European Union Sustainability Research Articles

Evolving waste management: The impact of environmental technology, taxes, and carbon emissions on incineration in EU countries

Amid the urgent global imperatives concerning climate change and resource preservation, our research delves into the critical domains of waste management and environmental sustainability within the European Union (EU), collecting data from 1990 to 2022. The Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) results reveal a resounding commitment among EU member states to diminish their reliance on incineration, which is evident through adopting green technologies and environmentally conscious taxation policies, aligning with the European Union's sustainability objectives. However, this transition presents the intricate task of harmonizing industrial emissions management with efficient waste disposal. Tailoring waste management strategies to accommodate diverse consumption patterns and unique circumstances within individual member states becomes imperative. Cointegrating regressions highlighted the long-run relationship among the selected variables, while Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) and Panel-Corrected Standard Errors (PCSE) estimates roughly confirmed MMQR results. ML analyses, conducted through two ensemble methods (Gradient Boosting, GB, and Extreme Gradient Boosting, XGBoost) shed light on the relative importance of the predictors: in particular, environmental taxation, consumption-based emissions, and production-based emissions greatly contribute to determining the variation of combustible renewables and waste. This study recommends that EU countries establish monitoring mechanisms to advance waste management and environmental sustainability through green technology adoption, enhance environmental taxation policies, and accelerate the renewable energy transition.

Assessing the influence of climate risk, carbon allowances, and technological factors on the ESG market in the European union

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) is a market for environmental criteria that has recently attracted the attention of policymakers and in particular European Union (EU) countries to improve environmental quality. In the context of the EU Sustainable Development Goals, this study aims to examine the impact of climate risk uncertainties (transitional (TRI) and physical (PRI)), carbon allowances (EU ETS), and technology index (MSCI) on the ESG market. To this end, the study uses a quantile-on-quantile regression and its multivariate version for the period from November 28, 2007, to January 05, 2023. The results show that TRI and PRI increase ESG market development at higher quantiles, while EU ETS and technological progress reduce ESG progress. This shows that the risk of climate change requires the introduction of stricter environmental standards in EU countries, while the EU ETS and technological progress provide environmental benefits that reduce the need for the ESG market.

Proactive legal design—making sustainability visible and monitorable in SME loan agreements

According to the European Commission's Sustainable Finance Strategy, the financial system has a key role to play in promoting sustainable development toward a greener and more sustainable economy. Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) represent over 99% of all European businesses and are responsible for around 60% of all business greenhouse gas emissions. Small and Medium-sized Enterprises are therefore crucial to the success of the European Union's sustainability transition. The share of sustainable finance for SMEs will grow both as a result of increasing sustainability legislation and the expectations of customers and stakeholders. However, integrating sustainability can be challenging for SMEs due to limited resources and expertise. The article highlights the importance of clear, transparent, and implementable contract documents as tools to enhance sustainability in financing. Proactive contracting and legal design approaches are discussed as means to transform contracts into management and communication tools, to promote sustainable business practices.

Public funding in R&D and R&D outcome sustainable development: Analysis of Member States EU

This paper examines the relationship between public funding in research and development (R&D) and the sustainable development outcomes within the European Union (EU) member states from 2000 to 2022. It investigates the allocation and effectiveness of public funding towards R&D in sustainable technologies and its alignment with the EU's strategic growth and sustainability goals. Through a mixed-method approach, including descriptive analysis, econometric modelling, and a review of pa-tents and scientific publications, the study addresses three core research questions: the extent of public R&D funding, the R&D outcomes in sustainable development, and the efficacy of recent EU public research funding in fostering innovation in sustainable technologies. The analysis reveals that while there is a positive correlation between targeted public expenditures and R&D outcomes, disparities exist among member states in terms of investment levels and innovation outputs. The paper also dis-cusses the implications of these findings in the context of the EU's broader sustainability objectives, including the European Green Deal, and suggests pathways for future research to enhance the impact of public R&D funding on sustainable development.

