Climate Change Targets Research Articles

Acceptability of policies to reduce consumption of red and processed meat: A population-based survey experiment

Policies to reduce meat consumption are needed to help achieve climate change targets, and could also improve population health. Public acceptability can affect the likelihood of policy implementation. This study estimated the acceptability of policies to reduce red and processed meat consumption, and whether acceptability differed when policies were framed as benefitting health or the environment. In an online experiment, 2215 UK adults rated the acceptability of six policies, presented in a randomised order. Prior to rating policies, participants were randomised to one of two framing conditions, with policy outcomes described either as benefitting health or the environment. Regression models examined differences in the primary outcome – policy acceptability (rated on a 7-point scale) – by framing. Labels were the most accepted policy (48% support), followed by a media campaign (45%), reduced availability (40%) and providing incentives (38%). Increasing price (27%) and banning advertising (26%) were the least accepted. A substantial proportion of participants neither supported nor opposed most policies (26–33%), although this fell to 16% for increasing price. There was no evidence that framing policy benefits from a health or environment perspective influenced acceptability (−0.06, 95%CIs: 0.18,0.07). Fewer than half of the UK sample expressed support for any of six policies to reduce meat consumption, regardless of framing measures as benefitting health or the environment. Conversely, fewer than half expressed opposition, with the exception of price, suggesting considerable scope to influence public opinion in support of meat reduction measures to meet environmental and health goals.

The potential of European abandoned agricultural lands to contribute to the Green Deal objectives: Policy perspectives

The European Green Deal sets targets for biodiversity, climate change, sustainable farming, and rural development. For abandoned agricultural lands to contribute to these goals, specific policy measures to support appropriate land management are required. However, information is lacking on what these policies will mean for landowners and managers. This paper reviews the role of abandoned lands in European Union (EU) policies linked to the Green Deal. We interviewed 30 experts to identify the challenges faced by landowners in response to the identified policies and gather suggestions for future policy improvements. We found few explicit mentions of abandoned lands in policies. The potential of abandoned lands for alternative trajectories (beyond farming) was generally implicit. According to experts, landowners perceive the EU Common Agriculture Policy as the most influential to drive abandonment trajectories and support (or hinder) opportunities for re-management. The main challenges for landowners to (re-)use their lands included conflicting policies, lack of financial and technical support, and a feeling of disconnection with policies defined at EU level. To address the gap between objectives and implementation, policies need to secure support for landowners and managers. We provide three recommendations to uncover the potential of abandoned lands to contribute to the Green Deal targets: (1) increase their visibility in policies, (2) rely on an integrating policy approach, and (3) careful spatial planning to account for biophysical, socioeconomic, and cultural variations across regions.

Vision for a European metrology network for energy gases

Abstract As Europe moves towards decarbonising its energy infrastructure, new measurement needs will arise that require collaborative efforts between European National Metrology Institutes and Designated Institutes to tackle. Such measurement needs include flow metering of hydrogen or hydrogen enriched natural gas in the gas grid for billing, quality assurance of hydrogen at refuelling stations and equations of state for carbon dioxide in carbon capture and storage facilities. The European metrology network for energy gases for the first time provides a platform where metrology institutes can work together to develop a harmonised strategy, prioritise new challenges, and share expertise and capabilities to support the European energy gas industry to meet stringent EU targets for climate change and emissions reductions.

Low-GHG culturally acceptable diets to reduce individual carbon footprint by 20%

For mitigating climate change and respect targets, humanity must decrease emissions as soon as possible: the later is the action, the harsher will be the trajectory of the mitigating pathway. Structural actions need time to become operational. Therefore, individual actions shall also enter into play, focusing on what has a high impact and whose change is at hand: food-related emissions build up 30% of total anthropogenic impacts and eating is an everyday activity. In this study, regional culturally acceptable low-carbon diets are proposed for China, Europe and US. They are developed considering the requirements of energy and nutrients supply, they respect regionality of food consumption – e.g., they include only foods that are diffused in the area – and they are aimed to limit the individual effort to be adopted – e.g., they include all the food categories, meat included. They are low-carbon since food items are selected on the basis of their lifecycle carbon footprint (CF). Eventually, the regionality constraints are relaxed to develop a World's low-carbon diet. For every area, we found a diet that halves the food-related CF. Instead, our World's low-carbon diet reduces the average food-related CF by 75%. Therefore, the overall individual CF would be reduced by a fifth in case of its adoption.

