Global GHG Emissions Research Articles

Carbon input management in temperate rice paddies: implications for methane emissions and crop response

Agriculture contributes to over 20% of global anthropogenic GHG emissions and irrigated paddy fields account for 5–10% of CH4 emissions. Main organic input providing methanogenesis substrate is straw. We hypothesized that removing rice straw can mitigate CH4 emissions, and that replacing its carbon (C) input with raw or solid digestate can be a valuable alternative both for crop, soil and emission responses. A mesocosm study was setup to follow crop growth, changes in soil pore water chemistry (dissolved Fe(II) and dissolved Organic C), and CH4 emissions over one cropping season on soil treated with the combination of two straw managements (removal or incorporation) and three fertilizations (mineral, raw digestate, solid digestate). Soils not receiving straw on average emitted 38 % less than soils after straw incorporation, while the two organic fertilizers did not increase emissions with respect to mineral N application. Furthermore, straw incorporation induced a yield depression independently from the fertilization strategy, probably as a result of N immobilization, especially in early stages. This was evidenced by early SPAD observations and flag leaf length, and both grain and straw final production. Moreover, the two organic fertilizers were not fully able to sustain crop N requirements with respect to the mineral fertilizer. Straw management was therefore decisive for determining both rice yield and CH4 emissions, while the impact of fertilization treatments was crucial only for crop productivity.

ASSESSMENT OF GREENNESS THROUGH CARBON FOOTPRINT

With increasing global GHG emissions it is very important for global to reduce the harmful effect of GHG emissions for future generations. Since the last decade Carbon footprint has become one of the major concern for educational institutions to get their environmental impact and quantify sustainability effort. MNIT Jaipur campus is one of the technical institutes that decided to measure its carbon footprint. This research presents the maiden Carbon Footprint study of MNIT Jaipur Campus. This study was conducted using IPCC methodology with scope 1, scope 2 and scope 3. The scope 1 includes the direct transportation of campus and LPG consumptions. In scope 2, electricity was the only source of emission whereas scope 3 includes staff commuting, bore well water supply, wastewater treatment, papers, aluminum can and solid waste. The total carbon footprint of MNIT Jaipur Campus was calculated to be 1182.69 ton CO2 eq. This study concludes that 29% of the overall carbon footprint was found from purchased electricity. While emissions from LPG consumption (26%), solid waste (16%), water supply (12%) and aluminum can (10%). The activities wastewater (4%), staff commuting (1%) and direct transportation (1%) have low emission compare to other activities. GHG emission percentage from papers, staff commuting, and direct transportation are negligible. This has a great contribution to achieving carbon neutrality of the campus. The per capita average emission found to be 0.273 ton CO2 eq. per person per year. Scope 3 emission has the highest contribution to the overall emission. From the literature, it was found that very few previous studies included scope 3 for calculating the carbon footprint, but this study shows that educational institutions have a significant impact on scope 3. Therefore every institution has needed to include the entire source associated with scope 3.

THE ROLE OF AGRICULTURE IN CLIMATE CHANGE: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Nowadays, the topic of climate change and its consequences are on the agenda of the everyday life. Due to the greenhouse effect, an effective doubling of CO 2 concentrations is expected by 2030. During the history, the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has grown mainly as a result of human activity in the Earth. The anthropogenic CO 2 emission accounts for around three-fourths of global GHG emissions. The development of greenhouse gas emissions is extremely associated with global warming. Approximately one-third of the global atmospheric methane emissions derived from agricultural activities. Throughout the agricultural production process, high amounts of GHG emissions are released, which affect negatively the environment and the climate. The intensity of agriculture-related factors of climate change is varying over countries and continents. The objective of the research is to explore the main agricultural-related determinants of climate change focusing on livestock, burning crop residues, rice production, manure management, synthetic fertilizer use along with the geographical and cultural factors of the pollution. The analysis was carried out on a sample representing the world economy. Keywords: carbon dioxide emission, agricultural production, trade, language, geography, world JEL Classifications: Q10, Q54, Q56 DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.8859

Potential of using OMEx as substitute of diesel in the dual-fuel combustion mode to reduce the global CO2 emissions

