World Greenhouse Gas Emissions Research Articles

Estimation of potential carbon sequestration in Thai reforestation from mining, based on the integrated spatial analysis

Mining, an activity that dates to the earliest stages of human civilization, has played a vital role in fulfilling human requirements for an extended period of time. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that this particular activity accounts for a significant proportion, ranging from 4% to 7% of the overall world greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions mostly consist of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrogen oxides, which are released because of fuel burning, on-site energy generation, and many other sources. The mining industry, as a constituent of industrial process and product use (IPPU) sector in Thailand, makes a substantial contribution to these emissions. Thailand is now engaged in the implementation of carbon sequestration strategies, specifically focusing on the reclamation and replanting of post-mining zones. This initiative aims to tackle the various issues associated with small-scale operations within the country’s mining sector. The objective of this study is to analyse the carbon sequestration potential of Thailand’s mining area through the utilization of satellite pictures obtained from LANDSAT 8 OLI and Geographic Information System (GIS) applications. This study assesses the present carbon storage capacity, establishes the appropriate carbon pricing, and investigates the potential for reforestation in mining areas inside the nation. Based on the findings, it is evident that the northern region of Thailand has the most substantial potential for carbon sequestration, mostly due to the presence of vegetated land. Furthermore, it is projected that the overall carbon sequestration capacity in Thailand will amount to 14.68 MtCO2e in 2023 and 28.02 MtCO2e in 2030.

A Comprehensive Study on Net Zero Energy Buildings and Sustainable Construction Materials with Low Carbon Contents

One-third of the world's greenhouse gas emissions come from the building industry, with embodied carbon from the manufacture of building materials accounting for a sizable portion of these emissions. Prior research has mostly focused on examining the carbon emissions of low-rise structures, but it has failed to consider the significant influence that high-rise buildings have on a city's overall carbon emissions. Net-zero energy buildings (NZEBs) combine intelligent energy management strategies with conventional design knowledge to facilitate a sustainable and eco-friendly transition. The NZEB building revolution has the potential to become a long-term structural pillar for structures to come. The purpose of this study is to assess how various design factors and the embodied carbon in high-rise structures relate to one another. Additionally, the goal of this research is to keep annual consumer energy comfort in a home NZEB at its highest level without using any electricity from the electrical grid. In order to achieve long-term climate goals, our work emphasises the socio-economic advantages of adopting NZE buildings and further empowers consumer participation to minimise energy waste and carbon emissions. The findings provide a foundation for constructing high-rise structures in a more ecologically conscious manner to lower the structure's carbon emissions. The evaluation and comparison of the embedded carbon values takes into account the carbon emissions from the transportation and material manufacturing processes.

Digital Combatant: Harassing Cutting-Edge Technologies Toward Combat Climate Variability Obstacles in Diverse Domains of Real-Life

Many fields face grave threats because of climate change. Consider agriculture, where variability in the climate has an impact on the soil, crop productivity, and accessibility to water. Moreover, this phenomenon threatens livestock due to the effects on livestock and milk production, biodiversity, livestock illnesses, water availability, feed crop and forage quality, and breeding of animals. Accordingly, the variability of climate threatens the sustainability and resilience of resources. Hence, several adaptation strategies are embraced through global conferences. As well as minimizing greenhouse gas emissions which are a direct result of the agricultural sectors' contributions to greenhouse gases by altering land-use management strategies. Concurrently, livestock farming is responsible for 14.5% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, which exacerbates climate change. Likewise, vehicle exhaust and pollutants. On the other hand, new and cutting-edge technologies are leveraging to mitigate and adapt the climate change through various studies. For instance, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and drones can play a significant role in combating climate change. This technology offers a cost-effective and efficient way to monitor and track the impacts of climate change, particularly in relation to forest degradation and deforestation. Moreover, drones are also being used in the process of reforestation. Finally, the objective of this study represents in showcases the role of UAVs in climate variability to combat the climate’s obstacles. Hence, the evaluating of UAVs implications in climate change is crucial process. Finally, MCDM techniques are main contributors in this process where stepwise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) and the multi-objective optimization on the basis of ratio analysis (MOORA) are used as techniques of MCDM. These techniques have been bolstered in an ambiguity environment by neutrosophic theory.

