Climate-friendly Technologies Research Articles

The effects of climate change technology spillovers on carbon emissions across European countries

To unravel the challenges in the global diffusion of climate-friendly technologies, this investigation analyzes the diffusion of climate change-related technologies across countries. By using an unbalanced panel of selected European countries over the period 1990–2020, this investigation quantifies the carbon dioxide (CO2) emission effects of the diffusion of climate change-related technologies that are mediated by imports, geographical and technological proximity and free diffusion of technologies. In this study, the effects of domestic development of climate change-related technologies, population and affluence are also accounted for, and the emission effects are estimated using a fixed-effects panel model with instrumental variables. The instrumental variable for foreign technology spillovers is based on the technology support policies adopted in foreign countries. As expected, international spillovers of climate-friendly technologies are negatively linked to CO2 emissions, thus promoting emission reductions across the region. Importantly, emission reductions in Europe are more strongly influenced by international technology spillovers than by domestic innovation activities. Moreover, while all the analyzed technology diffusion channels appear relevant, the results are the most robust regarding import-mediated technology spillovers. Insights from this study support policy recommendations, especially in the trade policy context.

Transforming Coastal Communities to Adapt Climate Change through Corporate Social Responsibility

This paper explores the impact of CSR initiatives in transforming coastal communities to adapt to climate change. The study uses a qualitative method to describe the initiatives’ social effects and elucidate the community transformation process. Quantitative data is also employed to measure the contribution of CSR to the economy and the environment. The findings demonstrate that the company introduces solar panel-based fish finder and aquaponics technology, enabling communities to achieve energy efficiency, reduce emissions and production costs, and increase income. The company also strives for sustainable livelihoods for coastal communities through quail, catfish, and eel cultivation, supported by organic waste management. The evidence shows that the CSR initiatives have been able to convert 744 kilograms of waste into maggot feed, processing 2,634,490 liters of liquid waste to reduce water pollution, generating 3,579 kilowatt-hours of energy from solar panels, resulting in cost savings of IDR 59,199,167, and income growth of IDR 360,947,840. Moreover, the implementation of climate-friendly technologies has led to a reduction in emissions by approximately 12.77 tons CO2e. Overall, this research highlights the significant role of CSR initiatives in transforming coastal communities that are adaptive to climate change while providing tangible economic and environmental benefits.

Integrating Life Cycle Assessment in Conceptual Aircraft Design: A Comparative Tool Analysis

Early and rapid environmental assessment of newly developed aircraft concepts is eminent in today’s climate debate. This can shorten the decision-making process and thus accelerate the entry into service of climate-friendly technologies. A holistic approach within the conceptual aircraft design is taken into consideration in terms of a life cycle assessment (LCA) to properly model and evaluate these concepts. To provide an understanding of how different LCA software affects the assessment, the goals of this study are to establish a baseline metrics definition for comparative evaluation and apply them to two tools. The first tool is an existing simplified derivative of openLCA, while the second, developed in this study, is an automated interface to the same software. The main finding is that researchers and practitioners must carefully consider the intended use of the tool. The simplified tool is suitable for training and teaching purposes and assessments on single score level. In contrast, an advanced tool is required in order to appropriately analyze the overall impact categories requiring high levels of LCA expertise, modeling, and time effort.

Municipal emission pathways and economic performance toward net-zero emissions: A case study of Nakhon Ratchasima municipality, Thailand

The transition to net-zero emissions (NZEs) in developing countries is challenging and requires the immediate adoption of comprehensive climate policy packages, strong collaboration among all sectors and stakeholders, and timely financial and technological assistance for developing economies. This research aims to analyze and evaluate the pathways to realize an NZE scheme at the municipality level. Nakhon Ratchasima (NR) Municipality, Thailand, is selected as the case study for this research. The Global Protocol for Community-Scale GHG Emission Inventories (GPC) is applied as the robust framework to assess the city’s GHG emission profile. A mathematical forecasting model and the participatory multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) approach were adopted to support evidence-based local climate action planning based on four different scenarios: the business-as-usual (BAU), nationally determined contribution (NDC), carbon neutrality (CN), and NZE scenarios. The roles of stakeholders at the local community level across all sectors in mitigation actions and investment costs were investigated, and cost-effectiveness was evaluated to understand the economic performance of the adoption and implementation of local climate policy packages. The results indicate that by employing solely conventional technologies, a residential city that is also a hub for trade and land transportation will be unable to achieve its net-zero targets. It is imperative to seek additional low-carbon businesses and decarbonizing technologies that accompany substantial investments. According to the case of NR Municipality, the implementation costs to attain the NZE target by 2050 would range between 974.40 and 4.131.96 million USD. A pivotal driver of the municipal NZE pathway is the successful mobilization private sector investments to propel the transition toward climate-friendly technologies. Cost-effectiveness analysis significantly bolsters the municipality’s transitional plan preparation, holistically encompassing economic, social, and environmental considerations. By preparing these aspects together, we ensure a smooth and equitable transition to net zero, avoid conflicts and economic harm and leave no one behind. This approach ensures a harmonious balance between a net-zero future, economic growth, and environmentally friendly living for all.