To achieve the targets of extreme low emissions values for the transport sector, several technologies emerged in the last few years. In this sense, advanced combustion modes as the dual-fuel low temperature combustion showed great advantages in terms of NOx and soot emissions reduction. At low and medium engine load, the operation is stable with virtually zero emissions. However, the exhaust gas recirculation rates at high load need to be increased to avoid excessive in-cylinder peaks, which leads to higher soot emissions. At these conditions, the use of non-sooting fuels as the oxymethylene dimethyl ethers (OMEx) allows avoiding the NOx-soot trade-off. In addition, the e-fuel consideration of the OMEx makes it suitable to reduce the global GHG emissions. This paper assesses the potential of using OMEx as high reactivity fuel to reduce the CO2 well-to-wheel emissions, and NOx and soot tailpipe emissions, in a medium-duty truck operating under dual-fuel combustion in transient conditions. The cargo mass was varied between 0% and 100% (18 ton) in the World Harmonized Vehicle Cycle. The tank-to-wheel analysis shows slightly higher CO2 production with OMEx-gasoline than with diesel-gasoline due to the ratio between the lower heating value and the carbon content. However, the well-to-wheel analysis shows the benefits of using OMEx to reduce the carbon dioxide footprint, which ranges from 13% (at full cargo mass) to 19% (at low cargo mass) compared to diesel-gasoline dual-fuel mode. This benefit is due to the large gains in terms of fuel production due to the carbon capture and the clean electric energy source necessary to produce the OMEx.

Relating carbon and energy intensity of best-performing retailers with policy, strategy and building practice

Retail stores are amongst the building typologies with the highest carbon (CI) and energy intensities (EI). However, previous studies have only explored best practice EI of food and non-food retailers, without identifying best practice CI threshold values. This paper presents a five-step analysis of CI and EI amongst the highest revenue retailers, benchmarking best and worst performing CI and EI retailers, analysing their nationality, performing a content analysis on their CSR reports and comparing results in terms of differentiation policies, strategies and building practices that can lead to increased environmental performance. Combined CI and EI best practice threshold values were found simultaneously under 346 kWh/m2/y and 115 kg CO2eq/m2/y for food retailers and under 146 kWh/m2/y and 70 kg CO2eq/m2/y for non-food retailers. In terms of policy, best-performing retailers shared a strong top-down management commitment towards sustainability across all business areas (p = 0.04) and an increased use of referential reporting standards, particularly of GRI standards (p = 0.05) and of the GHG protocol (p = 0.01). In terms of strategy, they established ambitious energy goals, such becoming 100% supplied by renewable energy (p = 0.05) or carbon neutral by 2020. As for building practice, LED and photovoltaic technology were the most popular high-performance solutions, but only the use of natural refrigerants (p = 0.001) and gas transfer to CO2 (p = 0.0007) were related to best-performing practice. The variability of CI and EI found in this study shows that it is already possible to reduce the retail sector’s contribution to global GHG emissions considerably. The proposed best practice CI and EI reference levels, linked to corporate policy, strategy and building practice, are useful new tools for retail energy-management, which can further promote sustainability in retail buildings, thus allowing a deeper understanding of how to decarbonize the retail building sector.

Study on IMO New Requirement: Ship Fuel Oil Consumption Data Collection and Reporting

The increase of heat in the Earth’s atmosphere caused by greenhouse gases emissions has changed the natural climate variability, resulting in the climate change. According to the Third IMO GHG Study 2014, international shipping has emitted 866 million tonnes of GHG per year on average between 2007 and 2012 which represented approximately 2.4% of global GHG emissions. In order to mandatorily implement the ship fuel consumption data collection and reporting scheme, IMO adopted amendments to MARPOL Annex VI on data collection system for fuel oil consumption of ships by the resolution MEPC.278 (70), in which a new Regulation 22A-Collection and reporting of ship fuel oil consumption data” was added, requiring that each ship of 5,000 gross tonnage and above, from calendar year 2019, shall collect the fuel consumption data as specified and report to its flag state. In order to implement properly the new regulations, this paper, supported by “a pilot project of shipboard fuel consumption data collection”, systematically analyses the IMO requirements for ship fuel consumption data collections and data collection methods. And based on the shipboard real practices and experiences, the whole process of data collection is demonstrated, and precautions and suggestions for more accurate data collection are also provided, for the easy reference by parties concerned such as ship masters, ship owners, managers, maritime authorities, etc.

