scholarly journals Developing Green: A Case for the Brazilian Manufacturing Industry

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (23) ◽  
pp. 6783
Author(s):  
Camila Gramkow ◽  
Annela Anger-Kraavi

The recent IPCC Special Report on global warming of 1.5 °C emphasizes that rapid action to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is vital to achieving the climate mitigation goals of the Paris Agreement. The most-needed substantial upscaling of investments in GHG mitigation options in all sectors, and particularly in manufacturing sectors, can be an opportunity for a green economic development leap in developing countries. Here, we use the Brazilian manufacturing sectors as an example to explore a transformation of its economy while contributing to the Paris targets. Projections of Brazil’s economic futures with and without a portfolio of fiscal policies to induce low carbon investments are produced up to 2030 (end year of Brazil’s Nationally Determined Contribution—NDC), by employing the large-scale macro econometric Energy-Environment-Economy Model, E3ME. Our findings highlight that the correct mix of green stimulus can help modernize and decarbonize the Brazilian manufacturing sectors and allow the country’s economy to grow faster (by up to 0.42% compared to baseline) while its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions decline (by up to 14.5% in relation to baseline). Investment levels increase, thereby strengthening exports’ competitiveness and alleviating external constraints to long-term economic growth in net terms.

Ecosystems ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Oestmann ◽  
Bärbel Tiemeyer ◽  
Dominik Düvel ◽  
Amanda Grobe ◽  
Ullrich Dettmann

AbstractFor two years, we quantified the exchange of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) at two different large-scale Sphagnum farming sites. At both, peat extraction left a shallow layer of highly decomposed peat and low hydraulic conductivities. One site was characterized by preceding multi-annual inundation and irrigated by ditches, while the other one was inoculated directly after peat extraction and irrigated by ditches and drip irrigation. Further, GHG emissions from an irrigation polder and the effect of harvesting Sphagnum donor material at a near-natural reference site were determined. GHG mitigation potentials lag behind the results of less decomposed sites, although our results were also affected by the extraordinary hot and dry summer 2018. CO2 exchanges ranged between -0.6 and 2.2 t CO2-C ha−1 y−1 and were mainly influenced by low water table depths. CH4 emissions were low with the exception of plots with higher Eriophorum covers, while fluctuating water tables and poorly developing plant covers led to considerable N2O emissions at the ditch irrigation site. The removal of the upper vegetation at the near-natural site resulted in increased CH4 emissions and, on average, lowered CO2 emissions. Overall, best plant growth and lowest GHG emissions were measured at the previously inundated site. At the other site, drip irrigation provided more favourable conditions than ditch irrigation. The size of the area needed for water management (ditches, polders) strongly affected the areal GHG balances. We conclude that Sphagnum farming on highly decomposed peat is possible but requires elaborate water management.


2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 45-52
Author(s):  
Csaba Fogarassy ◽  
Bálint Horváth ◽  
Linda Szőke ◽  
Attila Kovács

The topic of the present study deals with the changes and future trends of the European Union’s climate policy. In addition, it studies the manner in which Hungary’s transport sector contributes to the success of the above. The general opinion of Hungarian climate policy is that the country has no need of any substantial climate policy measures, since it will be able to reach its emission reduction targets anyway. This is mostly true, because the basis year for the long term goals is around the middle/end of the 1980’s, when Hungary’s pollution indices were entirely different than today due to former large-scale industrial production. With the termination of these inefficient energy systems, Hungary has basically been “performing well” since the change in political system without taking any specific steps in the interest of doing so. The analysis of the commitments for the 2020-2030 climate policy planning period, which defined emissions commitments compared to 2005 GHG emissions levels, has also garnered similar political reactions in recent years. Thus, it is not the issue of decreasing GHG emissions but the degree to which possible emissions can be increased stemming from the conditions and characteristics of economic growth that is important from the aspect of economic policy. In 2005, the Hungarian transport sector’s emissions amounted to 11 million tons, which is equal to 1.2% of total EU emissions, meaning it does not significantly influence total transport emissions. However, the stakes are still high for developing a low GHG emission transport system, since that will decide whether Hungary can avoid those negative development tendencies that have plagued the majority of Western European transport systems. Can Budapest avoid the scourge of perpetual smog and traffic jams? Can it avert the immeasurable accumulation of externalities on the capital city’s public bypass roads caused by having road transport conduct goods shipping? JEL classification: Q58


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge M. Islas-Samperio ◽  
Fabio Manzini ◽  
Genice K. Grande-Acosta

