Union Plans Research Articles

Research on the Inhibitory Effect of the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism on Carbon Leakage

Associated with more ambitious targets for reducing emissions, the European Union (EU) plans to implement the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) fully in 2026, aiming to reduce carbon leakage and competitiveness concerns by imposing tariffs on carbon-intensive imports, which is expected to significantly impact its trade partners. Existing research has focused on CBAM’s impact on macroeconomic indicators but has insufficiently addressed its effects on global and regional carbon leakage, especially in non-EU countries like China. This research offers a detailed analysis of industry-specific leakage rates and integrates both global and regional impacts by employing the dynamic recursive GTAP-E general equilibrium model to numerically simulate CBAM’s inhibitory effect on carbon leakage under different carbon tariff scenarios, while also exploring the synergistic effects of anti-leakage policies in non-EU countries. Our simulations indicate the following: (1) CBAM effectively inhibits carbon leakage, with greater inhibition observed at higher tax rates and with the expansion of covered industries. (2) Establishing China’s domestic carbon market pricing can further reduce regional carbon leakage rates. Implementing global export carbon tax policies will significantly diminish the risk of global carbon leakage. (3) The implementation of CBAM is projected to reduce China’s total exports to the EU, though this loss will be partly offset by trade diversion effects. Carbon-intensive industries are more adversely affected in the short term, while all industries except fossil fuels face inevitable long-term negative impacts.

Techno-economic assessment for the practicability of on-board CO2 capture in ICE vehicles

The transport sector is a major energy-intensive and significant contributor to CO2 emissions. With heavy-duty internal combustion engine vehicles (HD-ICEVs) set to remain a primary mode of transport for goods and passengers, the European Union plans to implement CO2 emission rights starting in 2027 to address this issue. To mitigate CO2 emissions, on-board carbon capture technologies can be an innovative solution, but a comprehensive analysis from several perspectives must be carried out. To tackle the existing knowledge gap on this subject, this paper presents the techno-economic assessment of a CO2 capture and storage system hybridised with an organic Rankine cycle (CCS-ORC) integrated into an HD-ICEV whose technical ability has been previously demonstrated. In this paper, the capture installation based on temperature swing adsorption is designed for two engines with different displacement volumes, at varying carbon capture rates (CCR), and using three different sorbents. The size of the thermal devices is estimated as the determinant factor for the required space and the installation costs. The results show that the heat exchangers can achieve a minimum area density of 100 m2/m3, while the most significant temperature swing adsorption device obtained is scarcely 0.26 m3. The carbon abatement cost (CAC) obtained for the CCS-ORC system is less than 35 €/tCO2 at 100 % of CCR, and with an engine size greater than 18 and 21 L, the CAC of the CCS-ORC system is zero at 100 and 70 % of CCR, respectively. Furthermore, with a CO2 emissions right price above 71 €/tCO2, the projected payback of the initial investment of the CCS-ORC system is achieved in the lifespan of the HD-ICEV for all sorbents evaluated at 100 % of CCR.

Thermodynamical and electrochemical model of a PEM electrolyzer plant in the megawatt range with a literature analysis of the fitting parameters

In the coming years, the European Union plans to establish Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyzers, each with a 100MW capacity. However, the selection of their locations has not been systematically optimized to leverage potential benefits, such as utilizing waste heat from large facilities for district heating. Presently, there are hardly any corresponding system models in the literature dynamically simulating a PEM electrolyzer of this size. This paper introduces a first model approach for such systems, drawing on parameters from existing literature. It addresses the inconsistency found in the literature regarding the use of the exchange current density, which varies by a factor of 109. A novel optimization process is developed by using an auxiliary parameter to fit the exchange current density with a newfound condition between the anode and cathode side. The outcome is a comprehensive model of a PEM electrolyzer plant, exemplarily adapted to the Siemens Silyzer 300.

