Fossil Fuels In Industry Research Articles

Defeating cap-and-trade: How the fossil fuel industry and climate change counter movement obstruct U.S. Climate Change Legislation

This study investigates the role of climate change contrarians in the defeat of the American Clean Energy and Security Act in 2010, a pivotal moment in U.S. climate policy that marked the end of extensive efforts to enact cap-and-trade climate legislation in the United States. Our research objectives are twofold: firstly, to determine the extent to which climate contrarians gained access to testify at congressional hearings in the years leading up to the bill’s ultimate defeat; and secondly, to examine the potential influence of fossil fuel industry (FFI) funds in facilitating this access. We compile a comprehensive new dataset encompassing all witnesses testifying at cap-and-trade and climate science hearings from 2003 to 2010. This information is cross-referenced with other pertinent data concerning interest groups, lobbying activities, and Congress. Our findings reveal a significant correlation between FFI lobbying expenditures and campaign contributions and the presence of contrarian witnesses at these hearings, suggesting a coordinated effort by the FFI to obstruct climate legislation. We find that contrarians were able to obtain disproportionate access to central hearings in key committees with jurisdiction over cap-and-trade bills, increasing their potential to obstruct legislation. Moreover, our analysis exposes a concerning over-representation of scientists known to deny the scientific consensus at these hearings, undermining the scientific consensus on climate change and perpetuating doubt about the urgency of climate action.

CNA Insider's Documentary on China's Contradictory Actions towards Investing in Fossil Fuel Industries

The research paper analyses the documentary series-China’s Contradiction: World’s Biggest Clean Energy Producer and Biggest Polluter?, produced by Channel News Asia (CNA) Insider, which highlighted China's efforts in increasing coal production, despite producing huge amounts of green energy. China has emerged as the world’s No.1 producer of solar energy in the world, by producing over 430 GW solar energy and is also the world's largest manufacturer of solar equipment, superseding other countries like the U.S.A., Germany, India, and Japan. In spite of being the largest producer of ‘clean’ energy, China has started constructing several coal power plants, to meet the country’s energy requirements, by directly contradicting its statement that it will peak emissions by 2030 and attain net zero by 2060. So the study adopts case study approach to decipher China’s efforts in its increased interest and investment in solar energy, and its reasons behind investing in coal plants as well, After analysis, it is concluded that China's ambitions in investing in the solar industry is for overall economic development, and the country is not yet ‘ready’ to become completely green because of its high dependence on coal for generating cheap electricity at all times of the year.

Modelowanie numeryczne jako narzędzie do badania wybuchów wodoru

Currently, the burning of fossil fuels in industry or for transportation has a major negative impact on the environment. Most countries are concerned with environmental security and pollution regulation, motivating researchers around the world to find alternative solutions. An alternative solution may be the large-scale use of hydrogen. Applications of hydrogen in industry or for transportation face challenging conditions. Among other things, we are talking about pressures of up to 1000 bar, extreme temperatures starting from -253 °C (for liquefied hydrogen) and up to 650 °C - 950 °C (in the case of solid oxide electrolytic cells), as well as the imminent risk of explosion. This is because H2 has an extremely low ignition energy, with much wider flammability limits compared to other fuels such as methane or propane. Hydrogen is a highly reactive and explosive gas. Therefore, explosion protection is essential for all processes involving the use of hydrogen in one form or another. The same principles that are applied to natural gas can be applied. Hydrogen behaves similarly to methane in terms of explosion risk, meaning in principle that explosion protection works similarly for both gases. However, there are still many unknowns regarding the phenomenon of initiation and propagation of explosions caused by air-hydrogen mixtures. Taking into account the multiple aspects related to security techniques that must be taken into account for the use of hydrogen in industry or for transport, the current paper focuses on aspects with regard to the use of modern numerical modelling tools for increasing the occupational health and safety level in technological processes endangered by the occurrence of explosive atmospheres generated by air-hydrogen mixtures. It presents a review on the main research activities to be carried out within a the H2Model research project implemented between 2023 – 2026, project which focuses on numerical modelling on the ignition and propagation of explosions caused by air-hydrogen mixtures.