Understanding the environmental impact of global dairy production

Abstract Some popular press articles and social media discussions continue to cite the erroneous data presented in the “Livestock’s Long Shadow” publication (FAO, 2006). While this data has subsequently been shown to be incorrect (Pitesky et al, 2009), on-going discussions about the high level of impact of livestock on global GHG emissions continue to be shared as fact nearly 15 years later. There is inherent complexity in studying the biology of livestock for meat and milk production. Efforts to make this complexity more understandable can lead to incorrect assumptions and create an unfavorable and incorrect view of dairy and livestock production for the general public. An unfavorable image of animal production creates added challenge for dairy and livestock producers. If the general public is to believe information about the environmental impact of livestock production, it is critical that that information is both accurate and easily understood. The following paper that highlights sustainable animal science and practices by Capper and Cady (2020) provides a review using modeling techniques for more recent updates (2007–2017), GHG emissions and overall impact of dairy production on environmental sustainability. Additionally, the contribution of ruminants to overall GHG emissions has also been more recently been summarized by Mitloehner (2018.)

A comprehensive review of climate change impacts, adaptation, and mitigation on environmental and natural calamities in Pakistan.

The devastations and damages caused by climate change are apparent across the globe, specifically in the South Asian region where vulnerabilities to climate change among residents are high and climate change adaptation and mitigation awareness are extremely low. Pakistan's low adaptive capacity due to high poverty rate, limited financial resources and shortage of physical resources, and continual extreme climatic events including varying temperature, continual flooding, melting glaciers, saturation of lakes, earthquakes, hurricanes, storms, avalanches, droughts, scarcity of water, pest diseases, human healthcare issues, and seasonal and lifestyle changes have persistently threatened the ecosystem, biodiversity, human communities, animal habitations, forests, lands, and oceans with a potential to cause further damages in the future. The likely effect of climate change on common residents of Pakistan with comparison to the world and their per capita impact of climate change are terribly high with local animal species such as lions, vultures, dolphins, and tortoise facing extinction regardless of generating and contributing diminutively to global GHG emissions. The findings of the review suggested that GHG emissions cause climate change which has impacted agriculture livestock and forestry, weather trends and patterns, food water and energy security, and society of Pakistan. This review is a sectorial evaluation of climate change mitigation and adaption approaches in Pakistan in the aforementioned sectors and its economic costs which were identified to be between 7 to 14 billion USD per annum. The research suggested that governmental interference is essential for sustainable development of the country through strict accountability of resources and regulation implemented in the past for generating state-of-the-art climate policy.

Environmental and economic impacts of trade barriers: The example of China–US trade friction

The new age of trade wars could simultaneously affect the worldwide distribution pattern of the economy and environmental emissions. However, previous studies have focused on economic impacts, and on trade liberalization, while little is known about the equilibrium effects of trade barriers on the environment. Using a global computable general equilibrium model and taking the recent anti-trade policies of the Trump administration as an example, this study investigates the possible socio-economic and environmental effects of trade friction. Specifically, this study explores how the implemented six rounds of China–US trade friction and its different long-term development trends affect regional economic output, GHG and air pollutant emissions. Results show that trade barriers harm both countries’ economies and such losses have a certain permanence, while non-participants can benefit indirectly. Trade friction decreases participants’ GHG emissions, modifies global GHG emission distribution patterns, and leads to improved air quality in most countries. If governments continue to impose tariffs, global GHG emissions could counterfactually decrease by up to 5%. However, the change in trade patterns is not conducive to clean energy development in the less-developed regions, including the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, and emission reductions from trade friction are insufficient to avoid catastrophic climate change.

