Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Targets Research Articles

Development of planning method using mathematical programming for optimization of generation deployment and grid reinforcement matching the energy portfolio of the decarbonized society

Abstract Considering the long‐term goal of the “Paris Agreement,” drastically reducing the CO2 emission of the energy sector as a whole is essential. Existing study showed an example of the energy portfolio (PF) in 2050 achieving the greenhouse gas emission reduction target (80% reduction compared to FY2013) by the transition of primary energy consumption to electricity by increased electrification due to reduction of cost and high energy efficiency of electricity.The study also pointed out that further study is required since it did not consider the cost of network developments due to the geographical distance between areas with large demand and where suitable for renewable integration. This paper explains the mathematical optimization model to derive the cost optimal deployment of renewables and the corresponding required development of the interconnection, and, by showing a preliminary calculation result, verified that it should be effective to use this model in the study to seek the future of the energy sector.

Development of an SMR-induced environmental input-output analysis model – Application to Saskatchewan, Canada

Development of an SMR-induced environmental input-output analysis model – Application to Saskatchewan, Canada

PROMOTING ECONOMIC GROWTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH ENERGY EFFICIENCY: EVIDENCE FROM INDONESIA

Indonesia has set a unilateral greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) reduction target by 29% and conditional targets with international support of up to 41%, compared to the business as usual by 2030. This paper aims to formulate energy conservation policies to increase productivity and promote economic growth in Indonesia. Indonesia's energy conservation policy has multiple aspects: supporting energy security, commitment to GHG emission reduction, state budget efficiency, and improving productivity and competitiveness. Using Social Accounting Matrix (SAM), this study found evidence that energy efficiency saving will positively affect ecological sustainability and economic agents in the five targeted sectors: energy, waste, industrial processes, and production use, agriculture, and forestry. Furthermore, the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy provides positive effects in increasing economic growth and reducing income disparities.Keywords: Energy Conservation, Energy Efficiency, Economic Growth, Environmental Sustainability.JEL Classifications: Q40, O40, Q56DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.11463

Framework for Developing a Low-Carbon Energy Demand in Residential Buildings Using Community-Government Partnership: An Application in Saudi Arabia

Rapid population growth has led to significant demand for residential buildings around the world. Consequently, there is a growing energy demand associated with increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The residential building energy demand in arid countries such as Saudi Arabia is supplied with fossil fuel. The existing consumption pattern of fossil fuels in Saudi Arabia is less sustainable due to the depletion of fossil fuel resources and resulting environmental impacts. Buildings built in hot and arid climatic conditions demand high energy for creating habitable indoor environments. Enormous energy is required to maintain a cool temperature in hot regions. Moreover, climate change may have different impacts on hot climatic regions and affect building energy use differently. This means that different building interventions may be required to improve the performance of building energy performance in these geographical regions, thereby reducing the emissions of GHGs. In this study, this framework has been applied to Saudi Arabia, a hot and arid country. This research proposes a community–government partnership framework for developing low-carbon energy in residential buildings. This study focuses on both the operational energy demand and a cost-benefit analysis of energy use in the selected geographical regions for the next 30 years (i.e., 2050). The proposed framework primarily consists of four stages: (1) data collection on energy use (2020 to 2050); (2) setting a GHG emissions reduction target; (3) a building intervention approach by the community by considering cost, energy, and GHG emissions using the Technique for Order of Performance by Similarity to the Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to select the best combinations in each geographical region conducting 180 simulations; and (4) a clean energy approach by the government using grey relational analysis (GRA) to select the best clean energy system on the grid. The clean energy approach selected six different renewable power generation systems (i.e., PV array, wind turbine, hybrid system) with two storage systems (i.e., battery bank and a combination of electrolyte, fuel cell, and hydrogen tank storage). This approach is designed to identify the best clean energy systems in five geographical regions with thirty scenario analyses to define renewable energy-economy benefits. This framework informs through many engineering tools such as residential building energy analysis, renewable energy analysis, multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) techniques, and cost-benefit analysis. Integration between these engineering tools with the set of energy policies and public initiatives is designed to achieve further directives in the effort to reach greater efficiency while downsizing residential energy demands. The results of this paper propose that a certain level of cooperation is required between the community and the government in terms of financial investments and the best combinations of retrofits and clean energy measures. Thus, retrofits and clean energy measures can help save carbon emissions (enhancing the energy performance of buildings) and decrease associated GHG emissions, which can help policy makers to achieve low-carbon emission communities.

