Climate Change Mitigation Benefits Research Articles

Eco-toxicological and climate change effects of sludge thermal treatments: Pathways towards zero pollution and negative emissions

The high moisture content and the potential presence of hazardous organic compounds (HOCs) and metals (HMs) in sewage sludge (SS) pose technical and regulatory challenges for its circular economy valorisation. Thermal treatments are expected to reduce the volume of SS while producing energy and eliminating HOCs. In this study, we integrate quantitative analysis of SS concentration of 12 HMs and 61 HOCs, including organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs) and per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), with life-cycle assessment to estimate removal efficiency of pollutants, climate change mitigation benefits and toxicological effects of existing and alternative SS treatments (involving pyrolysis, incineration, and/or anaerobic digestion). Conventional SS treatment leaves between 24 % and 40 % of OPFRs unabated, while almost no degradation occurs for PFAS. Thermal treatments can degrade more than 93% of target OPFRs and 95 % of target PFAS (with the rest released to effluents). The different treatments affect how HMs are emitted across environmental compartments. Conventional treatments also show higher climate change impacts than thermal treatments. Overall, thermal treatments can effectively reduce the HOCs emitted to the environment while delivering negative emissions (from about −56 to −111 kg CO2-eq per tonne of sludge, when pyrolysis is involved) and producing renewable energy from heat integration and valorization.

Meta-analysis indicates better climate adaptation and mitigation performance of hybrid engineering-natural coastal defence measures

Traditional approaches to coastal defence often struggle to reduce the risks of accelerated climate change. Incorporating nature-based components into coastal defences may enhance adaptation to climate change with added benefits, but we need to compare their performance against conventional hard measures. We conduct a meta-analysis that compares the performances of hard, hybrid, soft and natural measures for coastal defence across different functions of risk reduction, climate change mitigation, and cost-effectiveness. Hybrid and soft measures offer higher risk reduction and climate change mitigation benefits than unvegetated natural systems, while performing on par with natural measures. Soft and hybrid measures are more cost-effective than hard measures, while hybrid measures provide the highest hazard reduction among all measures. All coastal defence measures have a positive economic return over a 20-year period. Mindful of risk context, our results provide strong an evidence-base for integrating and upscaling nature-based components into coastal defences in lower risk areas.

Assessment of programme level costs and benefits of implementing nature-based solutions for climate change mitigation and adaptation in smallholder agricultural systems.

Abstract Background: Climate change poses a serious threat to the world's 475 million smallholder farms and to the ability to feed the world's growing population. Climate-driven natural hazards, such as droughts, floods, pests, invasive plants and diseases, are increasingly impacting yields and damaging the natural resource base upon which farmers' livelihoods depend, while also threatening the return and impact capacity of private and public agricultural investments (IPCC, 2021). Apart from being extremely vulnerable to climate change, agriculture is one of the largest contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for around a quarter of all emissions annually (IPCC, 2019). Nature-based solutions (NBS) are "actions to protect, conserve, restore, sustainably use and manage natural or modified terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems which address social, economic and environmental challenges effectively and adaptively, while simultaneously providing human well-being, ecosystem services, resilience and biodiversity benefits" (UNEA/EA.5/Res.5). NBS can therefore be considered as a systemic solution that offers multiple benefits, including sustainable agriculture, mitigating and adapting to climate change and reducing biodiversity loss. To meet the challenges of decarbonizing the agricultural sector, enabling it to adapt to climate change, and to function in a nature-positive way, it is critical to look at ways for making NBS accessible, affordable and scalable, particularly for smallholder farmers. As a first step, this research aims to understand the extent to which the costs and benefits of supporting NBS in the agri-food sector have been evaluated and how effective nature-based solutions have been in delivering environmental, social and economic benefits for climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Renewable Energy Use for Buildings Decarbonization Causes Inequity in Consumers? Comparative Analysis of Spain, Mexico, and Colombia