European governments’ electromobility plans: an assessment with a focus on infrastructure targets and vehicle estimates until 2030

Electromobility offers great potentials to the decarbonisation of the transport sector. The purpose of this study is to analyse the development of electromobility in the European Union (EU) and in the United Kingdom (UK) by 2030. The study is based on the objectives provided by the EU Member States and UK in their national implementation reports, as foreseen by the Directive 2014/94/EU on the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure. As the initial data coverage was not full, in order to produce a complete data set on registered electric vehicles and public recharging points, we estimated missing values with different statistical techniques and critical analysis of the initial data. A set of proposed indicators, namely the share of electric vehicles, the density of publicly accessible recharging points, the electric vehicles and recharging points annual growth rates and the sufficiency index, were averaged at EU27+UK level to depict the envisaged evolution of electromobility in the present decade. The results show that the objectives of the countries’ governments are overall less ambitious than the goals defined in the EU Green Deal for 2025 and in the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy for 2030. Most of the indicators vary significantly in the 2016–2030 period, often revealing an increased divergence between the development of electric vehicles and public recharging points. Two policy implications are derived: (i) the use of a combined set of indicators to assess the governments’ electromobility plans could be pursued, while the ratio of ten electric vehicles per recharging point may no longer be a useful benchmark; and (ii) measures supporting the uptake of recharging infrastructure are still needed to mitigate the divergence with electric vehicles and to meet the ambitious objectives of the EU Green Deal and Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy.

The environmental footprints of the feeds used by the EU chicken meat industry

Chicken meat production in the European Union (EU) causes environmental pressures within and beyond the EU, mostly due to feed consumption. The expected dietary shift from red to poultry meat will drive changes in the demand for chicken feeds and the associated environmental impacts, calling for a renewed attention on this supply chain. By performing a break-down analysis based on material flow accounting, this paper assesses the annual environmental burden caused within and outside of the EU by each single feed consumed by the EU chicken meat industry from 2007 to 2018. The increased feed demand required to support the growth of the EU chicken meat industry over the analyzed period caused a 17 % increase in cropland use - 6.7 million hectares in 2018. Instead, CO2 emissions linked to feed demand decreased by ~45 % over the same period. Despite an overall improvement in resource and impact intensity, chicken meat production was not decoupled from environmental burden. In 2018, 0.40 Mt. of nitrogen, 0.28 Mt. of phosphorous, and 0.28 Mt. of potassium inorganic fertilizers were implied. Our findings indicate that the sector is not yet compliant with the EU sustainability targets defined in the Farm To Fork Strategy, calling for an urgent need to fill existing policy implementation gaps. The EU chicken meat industry's environmental footprints were driven by endogenous factors such as the feed use efficiency at the chicken farming stage and the feed cultivation efficiency within the EU, as well as by exogenous factors such as the import of feed via international trade. Limitations on the use of alternative feed sources, as well as the exclusion of the imports from the EU legal framework constitute a crucial gap, which hamper fully leveraging existing solutions.

Cost minimisation of renewable hydrogen in a Dutch neighbourhood while meeting European Union sustainability targets

Decentralised renewable energy production in the form of fuels or electricity can have large scale deployment in future energy systems, but the feasibility needs to be assessed. The novelty of this paper is in the design and implementation of a mixed integer linear programming optimisation model to minimise the net present cost of decentralised hydrogen production for different energy demands on neighbourhood urban scale, while simultaneously adhering to European Union targets on greenhouse gas emission reductions. The energy system configurations optimised were assumed to possibly consist of a variable number or size of wind turbines, solar photovoltaics, grey grid electricity usage, battery storage, electrolyser, and hydrogen storage. The demands served are hydrogen for heating and mobility, and electricity for the households. A hydrogen residential heating project currently being developed in Hoogeveen, The Netherlands, served as a case study. Six scenarios were compared, each taking one or multiple energy demand services into question. For each scenario the levelised cost of hydrogen was calculated. The lowest levelised cost of hydrogen was found for the combined heating and mobility scenario: 8.36 € kg−1 for heating and 9.83 € kg−1 for mobility. The results support potential cost reductions of combined demand patterns of different energy services. A sensitivity analysis showed a strong influence of electrolyser efficiency, wind turbine parameters, and emission reduction factor on levelised cost. Wind energy was strongly preferred because of the lower cost and the low greenhouse gas emissions, compared to solar photovoltaics and grid electricity. Increasing electrolyser efficiency and greenhouse gas emission reduction of the used technologies deserve further research.