PROSPEK INOVASI PENGELOLAAN SAMPAH SEBAGAI STRATEGI MITIGASI PEMANASAN GLOBAL DI KOTA MAGELANG

The waste sector contributes GHG to the atmosphere, especially from landfills, the existing waste contributes 3-4% of global GHG emissions. This study aims to calculate the potential of methane gas emissions generated from waste and identify innovative strategies to mitigate the impact on global warming caused by methane gas emissions. This research method was built using the literature study approach. Data collection in this study was carried out using secondary data from the publication of technical agencies such as population data, volume of waste and technical data on waste management in the city of Magelang. Meanwhile, the processing techniques and data analysis in this study with descriptive analysis to describe the projections of methane gas emissions theoreticallyThe results show that with the population of Magelang City in 2017 as many as 130,857 people produced waste generation of 61,613.8 tons / year. Based on the amount of waste generation, using the mass balance calculation from the decomposition of municipal waste aerobically and anaerobically according to Solvato's formula produces the potential for methane gas emissions of 3.943, 28 tons / year CH4. The amount isprojected to continue to rise for the next 10 (ten) years in proportion to the population. Waste management innovation as a strategy to mitigate the effects of global warming in the Magelang city can be pursued through organic villages, waste banks, TPS 3R and TPST, bioconversion of organic waste with maggot from black soldier fly, utilization of waste in landfill as Biogas, conversion of potential of waste landfill biomass into electrical energy.

Greenhouse Gas Emission Reporting Mechanism for Hotel Industry: A Case of Sri Lanka

Greenhouse Gas GHG Emissions have been recognized as one of the most significant factors that affect the global climate change. Many researches have indicated that tourism sector has a high impact to the global GHG emissions. Number of organizations have introduced GHG emission reporting mechanisms that can be adhered to report the emissions. Reporting the GHG emissions (or calculating the carbon footprint) is recognized as the primary step of the GHG emission mitigation process. However, these reporting mechanisms do not have industry specific guidelines which is identified as a major drawback.

Will Adaptation Delay the Transition to Clean Energy Systems? An Analysis with AD-MERGE

Climate change is one of the greatest environmental challenges facing our planet in the foreseeable future, yet, despite international environmental agreements, global GHG emissions are still increasing. In this context, adaptation measures can play an important role in reducing climate impacts. These measures involve adjustments to economic or social structures to limit the impact of climate change without limiting climate change itself. To assess the interplay of adaptation and mitigation, we develop AD-MERGE, an integrated assessment model that includes both reactive (‘flow’) and proactive (‘stock’) adaptation strategies as well as a range of mitigation (energy) technologies. We find that applying adaptation optimally delays but does not prevent the transition to clean energy systems (carbon capture and sequestration systems, nuclear, and renewables). Moreover, applying both adaptation and mitigation is more effective than using just one.

Economic Impacts of a Low Carbon Economy on Global Agriculture: The Bumpy Road to Paris

Limiting climate change below a 2 °C temperature increase this century will require substantial reductions of greenhouse gas emissions and the transition to a climate-friendly, low carbon society. In this paper, the economic impact of a less carbon-intensive economy on agricultural markets is estimated by means of an integrated modelling framework. First, the macroeconomic impacts of moving into a global low carbon economy are analysed by applying different carbon taxes in a general equilibrium modelling framework. Second, the potential adoption of emission mitigation technologies is quantified and used in the Aglink-Cosimo model to assess the impacts on agricultural markets of emission mitigation scenarios compatible with the 2.0 °C target prescribed in the Paris Agreement. Results for 2030 show reductions in global non-CO2 GHG emissions from agriculture (i.e., methane and nitrous oxide) by 10, 16 and 19% in 50, 100 and 150 USD/t CO2eq global carbon tax scenarios, respectively (Least Developed Countries excluded). Only between 0.6% and 1.3% of the global reduction is caused by indirect macroeconomic effects, although at the regional level they can cause up to 5.8% of the reduction in agricultural emissions. Results suggest that ambitious mitigation targets can provoke significant negative impacts on agricultural production and underline the importance of integrating GHG emission developments and impacts of related policies into agricultural market projections.

Strategies to reduce the global carbon footprint of plastics

Over the past four decades, global plastics production has quadrupled1. If this trend were to continue, the GHG emissions from plastics would reach 15% of the global carbon budget by 20502. Strategies to mitigate the life-cycle GHG emissions of plastics, however, have not been evaluated on a global scale. Here, we compile a dataset covering ten conventional and five bio-based plastics and their life-cycle GHG emissions under various mitigation strategies. Our results show that the global life-cycle GHG emissions of conventional plastics were 1.7 Gt of CO2-equivalent (CO2e) in 2015, which would grow to 6.5 GtCO2e by 2050 under the current trajectory. However, aggressive application of renewable energy, recycling and demand-management strategies, in concert, has the potential to keep 2050 emissions comparable to 2015 levels. In addition, replacing fossil fuel feedstock with biomass can further reduce emissions and achieve an absolute reduction from the current level. Our study demonstrates the need for integrating energy, materials, recycling and demand-management strategies to curb growing life-cycle GHG emissions from plastics. The life-cycle GHG emissions from plastics are expected to increase. Here, it is shown that an aggressive strategy of decarbonizing energy infrastructure, improving recycling, adopting bio-based plastics and reducing demand is required to keep emissions below 2015 levels.