Building decarbonization strategy with Distributed renewable energy sources (DRES) is applied and extended worldwide for its climate change mitigation benefits, however, it generates debate regarding equity in sharing electric system operation costs. To analyze DRES effects on equity, it is conducted a case study, in which same residential consumer is evaluated in three different markets (Spain, Mexico, Colombia). We analyze not only electrical system technical variables, but we also include society’s economic, social, technological, and environmental characteristics. Next, energy, economic, and environmental benefits are obtained in each the three case studies, analyzing the impact of using DERS on equity to recover electric system operating costs. We also evaluate whether tariff mechanisms are equitable to motivate all consumers participation, as well as whether all consumers have equal opportunity for using DERS. We conclude that tariff mechanisms in Mexico and Colombia lead to inequity to recover market operating costs, favoring large consumers with high incomes. Furthermore, tariff mechanisms discourage the use of DERS by small and medium consumers due to economic, social, and technological aspects. In Spain, inequity arises due to increased difficulty for some consumers to use DERS, i.e., consumers in apartment buildings.

Bringing the forest back: Restoration priorities in Colombia

AbstractAimColombia has committed to ambitious forest restoration targets which include a 1 million ha Bonn Challenge commitment and 6.47–8.31 million ha (rehabilitation and restoration, respectively) under the National Restoration Plan. Determining where and how to implement programs to achieve these targets remains a significant challenge.LocationColombia.MethodsWe adopt a multi‐objective optimisation framework for restoration planning and apply it to Colombia. We explore cost‐effective solutions that leverage the potential for assisted natural regeneration benefits while accounting for opportunity and establishment costs of restoration and maximising biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation benefits. We explore four politically relevant restoration area‐based targets (1, 6, 6.47 and 8.31 million ha) and identify minimum cost, and suites of maximum benefit and cost‐effective solutions.ResultsWe identify solutions that simultaneously perform well across biodiversity and carbon objectives, despite trade‐offs between these objectives. We find that cost‐effective solutions can achieve on average 91.1%, 90.8%, 90.5% and 90.1% of maximum carbon benefit and 100% of the maximum biodiversity benefit while significantly reducing costs. On average, the cost‐effective solutions reduce the cost by 87.5%, 56.8%, 59.6% and 46.2% compared to the maximum benefit solutions considering one, six, 6.47 and 8.31 million ha restoration targets, respectively.Main ConclusionsColombia has committed to bold restoration and conservation targets, such as those under the new 2030 Convention on Biological Diversity Global Biodiversity Framework. Strategic forest restoration planning will play an important role in achieving Colombia's biodiversity conservation and climate mitigation goals. We provide quantitative evidence to inform planning for environmentally and economically sensible restoration policy and practice in the country. Our framework and results can help guide Colombia towards meeting its ambitious forest restoration targets cost‐effectively.

Modelling biochar long-term carbon storage in soil with harmonized analysis of decomposition data

The climate change mitigation benefits of biochar systems arise largely from carbon storage in biochar. However, while biochar is increasingly recognized as a carbon dioxide removal technology, there are on-going scientific discussions on how to estimate the persistence of biochar carbon when biochar is used in soils. Estimates vary from decades to millennia, building on different modelling approaches and evidence. Here, we revisited the persistence estimates derived from extrapolation of biochar incubation experiments, with the aims of making incubation data available, modelling choices transparent, and results reproducible. An extensive dataset of biochar incubations, including 129 biochar decomposition time series, was compiled and is made available alongside code for its analysis. Biochar persistence correlations were sensitive to data selection procedures and to the curve fitting modelling step, while soil temperature adjustments methods had less impact. Biochar H/C ratio remained the main predictor of biochar persistence, in line with previous research, regardless of the extrapolation assumptions (multi-pool exponential functions or power function) used in curve fitting. The relation between H/C and percentage of biochar carbon remaining after 100 years (BC100) was better explained by a power model than a linear model, with R2 values between 0.5 and 0.9. Using multi-pool exponential functions, estimated BC100 varied between 90 % and 60 % for H/C from 0 to 0.7. However, using power functions, BC100 was constrained between 90 % and 80 % for the same H/C range. Additional information about the biochar, the pyrolysis conditions or the environmental incubation conditions did not significantly increase explained variance. Notably, the dataset lacks observations at H/C ratios below 0.2, of biochar made from manure and biosolids, biochar from processes other than slow pyrolysis, field studies, and incubation temperatures below 10 °C, which should guide future experimental work. The detailed analysis performed in this study does not cast doubts on the longevity of biochar carbon storage; rather, it confirms previous knowledge by critically examining the modelling, elucidating the assumptions and limitations, and making the analysis fully reproducible. There is a need for further interdisciplinary work on integration of various theories and approaches to biochar persistence, ultimately leading to the formulation of policy-relevant conclusions.