The ‘European Green Deal’ – a paradigm shift? Transformations in the European Union’s sustainability meta-discourse

ABSTRACT In December 2019, the European Commission released its strategy for the European Union (EU), the European Green Deal (EGD), which perceives the ‘commitment to tackling climate and environmental-related challenges’ as ‘this generation’s defining task’. It intends to ‘transform [the EU’s] economy and society to put it on a more sustainable path’, and has been hailed for its potential to durably change European societies. This contribution examines if the EGD offers a discursive paradigm shift regarding environmental sustainability. To this end, it performs a critical discourse analysis on the meta-discourse embodied in the EGD and its predecessors, Europe 2020 and the Lisbon Strategy. It finds that the EGD marks a significant discursive break, moving the EU’s meta-discourse from a negligence of environmental sustainability in the 2000s, and the idea that sustainability as an attribute to growth can support a ‘jobs and growth’ agenda during the 2010s, to centre-stage. By empowering pro-environmental forces, it provides unseen overtures towards a paradigm shift of practical consequence for European – and via an example-setting effect – global sustainability policies. The article concludes by explaining the meta-discursive shift and discussing its implications for EU sustainability policies.

A commentary on the “new” institutional actors in sustainability reporting standard-setting: a European perspective

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss the progress and future prospects of two relatively “new” institutions in this field: the European Commission (EC), together with the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG), and the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation.Design/methodology/approachThis paper reflexively analyses the recent events that characterise the European Union (EU) regulatory standard-setting landscape in the sustainability field. It is mainly based on publicly available documents.FindingsAfter analysing the different routes followed to enter the field, this paper shows how the EC/EFRAG takes a wider view than the IFRS Foundation on certain key reporting aspects, that is, target audience, materiality and reporting boundary. As for the reporting scope, although it seems that the IFRS Foundation has a more restrictive vision, it is working to broaden it.Practical implicationsThis paper provides some ideas about the potential cooperation between the two institutions. This paper also highlights some potential problems stemming not only from their intrinsic characteristics but also from the routes they have taken to enter the field.Social implicationsBy envisioning how the EU sustainability reporting standard-setting landscape might evolve, this paper sheds light on how companies might need to approach sustainability reporting to adapt to the new institutional demands. Suggestions for collaboration between the two institutions could help them reach common ground and, thus, prevent misunderstandings for companies and stakeholders.Originality/valueThe reflections and takeaways benefit from the authors’ first-hand information, as both are involved in the EU process. The authors could, therefore, feed into further discussions on the developments and challenges facing the EU in this domain.

Integrated pest management strategies for cabbage stem flea beetle (Psylliodes chrysocephala) in oilseed rape.

Oilseed rape (OSR) is the second largest source of vegetable oil globally and the most important biofuel feedstock in the European Union (EU) but the production of this important crop is threatened by a small insect, Psylliodes chrysocephala – the cabbage stem flea beetle (CSFB). The EU ban on use of neonicotinoid seed treatments and resistance of CSFB to pyrethroid insecticides have left farmers with limited control options resulting in drastic reductions in production. Integrated pest management (IPM) may offer a solution. We review the lifecycle of CSFB and the current options available, or in the research pipeline, for the eight IPM principles of the EU Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive (Directive‐2009/128/EC). A full IPM strategy for CSFB barely exists. Although there are a range of preventative measures, these require scientific validation; critically, resistant/tolerant OSR cultivars are not yet available. Existing monitoring methods are time‐consuming and there are no commercial models to enable decision support based on predictions of migration timing or population size. Available thresholds are not based on physiological tolerances of the plant making it hard to adapt them to changing market prices for the crop and costs of control. Non‐synthetic alternatives tested and registered for use against CSFB are lacking, making resistance management impossible. CSFB control is therefore dependent upon conservation biocontrol. Natural enemies of CSFB are present, but quantification of their effects is needed and habitat management strategies to exploit their potential. Although some EU countries have local initiatives to reduce insecticide use and encourage use of ‘greener’ alternatives, there is no formal process for ranking these and little information available to help farmers make choices. We summarize the main knowledge gaps and future research needed to improve measures for CSFB control and to facilitate development of a full IPM strategy for this pest and sustainable oilseeds production.

On the advent of environmental, social and governance reporting and its intersection with privacy

An emerging area of regulation in the form of environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting is aimed at long-term sustainability and addressing the challenges of climate change and social inequality. This paper explores how ESG reporting intersects in interesting ways with well-established privacy principles under the European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation. The paper analyses these privacy implications in the context of the first formal ESG law of comprehensive scope — the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation — as well as existing global ESG disclosure standards. In particular the ‘S’ of ESG encompasses issues in the employment context relating to gender equality and diversity and inclusion (D&I), thereby implicating sensitive personal data and complicating the collection of such data. In addition, the paper looks towards the question of whether there is, or should be, a ‘P’ of privacy incorporated in ESG and considers the potential development of measurable privacy metrics for this purpose.