The current state and potential evolution of carbon emissions in the healthcare sector: a narrative review article

Over 98% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions in 2014 came from carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and nitrous oxide. Over one century, CO2 emissions increased from 3.09 to 37.12 billion metric tons. The healthcare sector is one of the major sources of greenhouse gas emissions. The carbon footprint of a country's healthcare system is influenced by its domestic economy, healthcare expenditure, and energy system. The aim of this study is to present a concise of the present status of carbon emissions within the healthcare sectors on a global scale, as well as the forthcoming endeavors to mitigate these emissions. A narrative review of studies on climate change, carbon emissions, and greenhouse gases in the healthcare sector was conducted using Medline PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar databases from 2005 to April 2023. According to the data, several countries emit more carbon per capita than others. The Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP26) recently encompassed extensive efforts culminating in releasing initiatives toward zero-carbon healthcare sectors. Efforts in some medical practices, smart technology to save energy, digital health, artificial intelligence technology, and monitoring have contributed to reducing carbon emissions. In conclusion, the healthcare sector with zero carbon emissions must be sustainable, adaptable, and efficient while delivering safe, high-quality care. Addressing the sector's carbon footprint requires innovative strategies, a multisector approach, health professionals' participation, community engagement, and regular monitoring of emissions and performance indicators to ensure patient service quality and low carbon emissions in the healthcare sector.

Smartly Packaged

Smartly Packaged

Analisis Kepentingan Tiongkok Untuk Compliance Terhadap Paris Agreement UNFCCC 2015-2020

World problems related to climate change are in the spotlight of new discussions that are being hotly discussed again by countries. The formation and negotiation of the Paris Agreement is one of the real implementations that proves the seriousness of the international community in viewing the increasing temperature of the earth due to extreme climate change. China as the country with the largest greenhouse gas emission contributor in the world is a key actor in the success of the targets in the Paris Agreement. In the midst of its big ambitions to become the world's largest economy and industrial country, China is required to remain fully committed to the Paris Agreement program to contribute to the successful reduction of world greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Maintain compliance with the Paris Agreement program in the midst of the dilemma of high domestic economic interests. This paper will be analyzed using explanative qualitative research methods and is equipped with Compliance Theory from Ronald B. Mitchell as an analytical tool. With the results of China's self-interest factor in the success of its compliance with the Paris Agreement as seen from the outputs, outcomes, and impact variables.

Economics of aviation fuel decarbonization: A preliminary assessment

Limiting global warming to 1.5 °C requires decarbonizing all sectors of the world economy by mid-century, only 30 years from now. For sectors such as aviation, decarbonization will be challenging: There are currently no working examples of long-distance, zero-carbon commercial aircraft. While aviation emissions comprise less than 3% of world greenhouse gas emissions, aviation emissions are rising quickly. Previous studies describe technical feasibility of decarbonization options; this study compares the economics of decarbonization paths to make a preliminary assessment of cost effectiveness. We present economic data on three potential aviation decarbonization paths: 1) continuing use of fossil kerosene with direct air capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide emissions elsewhere; 2) producing hydrogen fuel from renewable electricity to replace fossil kerosene; and 3) replacing fossil kerosene with synthetic renewable kerosene produced from renewable energy. We combine estimates from the literature and expert opinion to assess the likely costs of each potential decarbonization path. Fossil kerosene plus remote sequestration appears to have the lowest short-term private cost, but is not completely sustainable; renewable kerosene could be available soon but likely has the highest cost; and hydrogen may be the least expensive fuel, but requires development of hydrogen-powered aircraft and infrastructure. Air fare changes resulting from any of the three paths are likely within the range of those seen in the last few decades. This study demonstrates that aviation decarbonization is economically feasible, through at least three paths.

ROLE OF PAST BEHAVIOUR IN APPLICATION OF TPB IN PREDICTING ENERGY SAVING BEHAVIOUR: A REVIEW

The energy sector is the largest source of emissions and accounting for nearly 68% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Where 36% of all global final energy use is generated from buildings. Currently, the topic of energy-saving behaviour is attracting the attention of researchers, how to encourage users towards energy-saving behaviour (ESB). Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) is empirically recognized as a model widely used in predicting social behaviour. However, the TPB has received much debate and criticism about the narrow sufficiency of the three original determinants: Attitudes, Subjective Norms and Perceived Behaviour Control. This article discusses empirical support by several authors who acknowledged other related factor that need to be considered in developing a theoretical framework by adding Past Behaviour in predicting the energy saving behaviour of users to improve the ESB. An extensive literature search was conducted on 100 published literature in year 2011-2021, to explore the significance of past behaviour as an additional psychological factor of ESB in a building context. Content analysis conducted based on previous research published in leading journals (e.g. Scopus and Web of Science). About 30% of previous studies have found Past Behaviour as a significant contributing predictor of ESB beside the TPB original determinants. This study will help to provide a better understanding about social psychological determinants of energy saving behaviour hence serve as a guide to the building operator and relevant agencies in shaping strategy to promote energy saving behaviour among the occupants.