Climate policies after Paris: Pledge, Trade and Recycle: Insights from the 36th Energy Modeling Forum Study (EMF36)

This article summarizes insights from the 36th Energy Modeling Forum study (EMF36) on the magnitude and distribution of economic adjustment costs of greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. Under the Paris Agreement, countries have committed to emission reduction targets – so-called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) – in order to combat global warming. The study suggests that aligning NDCs with the commonly agreed 2°C temperature target will induce global economic costs of roughly 1% in 2030. However, these costs are unevenly distributed across regions. Countries exporting fossil fuels are most adversely affected from the transition towards a low-carbon economy. In order to reduce adjustment costs at the global and regional level, comprehensive emissions trading which exploits least-cost abatement options is strongly desirable to avoid contentious normative debates on equitable burden sharing. Lump-sum recycling of revenues from emissions pricing, in equal amounts to every household, appeals as an attractive strategy to mitigate regressive effects and thereby improving the social acceptability of stringent climate policy.

Climate mitigation in the Mediterranean Europe: An assessment of regional and city-level plans

Climate mitigation in the Mediterranean Europe: An assessment of regional and city-level plans

Reducing household greenhouse gas emissions from space and water heating through low-carbon technology: Identifying cost-effective approaches

Reducing fuel use for the heating of houses is key to meeting greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. This study constructs Marginal Abatement Cost Curves (MACC) of different technologies for space and water heating of houses in the county of Gwynedd in Wales, UK, and uses information provided by energy certificates to correctly assess the energy requirements of a house. This approach allows us to accurately predict energy consumption and identify potential ways to reduce demand. We then explore the costs and savings of a switch from systems using conventional heating fuel (e.g., gas, electricity, oil, LPG, and coal) to low-carbon technology such as PV, biomass boilers and heat pumps. Solar PV was the low-carbon heating technology found to be most cost-effective per tonne of emissions abated (£/t CO2). A reduction in capital costs of low-carbon technologies could potentially make technologies such as heat pumps be cost-effective. Without any policy intervention, low investment and fuel cost of gas would make replacement with any low-carbon technology uneconomical. Emission savings in Gwynedd over 30-year period could be between 3.494 and 5.289 Mt CO2 if appropriate measures which cater towards reducing capital costs and/or incentivising the uptake of technology are adopted.

Improving the sustainability of ceramic tile production in Turkey

Improving the sustainability of ceramic tile production in Turkey

The Government of Indonesia's Accountability Against Forest Degradation Due to Deforestation Based on the Paris Agreement to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

This study aims to describe and explain the form of Indonesia's responsibility for climate change due to deforestation based on the Paris Agreement. As a form of contribution to climate problems, the Government has adopted the Paris Agreement with the instrument Law Number. 16 of 2016. However, the commitment to contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions has encountered problems in its implementation. On this basis, this study discusses the state's responsibility for climate change due to deforestation. The main emphasis will be on the forestry sector. This problem is the biggest obstacle in Indonesia's commitment to meet the greenhouse gas emission reduction target. This research method uses normative or doctrinal, the data collection process is carried out by reviewing literature that is relevant to the problems written by the author. The result of this research is that regulations on how to overcome the climate crisis in Indonesia are seen as not being able to implement changes in substance with the ultimate goal of reducing emissions as desired. The issue of effectiveness, especially the problem of legal requirements, is still a principle constraint, even some administrative arrangements contain decisions that contradict the declared responsibilities. In line with that, it is proposed the importance of strong guidelines, implementation of the law and balance of responsibilities through the environmental strategy that is carried out.

White knights, or horsemen of the apocalypse? Prospects for Big Oil to align emissions with a 1.5 °C pathway

White knights, or horsemen of the apocalypse? Prospects for Big Oil to align emissions with a 1.5 °C pathway

The Relationship between Korea Agricultural Productions and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Using Environmental Kuznets Curve

Purpose - The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between Korea agricultural productions and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions based on Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. Design/methodology/approach This study utilized time series data of economic growth, greenhouse gas, agricultural productions, trade dependency, and energy usages. In order to econometric procedure of EKC hypothesis, this study utilized unit root test and cointegration test to check staionarity of each variable and also adopted Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) and Ordinary Least Square (OLS) to analyze the short and long run relationships. Findings In the short run, greenhouse gas emissions resulting from economic growth show an inverse U-shape relationship, and an increase in agricultural production and energy consumption led to increase in greenhouse gas emission. In the long run, total GHG emissions and CO2 emissions show an N-shaped relationship with economic growth, and an increase in agricultural production has resulted in a decrease in total GHG and CO2 emissions. However, methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions showed an inverse U-shape relationship with economic growth, which indicated the environment and production process of agricultural production. Research implications or Originality Korea agricultural production has different effects on the GHG emission sources, and in particular, methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions show to increase as the agricultural production expansions, so policy or technological development in related sector is required. Especially, in the context of the 2030 GHG reduction road-map, if GHG-related reduction technologies or policies are spread, national GHG emission reduction targets can be achieved and this is possible to predict the decline in production in the sector and damage to the related industries.