248-OR: Type 1 Diabetes Risk Variants Alter the Transcriptional Profile of Beta Cells

GWAS studies have identified a number of SNPs connected to the development of type 1 diabetes (T1D). It is unclear how these variants confer risk for T1D development and whether this is based on direct effects on the beta cell, or whether the systemic inflammatory environment is detrimental to the beta cell. Using CRISPR mediated homology directed repair (Life Technologies), T1D risk variants rs10517086 and rs1534422 were introduced into the BRIN-BD11 beta cell line and the Jurkat T-cell line. Experiments were conducted in BRIN-BD11 cells expressing each variant and in native BRIN-BD11 cells treated with conditioned media from Jurkat cells expressing each variant. ApoTox GloTM (Promega) was used to assess cell viability, cytotoxicity and apoptosis. In all instances, cell viability and cytotoxicity were unchanged following the introduction of the two variants. However, rs1534422 significantly (P<0.01) increased apoptosis in BRIN-BD11 cells. This was not observed when BRIN-BD11 cells were treated with Jurkat condition media. In all instances, modest reductions (P<0.05) in glucose-stimulated insulin secretion were observed (Insulin ELISA, Mercodia). Expression of beta cell markers (ABCC8, KCNJ11, KCNQ1, SCL2A2, GCK, HNF1A, PDX1, NKX6.1 NGN3) was examined by qPCR (Roche Lightcycler). Irrespective of whether BRIN-BD11 cells were exposed to Jurkat conditioned media or not, induction of rs10517086 or rs1534422 caused significant (P<0.05-0.001) reductions in the expression of all genes examined with two exceptions: both HNF1A and ABCC8 were significantly upregulated (P<0.001). The transcriptional profiles of BRIN-BD11 cells were remarkably similar regardless of whether rs10517086 and rs1534422 were directly induced in BRIN-BD11 cells or whether they were exposed to conditioned media from Jurkat cells expressing the variants. This suggests that soluble secreted factors arising from the expression of these variants may drive the changes observed in the function of BRIN-BD11 cells. Disclosure W. Ratajczak: None. S. Atkinson: None. C. Kelly: None. Funding European Union Regional Development Fund; European Union Sustainable Competitiveness Programme for Northern Ireland; Northern Ireland Public Health Agency; Ulster University; Northern Ireland Department of Employment and Learning

Life Cycle Assessment and Soil Nitrogen Balance of Different N Fertilizers for Top Dressing Rye as Energy Crop for Electricity Generation

Nitrogen fertilizers have been identified in energy crops LCAs as the main contributors to global warming, as well as to many other environmental impacts. The distinct production process and application emissions of nitrogen fertilizer types for top dressing produce different GHG savings when energy crops value chains are compared to fossil energy alternatives. In this study, three types of fertilizers (calcium ammonium nitrate, urea and ammonium sulphate) at N top dressing rates of 80 kg N/ha are used to grow rye for electricity generation under the conditions of the Continental Mediterranean climate of central-northern Spain. Complete LCAs for the whole value chain based on real data were performed in conjunction with soil nitrogen balances (SNBs) to assess the accomplishment of European Union (EU) GHG savings sustainability criteria, as well as the sustainability of fertilization practices for soil nitrogen stocks. The results obtained can provide interesting insights for policy making, since calcium ammonium nitrate, the most common fertilizer for rye crops, led to 66% GHG savings, as opposed to the 69% achieved when applying urea and 77% when ammonium sulphate was used. Nevertheless, the three fertilizers produced annual soil deficits greater than 50 kg N/ha. In order to ensure savings above 80%, as required by the EU sustainability criteria, and sustainable SNBs, additional optimization measures should be taken at key points of the value chain.

Does RNAi-Based Technology Fit within EU Sustainability Goals?

European Union (EU) and global sustainability policies emphasize the need to replace contentious pesticides with safe, efficient, and cost-effective alternatives to ensure sustainable food production. However, R&D for alternatives to contentious pesticides are lagging behind and need to be broadened. Here, we discuss how RNAi-based technology can contribute to pesticide risk reduction.