Enhancing Organic Carbon Content in Tropical Soils: Strategies for Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change Mitigation

Background: Tropical soils are characterized by low soil organic carbon (SOC) contents, which can negatively impact soil fertility, water retention, overall agricultural productivity, and food security. Objective: This paper aimed to review and synthesize the current body of literature on the restoration of SOC in tropical soils. Methods: A total of about 152 related articles were downloaded from electronic journal databases using search keywords, such as organic carbon (OC), conservation tillage, intercropping, biochar, and tropical soil. We discussed conservation tillage practices, such as reducing soil disturbance and respiration from the soils, as a means to promote soil OC sequestration. We also highlighted the importance of crop residue retention, which not only increases organic matter inputs and soil nutrients but also promotes soil water retention and reduces soil erosion. Results: Cover crops and crop rotation are identified as effective practices to cover bare ground during planting seasons, reduce erosion, and prevent nutrient losses through leaching and runoff. Additionally, we review the role of fertilizer application, manure and compost application, intercropping, agroforestry, and biochar as strategies to enhance OC content in tropical soils. We highlight the benefits of incorporating organic amendments, such as manure and compost, to improve soil structure and water-holding capacity. Furthermore, we discuss the potential of biochar, a carbon-rich material produced from biomass pyrolysis, as a strategy to sequester OC in tropical soils. Conclusion: Overall, this review provides insights into various strategies that can be implemented to increase the OC content of tropical soils, which can have multiple benefits for soil health, agricultural productivity, and climate change mitigation. Further research and implementation of these practices can contribute to mitigating climate change, conserving soil resources, and promoting sustainable agriculture in tropical regions.

Calibrating the STICS soil-crop model to explore the impact of agroforestry parklands on millet growth

ContextAgroforestry systems provide critical benefits for food security and climate change mitigation. Yet, they are complex and heteregoneous sytems hard to optimize. The use of process-based crop models provides an opportunity to understand better the interactions between soil, crop, tree and climate and explore the impact of agroforestry on crop growth, for contrasting crop management. ObjectiveThe objectives of this study were to i) calibrate the soil-crop STICS model for pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) in order to simulate millet potential growth and impact of water and nitrogen limitations on millet growth in open fields and ii) explore the impacts of the parkland tree Faidherbia albida on millet performance for contrasting N fertilizer inputs. MethodsWe gathered a comprehensive database of 28 agronomically contrasting situations, ranging from near-potential growth to drought- and N-stress, either on-station or in a farmer’s home- or bush-fields. Parameters governing relevant plant and soil processes for grain yield were calibrated in a stepwise procedure. The calibrated model was used to explore the impact on millet growth of the widely reported benefits of Faidherbia albida, namely a minimum reduction in radiation thanks to the peculiar reverse phenology of this tree, improvement of soil water content at the beginning of the growing season and of organic nitrogen in the topsoil. ResultsModel simulations with the calibration dataset were reasonably accurate for aboveground biomass and grain yield. Normalized Root Mean Square Errors (nRMSE) for these variables were 29% and 26%, respectively; model efficiency (EF) was 0.58 for both. The nRMSE ranged from 33% to 53% for Soil Water Content (SWC), plant N uptake, grain number, and leaf-area index (LAI). Model accuracy was lower with the evaluation dataset. In the virtual experiment, millet yield decreased with incoming solar radiation, but only at levels of shading (e.g. below 80% of the radiation obtained with full sun) that do not occur under Faidherbia. The decline was greater when millet was fertilized. Increasing the initial soil water content did not affect simulated millet growth. Simulated millet aboveground biomass and grain yield increased with higher organic nitrogen contents of the topsoil, by 80% when millet was not fertilizer, but only by 25% when millet was fertilized. ImplicationsThis study provides the first set of comprehensively calibrated parameters for applying STICS to pearl millet in open cropland. A virtual experiment with historical climate suggests that the benefits of Faidherbia decrease if farmers intensify crop production by adding more mineral N fertilizer. Hence, precise fertilizer management is recommended in Faidherbia parklands. These results illustrate the benefits of process-based crop modelling for better understanding the functioning of agroforestry systems.