How much oil remains for the world to produce? Comparing assessment methods, and separating fact from fiction

This paper assesses how much oil remains to be produced, and whether this poses a significant constraint to global development. We describe the different categories of oil and related liquid fuels, and show that public-domain by-country and global proved (1P) oil reserves data, such as from the EIA or BP Statistical Review, are very misleading and should not be used. Better data are oil consultancy proved-plus-probable (2P) reserves. These data are generally backdated, i.e. with later changes in a field's estimated volume being attributed to the date of field discovery. Even some of these data, we suggest, need reduction by some 300 Gb for probable overstatement of Middle East OPEC reserves, and likewise by 100 Gb for overstatement of FSU reserves. The statistic that best assesses ‘how much oil is left to produce’ is a region's estimated ultimately recoverable resource (URR) for each of its various categories of oil, from which production to-date needs to be subtracted. We use Hubbert linearization to estimate the global URR for four aggregate classes of oil, and show that these range from 2500 Gb for conventional oil to 5000 Gb for ‘all-liquids’. Subtracting oil produced to-date gives estimates of global reserves of conventional oil at about half the EIA estimate. We then use our estimated URR values, combined with the observation that oil production in a region usually reaches one or more maxima when roughly half its URR has been produced, to forecast the expected dates of global resource-limited production maxima of these classes of oil. These dates range from 2019 (i.e., already past) for conventional oil to around 2040 for ‘all-liquids’. These oil production maxima are likely to have significant economic, political and sustainability consequences. Our forecasts differ sharply from those of the EIA, but our resource-limited production maxima roughly match the mainly demand-driven maxima envisaged in the IEA's 2021 ‘Stated Policies’ scenario. Finally, in agreement with others, our forecasts indicate that the IPCC's ‘high-CO2’ scenarios appear infeasible by assuming unrealistically high rates of oil production, but also indicate that considerable oil must be left in the ground if climate change targets are to be met. As the world seeks to move towards sustainability, these perspectives on the future availability of oil are important to take into account.

Assessing handprint potentials for business's eco-innovation

Exploring how businesses can adopt eco-innovations, which may involve their market expansion, and meet their climate change targets, was the objective of this research. We investigated to what extent an organization with a milk packaging eco-innovation could create a positive impact on climate and calculated their potential carbon handprint using the Sustainability and Health Initiative for NetPositive Enterprise (SHINE) Handprint assessment method. Changes and potential handprint pathways were defined from the perspective of two actors who can bring about the change: organization and consumers. The potential carbon handprints were calculated for changes resulting from switching from current milk packaging to eco-innovation at the global milk market. The assessment explored options for organization to realize handprints within their own markets and via market expansion in their competitors’ markets. Results showed that SHINE Handprint assessment provides a systemic approach for organizations to adopt eco-innovations, pursue market expansion, and reduce overall sector's climate change impacts.

International assessment of priority environmental issues for land-based and offshore wind energy development

Non-technical summary A substantial increase in wind energy deployment worldwide is required to help achieve international targets for decreasing global carbon emissions and limiting the impacts of climate change. In response to global concerns regarding the environmental effects of wind energy, the International Energy Agency Wind Technical Collaborative Program initiated Task 34 – Working Together to Resolve Environmental Effects of Wind Energy or WREN. As part of WREN, this study performed an international assessment with the global wind energy and environmental community to determine priority environmental issues over the next 5‒10 years and help support collaborative interactions among researchers, developers, regulators, and stakeholders. Technical summary A systematic assessment was performed using feedback from the international community to identify priority environmental issues for land-based and offshore wind energy development. Given the global nature of wind energy development, feedback was of interest from all countries where such development is underway or planned to help meet United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change targets. The assessment prioritized environmental issues over the next 5–10 years associated with wind energy development and received a total of 294 responses from 28 countries. For land-based wind, the highest-ranked issues included turbine collision risk for volant species (birds and bats), cumulative effects on species and ecosystems, and indirect effects such as avoidance and displacement. For offshore wind, the highest-ranked issues included cumulative effects, turbine collision risk, underwater noise (e.g. marine mammals and fish), and displacement. Emerging considerations for these priorities include potential application to future technologies (e.g. larger turbines and floating turbines), new stressors and species in frontier regions, and cumulative effects for multiple projects at a regional scale. For both land-based and offshore wind, effectiveness of minimization measures (e.g. detection and deterrence technologies) and costs for monitoring, minimization, and mitigation were identified as overarching challenges. Social media summary Turbine collisions and cumulative effects among the international environmental priorities for wind energy development.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS)