Life cycle assessment to evaluate the integral water cycle in industrial supply: A real case study

Wastewater recycling technologies are developed in areas where the necessity of water resources cannot be satisfied by natural sources. Nevertheless, nowadays trends and European Union Plans show an increasing interest on using these technologies to reduce environmental impacts. This manuscript aims to address the question of the real environmental results of using these technologies and the differences between each specific case using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. A real case study is analyzed to answer this question: the integral water cycle of a northern of Spain, comparing a traditional water supply system (system I), and an alternative wastewater regeneration plant (system II). System II presents a higher impact for all categories (between 1.2 and 37 times higher), except for land use, where it is reduced by 53 %. These results show a larger impact produced by the alternative system due to higher energy and chemical product consumption. Energy consumption is the main factor causing the highest impact in most of the impact categories for both studied systems, including the one associated to the water resource consumption. It accounts for at least 50 % of the total impact for each system in 7 of the 16 evaluated impact categories. In terms of climate change, energy consumption is not particularly significant in system I, but it is for system II, where it represents around 50 % of that impact. In the categories where the impact is not determined by energy consumption, chemical product consumption and waste and discharge treatment are the most relevant factors. In this sense, this paper highlights the importance of analysing each case specifically and underscores the usefulness of using LCA methodology as a tool to improve decision-making in resource management, with water resources emerging as a crucial focal point.

The fire hazards associated with BEVs

A key development trend in the global automotive industry is electromobility. In 2021, the number of newly registered BEVs (Battery Electric Vehicles) will reach 10.5 million, and their share will rise to nearly 13%. By comparison, 351 thousand such vehicles were sold in 2015, while in 2010 – 7.3 thousand. According to forecasts by the International Energy Agency, by 2030, the zero-emission fleet could grow to 190 million, with 41 million BEVs registered in Europe. The European Union plans that just five years later, from 2035, no new cars and vans with internal combustion engines will be allowed to be registered in any member state. The nascent e-mobility market poses several new challenges and concerns related to, among other things, the fire of electric cars. The design differences between BEVs and their conventional counterparts make it likely that the risk factors affecting fire occurrence, progression, and extinguishment will differ. This article presents the most common causes of BEV fires, the procedure, and recommendations for extinguishing them. The solutions currently used to reduce such vehicles' ignition risk are also presented. From the considerations carried out in this paper, it is clear that fires in all-electric vehicles should be considered incidental, and external factors of an extreme nature most often contribute to their occurrence. Therefore, the correct direction is to disseminate reliable knowledge about the causes of such car fires, the risk of their occurrence, and the principles of fire prevention.

Assessing and Comparing Participatory Governance in Energy Transition: Evidence from the 27 European Union Member States

The Energy Union governance regulation (CE 2018/1999) set new participatory procedures and governance standards for energy planning of Member States. This paper aims at identifying the contribution of this new mode of regulation in developing multi-sector, multi-level, and multi-stakeholder involvement and dialogue in the formulation of Energy Union plans. The article refines the concept of participatory governance in the energy sector and provides an operational and multidimensional definition. It innovatively compares the formulation process of the 27 Member States’ energy plans (draft and final) to highlight national evolution in participatory governance dimensions, cross-country convergence, and variations in alignment with EU regulation. Despite the significant differences in the governance of national energy planning, the empirical evidence highlights the contribution of EU governance regulation in promoting, along different dimensions, the participatory processes of all Member States.

EU-27 ecological footprint was primarily driven by food consumption and exceeded regional biocapacity from 2004 to 2014

The European Union (EU) plans to decarbonize the region by 2050. As highlighted by the Green Deal and Farm to Fork Strategy, food systems are essential for this transition. Here we investigate the resource dependence and carbon emissions of the EU-27’s food systems from 2004 to 2014 via an ecological footprint (EF)-extended multi-regional input–output approach, accounting for demand and supply (including trade), and considering multiple externalities. Food contributes towards almost a third of the region’s EF, and appropriates over half of its biocapacity. Average reliance on biocapacity within national borders decreased, while reliance on intra-EU biocapacity increased; yet a quarter of the biocapacity for food consumption originates from non-EU countries. Despite a reduction in both total EF and food EF over the study period, EU-27 residents demand more from nature than the region’s ecosystems can regenerate—highlighting the need for new or strengthened food and trade policies to enable a transformation to sustainable EU food systems.