Assessment of ship emissions in coastal waters using spatial projections of ship tracks, ship voyage and engine specification data

Assessment of ship emissions in coastal waters using spatial projections of ship tracks, ship voyage and engine specification data

Waste generation and carbon emissions of a hospital kitchen in the US: Potential for waste diversion and carbon reductions.

This study measured the total quantity and composition of waste generated in a large, New York City (NYC) hospital kitchen over a one-day period to assess the impact of potential waste diversion strategies in potential weight of waste diverted from landfill and reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. During the one-day audit, the hospital kitchen generated 1515.15 kg (1.7 US tons) of solid waste daily or 0.23 kg of total waste per meal served. Extrapolating to all meals served in 2019, the hospital kitchen generates over 442,067 kg (487 US tons) of waste and emits approximately 294,466 kg of CO2e annually from waste disposal. Most of this waste (85%, 376,247 kg or 415 US tons annually) is currently sent to landfill. With feasible changes, including increased recycling and moderate composting, this hospital could reduce landfilled waste by 205,245 kg (226 US tons, or 55% reduction) and reduce GHG emissions by 189,025 kg CO2e (64% reduction). Given NYC's ambitious waste and GHG emission reduction targets outlined in its OneNYC strategic plan, studies analyzing composition, emissions, and waste diversion potential of large institutions can be valuable in achieving city sustainability goals.

Waste generation and carbon emissions of a hospital kitchen in the US: Potential for waste diversion and carbon reductions

This study measured the total quantity and composition of waste generated in a large, New York City (NYC) hospital kitchen over a one-day period to assess the impact of potential waste diversion strategies in potential weight of waste diverted from landfill and reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. During the one-day audit, the hospital kitchen generated 1515.15 kg (1.7 US tons) of solid waste daily or 0.23 kg of total waste per meal served. Extrapolating to all meals served in 2019, the hospital kitchen generates over 442,067 kg (487 US tons) of waste and emits approximately 294,466 kg of CO2e annually from waste disposal. Most of this waste (85%, 376,247 kg or 415 US tons annually) is currently sent to landfill. With feasible changes, including increased recycling and moderate composting, this hospital could reduce landfilled waste by 205,245 kg (226 US tons, or 55% reduction) and reduce GHG emissions by 189,025 kg CO2e (64% reduction). Given NYC’s ambitious waste and GHG emission reduction targets outlined in its OneNYC strategic plan, studies analyzing composition, emissions, and waste diversion potential of large institutions can be valuable in achieving city sustainability goals.

Prospective contributions of biomass pyrolysis to China\u2019s 2050 carbon reduction and renewable energy goals

Recognizing that bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) may still take years to mature, this study focuses on another photosynthesis-based, negative-carbon technology that is readier to implement in China: biomass intermediate pyrolysis poly-generation (BIPP). Here we find that a BIPP system can be profitable without subsidies, while its national deployment could contribute to a 61% reduction of carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product in 2030 compared to 2005 and result additionally in a reduction in air pollutant emissions. With 73% of national crop residues used between 2020 and 2030, the cumulative greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction could reach up to 8620 Mt CO2-eq by 2050, contributing 13–31% of the global GHG emission reduction goal for BECCS, and nearly 4555 Mt more than that projected for BECCS alone in China. Thus, China’s BIPP deployment could have an important influence on achieving both national and global GHG emissions reduction targets.