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is an important tool for the decarbonization of the energy system to achieve the mid-century global climate change targets. CO2 is captured using different industrial processes that involve membrane filtering or enhanced combustion. The CO2 is then transported, preferably by pipeline, to a storage site where it is injected into a permeable reservoir. Sealing capacity of the storage site is of paramount importance for safe CO2 sequestration, to avoid any geological leakage. Each CCS project must have a dedicated MMV (Measurement, Monitoring and Verification) programme to ensure conformance with the expected evolution of the CO2 plume and its containment within the storage site. Eni is committed to the implementation of CCS, with several ongoing projects.

Making space for just transition in climate change legal instruments: Philippine Nationally Determined Contributions from Paris to Glasgow, and beyond

After the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015, the Philippine government’s most significant climate change targets thus far, the Philippine Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), materialized in 2021, only to be superseded by the more recent Glasgow Climate Pact. While assessments of the NDCs usually focus on the targets’ scientific basis, ambition, and financial and technical viability, research on their just transition aspect remains evasive. This article bridges such gap by establishing the link between climate change and just transition in a normative sense and subsequently assessing the Philippine NDCs and the Glasgow Climate Pact from the perspective of just transition as derived from the ILO’s (2015) Guidelines for a just transition and Hess et al’s (2021) goals associated with a just transition as references. Findings of this research show that the existing Philippine NDCs lack clear, actionable, and ambitious just transition measures, but the Glasgow Climate Pact possesses a wider space for just transition than the Paris Agreement. Further, this article serves as a contribution to the ongoing and future efforts by the Philippine Climate Change Commission, and counterpart climate agencies of similarly situated island states and developing states, in drafting the revised NDCs and climate action plans for global, national and local levels of governance.

Solar Hydrogen Option to Reach Renewable and Climate Change Targets of Indonesia

Solar Hydrogen Option to Reach Renewable and Climate Change Targets of Indonesia

A qualitative assessment of the impact of smart homes and environmentally beneficial technologies on the UK 2050 net-zero carbon emission target

PurposeThere are 29 million homes in the UK, accounting for 14% of the UK's energy consumption. This is given that UK has one of the highest water and energy demands in Europe which needs to be addressed according to the Committee on Climate Change (CCC). Smart homes technology holds a current perception that it is principally used by “tech-savvy” users with larger budgets. However, smart home technology can be used to control water, heat and energy in the entire house. This paper investigates how smart home technology could be effectively utilised to aid the UK government in meeting climate change targets and to mitigate the environmental impact of a home in use towards reducing carbon emissions.Design/methodology/approachBoth primary and secondary data were sought to gain insight into the research problem. An epistemological approach to this research is to use interpretivism to analyse data gathered via a semi-structured survey. Two groups of participants were approached: (1) professionals who are deemed knowledgeable about smart home development and implementation and (2) users of smart home technology. A variety of open-ended questions were formulated, allowing participants to elaborate by exploring issues and providing detailed qualitative responses based on their experience in this area which were interpreted quantitatively for clearer analysis.FindingsWith fossil fuel reserves depleting, there is an urgency for renewable, low carbon energy sources to reduce the 5 tonnes annual carbon emissions from a UK household. This requires a multi-faceted and a multimethod approach, relying on the involvement of both the general public and the government in order to be effective. By advancing energy grids to make them more efficient and reliable, concomitant necessitates a drastic change in the way of life and philosophy of homeowners when contemplating a reduction of carbon emissions. If both parties are able to do so, the UK is more likely to reach its 2050 net-zero carbon goal. The presence of a smart meter within the household is equally pivotal. It has a positive effect of reducing the amount of carbon emissions and hence more need to be installed.Research limitations/implicationsFurther research is needed using a larger study sample to achieve more accurate and acceptable generalisations about any future course of action. Further investigation on the specifics of smart technology within the UK household is also needed to reduce the energy consumption in order to meet net-zero carbon 2050 targets due to failures of legislation.Practical implicationsFor smart homes manufacturers and suppliers, more emphasis should be placed to enhance compatibility and interoperability of appliances and devices using different platform and creating more user's friendly manuals supported by step-by-step visual to support homeowners in the light of the wealth of knowledge base generated over the past few years. For homeowners, more emphasis should be placed on creating online knowledge management platform easily accessible which provide virtual support and technical advice to home owners to deal with any operational and technical issues or IT glitches. Developing technical design online platform for built environment professionals on incorporating smart sensors and environmentally beneficial technology during early design and construction stages towards achieving low to zero carbon homes.Originality/valueThis paper bridges a significant gap in the body of knowledge in term of its scope, theoretical validity and practical applicability, highlighting the impact of using smart home technology on the environment. It provides an insight into how the UK government could utilise smart home technology in order to reduce its carbon emission by identifying the potential link between using smart home technology and environmental sustainability in tackling and mitigating climate change. The findings can be applied to other building types and has the potential to employ aspects of smart home technology in order to manage energy and water usage including but not limited to healthcare, commercial and industrial buildings.

