrogen fertilization at 33–150 kg per ha. Plant diversity can also promote soil carbon storage in the long term, reduce soil N2O emissions by 30%–40%, and suppress weed invasion, hence reducing herbicide use. These potential benefits of plant diversity translate to 50%–65% greater life-cycle greenhouse gas savings for biofuels from more diverse grassland biomass grown on degraded soils. In addition, there is growing evidence that plant diversity can accelerate land restoration. Bioenergy from perennial grasses mitigates climate change via displacing fossil fuels and storing atmospheric CO2 belowground as soil carbon. Here, we conduct a critical review to examine whether increasing plant diversity in bioenergy grassland systems can further increase their climate change mitigation potential. We find that compared with highly productive monocultures, diverse mixtures tend to produce as great or greater yields. In particular, there is strong evidence that legume addition improves yield, in some cases equivalent to mineral nitrogen fertilization at 33–150 kg per ha. Plant diversity can also promote soil carbon storage in the long term, reduce soil N2O emissions by 30%–40%, and suppress weed invasion, hence reducing herbicide use. These potential benefits of plant diversity translate to 50%–65% greater life-cycle greenhouse gas savings for biofuels from more diverse grassland biomass grown on degraded soils. In addition, there is growing evidence that plant diversity can accelerate land restoration.

Limbah B3 secara signifikan meningkatkan produksi Gas Rumah Kaca (GRK) yang dapat mempengaruhi Global Warming Potential (GWP). Salah satu industri atau pabrik semen di Pulau Sumatera Indonesia mampu menghasilkan Gas Rumah Kaca (GRK) dari limbah B3 pada saat penambangan (tambang limestone). Penelitian ini memiliki goals untuk mengestimasikan emisi Gas Rumah Kaca (GRK) dengan sistem proses pembakaran (insinerasi) menggunakan metode IPCC. Metode IPCC mengestimasikan emisi karbon dioksida (CO2), metana (CH4), dan dinitrogen monoksida (N2O), yang kemudian dikonversikan menjadi dampak Global Warming Potential (GWP). Perkiraan dampak Global Warming Potential (GWP) pada tahun 2022 adalah sebesar 7,296E+01 Ton CO2 eq. Rinciannya yakni emisi CO2 7,296E+01 Ton CO2, emisi CH4 1,348E-06 Ton CH4, dan emisi N2O 6,739E-06 Ton N2O. Emisi CO2 diketahui mempunyai dampak paling besar, yakni mencapai 99,997098%, dengan kontributor dominan adalah limbah B3 cair jenis oli bekas. Hazardous waste significantly increases the production of Green House Gases (GHG) which can affect the Global Warming Potential (GWP). One of the industries or cement factories on the Indonesian island of Sumatra is capable of producing Green House Gases (GHG) from hazardous waste during mining (limestone mining). The aim of this research is to estimate Green House Gas (GHG) emissions with a combustion process system (incineration) using the IPCC method. The IPCC method estimates emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous monoxide (N2O), which are then converted into Global Warming Potential (GWP) impacts. The estimated impact of Global Warming Potential (GWP) in 2022 is 7,296E+01 Tons CO2 eq. The details are CO2 emissions of 7,296E+01 tons of CO2, CH4 emissions of 1,348E-06 tons of CH4, and N2O emissions of 6,739E-06 tons of N2O. CO2 emissions are known to have the greatest impact, reaching 99.997098%, with the dominant contributor being liquid hazardous waste such as used oil.