Atmospheric CO2 as a resource for renewable energy production: A European energy law appraisal of direct air capture fuels

AbstractThe high concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is considered the root cause of climate change. However, in the future atmospheric CO2 could play a strategic role towards a renewable energy transition due to its use as a carbon source for the production of goods. Notably, direct air capture (DAC) technology, by removing CO2 from the atmosphere, could support and improve the carbon footprint of the transport and building sector, both of which are responsible for a large part of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Once the CO2 is removed, it can be used to produce synthetic fuels for the transport sector, where there are few low‐carbon alternatives, such as aviation and shipping. In this article, we examine European Union legislation, focusing on the Renewable Energy Directive, and conclude that DAC fuels can be considered as renewable energy for the transport sector. Moreover, we highlight that the Directive does not yet regulate the methodology that defines the renewable character of DAC fuels and examine relevant criteria to be considered. In addition, because DAC can possibly be operated in buildings, we examine whether the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive is a legal instrument to be considered for deploying this technology.

Primary energy in ecological analysis of building materials

The analysis of buildings in terms of energy consumption most often focuses on the service life of the building objects. This results, on the one hand, from the fact that the service life is the longest in the entire life cycle of the facility, and on the other hand, from the fact that energy consumption related to construction activities is a very heavy burden on the natural environment. It should be realized that more than 40% of the world's energy production is used by construction, about 35% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions come from construction and over 50% of processed materials comes from construction. However, it should be remembered that the remaining stages of the life cycle of a building object also contribute to the increased energy demand in construction. In the case of buildings erected with traditional technologies, the energy needed to produce materials is about 10%, but in the case of energy-saving facilities for which the demand for operational energy significantly decreases, the production energy is already 22%. Therefore, green building assessments should consider the entire life cycle of a building. In the countries of Western Europe and the USA, the first attempts were made to assess the impact of the broadly understood construction industry on the environment. Various ecological assessment systems for construction have been developed. All systems developed so far are far from perfect, primarily because they do not evaluate the building as a whole and do not consider the pre-operation period. In this study, it was proposed to extend the ecological analysis of construction to include the period of preparation of materials and all accompanying processes. The primary energy of building materials was also analysed. The conclusions contain indications concerning material solutions, considering the assessment of primary energy.

Quantifying the Health Benefits of Urban Climate Mitigation Actions: Current State of the Epidemiological Evidence and Application in Health Impact Assessments

While ambitious carbon reduction policies are needed to avoid dangerous levels of climate change, the costs of these policies can be balanced by wide ranging health benefits for local communities. Cities, responsible for ~70% of the world's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and home to a growing majority of the world's population, offer enormous opportunities for both climate action and health improvement. We aim to review the current state of knowledge on key pathways leading from carbon mitigation to human health benefits, and to evaluate our current ability to quantify health benefits for cities around the world. For example, because GHGs and air pollutants are both released during fuel combustion, reducing fuel burning can reduce both GHGs and air pollutants, leading to direct health benefits. Air quality improvements may be particularly important for city-scale climate action planning because the benefits occur locally and relatively immediately, compared with the global and long-term (typically, decades to centuries) benefits for the climate system. In addition to improved air quality, actions that promote active transport in cities via improved cycling and pedestrian infrastructure can reap large cardiovascular health benefits via increased physical activity. Exposure to green space has been associated with beneficial health outcomes in a growing number of epidemiological studies and meta-analyses conducted around the world. Finally, noise is an underappreciated environmental risk factor in cities which can be addressed through actions to reduce motor vehicle traffic and other noise sources. All of these environmental health pathways are supported by well-conducted epidemiological studies in multiple locales, providing quantitative exposure–response data that can be used as inputs to health impact assessments (HIAs). However, most epidemiologic evidence derives from studies in high-income countries. It is unclear to what extent such evidence is directly transferable for policies in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This gap calls for a future focus on building the evidence based in LMIC cities. Finally, the literature suggests that policies are likely to be most effective when they are developed by multidisciplinary teams that include policy makers, researchers, and representatives from affected communities.

Accelerating towards net zero emissions: the most important global health intervention

Accelerating towards net zero emissions: the most important global health intervention

A Perspective on Biofuels Use and CCS for GHG Mitigation in the Marine Sector.