Technical and economic perspectives of hydrate-based carbon dioxide capture

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is vital for reducing CO2 emissions and achieving climate change targets. Despite proven technical viability, the high cost of current CO2 capture methods hinders widespread applications of CCS. Hydrate-based carbon capture (HBCC) is a promising route for energy-efficient CO2 capture. With an estimated cost of 20 – 40 US$/tonnes of CO2 avoided and an energy penalty of 15%, HBCC is potentially competitive compared to the current capture via conventional absorption (40 – 100 US$/tonnes of CO2 avoided and energy penalty of 30%). HBCC has a competitive edge at industrial scales owing to several intrinsic advantages: (i) a water-based process, (ii) tolerance to impurities in the feed gas, and (iii) potential energy savings via integrating hydrate formation/dissociation enthalpies. However, slow kinetics and limited industrial experience are current challenges to deployment. All these advantages, challenges, and prospects are critically discussed to provide insightful assessments of the techno-economic feasibility of HBCC in comparison to other existing and emerging methods.

Opportunities and challenges for bioenergy-livestock integrated systems in Brazil

Bioenergy is seen as a key option to meet future energy demands and mitigate climate impacts. However, large-scale deployment of bioenergy can cause an additional pressure over land resources and correspondent sustainability impacts. Enhanced land management practices are fundamental to intensify land-based outputs under different climate mitigation scenarios. Bioenergy-livestock integration (BLI) is a win-win strategy to climate mitigation while ensuring food and fibers demands from the society by using bioenergy by-products as animal feed to release land to additional industrial crops production. This study comparatively assesses BLI opportunities in Brazil to better understand the sustainability issues of the alternatives for integration of these value chains, highlighting the key techno-economic and environmental aspects. When compared to conventional systems, the BLI systems present positive techno-economic impacts and lower greenhouse gas emissions, reaching mitigations up to 32 % and 22 % for meat and ethanol production, respectively. The expansion of BLI systems in Brazil could meet projected biofuels future demands, using less than 20 % of the expected area for this expansion. Potential expansion areas are concentrated in Center-South region of Brazil. BLI systems can be further advanced by including other synergies, such as codigestion of sugarcane vinasse and cattle manure, integration of flex ethanol plants with biodiesel plants, maximization of biofuels by-products as animal feed, and inclusion of novel promising alternative industrial crops such as macauba, sweet sorghum, energy cane and short rotation eucalyptus coppice. However, we identify many potential barriers including the operational complexity, specific know-how, and necessity of economic incentives. This study may provide important insights for strategic and integrated polices for both agricultural and livestock sections as the proper sustainability assessment of an early stage of the deployment of enhanced BLI systems may help to meet global future demands of energy while also contributing to climate change targets.

Sustainability and EU Road Transport Carbon Emissions from Consumption of Diesel and Gasoline in 2000 and 2018

To accomplish the 1.5 °C and 2 °C climate change targets, the European Union (EU) has set up several policy initiatives. Within the EU, the carbon emissions of the road transport sector from the consumption of diesel and gasoline are constantly rising. (1) Background: due to road transport policies, diesel and gasoline use within the EU is increasing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere and adding to climate risks. (2) Methods: sustainability analysis used was based on the method recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (3) Results: to meet its road transport requirements, the EU produces an estimated 0.237–0.245 billion tonnes of carbon per year from its total consumption of diesel and gasoline. (4) Conclusion: if there is no significant reduction in diesel and gasoline carbon emissions, there is a real risk that the EU’s carbon budget commitment could lapse and that climate change targets will not be met. Sustainability analysis of energy consumption in road transport sector shows the optimum solution is the direct electrification of road transport.