European Union's plan to curb the destruction of forests is flawed

European Union's plan to curb the destruction of forests is flawed

Confederal Union and Empire: Placing the Albany Plan (1754) in Imperial Context

AbstractWhy did British politicians on both sides of the Atlantic propose a confederal rather than incorporating union in 1754? This question has been difficult to answer because most scholars have focused on the Albany Plan of Union outside of its imperial context, seeing in the plan either evidence of nascent American nationalism, a point of divergence between American and British conceptions of empire, or a missed moment to establish parliamentary supremacy over America. I show instead that the British and American plans for confederal union in 1754 formed part of an intensely partisan and pan-imperial debate about the nature of the British imperial constitution. The failure to adopt a confederal imperial constitution in 1754 had more to do with the contingency of the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War than with diverging British and American visions of empire or nascent American nationalism.

Can the war in Ukraine thwart the green agricultural transformation in the EU? Political economy considerations regarding the case of Germany

Abstract The war in Ukraine threatens global food security. At the same time, the European Union (EU) plans to advance the green transformation of its agro-food sector, which implies lower agricultural output. Relying on the political economy literature, this study examines if the war can thwart the greening ambitions for EU’s agro-food sector. For this, it explores to what extent the war represents an external event that is large enough to change policy preferences and reviews the positions of major political actors who shape agricultural policy on the EU level and in member states regarding the case of Germany, where the ambition for the green transformation of the economy is particularly strong. It is shown that, for the time being, the war does not impede EU’s greening aspirations. Instead, the major political actors play for time, hoping to forward the green transformation after the end of the war.

Union eller undergang: Kampen for et forent Skandinavia

Union eller undergang: Kampen for et forent Skandinavia

Configuration Selection for Renewable Energy Community Using MCDM Methods

By 2050, the European Union plans to make Europe the first carbon-neutral continent and a global leader in climate-green industries. Recently, many decisions have been taken in the world to ensure the energy transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy. The creation of renewable energy communities (REC) is among the solutions used to increase this transition. This study presents 16 different configurations for energy self-consumption in RECs containing different industrial factories. One mathematical model is proposed for each configuration, and they have been solved according to different criteria. The comparisons are made between these configurations according to economic, environmental, technical, and social criteria. Then, four multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods are used to choose the best configurations considering all the criteria. For this purpose, the achieved results from the mathematical models are used as input for the MCDM methods. The findings demonstrate that the most effective configurations combine both individual and collective self-consumption. Furthermore, the inclusion of collective production results in multiple advantages, including a 64.71% rise in economic gains, a 26.95% decrease in CO2 emissions, a 21.39% improvement in self-sufficiency, and a significant increase in job creation by 175.24%. In addition, incorporating storage enables a substantial rise in the degree of self-sufficiency, leading to reduced reliance on the power grid and consequent reduction in CO2 emissions.

International clearing system as alternative monetary order

The purpose of this paper is to reconstruct the debate on the international clearing mechanism from the pioneering proposals of the nineteenth century to the years of high theory, at the beginning of the 1940s, when several plans were defined to establish international clearing mechanisms, and the well-known John Maynard Keynes’s International Clearing Union Plan was joined by other projects proposed by Paul Einzig and two German-born economists, Ernst Friedrich Schumacher and Hubert Ladenburg. As is well known, the Keynes plan was conceived as a response to the Nazi plan to establish a multilateral clearing system for regulating trade relations in the economic space of the countries occupied by the Third Reich. However, Keynes did not elaborate a plan radically opposed to the Nazi proposal, but shared its essential core. While being opposite sides of the conflict, both Nazi Germany and the British government proposed the same monetary order, based on multilateral clearing system, for the post-war world. The project of a new international monetary order based on the multilateral clearing system was not unanimously shared among the Allies: the United States moved on different lines confirming the centrality of gold in the post-war world order. Economic interests imposed the restoration of gold-exchange standard, based on the dollar supremacy and the Bretton Woods agreement, confirming the political success of Harry Dexter White’s proposal, was a turning point in a spontaneous path towards a new international order based on clearing agreements. Keynes proposed an economically realistic solution, based on the experience of clearing agreements resulting from the collapse of the gold exchange standard, but his plan was politically unrealistic in the face of the interests of the United States superpower. Keynes did not accept a compromise, but was simply defeated.