Inequalities in Air Pollution Exposure and Attributable Mortality in a Low Carbon Future

AbstractUnderstanding the costs and benefits of climate change mitigation and adaptation options is crucial to justify and prioritize future decarbonization pathways to achieve net zero. Here, we quantified the co‐benefits of decarbonization for air quality and public health under scenarios that aim to limit end‐of‐century warming to 2°C and 1.5°C. We estimated the mortality burden attributable to ambient PM2.5 exposure using population attributable fractions of relative risk, incorporating projected changes in population demographics. We found that implementation of decarbonization scenarios could produce substantial global reductions in population exposure to PM2.5 pollution and associated premature mortality, with maximum health benefits achieved in Asia around mid‐century. The stringent 1.5ºC‐compliant decarbonization scenario (SSP1‐1.9) could reduce the PM2.5‐attributable mortality burden by 29% in 2050 relative to a middle‐of‐the‐road scenario (SSP2‐4.5), averting around 2.9 M annual deaths worldwide. While all income groups were found to benefit from improved air quality through a combination of decarbonization and air pollution controls, the smallest health benefits are experienced by the low‐income population. The disparity in PM2.5 exposure across income groups is projected to reduce by 2100, but a 30% disparity between high‐ and low‐income groups persists even in the strongest mitigation scenario. Further, without additional and targeted air quality measures, low‐ and lower‐middle‐income populations (predominantly in Africa and Asia) will continue to experience PM2.5 exposures that are over three times the World Health Organization Air Quality Guideline.

Carbon stocks of Geramo forest, the western escarpment of the rift valley of Ethiopia

Forests play a vital role in the global carbon balance and combating global climate change by sequestering and retaining carbon from the atmosphere in their biomass and soil. Thus, this study aims to estimate the carbon stocks in the biomass and soil along with various environmental factors in the Geramo forest in southern Ethiopia. Ninety-six plots (20 × 20 m2) were laid at a distance of 250 m along 16 line transects that were laid 300 m apart. Five 1 × 1 m2 subplots (4 at the corner and 1 at the center) were laid inside each main plot for LHG and soil data collection. The results revealed that the estimated total carbon stocks and mean carbon stock densities of the study forest were 57994 Mg h−1and 604 ± 344 Mg h−1, respectively, with a mean CO2 equivalent of 2217 ± 1262 Mg h−1. This result indicates the remarkable role of the Geramo forest in carbon stock and sequestration potential compared with other remnant forests in Ethiopia. Thus, the Geramo forest plays a crucial role in climate change mitigation through carbon sequestration, and hence, this forest can generate carbon credits as financial benefits to the nearby population in the future. The results also revealed that anthropogenic disturbances were negatively associated with the carbon stocks of the forest. Therefore, sustainable forest conservation activities are needed to conserve forest resources, protect the forest from growing anthropogenic disturbances, and sustain its current global climate change mitigation and adaptation benefits.