Applying earth system justice to phase out fossil fuels: learning from the injustice of adopting 1.5 °C over 1 °C

The Paris Agreement has seen the adoption of a 1.5° to 2 °C climate target, based on the belief that climate change becomes ‘dangerous’ above this level. Since then, the scientific community and the countries most affected by global warming have reiterated that the maximum limit to be reached should be 1.5 °C. This paper goes one step further by questioning the reasoning behind the adoption of these targets, arguing that the fossil fuel-dependent political context in which they were adopted has undermined justice concerns. We highlight the political influence of the fossil fuels industry within target-setting negotiations, analyzing the evolution of climate targets and fossil fuel lobbying. We then harness published scientific evidence and the Earth System Justice framework to analyze the impacts of the 1.5 °C target, and the injustices that have so far been implicitly deemed acceptable. We argue that 1 °C would have been a far more just target and was undermined by vested interests and status quo maintenance. Finally, we propose just supply-side policies to ensure an adequate placement of responsibility on the fossil fuel industry. This way we (a) identify political influences and scientific blind spots that have and could continue to hinder climate action, (b) reveal how these influences delayed more ambitious climate objectives, contributing to the adoption of an unjust climate target, and (c) promote a focus on supply-side measures and polluting industries in order to break free from the impasse in the energy transition and foster more just outcomes.

Climate Change and its Impact on Human Health: A Focus on Vetcor Borne Diseases

Human activities are blamed for climate change, for instance, cutting trees, deforestation, desertification, arable lands abuse, increasing consumption of fossil fuels in industries and transportation have increased greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide in the earths atmospheres that resulted in increased average temperature. Accumulation of green house gases in lower atmospheres is the main reason for global warming. The overall health effects of climate change are likely to be extremely negative. Climate change affects social and environmental factors related to health such as contaminating drinking water, less access to water, having adverse effects on food security, and ruining shelter. It also imposes new diseases and mortality on human population. Climate change specially extreme high temperature increases deaths due to complication from cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, diabetes, mental disorder, respiratory and renal diseases. Weather related natural disasters result in more deaths. Intense rainfall and floods cause direct trauma, ruin agricultural land, contaminate fresh water, increase the risk of water borne disease and create suitable breeding grounds for vector borne disease like malaria, leshmaniasis, CCHF, and others. Climate change also increases the rate of communicable and non-communicable diseases. All papulation is affected by climate change but elders, pregnant women and children are more vulnerable than others. Climate change is challenging all human societies, but areas with weak health infrastructure and low socioeconomic status are more affected.

Renewable energy and the promise of jobs, regional regeneration and first nations opportunities

ABSTRACT Carbon-exposed regions tied to the fossil-fuel industry have uncertain futures. The promise of regional regeneration and job stimulus through a transition to renewable energy has been presented by governments, environmental organisations and some unions as a viable solution to their dilemmas. In this paper, we critically evaluate the job generation and local development possibilities from two high profile renewable energy initiatives – offshore wind farms and hydrogen hubs. Our starting point is that the debate to date has tended to be very narrowly focused on ‘employment estimates for renewable versus fossil fuel industries’ without consideration of where these jobs will be located and the nature of these jobs. Adopting a case study method, we consider the development of offshore wind farms and hydrogen hubs in Australia and their location within global value chains (GVCs) and the temporal and spatial dimensions of work required for developing, operating and maintaining these emerging industries. We demonstrate how the low labour intensity of ongoing work in offshore wind and hydrogen hubs means that new jobs created are mostly in short bursts of temporary labour in project construction.