Considering that the world transport sector is the second largest contributor of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions due to energy use and the least decarbonized sector, it is highly recommended that all countries implement ambitious public policies to decarbonize this sector. In Mexico the transport sector generates the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions, in 2014 it contributed with 31.3% of net emissions. Two original scenarios for the Mexican transport sector, a no-policy baseline scenario (BLS) and a low carbon scenario (LCS) were constructed. In the LCS were applied 21 GHG mitigation measures, which far exceeds the proposals for reducing transport sector GHG emissions that Mexico submitted in its National Determined Contributions (NDC). As a result, the proposed LCS describes a sector transformation path characterized by structural changes in freight and passenger mobility, new motor technologies for mobility, introduction of biofuels, price signals, transportation practices and regulations, as well as urban planning strategies, which altogether achieve an accumulated reduction of 3166 MtCO2e in a 25 year period, producing a global net benefit of 240,772 MUSD and a GHG emissions’ reduction of 56% in 2035 in relation to the BLS.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lubna Al-Tameemi

Whole building optimization retrofits have been performed for two townhouses in four locations with different climates to find both energy efficiency and cost-effective retrofit solutions across a thirty-year time span analysis. The objective is to find deep energy retrofit packages that can be used for large scale social housing retrofit. The multi-objective optimizations aim to achieve the least annualized related costs, lower initial and operational energy related costs and substantial carbon savings by analyzing one natural gas heated option and four electric heated options (baseboard heating system, central air-source heat pump, ductless mini-split heat pump and ground-source heat pump). Results reveal that prescriptive deep energy retrofit solutions achieved between 78% to 100% site energy reductions through building enclosures improvement, upgrades of HVAC and water heating systems, upgrades of appliances and lighting, and the addition of onsite renewable energy generation. Results also indicate that ductless mini-split heat pump (MSHP) optimized model has lower long-term costs and a shorter modified payback period than the optimized gas-heated model at all locations; thus suggesting that heating electrification is cost effective and can reduce the majority of operational GHG emissions of existing housing stock in locations with low carbon intensity electric grid. (834KB) https://digital.library.ryerson.ca/islandora/object/RULA:8613/datastream/Calc_Lubna/view (284KB) https://digital.library.ryerson.ca/islandora/object/RULA:8613/datastream/AnAl_Lubna/view (4 MB) https://digital.library.ryerson.ca/islandora/object/RULA:8613/datastream/AnHr_Lubna/view (5MB) https://digital.library.ryerson.ca/islandora/object/RULA:8613/datastream/Wind_Lubna/view (6MB) https://digital.library.ryerson.ca/islandora/object/RULA:8613/datastream/Toro_Lubna/view (6MB) https://digital.library.ryerson.ca/islandora/object/RULA:8613/datastream/Thby_Lubna/view (6MB) https://digital.library.ryerson.ca/islandora/object/RULA:8613/datastream/Otta_Lubna/view


2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (23) ◽  
pp. 11187-11194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arne Kätelhön ◽  
Raoul Meys ◽  
Sarah Deutz ◽  
Sangwon Suh ◽  
André Bardow

Chemical production is set to become the single largest driver of global oil consumption by 2030. To reduce oil consumption and resulting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, carbon dioxide can be captured from stacks or air and utilized as alternative carbon source for chemicals. Here, we show that carbon capture and utilization (CCU) has the technical potential to decouple chemical production from fossil resources, reducing annual GHG emissions by up to 3.5 Gt CO2-eq in 2030. Exploiting this potential, however, requires more than 18.1 PWh of low-carbon electricity, corresponding to 55% of the projected global electricity production in 2030. Most large-scale CCU technologies are found to be less efficient in reducing GHG emissions per unit low-carbon electricity when benchmarked to power-to-X efficiencies reported for other large-scale applications including electro-mobility (e-mobility) and heat pumps. Once and where these other demands are satisfied, CCU in the chemical industry could efficiently contribute to climate change mitigation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-218
Author(s):  
Abdul Majeed Shar

Climate change is one of the most challenging issues in Pakistan and has affected humans in every sphere of life. Pakistan is ranked on 8th in the world among the countries emitting Greenhouse gases (GHG). Such an extensive emission of GHG is due to the growing number of industrial units and urban centres consuming fossil fuels that emit GHG at a large scale. Mitigating the GHG emission indeed is a challenge for Pakistan. This manuscript highlights the GHG emission status and provides recommendations with suitable alternatives to mitigate the emission. Simultaneously, the study explores the impact of switching over the fuels from conventional fossil fuels to unconventional natural gas as a source of energy for domestic use, transportations and industrial sectors to mitigate the GHG emission. Natural gas is considered as green fuel due to the low carbon emission ratio as other fuels e.g. coal and oil. If Pakistan becomes successful in exploring and exploiting the indigenous untapped natural gas resources, that will eventually support in reducing the GHG emissions. This is only possible by making new natural gas reservoir discoveries. Discovering new gas reservoirs from unconventional resources is also very challenging and requires investment and modification in existing energy policies. In addition, the government should encourage the Exploration Production (EP) companies to exploit the hidden natural gas potential that will assist in both alleviating the energy deficit and reducing the GHG emission. The findings of the present study analysis have substantial implications regarding GHG mitigation, energy transition, and economic development.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriano Vinca ◽  
Jarmo S. Kikstra ◽  
Francesco Lovat ◽  
Benigna Boza-Kiss ◽  
Bas van Ruijven ◽  
...  