Utilization of Synthetic Steel Gases in an Additively Manufactured Reactor for Catalytic Methanation

The path to European climate neutrality by 2050 will require comprehensive changes in all areas of life. For large industries such as steelworks, this results in the need for climate-friendly technologies. However, the age structure of existing steelworks makes transitional solutions such as carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) necessary as short-term measures. Hence, a purposeful option is the integration of technical syntheses such as methanation into the overall process. This work summarizes hydrogen-intensified methanation experiments with synthetic steel gases in the novel additively manufactured reactor ‘ADDmeth1’. The studies include steady-state operating points at various reactor loads. Blast furnace gas (BFG), basic oxygen furnace gas (BOFG) and three mixtures of these two gases serve as carbon sources. The methanation achieved methane yields of 93.5% for BFG and 95.0% for BOFG in the one-stage once-through setup. The results suggest a kinetic limitation in the case of BFG methanation, while an equilibrium limitation is likely for BOFG. There is a smooth transition in all respects between the two extreme cases. The reaction channel inlet temperature ϑin showed a large influence on the reactor ignition behavior. By falling below the threshold value, a blow-off occurred during experimental operation. By means of a simulation model, practical operating maps were created which characterize permissible operating ranges for ϑin as a function of the gas composition and the reactor load.

Short review of collecting technologies and methods in forest harvesting residues recovery

Tree felling and processing can create harvesting residues including leaves and twigs (needles), cones, barks, and branches. Collecting forest harvesting residues requires application of suitable machines and working methods. This article is aimed at reviewing the published reports to identify new harvesting machines and working methods for recovering harvesting residues and the current gaps. The scope of review included published research reports/articles from 2017 to 2022 (last five years). This global review results showed that popular methods for residue collection are chipping residues at roadside/landing and integrated biomass recovery. Forwarder, cable yarder and in-field chipper are predominantly applied within various recovery methods depending on ground and stand conditions. Harvesting residues are one of the promising sources for bioenergy production which requires developing efficient and low-cost harvesting systems. Latest research findings indicate that piling harvesting residues by a harvester-pro-cessor can improve the collecting productivity by the forwarder within cut-to-length harvesting opera-tions. Integrating residue biomass recovery with conventional timber supply can reduce the total supply chain cost by 2%. Researchers also recommend applying more climate-friendly technologies and focus-ing on developing new machines with lower fuel consumption and subsequent emissions. Future studies can focus on the following subjects; a) to determine the productivity and cost rates of various residue recovery systems, b) to develop and test technologies with lower fuel consumption rates and c) to find in-novative solutions to utilize thinning materials and best practices to store and process biomass materials.

Enabling Short-Term Energy Flexibility Markets Through Blockchain

Climate change has put significant pressure on energy markets. Political decisions such as the plan of the German government to shut down coal power plants by 2038 are shifting electricity production towards renewable and distributed energy resources. The share of these resources will continue to grow significantly in the coming years. This trend changes the ways how energy markets work which mandates fundamental changes in the underlying IT infrastructure. In this paper, we propose a blockchain-based solution which enables an economically viable and grid-serving integration of distributed energy resources into the existing energy system. Our blockchain-based approach targets intraday and day-ahead operating reserve markets, on which energy grid operators and operators of distributed energy resources can trade flexibilities within the schedulable energy production and consumption of their resources. By utilizing these flexibilities as an operating reserve, renewable and climate-friendly technologies can contribute to maintaining the grid stability and security of supply while simultaneously creating economically interesting business models for their operators. We propose to define blockchain-based short-term energy markets by utilizing the concept of general-purpose smart contracts and cryptocurrencies. This enables direct and decentralized trading of energy flexibilities without any intermediary or central instance. We demonstrate the feasibility of our approach through an implementation of a prototype of the proposed markets based on the Ethereum blockchain and provide a detailed evaluation of its efficiency and scalability.