Fossil Fuel Industry Phase-Out and Just Transition: Designing Policies to Protect Workers’ Living Standards

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on transition policies targeted at supporting workers now employed in the fossil fuel industries and ancillary sectors within high-income economies. As a general normative principle, I argue that the overarching aim of such policies should be to protect workers against major losses in their living standards resulting through the fossil fuel industry phase-out. The impacted workers should be provided with guarantees to accomplish this, in the areas of jobs, compensation and pensions. Just transition policies should also include job search, retraining and relocation programs, but these forms of support should be recognized as supplementary. The overall set of just transition policies is fully aligned with the Energy Justice and Capabilities Approach as well as the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Within this framework, the paper first reviews experiences with transitional policies in Germany, the UK, the EU and, more briefly, Japan and Canada. The policies either implemented or discussed in these cases do not provide the needed guarantees. The paper then presents an illustrative robust just transition program for the heavily fossil fuel-dependent U.S. state of West Virginia. This program will cost, as an annual average, about $42,000 per impacted worker, or about 0.2 percent of West Virginia's current GDP. I briefly summarize results for seven other U.S. states and for the overall U.S. economy. For the U.S. economy overall, the just transition program's costs would total to about 0.015 percent of GDP. These findings demonstrate the financial viability of robust just transition programs for high-income economies.

Forging Global Rule of Law through Climate Litigation against the United States and the Fossil Fuel Industry

Forging Global Rule of Law through Climate Litigation against the United States and the Fossil Fuel Industry

A sustainable method of soil stabilization using waste glass in road construction

Concerns about the production of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) are increasing dramatically. The climate is changing considerably and affecting people and their well-being adversely. Most human-caused GHG emissions come from burning fossil fuels in industry, buildings and the transport sector. In the construction industry, concrete is known as the most consumed man-made material on the planet [1]. Cement, which is the key constituent of concrete, has a massive carbon footprint with a contribution of about 8% of the world’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions [2]. One of the potential replacements for cement is alkali-activated binders (AABs). In this method glass waste is utilized in an environmentally friendly, sustainable manner for stabilisation of volcanic soil in road construction. The waste glass could be a great candidate as aggregate, precursor and activator in the alkali activation process. To avoid using cement due to environmental concerns, AABs could be employed to stabilize volcanic soils in a sustainable method in road construction. This technology is relatively recent and numerous ongoing research is investigating the behavior of such binders. Using AABs not only decreases CO2 emissions and air pollutants, but also due to incorporating waste in their composition, has a tremendous environmental impact. Life cycle studies quoted 30% to 80% CO2 saving by substituting Alkali activated material for Portland cement [3]. This study aims to deepen the knowledge about the usage of AABs in road construction by performing an extensive literature review. This review will summarize recent progress in the field of sustainable roads, and review plans to evaluate the feasibility of using glass waste in road construction in New Zealand. This could stabilise the soil and sustainably capture CO2 in a step toward New Zealand’s Net-Zero goal.

An Unsustainable Partnership: Stanford University mistakenly acts as if the fossil-fuel industry will help it-and the rest of us-tackle the climate crisis.

An Unsustainable Partnership: Stanford University mistakenly acts as if the fossil-fuel industry will help it-and the rest of us-tackle the climate crisis.

Photocatalytic Cementitious Materials to Reduce Air Pollution: Review

Oxides of nitrogen (NOx) are highly reactive and major air pollutants generated from the vehicular emission and burning of fossil fuels in industries. These pollutants will create tropospheric ozone, formation of urban smog and occurrence of acid rain, etc. A potential solution for this would be heterogeneous photocatalysis. Using photocatalysts such as titanium dioxide (TiO2) inorganic and organic matter present in the air, such as NOx and VOCs can be adsorbed and oxidized by the action of ultraviolet (UV) light (sunlight). This technology is promising for cities with highly congested areas having high ground-level pollutant concentrations. Self-cleaning and air-purification coating with a super-hydrophilic photocatalyst (TiO2) coated on buildings can bring down the NOx concentration in the air. In addition, the incorporation of TiO2 in the form of nano-particles into cementitious materials will enhance their mechanical properties. This study evaluates and highlights the applications of nano titanium dioxide and its effects on the fresh and hardened characteristics of the cementitious composites.