POTENTIAL ASSESSMENT OF GREENHOUSE GAS REDUCTION IN PATTAYA HOTELS, THAILAND

Hotels in Thailand are one of the country's main economic growth sectors which inevitably result in increased sector energy use and cause a rise in GHG emissions. A study on the source of GHG emissions in the hotel sector can guide the suitable reduction measures. This paper reports the study results of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and their reduction potential in 4- and 5-star hotels in Pattaya, Thailand. In the study, seven 4- and 5-star hotels participated in surveys to assess their GHG emissions from electricity use, stationary combustion, mobile combustion, refrigerant leak, wastewater, solid waste, and outsourced laundry. The data used in this study were based on the 2018 statistics. The average emission by the surveyed hotels was at 4,466.99 tCO2e/year, equivalent to 107.88 kgCO2e/m2-year, and 45.42 kgCO2e/room-night. Electricity use was the major activity accounting for 77% of the total emissions. Hence, the GHG reduction plan was put forth to the energy efficiency improvement of energy-intensive machines. The findings from surveyed hotels were used as the basis to estimate the GHG emissions and potential reduction for 4- and 5-star hotels in the whole of Pattaya. By the proposed improvement scheme, the potential to reduce the GHG emission was 13,818.28 tCO2e, for an equivalent reduction of 7.8% of the total GHG emissions. This study approach for GHG reduction can further be applied to other tourism hotels nationwide to support the country in achieving the national GHG emission reduction target and the sustainable tourism industry.

Beyond Japanese NDC: energy and macroeconomic transitions towards 2050 in emission pathways with multiple ambition levels

Japan has set greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets for 2030 and 2050, as stated in the nationally determined contribution (NDC) and in the long-term strategy for decarbonization (LTS) submitted to the UNFCCC in 2020, respectively. While upgrading these targets is needed to realize the global climate goals (2 °C and 1.5 °C), the implications of the target for the period in-between remains unclear. This study assesses the energy and macroeconomic impacts of enhancing the ambition of 2040 and 2050 emission reduction targets in Japan by means of a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. In addition, we analyze the implications on the speed of energy efficiency improvement and low-carbon energy penetration along with macroeconomic impacts, and the shift from the current LTS goal (80% emissions reduction by 2050) to a full decarbonization one. The study shows that, compared to the current ambition (53% reduction by 2040 compared to 2005), enhancing ambition of the 2040 (63% reduction by 2040 compared to 2005) and 2050 targets (zero emissions by 2050) rises the share of low-carbon energy supply more drastically than the decreases in energy intensity, and increases macroeconomic costs by 19–72%. Moreover, meeting these targets demands accelerating considerably the reductions in carbon intensities through expansion of renewables and CCS beyond historical trends and beyond current efforts towards the 2030s NDC. Enabling larger low-carbon supplies and energy efficiency improvements makes full decarbonization by 2050 possible at costs equivalent to current ambition. Further analyses are needed to clarify at a finer detail the implications of changes in these enablers by sectors, technologies and policies. This kind of analysis offer key insights on the feasibility of Japan’s emission reduction targets for the formulation of new commitments for the next cycle of the Global Stocktake under the Paris Agreement.

Refrigerant alternative and optimization under the constraint of the greenhouse gas emissions reduction target

Refrigerant alternative and optimization under the constraint of the greenhouse gas emissions reduction target

Impact of a climate network: The role of intermediaries in local level climate action

Impact of a climate network: The role of intermediaries in local level climate action

Integrating Mobile Thermal Energy Storage (M-TES) in the City of Surrey’s District Energy Network: A Techno-Economic Analysis

The City of Surrey in British Columbia, Canada has recently launched a district energy network (DEN) to supply residential and commercial buildings in the Surrey Centre area with hot water for space and domestic hot water heating. The network runs on natural gas boilers and geothermal exchange. However, the City plans to transition to low-carbon energy sources and envisions the DEN as a key development in reaching its greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) reduction targets in the building sector. Harvesting and utilizing waste heat from industrial sites using a mobile thermal energy storage (M-TES) is one of the attractive alternative energy sources that Surrey is considering. In this study, a techno-economic analysis (TEA) was conducted to determine the energy storage density (ESD) of the proposed M-TES technology, costs, and the emission reduction potential of integrating waste heat into Surrey’s DEN. Three transportation methods were considered to determine the most cost-effective and low-carbon option(s) to transfer heat from industrial waste heat locations at various distances (15 km, 30 km, 45 km) to district energy networks, including: (i) a diesel truck; (ii) a renewable natural gas-powered (RNG) truck, and (iii) an electric truck. To evaluate the effectiveness of M-TES, the cost of emission reduction ($/tCO2e avoided) is compared with business as usual (BAU), which is using a natural gas boiler only. Another comparison was made with other low carbon energy sources that the city is considering, such as RNG/biomass boiler, sewer heat recovery, electric boiler, and solar thermal. The minimum system-level ESD required to makes M-TES competitive when compared to other low carbon energy sources was 0.4 MJ/kg.