The Pathway to China's Carbon Neutrality Based on an Endogenous Technology CGE Model.

Global warming resulting from greenhouse gas emissions has been a worldwide issue facing humanity. Simultaneously, governments have the challenging task of striking a judicious balance between increased economic growth and decreased carbon emissions. Based on the energy-environment-economy triple coupling (3E-CGE) model, we endogenously integrate climate-friendly technologies into the model’s analysis framework through logic curves and refine and modify the CGE model’s energy use and carbon emission modules. We conduct a scenario simulation and sensitivity analysis on carbon tax, carbon-trading, and climate-friendly technological progress, respectively. The results reveal that carbon tax and carbon trading contribute to reducing carbon emissions in the short-term but achieving the goals of peak carbon and carbon neutrality will cause the collapse of the economic system. In the long-term, climate-friendly technologies are key to achieving the dual carbon goal; the development of such technologies can also stimulate economic development. The best path for China to achieve its dual carbon goals and economic development in the next 40 years involves effectively combining the carbon tax, carbon trading, and a climate-friendly technological progress. Specifically, China can begin trading carbon in high-emissions industries then impose industry-wide carbon taxes.

ДО СТРАТЕГІЇ УПРАВЛІННЯ ПРОМИСЛОВИМИ ПІДПРИЄМСТВАМИ В УМОВАХ КЛІМАТИЧНОЇ РІВНОВАГИ

The article deals with environmental safety, actions against climate change. The climate change issue is currently a major concern in most of developed countries, where the issue of global warming degradation caused by carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) arise. The necessity to take into account environmental factors in market economy conditions is becoming an increasingly important factor in terms of competition since economic and administrative sanctions are intensified for violating the legal requirements concerning environmental protection. The gradual reduction of the waste produced by the metallurgical industry, the expansion of recycling opportunities, neutralization, environmentally safe disposal of it for reuse contributes to an increase in the level of environmental safety. The directions for reducing carbon emissions CO2 by industrial enterprises, modernizing production and management up to the European level, increasing the efficiency of industrial enterprises, and reducing the impact on the environment are pitched out. To stimulate the industry, the EU countries tend to introduce high taxes. The directions for reducing carbon emissions CO2 by industrial enterprises, modernizing production and management up to the European level, increasing the efficiency of industrial enterprises, and reducing the impact on the environment are picked out. In modern conditions, management is focused on innovative solutions for the use of slag waste produced by the metallurgical industry. In this regard, to ensure sustainable competitive advantages of enterprises, an important resource is the commercial consciousness of employees. Cooperation and trust, through personnel exchanging knowledge, contributes to the improvement of organizational capabilities. This is necessary in the management of industrial enterprises in modern conditions of climatic balance. The metallurgical sector has been singled out, requiring more and more attention and pressure from environmentalists to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And this depends on the implementation of specific steps to use new climate-friendly technologies in the production of steel and iron, on the search for effective policies and incentives for steel plants, where as early as next decade the growing demand of the mankind for steel would not be under the threat of achieving climatic balance.

Growers’ adoption intention of innovations is crucial to establish a sustainable greenhouse horticultural industry: An empirical study in Flanders and the Netherlands

In a project funded by the European Union, six high-tech innovations were developed to improve the energy-efficiency and sustainability of the greenhouse horticultural industry in the border region Flanders (Belgium) and the Netherlands, in a collaborative effort with various stakeholders. Although there is reason to be optimistic about the feasibility of these innovations, past experiences and research bear witness to the lack of adoption of climate-friendly technologies in the greenhouse horticultural industry. The current study reports the results of a mixed-method research project that explores the motivational drivers and barriers of the adoption of sustainable technological innovations by growers. The conceptual model is an extension of the Theory of Planned Behavior and is empirically tested by means of qualitative interviews with 28 growers and an online survey with 152 growers. The results show that attitude and subjective norm, but also company reputation, past experience with innovations, and sustainable orientation give insights into the adoption intention towards sustainable innovations. Managerial implications are offered as well.