Greenhouse gasses emission and economic growth nexus of sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract Notwithstanding the lesser contribution to global warming, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remained one of the most vulnerable to climate change due to low economic development, high dependence on natural resources for agricultural production and low technological advancement. There is also limited information on the nexus between economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in the region. Therefore, this study applied the Environmental Kuznets hypothesis to test the relationship between economic growth and GHG emissions in SSA and also test the effect of global GHG emission on economic growth of SSA. Using an aggregated panel data for the period of 1970 to 2012, a Vector Autoregressive and an Ordinary Least Square regression were estimated. From the result, although the relationship between economic growth and environmental quality was established in the short run, there are no clear turning points for the greenhouse gasses. Generally, there is a monotonic decreasing relationship between economic growth and environmental quality in the long-run. Interestingly, this study showed that global GHG emission levels have a long-run effect on the economic growth of SSA. We concluded that to ensure that economic growth leads to an improvement in environmental quality, there must be a global effort to introduce innovations and technologies that can lead to increase production with little GHG emissions. The study recommended that, SSA should consider carbon tax policies other than stringent GHG emission reduction initiatives or climate stabilization policies that would negatively affect production in the region.

Global Environmental Politics and Developing Nations' Climatic Vulnerability Nexus: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Climate change is arguably one of the most formidable environmental problems the world is facing nowadays and global environmental politics apprehends the complications further given its interdisciplinary nature and the scientific difficulties involved in climate change. Bangladesh has been recognized as one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change as per the Global Climate Risk Index (GCRI) 2018 at global stage emitting only 0.36 percent Greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, per-fluorocarbon, hydro-fluorocarbon, and sulfur hexafluoride) of total global GHG emission, which is lower than most of the countries. A paradox is felt across the globe is that the five major GHG emitting countries emit more than 60 percent of total global GHG emission but are not facing immediate climate risks. While on the contrary, countries like Bangladesh, Maldives, Lesotho or Tuvalu have little to do with GHG emissions but are most exposed to the long-term adverse impact of climate change. More to add, the most exposed countries to climate change are mostly developing or least developed and cannot fund their plans to fight out the climate change. In this global context, the countries at apex climatic risk despite demanding adequate financial support are not getting though. Being devoid of proper assistance from global community, they are getting more exposed to the climatic consequences and rushing to a possible extinction from the world map. This is being realized the most after a major GHG emitting country left Paris Agreement in 2017, believed to be influenced by international environmental politics, to pursue some short-term benefits leaving the long-term goals, and also has vowed to restructure the carbon regulations imposed by the previous administration. With the withdrawal of such a strong economic power from the agreement that pledged 3 billion dollars to the UN Green Climate Fund, at least two-thirds of the pledged amount is at Proceeding, International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC-2019), Dhaka, Bangladesh, 01-03 March, 2019 risk. Also, with the proposed restructuring of the carbon regulations, the global target to reduce carbon emission is expected to receive a major blow. This paper will explore the nexus between nature of global environmental politics and its implications on climate-vulnerable nation's as well as act as a future guideline toward the practitioners and nationwide policymakers in mainstreaming the inclusive resilience issues for the safeguard of the climatic hazard prone third world countries.

Air pollution terrain nexus: A review considering energy generation and consumption

Air pollution caused by energy generation and consumption is both a global as well as localised issue. It contributes to global warming along with degradation in human health, ecosystem health, local and global sustainable development. About 75% of the global GHG emissions, 66% of NOx emissions and most of the PM emissions are from energy sectors. Energy sectors have also been reported as the main contributors (90%) of SO2 emission in China. Among various influential factors (like energy utilisation, the intensity of economic activities, climatic conditions), the terrain is one of the key elements for the formation and dispersion of air pollution. The relationship between air pollution and terrain requires to be more deeply studied. The main contributions of this review include: 1) Summarising the main sources and types of air pollutants as well as the emission characteristics of different sector groups; 2) Proposing the mechanism of air pollution terrain nexus; 3) Reviewing modelling and experiments approaches for air pollution terrain nexus simulation; 4) Highlighting the existing limitations and challenges. This review provides a better understanding of the air pollution terrain nexus. It can contribute to mitigating the air pollution problems.