Sustainably developing global blue carbon for climate change mitigation and economic benefits through international cooperation

Blue carbon is the carbon storage in vegetated coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrass. It is gaining global attention as its role in climate change mitigation and local welfare growth. However, a global assessment on the long-term spatiotemporal sustainable development status of blue carbon has not been conducted, and the relations among blue carbon ecosystems, driving forces for climate change mitigation, and socioeconomic interventions for development capacity on a global scale are still unclear. Here, we constructed a blue carbon development index (BCDI), comprising three subsystems: driving force, resource endowment, and development capacity, to assess the sustainable development level of 136 coastal countries’ blue carbon over 24 consecutive years and explore the relationship among subsystems. We further propose a cooperation model to explore the feasibility of global blue carbon cooperation and quantify benefit allocation to specific countries. The results showed an upward trend in BCDI scores with variations in regional performance over the past two decades, and we found a positive correlation between development capacity and blue carbon resource endowment. Based on the scenario simulations of global cooperation, we found that coastal countries could improve the global average BCDI score, add 2.96 Mt of annual carbon sequestration, and generate $136.34 million in 2030 under Global Deep Cooperation scenario compared with the Business-As-Usual scenario.

Towards a Carbon Accounting Framework for Assessing the Benefits of Biogenic Wood Carbon to Net Zero Carbon Targets

Carbon stored in harvested wood products (HWPs) can play an important role in climate change mitigation and needs to be accounted for accurately and consistently. This study reviewed the features of previous HWP carbon accounting frameworks and discussed potential improvements for a more complete assessment of all HWP contributions to net zero carbon targets at subnational levels. The basic features include the components, the methods, the approaches, and the modeling principles. A key recommendation is to expand previous HWP C accounting framework components to include other climate change mitigation benefits such as local or regional substitution effects (i.e., material replacement, fossil fuel displacement effects, energy efficiency gains, recycling effects, and cascading use impacts) of all produced and consumed HWPs. Another area for improvement is the need for subnational unit-specific activity data and conversion factors. Adopting variants of the domestic origin-stock change approach will also help account for relevant production and consumption activities within the subnational unit. These recommendations will enhance the accuracy and/or precision of HWP accounting frameworks at the subnational level and help capture all potential benefits of HWPs as a carbon sink for climate change mitigation and a valuable contributor to subnational net zero carbon targets.

Balancing food production with climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation in the Brazilian Amazon

Climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation are two major environmental actions that need to be effectively performed this century, alongside ensuring food supply for a growing global human population. These three issues are highly interlinked through land management systems. Thus, major global food production regions located in biodiversity hotpots and with potential for carbon sequestration face trade-offs between these valuable land-based ecosystem services. The state of Mato Grosso in Brazil is one such region, where private lands that have been illegally used for agriculture could be restored to natural vegetation – with potential benefits for climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation, although with potentially negative effects on food production. To address this challenge, in this study we used a multicriteria nexus modeling approach that considers carbon stocks, priority areas for biodiversity conservation, and the opportunity for food production, to develop scenarios of land allocation that aim to balance the benefits and drawbacks of ecosystem restoration. Results show that forcing landowners to restore their individual lands compromises the potential for a “green land market” throughout the Amazon biome in which private landowners with lower food production capacities (e.g., less connected to markets and infrastructure) would benefit from restoration programs that compensate them for the inclusion of environmental restoration among their economic activities, instead of taking large economic risks to produce more food. We additionally highlight that strategic ecosystem restoration can achieve higher gains in biodiversity and carbon with lower costs of restoration actions and with minimal impacts on agriculture. Analyses like ours demonstrate how scenarios of land allocation that simultaneously address climate mitigation and biodiversity conservation through ecosystem restoration, while also minimizing possible impacts on food production, can be sought to move the world towards a sustainable future.