On the Merits and Limits of Nationalising the Fossil Fuel Industry

AbstractWe explore the desirability of an idea that has not received the attention it deserves by political philosophers: that governments should bring privately-owned fossil fuel companies into public ownership with a view to managing their wind-down in the public interest – often simply referred to as ‘nationalising the fossil fuel industry’. We aim to make a conditional case for public ownership of fossil fuel companies. We will assume certain conditions about government motivations and capacities that are similar to assumptions made generally in the philosophical and economic analysis of climate policies: that the government is suitably motivated, has effective control over the companies it acquires, and is able to sustain this motivation and control for long-enough to wind-down acquired companies in the public interest. We argue that bringing fossil fuel companies into public ownership, under these conditions, allows the government to take ten actions that are in the public interest, which will enhance social justice, enable a fair division of burdens and benefits, and strengthen democracy. We consider four plausible objections. While some of these point to the need for further research, they do not undermine our claim that nationalising the fossil fuel industry is a policy option that merits serious consideration.

Storying Strata: Entangling Coal and Energy Futures in Australia and India

ABSTRACT This article argues that the storying of fossiliferous geological strata opens up geopolitical possibilities for climate justice and ethical energy futures. Our more-than-human approach to the fossil-fuel industry and more specifically coal trade is sparked by ongoing political controversies and protests that have erupted over the development of the Galilee coal Basin in central Queensland, Australia by Indian mining conglomerates. Through a focus on this case study, we first draw attention to toxic border thinking on development, fossil fuel energy futures and climate change enabled by state-corporate collusions. Second, we argue for opening up decolonial horizons by dwelling in the border – the border that alerts us to the distributed agency of geologic life and vitality of fossilised seed ferns. Thinking with deep time and geological strata we explore the geopolitics of ‘clean coal’ and limitless groundwater that justifies mining in the Galilee basin and the establishment of new thermal plants on Adivasi lands in India. Attention to the materiality of fly ash and its transformation into cement for construction in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan highlights more sustainable energy use, but we argue that this carbonised cement would also linger as a future fossil from the Anthropocene that refuses extinction. Finally, by thinking with the artwork Towards a Glass Monument (2017–2019) by Tom Nicholson and Geoffrey Wallace we encounter a method for shifting viewer perspectives on coal from its identity as a homogeneous fuel source to a delicate historical record of past flora. The article demonstrates that even when worlds inhabited by racialised and marginalised peoples are silenced, the materiality of coal, ash, water and the visual echo of fossiliferous plant spores seed more-than-human framings of justice. We position both our case study exploration and Towards a Glass Monument as examples of how to story strata with the aim of opening up geopolitical possibilities for more-than-human climate justice.

Investors’ Moral and Financial Concerns—Ethical and Financial Divestment in the Fossil Fuel Industry

It is discussed intensively whether divestment decease sales in the fossil fuel industry or whether investors divest from the fossil fuel industry because of stranded assets. Furthermore, it is unclear what the consequences of these activities are for the fossil fuel industry. Therefore, the study explores the direction of causality between cash flow factors, such as production factors and sources of financing and sales of the fossil fuel industry using lagged regression models and applying the Granger causality test. Our sample consists of fossil fuel companies from the Carbon Underground 200 list. Because R-squared values for both lagged financial factors and lagged sales were similar, we suggest a “bi-directional causality” between the financial flow factors and sales. We conclude that divestment (because of ethical concerns) can cause lower sales and that lower sales can cause divestment because of fear of the risk of stranded assets. Because a third factor usually causes bi-directional causations, we conclude that the need for the fossil fuel industry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is the third factor that influences both the ethical and financial motivation of divestment. Consequently, the study contributes to theoretical approaches to divestment.