Feasibility of Four-dimensional Adaptation of Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy Based on Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy-computed Tomography.

Volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) has been increasingly used for cancer patients due to the fast delivery and improved dose conformity. Adaptive radiotherapy (ART) can significantly decrease dose to normal tissues and allow for dose escalation. However, current imaging techniques cannot provide four-dimensional (4D) patient anatomy or dose information during VMAT, which is critical for ART that involves respiratory motion. A novel imaging tool named VMAT-computed tomography (VMAT-CT) has the potential to reveal intra-fractional patient information. The goal of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of 4D adaptive VMAT based on 4D VMAT-CT. A commercial QUASAR respiratory phantom and an in-house deformable lung phantom were used in this study, and lung VMAT plans, including 4D union plan and 4D ART plan, were generated for the phantoms. A real lung patient's plan was also used in this feasibility study. ART plans based on 4D VMAT-CT were created for the phantoms and the real patient when planning goals were not met. Dose escalation plan based on 4D VMAT-CT was also created for the real patient. Planning target volume (PTV) coverage for the QUASAR phantom was 85.5% after breathing pattern being changed, and went up to 95% after adaptive re-planning. PTV coverage for the deformable phantom was 93% after deformation and breathing pattern being changed, and went up to 95% after re-planning. Re-planning and dose escalation were feasible and can spare normal tissues for the real patient. 4D ART plan based on 4D VMAT-CT required smaller margins than 4D union plan while maintaining the same prescription dose coverage. ART based on 4D VMAT-CT is feasible and would potentially facilitate re-planning and PTV dose escalation for VMAT patients who have the motion issue.

Green hydrogen production for oil refining – Finnish case

This study investigates the production of green hydrogen for use in oil refining, as specified in the draft of European union delegated act published in May 2022. The European union plans to set strict requirements of additionality and reporting regarding the criteria of renewable electricity used in hydrogen production. Alkaline electrolyzer, proton exchange membrane electrolyzer and solid oxide electrolyzer are evaluated in various scenarios supplied by wind power: power purchase agreement-based scenarios and wind power investment-based scenarios. In power purchase agreement-based scenarios baseload and pay as produced power purchase agreements (with and without electricity storage) are assessed. According to results, the use of 600 MW compressed air energy storage could reduce the dependency on the grid by 7% but increase the cost of green hydrogen significantly. Investment-based scenarios produce green hydrogen with a lower operation cost, but higher break-even price compared to power purchase agreement-based scenarios. The cheapest green hydrogen can be achieved by alkaline electrolyzer with baseload power purchase agreement. Direct ownership of wind power is outside the operation of oil refining industry, thus power purchase agreements contracting is more likely to realize.

Energy Transformation: Challenges and Opportunities — The Polish Case

Abstract The article, meant as the first in a series, tries to answer some questions around the future desired shape of the new Polish electro-energy mix in relation to the one described in the national energy policy document PEP 2040 (Energy Policy of Poland till 2040) and as compared with the targets set up in the newest UE legislative package, ‘Fit-for-55’. In this article, I first present the rich overview of literature as well as economic theory behind the analysis of the energy transformation and energy-mix decarbonisation, in order to show how the energy mix should evolve in a way that will guarantee the biggest net gain to the society. Second, some comparable cost calculations on selected electro-energy sources, both LCOE (levelized cost of energy) and external costs are presented; these are modifications of my previous work as a co-author. Finally, the comparison of the 2040 electro-energy mix, as designed in the official governmental programme PEP 2040, with the two alternative scenarios, both of which exclude coal, and one also neglects the possibilities for nuclear energy to be included in the mix are presented. The alternative scenarios built into the paper are based on European Union (EU) plans to decarbonise Europe quickly. Recent geopolitical considerations related to the war in Ukraine, however, make it necessary to consider energy security as an important part of the plan. That would mean that nuclear energy would be a necessary component of the future mix in Poland. Security considerations are left to be analysed in the coming months, after a series of articles on lessons learnt by other developed countries in the process of making their energy-mix transformations and will complete the final recommendations for the future of the Polish energy mix.