SummaryThe greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the marine sector were around 2.6% of world GHG emissions in 2015 and are expected to increase 50%–250% to 2050 under a “business as usual” scenario, making the decarbonization of this fossil fuel-intensive sector an urgent priority. Biofuels, which come in various forms, are one of the most promising options to replace existing marine fuels for accomplishing this in the short to medium term. Some unique challenges, however, impede biofuels penetration in the shipping sector, including the low cost of the existing fuels, the extensive present-day refueling infrastructure, and the exclusion of the sector from the Paris climate agreement. To address this, it is necessary to first identify those biofuels best suited for deployment as marine fuel. In this work, the long list of possible biofuel candidates has been narrowed down to four high-potential options—bio-methanol, bio-dimethyl ether, bio-liquefied natural gas, and bio-oil. These options are further evaluated based on six criteria—cost, potential availability, present technology status, GHG mitigation potential, infrastructure compatibility, and carbon capture and storage (CCS) compatibility—via both an extensive literature review and stakeholder discussions. These four candidates turn out to be relatively evenly matched overall, but each possesses certain strengths and shortcomings that could favor that fuel under specific circumstances, such as if compatibility with existing shipping infrastructure or with CCS deployment become pivotal requirements. Furthermore, we pay particular attention to the possibility of integrating deployment of these biofuels with CCS to further reduce marine sector emissions. It is shown that this aspect is presently not on the radar of the industry stakeholders but is likely to grow in importance as CCS acceptability increases in the broader green energy sector.

Nitrous Oxide Emission from Fertilized Soils: An Analytical Review

Soils are among the main biological sources of nitrous oxide (N2O), and nitrification and denitrification processes are the major N2O production factors in soils. The nitrogen of mineral and organic fertilizers applied to the fields is easily involved in the biogeochemical cycle of soil nitrogen and contributes to the N2O emission to the atmosphere. A longer lifetime (121 years) of nitrous oxide and a higher global warming potential as compared with CO2 and CH4 are responsible for its high importance in the greenhouse effect. An increase in the N2O concentrations enhances the destruction of the ozone layer. To evaluate the regional contributions of agricultural soils to the total world greenhouse gas emissions, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recommends using emission factors ( $${\text{E}}{{{\text{F}}}_{{{{{\text{N}}}_{{\text{2}}}}{\text{O}}}}}$$ ) for national N2O inventories. The $${\text{E}}{{{\text{F}}}_{{{{{\text{N}}}_{{\text{2}}}}{\text{O}}}}}$$ value depends on many factors, including soil and climatic conditions, type of mineral fertilizer, organic amendments, and nitrogen-containing waste. The data on the direct measurements of N2O emission from soils in Russia are rather limited and the estimates for N2O emission from soils for The Russian National Greenhouse Gas Inventory rely on the data calculated according to the IPCC Guidelines. The nitrogen budget in the Russian agriculture in the past 25 years has been sharply deficient. This means that a considerable part of the crop yield is formed at the expense of mineralized soil nitrogen, which is quickly assimilated by plants and microorganisms and almost does not accumulate in a free state. The estimated $${\text{E}}{{{\text{F}}}_{{{{{\text{N}}}_{{\text{2}}}}{\text{O}}}}}$$ value for fertilized cereal crops (22–27 million hectares) and cereal crops is 0.66–0.70 and 0.54–2.56, which is considerably lower as compared with the IPCC default (1.0) recommended for ecologically permissible level of fertilizer nitrogen.

Why is it so hard to enact responsible change?

Science is key to developing sustainable products and solutions. But scientists also need to work more with governments, industry and society to help implement those solutions.

Addressing the carbon footprint, healthfulness, and costs of self-selected diets in the USA: a population-based cross-sectional study