Opportunities to decarbonize heat in the UK using Urban Wastewater Heat Recovery

By 2050, the UK government plans to create ‘Net zero society’. 1 To meet this ambitious target, the deployment of low carbon technologies is an urgent priority. The low carbon heat recovery technologies such as heat recovery from sewage via heat pump can play an important role. It is based on recovering heat from the sewage that is added by the consumer, used and flushed in the sewer. This technology is currently successfully operating in many cities around the world. In the UK, there is also a rising interest to explore this technology after successful sewage heat recovery demonstration project at Borders College, Galashiels, Scotland. 2 However, further experimental research is needed to build the evidence base, replicate, and de-risk the concept elsewhere in the UK. The Home Energy 4 Tomorrow (HE4T) project at London South Bank University was created to address this evidence gap. This is the fourth article in the series of outputs on sewage heat recovery and presents some results using sewage data from the UK’s capital London. These data are scarce and provide useful information on the variation of flows and temperatures encountered in the sewers of the UK’s capital. Lastly, we discuss the recoverable heat potential along with policy implications for the UK heat strategy. Practical application This work focuses and accentuate that in order to meet climate change targets, substantial improvements can come by heat recovery from the raw (influent) and treated wastewater (effluent from wastewater treatment plant) that is still unexploited in the UK. The estimation presented indicates that there is much theoretical potential in the UK with significant opportunity for future energy and revenue retrieval along with GHGs emission reduction in the longer term to fulfil the ‘net zero’ objective. This work aims to raise awareness and seek support to promote pilot scale studies to help demonstrate technical and economic feasibility in the building industry.

Carbon footprint of Canadian self-selected diets: Comparing intake of foods, nutrients, and diet quality between low- and high-greenhouse gas emission diets

Individuals' dietary choices are critical determinants of human and planetary health. Although the carbon footprint of animal-based foods typically exceeds that of plants, trade-offs among nutritional outcomes and environmental sustainability in the context of regional self-selected diets are less understood. The objectives were to estimate the carbon footprint of Canadian self-selected diets and to compare intake of food groups, nutrients, and diet quality between low- and high-greenhouse gas emission (GHGE) diets. Dietary intake was assessed using 24-h recalls from the 2015 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) – Nutrition for adults ≥19 y (n = 13,612). Estimates from the database of Food Impacts on the Environment for Linking to Diets were used to link foods and beverages reported in the CCHS to their GHGE. Boundaries for GHGE estimates were mostly cradle-to-farm gate and for certain processed products, cradle-to-processing gate. Data from Statistics Canada were used to account for food loss at the retail and consumer levels in our calculation of GHGE. The Alternative Healthy Eating Index-2010 was used to calculate diet quality. The study sample was divided into quintiles based on their diet-related GHGE expressed per 1,000 kcal; low- and high-GHGE diets were those of respondents in the lowest and highest quintiles, respectively. Dietary GHGE (mean ± SE) was 3.98 ± 0.06 kg carbon dioxide-equivalents (CO2-eq) per person per d or 2.15 ± 0.03 kg CO2-eq per 1,000 kcal. Animal-based foods contributed three-quarters of Canadians' total diet-related GHGE, with red and processed meat alone accounting for 47.05 ± 0.82%. High-GHGE diets contained more animal-based foods, vegetables and fruit, and miscellaneous foods and beverages, whereas low-GHGE diets contained more cereals, grains, and breads. Moreover, high-GHGE diet respondents had higher intakes of nutrients of public health concern (calcium, vitamin D, iron, and potassium), but also higher intakes of saturated fat and sodium, and a lower overall diet quality compared to low-GHGE diet respondents (47.27 ± 0.46 vs. 55.31 ± 0.49 points). These nutritional and environmental trade-offs warrant attention in shaping future food policy and dietary guidance in Canada aimed at meeting global targets for climate change.

A comparison analysis of the decoupling carbon emissions from economic growth in three industries of Heilongjiang province in China.