Dow Jones Sustainability Indices, Do They Make a Difference? The U.S. and the European Union Companies

Sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies of companies delineate the health and the welfare of the communities across the globe. The two major goals of this study are (1) To explore the relationship between the environmental regulations, market value, and adoption of sustainability and CSR strategies of the publicly traded firms listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) and (2) To examine the impact of being added to or deleted from DJSI per different market sectors for the firms in the U.S. and the European Union (EU). The selected starting window, the year 2015, for studying the impact of addition to or deletion from the DJS indices was the Paris Accord proposal by the EU and strict sustainability regulations of the EU versus the U.S. We used event study methodology and regression analyses to explain the cumulative abnormal returns utilizing firms’ characteristics and specific market sectors. In addition, the other focus of the study was on heavy (polluting) industries and investigating if the addition to or deletion of the firms in these industries from the sustainability indices had an impact on the market value. The findings of this study reveal no impact of the environmental rules and regulations on adopting sustainability and CSR strategies by either the EU or the U.S. firms. The novel findings of this study indicate a significant negative impact on the market value of firms in heavy industries, Energy, Basic Materials, and Utilities when added to the DJS indices. The study discusses the underlying reasons for these differences and proposes strategies to enhance the impact of addition to or deletion from the DISI to increase firms’ commitments to sustainability and CSR strategies and altering the attitudes of the investors.

A Multicriteria Approach for Assessing the Impact of ICT on EU Sustainable Regional Policy

As a global actor, the European Union (EU) plays a leading role in international efforts to promote sustainable development globally. All sustainable objectives and targets need Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) as key catalysts, since ICTs constitute tools of unprecedented power which help people to face the growing challenges of rising population, poverty, epidemics and climate change. Policy makers in the EU are increasingly putting ICTs into relations with sustainable regional development. This paper aims to study and assess the impact of ICT on the EU regional policy in terms of sustainable development by applying the multicriteria approach, PROMETHEE II, using the software Visual PROMETHEE. The criteria that were used in this research are the criteria that both the European Commission and member states define to assess the ICT implications of new EU legislation since 2010. The results revealed that the impact of ICT on EU sustainable regional policy has gotten stronger in the last two decades.

An emerging EU strategic narrative? Twitter communication during the EU’s sustainable energy week

This article approaches the subject of the global recognition of the term ‘Normative Power Europe’ in external energy governance by engaging with the concept of strategic narratives. The article considers reactions to the European Union (EU) as a normative energy actor within a tripartite scheme of strategic narrative formation, projection and reception. The definition of a narrative suggests the presence of an actor, an action, a goal or intention, a scene and instrument. Those were identified for the emerging ‘Sustainable Energy Europe’ narrative and tested in one empirical case study: Twitter communications surrounding the EU Sustainable Energy Week 2013. In its method, our analysis is among the first to explore empirically the EU’s social media communication efforts. Answering a call for richer methodologies, which view social media data not as ‘quantitative data, rather qualitative data on a quantitative scale’, our analysis uses an original methodology and codes the Twitter data using a nuanced qualitative framework.

Towards Sustainable Development through Eco-innovations: Drivers and Barriers in Poland

IntroductionChanges in the macro- and micro-environment of enterprises, growing awareness, customer requirements and increasing environmental restrictions give rise to the need to change the current socio-economic development to one that is more sustainable. This is a priority not only for the United Nations (UN) or the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), but also for the European Union (EU). The implementation of sustainable development is therefore associated with a fundamental change in economic activity, with regard to a systemic and integrated interdisciplinary approach (OECD, 2012; United Nations, 2012). Moreover, a set of participatory processes is required that enables the integration of short- and long-term goals for economic, social and environmental issues (Borys, 2011, pp. 75-81; Poskrobko, 2013, p. 21). It should be added that sustainable development is a complex and multidimensional concept, covering the interdependence of economic, social and ecological order in socio-economic development, as well as the need to preserve resources for future generations (Kates, Parris, Leiserowitz, 2005, pp. 8-21; Famielec, 2009, p. 37; Fiedor, 2013, pp. 8-12; Zielmska, 2014, p. 184).One of the leading trends in supporting sustainable development is the concept of the economy, which is characterized by an increase in human wellbeing and social equity while simultaneously reducing environmental risks and the consumption of natural resources (Allen, Clouth, 2012, p. 9; Ryszawska, 2013, p. 27; Bata, 2011, p. 265). This subject has gained in importance since 2008 when, on the initiative of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the global agreement called the New Deal was concluded. According to this document, governments should strengthen their cooperation to promote economic transformation towards a economy. The UNEP activities resulted in the launch of the Economy Initiative program, and then in the publication of the report titled Towards a green economy, containing recommendations for governments on the basis of the diagnosis of developments and prospects by 20301.Currently, this is one of the key topics of political debate both at the European and global levels. For this purpose, the Green Growth Knowledge Platform2 has been established by leading international institutions whose aim is to promote global economic development (e.g. World Bank, OECD, UNEP, Global Green Growth Institute. In recent years, these institutions have taken measures to develop both recommendations and a coherent framework for action to move the global economy onto a sustainable path. Another strategic document is the Green Growth Strategy3, developed by the OECD in 2011. This strategy creates a political framework for greater economic integration and changes in consumption and production patterns that lead to the more reasonable use of limited natural resources (OECD, 2011, p. 114).Apart from UN and OECD activities, it is also worth noting that, at the level of the European Union, various initiatives for sustainable development are being undertaken. The essence of this approach reflects not only the EU Sustainable Development Strategy (Council of the European Union, 2006), but also the 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, which replaced the renewed Lisbon Strategy in 2010 (European Commission, 2010, p. 5). The 2020 strategy explicitly confirms the need to create synergies between economic and environmental objectives, and advocates the transition towards a economy. Furthermore, improving resource efficiency is a major objective of the document Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe adopted on September 20, 2011 (European Commission, 2011b). It contains a vision that, by 2050, the EU economy will grow in a way that takes into account limited access to resources, thereby contributing to global economic transformation. …