The benefits of climate change mitigation to retaining rainbow trout habitat in British Columbia, Canada

The benefits of climate change mitigation to retaining rainbow trout habitat in British Columbia, Canada

Carbon sequestration potential of transplanted mangroves and exotic saltmarsh plants in the sediments of subtropical wetlands

Coastal blue carbon ecosystems offer promising benefits for both climate change mitigation and adaptation. While there have been widespread efforts to transplant mangroves from the tropics to the subtropics and to introduce exotic saltmarsh plants like Spartina alterniflora in China, few studies have thoroughly quantified the chronological records of carbon sequestration with different organic carbon (OC) sources. To understand how variations in OC sources can affect the carbon sequestration potential of coastal wetland environment over time, we conducted a study on typical islands with two scenarios: S. alterniflora invasion and mangrove transplantation. Our study determined chronological records of carbon sequestration and storage from five sediment profiles and traced changes in the OC sources using carbon stable isotope (δ13C) and C:N ratios in response to these scenarios. The S. alterniflora invasion resulted in an 84 ± 19 % increase in the OC burial rate compared to unvegetated mudflats, while mangrove transplantation resulted in a 167 ± 74 % increase in the OC burial rate compared to unvegetated mudflats. S. alterniflora and mangroves showed greater carbon sequestration potential in areas with high supplies of suspended particulate matter, while mangroves needed to grow to a certain scale to display obvious carbon sequestration benefits. In the mangrove saltmarsh ecotone, mature mangrove habitats exhibited resistance to the S. alterniflora invasion, while mangrove transplantation in the environment invaded by S. alterniflora had a significant effect on OC contribution. Besides, plant-derived OC can be exported to the surrounding environment due to the rapid turnover of sediments. The blue carbon chronosequence-based estimation of OC sources and burial rates provides a useful reference for establishing carbon accounting policies.

Towards 30% Efficiency by 2030 of Eco-Designed Building Integrated Photovoltaics

The necessity of affordable and durable building-integrated photovoltaics has gained widespread importance for the renewable energy transition involving electrification and decarbonization in climate-neutral cities that possess many public health co-benefits. Although the PV market is dominated by polycrystalline and monocrystalline silicon solar cells of the first generation, there is an impetus in the research lately for more sophisticated solar cell architectures with higher efficiency, longer lifetime, and less use of raw materials in an eco-design approach. To accelerate building integration of the next generation of photovoltaics and the associated climate change mitigation benefits, we propose in this work a holistic novel approach to the requirements and associated parameters for the emerging and innovative PV structures, spanning from intrinsic cell properties to panels effect in the urban environment. Within this framework, and supported by building simulation, the improvement of cells’ efficiency is revealed as an important parameter for their wider PV building and urban deployment as well as a major improvement in covering the building energy needs with minimized thermal impact in the urban environment. By analyzing the lab-reported values and the timeline of emerging and novel tandem solar cells, we propose the 30% BIPV efficiency of the eco-designed BIPV products as a central milestone to be attained before 2030 for a sustainable urban transformation.

The role of peatland degradation, protection and restoration for climate change mitigation in the SSP scenarios

Peatlands only cover a small fraction of the global land surface (∼3%) but store large amounts of carbon (∼600 GtC). Drainage of peatlands for agriculture results in the decomposition of organic matter, leading to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As a result, degraded peatlands are currently responsible for 2%–3% of global anthropogenic emissions. Preventing further degradation of peatlands and restoration (i.e. rewetting) are therefore important for climate change mitigation. In this study, we show that land-use change in three SSP scenarios with optimistic, recent trends, and pessimistic assumptions leads to peatland degradation between 2020 and 2100 ranging from −7 to +10 Mha (−23% to +32%), and a continuation or even an increase in annual GHG emissions (−0.1 to +0.4 GtCO2-eq yr−1). In default mitigation scenarios without a specific focus on peatlands, peatland degradation is reduced due to synergies with forest protection and afforestation policies. However, this still leaves large amounts of GHG emissions from degraded peatlands unabated, causing cumulative CO2 emissions from 2020 to 2100 in an SSP2-1.5 °C scenario of 73 GtCO2. In a mitigation scenario with dedicated peatland restoration policy, GHG emissions from degraded peatlands can be reduced to nearly zero without major effects on projected land-use dynamics. This underlines the opportunity of peatland protection and restoration for climate change mitigation and the need to synergistically combine different land-based mitigation measures. Peatland location and extent estimates vary widely in the literature; a sensitivity analysis implementing various spatial estimates shows that especially in tropical regions degraded peatland area and peatland emissions are highly uncertain. The required protection and mitigation efforts are geographically unequally distributed, with large concentrations of peatlands in Russia, Europe, North America and Indonesia (33% of emission reductions are located in Indonesia). This indicates an important role for only a few countries that have the opportunity to protect and restore peatlands with global benefits for climate change mitigation.