Growing environmental pressure urges China to develop in a sustainable and low carbon way, and thus China strives to achieve a carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. As the main energy and heavy industry based in China, carbon emissions in Heilongjiang Provice play a crucial role in achieving China's climate change targets. Compared with countries with similar populations, Heilongjiang Province (HLJP)'s carbon emissions are still at a low level. In the research on Heilongjiang Province's carbon emissions among three industries, we apply Tapio decoupling and the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) method to analyze the decoupling elasticity and effort index of three industries' growth and carbon emissions in HLJP from 2005 to 2017. Moreover, Deng's grey relation model is adopted to judge the relation degree between industries and carbon emissions. The results show that: (1) with respect to decoupling, the secondary industry is in a relatively stable state of decoupling; however, the decoupling state of the primary industry is not stable at all, which appears expansive or negative in the studies over the past years. (2) The carbon emissions of three industries show an upward trend during the study period, of which the economic scale effect contributes most, while the energy intensity was the main inhibitor to carbon emissions. (3) Three industrial-economic structures are related to carbon emissions at a high level. The tertiary industry ranks the first, which is followed by the secondary industry and then the primary industry. The economic growth of the tertiary industry is much faster than the other two, hence, its relation degree is the highest. Overall, our analysis can provide an effective reference for the decline of carbon emissions in each industry.

Route to zero emission shipping: Hydrogen, ammonia or methanol?

To achieve climate change targets, new ship orders should be capable of delivering zero emission propulsion from 2025. The pathway towards this is unclear and requires significant investment. This study analyses the engineering considerations of the storage of alternative fuels on board large scale international vessels, with a particular focus on ammonia, hydrogen and methanol. Analysis of raw shipping data shows the maximum expected propulsion demand per voyage was 9270 MWh. The volume and mass requirements for alternative fuels to deliver this are projected and compared to three further methods for estimating fuel storage considering: storage infrastructure; desired design range; both. This shows that a reduction of fuel storage quantities to closer to actual expected usage results in more realistic storage requirements. Also, hydrogen has a perceived low volumetric energy density, however the calculated volume required (6500 m3 for liquid storage) is not sufficiently high to be considered inviable.

Life cycle optimization of BECCS supply chains in the European Union

Carbon dioxide removal options have been identified as key to achieving the climate change target laid out in the 2015 Paris Agreement. Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is particularly attractive because it is capable of providing negative emissions and a reliable energy source. We here explore the complexity of the infrastructures involved in realizing a large-scale system and the sequestration potential of bioenergy in Europe. Starting from a minimum cost scenario, we develop cost-optimal solutions that minimize the environmental impact of the overall BECCS supply chain according to the life cycle impact assessment methodology. Our analysis is based on cooperation among the 28 countries of the European Union (as of 2018) to achieve a global carbon removal target. Given regional biomass and marginal land availability inputs and a carbon removal target of 0.61 GtCO2/year, the minimum-cost scenario provides negative emissions, with an overall cost of 140 Eur/MWh of bioelectricity generated or 117 Eur/tCO2 removed, without considering revenues from selling the electricity produced. On the other hand, minimizing environmental impacts increased costs by 45% relative to the first scenario, but further improved the environmental performance by 23%.

A generic algebraic targeting approach for integration of renewable energy sources, CO2 capture and storage and negative emission technologies in carbon-constrained energy planning

Renewable energy sources, CO2capture and storage (CCS) and negative emission technologies (NETs) are important elements to incorporate during energy planning to achieve climate change targets by the end of this century. This paper develops a generic algebraic targeting approach based on carbon emissions pinch analysis (CEPA), for the integration of renewable energy sources, CCS and NETs during CO2-constrained energy planning. Since the recently established graphical targeting approach is both time-consuming and cumbersome, the algebraic targeting approach developed in this work eliminates the iterative procedure and provides rigorous targets that overcome the limitations of the previous approach. The algebraic targeting approach is demonstrated with a literature case study. Results show that the integration of energy-producing NETs (EP-NETs) reduces energy generation from fossil-based sectors, which leads to CO2 removal. By contrast, despite the removal of CO2 load, the integration of energy-consuming NETs (EC-NETs) demanded further utilisation of renewable energy sources as compensatory energy. Finally, CCS deployment aided in CO2 load removal, thus reducing the necessary integration of NETs during energy planning.