Techno-economic assessment of a novel power-to-liquid system for synthesis of formic acid and ammonia, based on CO2 electroreduction and alkaline water electrolysis cells

The power-to-liquid concept is a promising strategy to convert the power plants' flue gas to value-added liquid fuels using renewable energy. This technology could potentially reduce global greenhouse gases emissions and mitigate the environmental problems associated with the fossil fuels industry. In this regard, the main objective of the present study is to propose a novel power-to-liquid plant for the synthesis of formic acid and ammonia from power plants' flue gas, emphasizing the role of electrochemical technologies and renewable energy. The system's basis is developed by the integration of CO2 electroreduction cell, alkaline water electrolysis cell, and photovoltaic panel technologies. The plant performance is evaluated by a techno-economic analysis by considering the operating conditions of the electrochemical cells as operating variables. The results show that the Power-to-liquid energy efficiency is continuously reduced with the CO2 electroreduction cell's current density, while it reaches a peak at the alkaline electrolysis cell's current density of 0.2 A/cm2. Also, the study of the effect of alkaline electrolysis cell's operating temperature and pressure on the Power-to-liquid energy efficiency shows that the plant is more efficient at higher temperatures and lower pressures. From an economic aspect, the plant's cost of the product decreases with cells' current densities. Moreover, the plant's cost of the product is reduced by the increase in the alkaline electrolysis cell's operating temperature while it increases with the operating pressure. At design conditions, the alkaline electrolysis and CO2 electroreduction cells' energy efficiencies were calculated as 60.80% and 33.80%, respectively. Also, the Power-to-liquid energy efficiency and plant's cost of the product were obtained 37.60% and 22.676 $/kg, respectively.

Forging Global Rule of Law Through Litigation Against the United States and the Fossil Fuel Industry

Forging Global Rule of Law Through Litigation Against the United States and the Fossil Fuel Industry

Confronting Climate Risk With Lobbying: Evidence From the Fossil Fuel Industry

Confronting Climate Risk With Lobbying: Evidence From the Fossil Fuel Industry

Time to Put the Fossil-Fuel Industry Into Hospice

Time to Put the Fossil-Fuel Industry Into Hospice

A Voice for Change? A Network Analysis of Equity Ownership in Canada’s Fossil Fuel Industry

Financial actors may exert considerable influence over the governance of fossil fuel corporations, which bolster or impede steps towards climate action. However, the influence of financial actors on climate instability remains to be examined. This network analysis of equity ownership uncovers the structure of control of financiers in Canada’s fossil fuel industry and examines how sensitive the industry is to major stockholders. The results infer that ownership and influence are concentrated among a small subset of predominantly foreign and corporate equity owners. Moreover, the collective influence of just 14 major stockholders is significant. Finally, high debt loads of fixed assets make fossil fuel companies particularly sensitive to their shareholders. The results infer that these major stockholders will be unlikely to use their voice to curtail carbon emissions. Thus, this study not only allows us to identify key financial actors but map their influence over the economic activities directly associated with climate stability. The paper contributes to theory and practice, bridging the literature on corporate governance, equity ownership, and climate stability.

Three Stages of Justice in the Fossil Fuel Industries

The importance of assessing energy industries through a justice framework has widely become recognised in recent years. Creating and using the energy justice framework by different scholars is a manifestation of this recognition. Much of the scholars' attention is, however, currently being applied to the energy justice framework on the renewable energy industry and attempting to design a ‘perfect’ and ‘just’ energy system. This author believes, as set out in this article, that a theory of justice must address and reduce injustices in any circumstances, rather than aiming only at the characterisation of so-called ‘perfect justice’. Over-emphasising on a zero-carbon future and overlooking the present reality means that we accept many other injustices that are associated with fossil fuels until the time when we can dispose of fossil fuels, which are ‘future-uncertainty’. In this article, the author, by analysing current data and information regarding the production of oil and gas and its consumption and reserves, as well as different scenarios towards the future of energy, argues that the dominant position of fossil fuels is not going to change anytime soon. Based on this reality, and recognising what are considered to be some inherently unjust features of the oil and gas industry, the author proposes three complementary stages for justice in the oil and gas industry; a perfect and just energy system that has zero-carbon and is decentralised is the final stage. The second stage is fair energy transitions, which emphasises a ‘just transition’ towards that desired future. The first stage, however, which is often overlooked, is applying the energy justice framework in the oil and gas industry to identify any injustices that can be reduced or limited.