Evaluating and improving technologies for energy storage and backup power

Evaluating and improving technologies for energy storage and backup power

Research on China’s technology lists for addressing climate change

The compilation of technology lists addressing climate change has a guiding effect on promoting technological research and development, demonstration, and popularization. It is also crucial for China to strengthen ecological civilization construction, achieve the carbon emission peak and carbon neutrality target, and enhance global climate governance capabilities. This study first proposes the existing classification outline of the technology promotion lists, technology demand lists, and future technology lists. Then, different methodologies are integrated on the basis of the existing outline of four technology lists: China’s existing technological promotion list for addressing climate change, China’s demand list for climate change mitigation technology, China’s key technology list for addressing climate change, and China’s future technology list for addressing climate change. What’s more, core technologies are analyzed in the aspects of technology maturity, carbon reduction cost, carbon reduction potential, economic benefits, social influence, uncertainty, etc. The results show that: key industries and sectors in China already have relatively mature mitigation/adaptation technologies to support the achievement of climate change targets. The multi-sectoral system of promoting climate-friendly technologies has been established, which has played an active role in tackling climate change. Currently, climate technology needs are concentrated in the traditional technology and equipment upgrading, renewable energy technology, and management decision-making support technology. The key technologies are concentrated in 3 major areas and 12 technological directions that urgently need a breakthrough. For carbon emmission peak and nentrality, carbon depth reduction and zero carbon emissions and geoengineering technology (CDR and SRM) have played an important role in forming the structure of global emissions and achieving carbon neutrality in the future. Thus, the uncertainty assessment for the comprehensive technology cost-effectiveness, technology integration direction, technical maturity, ethics and ecological impacts is supportive to the national technology strategy. Finally, the presented study proposes several policy implications for medium- and long-term technology deployment, improving technology conversion rate, promoting the research and development of core technologies, and forming a technology list collaborative update and release mechanism.

Close the carbon loophole

Close the carbon loophole

Clean Development Mechanism and Knowledge Spillovers: Evidence from Chinese Firm-level Patent Data

Under the Kyoto Protocol, Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is expected to facilitate the North-South knowledge spillovers for climate-friendly technologies. This paper examines the effects of this voluntary international climate cooperation on firm innovation and knowledge spillovers through the lens of CDM projects hosted in China. Using a matched Difference-in-Differences (DID) approach, we find that CDM projects contribute to firms' innovation quantity, quality, and direction in renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies. These results can be explained by a rich set of project heterogeneity, capturing the learning-by-doing effect, the induced-innovation incentives, and the economics of scale. Furthermore, we explore the role of foreign sponsors in knowledge spillovers, measured by patent citations from sponsoring countries to the host country. Our results suggest that sponsoring firms play a technology-supporting role by raising the innovation quantity and quality while sponsoring governments serve as an intermediary role by facilitating citation flows.

Innovative Processes and Technologies for Nutrient Recovery from Wastes: A Comprehensive Review

Waste management is necessary for environmental and economic sustainability, but it depends upon socioeconomic, political, and environmental factors. More countries are shifting toward recycling as compared to landfilling; thus, different researchers have presented the zero waste concept, considering the importance of sustainability. This review was conducted to provide information about different well established and new/emerging technologies which could be used to recover nutrients from wastes and bring zero waste concepts in practical life. Technologies can be broadly divided into the triangle of nutrient accumulation, extraction, and release. Physicochemical mechanisms, plants, and microorganisms (algae and prokaryotic) could be used to accumulate nutrients. Extraction of nutrient is possible through electrodialysis and crystallization while nutrient release can occur via thermochemical and biochemical treatments. Primary nutrients, i.e., nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, are used globally and are non-renewable. Augmented upsurges in prices of inorganic fertilizers and required discharge restrictions on nutrients have stimulated technological developments. Thus, well-proven technologies, such as biochar, composting, vermicomposting, composting with biochar, pyrolysis, and new emerging technologies (forward osmosis and electro-dialysis) have potential to recover nutrients from wastes. Therefore, reviewing the present and imminent potential of these technologies for adaptation of nutrient recycling from wastes is of great importance. Since waste management is a significant concern all over the globe and technologies, e.g., landfill, combustion, incineration, pyrolysis, and gasification, are available to manage generated wastes, they have adverse impacts on society and on the environment. Thus, climate-friendly technologies, such as composting, biodegradation, and anaerobic decomposition, with the generation of non-biodegradable wastes need to be adopted to ensure a sustainable future environment. Furthermore, environmental impacts of technology could be quantified by life cycle assessment (LCA). Therefore, LCA could be used to evaluate the performance of different environmentally-friendly technologies in waste management and in the designing of future policies. LCA, in combination with other approaches, may prove helpful in the development of strategies and policies for the selection of dynamic products and processes.