Regulating a global value chain with the European Union's sustainability criteria – experiences from the Swedish liquid transport biofuel sector

Despite promises that they can contribute toward more environmentally beneficial transportation there are many sustainability concerns about liquid transport biofuels. In response to pressure from civil society, the European Union (EU) has introduced sustainability criteria for biofuels. A hybrid regulatory system involving state and non-state actors stipulates that retailers and producers must comply to be eligible for fiscal support such as tax exemptions. Flexibility in the system allows choice between different means of compliance, including a range of voluntary schemes. We present an analysis of views within the Swedish liquid transport biofuel sector in 2012 – a year after the introduction of EU sustainability criteria. Using document analysis, official statistics, and a survey, we use four key structures of global value chains — input–output structure, territorial configuration, institutional framework, and firm-level chain governance structure — to structure an analysis of biofuel value chain coordination. This yields three main findings regarding how the Swedish liquid transport biofuel system operates within, and views, the new regulatory framework. Firstly that it uses a broad portfolio of feedstock mainly from within Europe, seemingly avoiding countries where any supply conditions may be in doubt; second, larger retailers and producers achieve compliance without the need to provide additional social sustainability information; third, that actors exhibit predominantly Eurocentric perspectives on sustainability, express confidence that their supply chains have strong ‘sustainability performance’ and desire long-term policy stability. We conclude that despite a deep critique of the sustainability of biofuels amongst civil society and academia, EU regulation allows for production systems that reflect a European- and climate change mitigation-centred view on biofuel ‘sustainability’.

Global warming and energy yield evaluation of Spanish wheat straw electricity generation – A LCA that takes into account parameter uncertainty and variability

Abstract This paper aims to provide more accurate results in the life cycle assessment (LCA) of electricity generation from wheat straw grown in Spain through the inclusion of parameter uncertainty and variability in the inventories. We fitted statistical distributions for the all the parameter that were relevant for the assessment to take into account their inherent uncertainty and variability. When we found enough data, goodness of fit tests were performed to choose the best distribution for each parameter and, when this was not possible, we adjusted triangular or uniform distributions according to data available and expert judge. To obtain a more complete and realistic LCA, we considered the consequences of straw exportation for the agricultural system, specially the loss of soil organic carbon and the decrease of future fertility. We also took into account all the inputs, transformations and transports needed to generate electricity in a 25 MWe power plant by straw burning. The inventory data for the agricultural, the transport and the transformation phases were collected considering their most common values and ranges of variability for the Spanish case. We used Monte Carlo simulation and sensitivity analysis to obtain global warming potential (GWP) and fossil energy (FOSE) consumption of the system. These results were compared with those of the electricity generated from natural gas in Spanish power plants, as fossil reference energy system. Our results showed that for the majority of the simulations electricity from wheat straw biomass combustion produced less greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions and consumed less fossil energy than electricity from natural gas. However, only 58% of the simulations achieved the sustainability threshold of 60% GHG savings proposed by the European Union (EU). Our analysis showed that agricultural field works and the loss of soil organic carbon due to straw exportation were the most important phases for FOSE consumption and GWP respectively. According to parameters sensitivity analysis, the loss of soil organic carbon was completely dependent on the isohumic coefficient and the soil carbon content factor values. Due to this fact, local and specific estimates of these parameters are relevant tasks to be performed in order to reduce uncertainties and provide a definitive answer to the compliance of the EU sustainability criteria.