Where to Charge Electric Trucks in Europe—Modelling a Charging Infrastructure Network

Heavy-duty trucks account for 27% of the European greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector. To decarbonize road freight transport, the European Union plans to build a fast charging network for trucks. This paper presents two scenarios, covering European highways with charging stations at regular intervals every 50 or 100 km along the most important highways. For each location, the required number of charging points at 15% battery electric trucking is calculated individually using queueing theory. A third scenario takes into account the infrastructure ramp-up in 2025 and assumes a share of 5% battery electric trucking in a network with a 100 km distance. We define a network of 660 (100 km distance) or 1468 stations (50 km distance). Depending on the scenario and the individual station, the projected number of charging points per station varies between 1 and 18 in 2030. The results give a first insight into what a fast charging infrastructure for trucks in Europe might look like. In particular, we show that large charging stations with more than ten charging points could be necessary in the next few years. This knowledge might help to design future charging infrastructure for electric road freight transport.

Know your opponent: Which countries might fight the European carbon border adjustment mechanism?

The European Union (EU) plans to activate a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) in January 2023. This is meant to secure fair competition for European energy-intensive industries, incentivize countries both inside and outside the EU to cut emissions, and hinder carbon leakage from the EU. Early reactions from some large economies suggest that CBAM will encounter significant international opposition, especially from countries whose industry is dependent on fossil fuels. The purpose of this paper is to identify which countries are likely to resist CBAM most fiercely. This is done by creating a multidimensional CBAM Opposition Index based on the following indicators: trade with the EU, carbon intensity, litigiousness in the World Trade Organization (WTO), domestic public opinion on climate change, and capacity for innovation. The analysis indicates that the following countries are most likely to mount opposition to CBAM: Iran, Ukraine, the USA, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, China, India, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Belarus. How the EU handles opposition from these countries will be decisive for the fate of CBAM. The index can serve as a tool for policymakers inside and outside the EU who need to negotiate over CBAM and want to anticipate the stances of other countries and understand their drivers.

Влияние санкций на развитие бизнеса нефтегазовых корпораций в России

The Russian economy is currently subjected to unprecedented sanctions pressure from the United States and the Western countries. Supply of innovative equipment that is necessary for oil and gas production in the Arctic shelf and other hardtorecover fields to Russia is banned. International consortiums that were involved in large investment projects related to the extraction and transportation of oil from hard-to-recover fields terminated their cooperation with Russian oil and gas companies. However, the European and American companies are being replaced by Chinese corporations, which also have the necessary technologies and equipment for oil and gas production in hard-to-recover fields. It should also be noted that the European Union plans to reduce the volume of natural gas supplied from the Russian Federation and to build new terminals for the imported LNG, and has already abandoned the project to pump gas through the Nord Stream-2 pipeline. In response to these Western initiatives, the Russian authorities are likely to undertake a number of steps to re-route the natural gas supplies to China and build a gas pipeline to India. In this article, the author made an attempt to analyze from the scientific point of view and critically re-evaluate the issues of the sanctions impact on the development of business activities of oil and gas corporations in Russia.

The US role in securing the European Union's near-term natural gas supply.

The European Union's plan to phase out Russian natural gas imports by 2027 rests partly on increasing near-term imports of US liquefied natural gas. This will require a coordinated policy response that includes securing supplies from major exporters, global diplomacy, expanding import capacity, and alignment with Europe's climate goals.