SummaryBackgroundThe role of diet in health is well established and, in the past decade, more attention has been given to the role of food choices in the environment. The agricultural sector produces about a quarter of the world's greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE), and meat production, especially beef, is an important contributor to global GHGE. Our study aimed to address a fundamental gap in the diet-climate literature: identifying consumers who are receptive to making dietary changes, and the effect of their potential changes on GHGE, diet healthfulness, and diet costs.MethodsDietary data on US individuals from a nationally representative survey were linked to food-related GHGE. We identified individuals receptive to changing their diets (potential changers) as those who reported trying US dietary guidance and were likely to agree that humans contribute to climate change. We assessed GHGE, diet healthfulness measured by the Healthy Eating Index (HEI), and diet costs before and after hypothetical changes replacing either beef or meats with poultry or plant-protein foods.FindingsOur sample comprised 7188 individuals, of whom 16% were potential changers. These were disproportionately women, highly educated, or had higher income compared with individuals deemed not likely to change. Replacing 100% of beef intake in potential changers with poultry reduced mean dietary GHGE by 1·38 kg CO2-equivalents per person per day (95% CI 1·19–1·58), a 35·7% decrease. This replacement also increased mean HEI by 1·7% and reduced mean diet costs by 1·7%. We observed the largest changes when replacing all beef, pork, or poultry intake with plant-protein foods (GHGE decreased by 49·6%, mean HEI increased by 8·7%, and dietary costs decreased by 10·5%). Hypothetical replacements in the potential changers alone resulted in whole population reductions in 1-day dietary GHGE of 1·2% to 6·7%, equivalent to 22–126 million fewer passenger vehicle km.InterpretationIndividual-level diet studies that include a variation in response by consumers can improve our understanding of the effects of climate policies such as those that include sustainability information in national dietary guidance. In our study, we found that changes by a small percentage of motivated individuals can modestly reduce the national dietary GHGE. Moreover, these substitutions can modestly improve diet healthfulness and reduce diet costs for individuals who make these changes.FundingWellcome Trust.

Index decomposition analysis for comparing emission scenarios: Applications and challenges

As global action on climate change gathers momentum, an area of interest is what the world's greenhouse gas emission trajectory will be in the future and whether it can meet the emission targets set forth. To address these questions, emission scenarios which range from business-as-usual to deep decarbonization scenarios have been developed by researchers using different assessment models. An understanding of the sources of variations across the range of these emission trajectories is of interest for discussions, debates and policy planning. However, since these models often have different structures and input variables, comparisons of the results are not straightforward. In this regard, index decomposition analysis (IDA) has emerged as a tool to facilitate comparisons in a harmonized way. It allows differences in emissions over time or between models to be broken down based on a set of accepted driving factors. This paper reviews the literature and summarizes the features and challenges. A multi-level scenario decomposition framework is proposed to address the challenges which include how to quantify differences arising from the energy transformation sector, the adoption of renewable energy, carbon capture and storage, and bio-energy carbon capture and storage technologies. A case study and guidelines for implementing the framework are presented.

신재생에너지 보급 확대를 위한 정책 개선에 관한 연구

The Republic of Korea is implementing energy policies with the goal of New & Renewable Energy(NRE) development taking up 20% by 2030. However, among the 58 countries which are responsible for 90% of world green house gas emissions, Korea’s evaluation for action against climate change is continuously dropping every year. Therefore, for the effective expansion and supply of NRE facilities, changes need to be made to existing systems such as Green Standard for Energy and Environmental Design (G-SEED), Building Energy Efficiency Rating System, Zero Energy Building System, Greenhouse Gas and Energy Target Management System, and Emissions Trading System. That is, if weighting on the introduction of NRE facilities and NRE diagnosis are incorporated into the evaluation of energy and environment-related systems, effective expansion and supply of such facilities can be expected.

Characterisation analysis of national greenhouse gas emissions in DPR of Korea: emission trends for a 12-year period

DPR of Korea ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on 5 December 1994, the Kyoto Protocol on 27 April 2005 and the Paris Agreement on 1 August 2016. As a party of the convention on climate change, DPR of Korea submitted the national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventories to the UNFCCC secretariat, respectively. This study aimed at analysing the characterisation of national GHG emissions in DPR of Korea for a 12-year period (1990-2002), conducted according to 2006 IPCC guidelines. The results show that DPR of Korea accounted for 0.5% of the world GHG emissions in 1990, but only 0.2% of the emissions in 2002. The amount of cumulative GHG emissions was approximately 1,503,820 Gg CO2e (CO2 equivalent) in the period 1990-2002, which accounted for 0.3% of the world cumulative GHG emissions. This showed that DPR of Korea definitely contributed to global warming, although the emissions were negligible, compared to the world emissions.

Are Free Trade Agreements Good for the Environment? A Panel Data Analysis

This study attempts to empirically re-examine the relationship between free trade agreements (FTAs) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. For this aim, we chose three different free trade agreements: Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA). These FTAs are between developing countries, developed and developing countries, and only developed countries, respectively. Panel unit root, panel cointegration, and fully modified OLS (FMOLS) estimators are employed to find the long-run relationship between GHG emission, trade liberalization, and other economic factors. The results indicate that the environmental effect of a free trade agreement depends on the agreement type. When the agreement is among only developed or only developing countries, there is no environmental damage to the world and these types of FTAs can be beneficial for the world environment. However, when developing and developed countries are in the agreement, world GHG emissions increase.