Comparative assessment of future solar power potential based on CMIP5 and CMIP6 multi-model ensembles

While the popularity and feasibility of solar power have increased toward achieving a low-carbon and climate-resilient society, it is uncertain how changes in climate attributes will affect the future potential of solar power output. This study presents a comparative assessment of future changes in solar power in terms of the technology for harnessing energy from insolation (PVP vs CSP), climate projections (CMIP5 vs CMIP6), and emission scenarios. Both CMIP5 and CMIP6 multi-model projections capture the major characteristics of the global distribution seen in PVP and CSP calculated using the reanalysis data during the historical period. However, despite the general similarity to CMIP5-based results, CMIP6 models slightly outperform their CMIP5 counterparts regarding quantitative metrics and enhance the robustness of the future change signal estimated by the statistical significance and inter-model consistency. The future changes in PVP and CSP patterns are sensitive to the emission scenarios that can control the degree of warming. Under the fossil-fueled development scenarios, the greater increase in temperatures may lead to a high vulnerability of the solar power supply by reducing the output of both PVP and CSP. This study is timely and relevant to emphasizing the benefits of climate change mitigation, which can support the sustainable development of solar energy.

PM2.5 and ozone pollution-related health challenges in Japan with regards to climate change

The degradation of air quality, an environmental consequence of anthropogenic activities, poses a challenge to human health. However, the corresponding control measures incur additional costs. This study presents an analysis of the health and socioeconomic benefits of air quality control measures and climate change mitigation. Multidisciplinary modelling was used for PM2.5 and ozone distribution to analyze the co-benefits of end-of-pipe measures and electrification as well as their period-specific impacts on human health and the economy. The results indicated that the long-term impacts of end-of-pipe technologies and electrification in Japan's residential, building, and transportation sectors could reduce premature deaths, caused by PM2.5 and ozone pollution, by 65,500 annually from 2010 to 2050. These technologies could save a per capita work hour loss of 3.64 h and avoid an economic loss of 5.43 billion USD by 2050. This study predicted climate actions would enable western Japan to benefit from PM2.5 control measures, whereas the entire country would benefit from ozone pollution reduction.

Investigations into valorisation of trade wastewater for biomethane production

Biogas production from wastewater is one way that industrial sites can work towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals, while recovering a valuable resource. The objective of this study was to investigate the suitability of data collected by municipal wastewater service providers as a method of classifying and screening waste producers as potential sites for biogas resource recovery by anaerobic digestion. Industrial wastewater samples, including raw effluent and treated waste ready for discharge, were examined, and biomethane potential assays performed. Results of chemical analysis and lab-scale digestion were compared to historical service provider data, and patterns were observed. Biomethane yields of up to 357 mL/gVS and 287mL/gVS were achieved from raw and treated effluent respectively. Digestion at the top four prospects could produce over 4690 GJ of methane and save $47,000 in natural gas costs, offsetting 490 tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually. These streams, from logistics, waste management, food and animal product businesses, combined high levels of degradable substrates and low levels of inhibitory components. While it is unlikely that this type of screening program can be completely accurate, certain parameters, including high sodium concentration, are applicable for discounting the potential for biogas production. This knowledge can be a valuable tool in the process of selecting sites for future resource recovery, therefore increasing the uptake of these processes, resulting in economic, environmental, and climate change mitigation benefits.