Factors Influencing Climate-Smart Goods Trade in Some Developing Countries in the Middle East and North Africa Region: An Application of the Spatial Panel Model

ABSTRACTClimate change is an important threat to agriculture and food security. The trade of climate-smart goods (CSGs) develops climate-friendly technologies, which could reduce the negative effects of climate change. This article aims to investigate the determinants of CSGs trade in some Middle East and North Africa countries. For this purpose, spatial panel models were estimated during the 2002 to 2016 period. Our findings showed that there are spatial effects in CSGs trade, indicating CSGs trade in one country affects neighboring countries’ trade. It’s recommended that governments implement appropriate strategies, including rail, road, and air network improvements, to reduce transaction costs.

Selected problems of water, electricity and waste management in Brazil in the context of its impact on climate change mitigation

The article discusses selected problems related to environmental protection in the context of climate change in the Ceará region of North-Eastern Brazil. The authors analyse the lack of water and negative impact of climate change on fish processing in the region. Also, the opportunity to use fish waste to increase profitability of the local fish processing SMEs thanks to implementation of climate-friendly technologies such as the production of fertilisers and energy for their own needs is discussed.

Measuring public acceptance of climate-friendly technologies based on creativity and cognitive approaches: Practical guidelines for reforming risky energy policies in Iran

In order to mitigate climate change and reduce fossil fuel dependency in Iran, the government of the country has announced its renewable energy policies to increase the use of renewable energies, but the share of the energy generation mix of Iran is very low due to the lack of public acceptance. These challenges continue and can be hard to overcome at all levels. This paper investigates this problem at regional level by measuring public acceptance towards development of climate-friendly technologies in order to provide required feedbacks to policy-makers of the government for ushering changes in their policies already made or in their executing mechanism, possibly deducting future risks such as public opposition from their end and improving the level of acceptance. This study uses a mixed-methods analytical approach for quantitatively taking that level, including creativity techniques and fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs). FCMs could directly map out policy-makers’ cognitions on the problem. This study provides the mathematical formulation of the problem with its conceptual interpretation to import policy-makers' knowledge into FCMs when the knowledge is gained explicitly with creativity techniques. The authors focused on a case of Solar Water Heater adoption in the city of Behbahan in Khuzestan Province.

Karlsruhe, Tongji researchers start joint FCEV research project

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany and Tongji University in Shanghai, China are collaborating to study standardisable methods for jointly developing climate-friendly technologies, including hydrogen mobility. Their engineers will work on validating electric drives in fuel cell electric vehicles, within the MorEH2 project (Methods for Distributed Development of H2 Fuel Cell Vehicles in Cooperation with China), funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Chinese government.

Road to Paris: The Changed and Unchanged in International Responsibility System

Since the conclusion of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992, a number of adjustments have been made in the patterns of international economy, trade, emissions, etc. Developing countries have increased rapidly in their share in global economy, trade as well as emissions, which led to some Parties to the Convention, mainly developed country Parties, faltering on their recognition of the responsibility system of the global response to climate change, and requiring developing countries to undertake responsibility for emission reduction and even financial assistance, intending to transfer obligations and costs in coping with climate change to developing countries. In fact, although the share of developing countries has increased in global economy, trade and emissions, the basic pattern that developed countries account for the absolute majority in cumulative CO2 emissions and control the international financial, trading, technology, and standard systems has not changed. The international responsibility system to deal with climate change has not changed fundamentally, either. Developed countries should continue to lead the global climate initiative, and provide financial and technical assistance to developing countries; developing countries should also take the path of low-carbon development while actively making full use of support from the international community in poverty alleviation and development process. At the Paris Climate Change Conference, Parties should participate in the negotiations with a constructive attitude, actively make planning and implement emission reduction actions, as well as build a fair and efficient financial mechanism, to promote climate-friendly technologies worldwide, establish an open and cooperative international trading system, and jointly facilitate the international cooperation on tackling climate change as a new momentum for global economic growth, so as to protect global climate security.