CARBON FOOTPRINT-BASED APPROACH TO MINIMIZE BUILDING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT IN EGYPT

buildings contribute more than 30% to total global GHG emissions. In efforts to reduce global warming,GHG reductions would make a significant contribution (UNEP, 2011). According to theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), there are three areas to focus when reducing CO2emissions from buildings: switching to renewable energy in designing, using green materials inconstruction, and reducing energy consumption in building operation. This paper aims to investigate worldexperience in achieving zero carbon community by analyzing and comparing some international andnational examples of public buildings and especially focusing on housing sector as it represents the largestproportion among the rest of the building sectors within the city. This paper finally recommends how tomitigate the buildings' environmental negative impact, therefore reducing the energy consumption and thebuilding's carbon footprint whether before construction-stage (by adopting renewable energies), duringconstruction (by integrating environmentally friendly construction materials) or during the use-stage (byapplying appropriate techniques in building operation and maintenance).

Consumers underestimate the emissions associated with food but are aided by labels

Food production is a major cause of energy use and GHG emissions, and therefore diet change is an important behavioural strategy for reducing associated environmental impacts. However, a severe obstacle to diet change may be consumers’ underestimation of the environmental impacts of different types of food. Here we show that energy consumption and GHG emission estimates are significantly underestimated for foods, suggesting a possible blind spot suitable for intervention. In a second study, we find that providing consumers with information regarding the GHG emissions associated with the life cycle of food, presented in terms of a familiar reference unit (light-bulb minutes), shifts their actual purchase choices away from higher-emission options. Thus, although consumers’ poor understanding of the food system is a barrier to reducing energy use and GHG emissions, it also represents a promising area for simple interventions such as a well-designed carbon label. Consumer adoption of more plant-based diets has high technical potential to reduce global GHG emissions. This study shows that consumers underestimate the GHG emissions associated with foods, but carbon labels that provide this information promote the purchase of lower-emitting options.

A life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) of oxymethylene ether as a diesel additive produced from forest biomass

Due to efforts to reduce dependence on limited fossil energy reserves and increasing GHG emissions related to fossil fuel extraction and use in transportation vehicles, renewable fuel use is growing rapidly. By adding renewable oxygenated fuel additives such as oxymethylene ether (OME) to conventional diesel, combustion GHG emissions can be reduced significantly without modifications to vehicle engines. However, life cycle sustainability assessments (LCSA) of OME production and its use with diesel are scarce. The objective of this paper is to develop an LCSA model of OME production from forest biomass to be used in vehicles as a diesel additive. This study conducts an LCSA of OME production from two types of forest biomass as feedstock, whole tree and forest residue. A framework was developed to assess environmental, economic, and social impacts of unit operations along the life cycle for a functional unit of 1 MJ of heat produced from OME. Then, PROMITHEE (Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment and Evaluation) was used to rank and select the best sustainable pathway for OME production and the most sustainable OME-diesel blend based on a number of indicators. Based on the sustainability assessments results, the forest residue pathway is found to be more sustainable than the whole tree pathway. In addition, the environmental, economic, and social impact results for different OME-diesel blends show that a blend of 10% OME in 90% diesel is the most sustainable fuel mix. Assuming that the GHG emissions from biofuel combustion are offset by CO2 sequestered during plant growth, the biomass production operation contributes the highest global GHG emissions in the OME life cycle; this is due to the high energy intensity of harvesting operations for both pathways (13 gCO2eq/MJ for whole tree and 7.13 gCO2eq/MJ for forest residue). OME production costs are higher for the whole tree (1.92 $/L) than the forest residue pathway (1.71 $/L). All the social indicators (i.e., employment potential and employee wages and benefits) are more favorable in the forest residue pathway. We conducted sensitivity analyses by varying parameters such as sustainability impact weights, threshold values, and indicator impact values. We then determined the parameters’ impacts on overall ranking to verify the robustness of the model. This model can be used to assess and rank other energy technologies that integrate environmental, economic, and social sustainability impacts and thereby contribute to policy-making for the energy industry.