<p>The COVID-19 pandemic is causing radical temporary breaks with past energy use and GHG emissions trends. However, how a post-pandemic recovery will impact longer-term transformations to a low-carbon society is unclear. Here, we present different global COVID-19 shock-and-recovery scenarios that systematically explore economic uncertainty and the demand-side effect on emissions. We consider changes in the residential, industry and transport energy sub-sectors under diverging cases that might lead to a more carbon intensive and individualistic way of consumption, or to a policy-advised new future that supports the emission reduction opportunities seen during the pandemic. The resulting impact on cumulative CO2 emissions over the coming decade can range from 28 to 53 GtCO2 reduction depending on the depth and duration of the economic downturn and the extent and persistence of demand-side changes. Recovering from the pandemic with low energy demand practices - embedded in new patterns of travel, work, consumption, and production – reduces climate mitigation challenges in the long run. We show that a low energy demand recovery reduces carbon prices for a 1.5°C consistent pathway by 19%, saves energy supply investments until 2030 by 2.1 trillion USD, and lessens pressure on the upscaling of renewable energy technologies.  </p>


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuquan W. Zhang ◽  
Bruce A. McCarl

The challenges and opportunities facing today's agriculture within the climate change context are at least twofold: in addition to adapting to a potentially more variable climate, agriculture may also take on the addition role of mitigating GHG emissions—such as providing renewable fuels to replace fossil fuels to some extent. For the US, a large-scale GHG mitigation effort through biofuels production pursuant to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2) is already unfolding. A question thus naturally arises for the RFS2-relevant US agricultural sector: will climate change make it harder to meet the volume goals set in the RFS2 mandates, considering that both climate change and RFS2 may have significant impacts on US agriculture? The agricultural component of FASOMGHG that models the land use allocation within the conterminous US agricultural sector is employed to investigate the effects of climate change (with autonomous adaptation at farm level), coupled with RFS2, on US agriculture. The analysis shows that climate change eases the burden of meeting the RFS2 mandates increasing consumer welfare while decreasing producer welfare. The results also show that climate change encourages a more diversified use of biofuel feedstocks for cellulosic ethanol production, in particular crop residues.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oskar Englund ◽  
Blas Mola-Yudego ◽  
Pål Börjesson ◽  
Göran Berndes ◽  
Christel Cederberg ◽  
...  

The agricultural sector can contribute to climate change mitigation by reducing its own greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and sequestering atmospheric carbon in vegetation and soils, and by providing biomass for substituting fossil fuels and other GHG intensive products in the energy, industry and transport sectors. New policies at EU level provide incentives for more sustainable land use practices, for example, cultivation systems using perennial plants that provide biomass for food, bioenergy and other biobased products along with land carbon sequestration and other environmental benefits. Based on spatial modelling across more than 81,000 landscapes in Europe, we find that introduction of grass-clover leys into rotations with annual crops could result in soil organic carbon sequestration corresponding to 5-10% of total current GHG emissions from agriculture in EU27+UK, annually until 2050. The combined annual GHG savings from soil carbon sequestration and use of biogas produced in connection to grass-based biorefineries equals 13-48% of current GHG emissions from agriculture. The assessed environmental co-benefits (reduced wind and water erosion, reduced nitrogen emissions to water, and mitigation of impacts associated with flooding) are considerable. Besides policy instruments, new markets for grass biomass, e.g., as feedstock for producing biofuels and protein concentrate, can incentivize widespread deployment of in-rotation grass cultivation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lubna Al-Tameemi

Whole building optimization retrofits have been performed for two townhouses in four locations with different climates to find both energy efficiency and cost-effective retrofit solutions across a thirty-year time span analysis. The objective is to find deep energy retrofit packages that can be used for large scale social housing retrofit. The multi-objective optimizations aim to achieve the least annualized related costs, lower initial and operational energy related costs and substantial carbon savings by analyzing one natural gas heated option and four electric heated options (baseboard heating system, central air-source heat pump, ductless mini-split heat pump and ground-source heat pump). Results reveal that prescriptive deep energy retrofit solutions achieved between 78% to 100% site energy reductions through building enclosures improvement, upgrades of HVAC and water heating systems, upgrades of appliances and lighting, and the addition of onsite renewable energy generation. Results also indicate that ductless mini-split heat pump (MSHP) optimized model has lower long-term costs and a shorter modified payback period than the optimized gas-heated model at all locations; thus suggesting that heating electrification is cost effective and can reduce the majority of operational GHG emissions of existing housing stock in locations with low carbon intensity electric grid. (834KB) https://digital.library.ryerson.ca/islandora/object/RULA:8613/datastream/Calc_Lubna/view (284KB) https://digital.library.ryerson.ca/islandora/object/RULA:8613/datastream/AnAl_Lubna/view (4 MB) https://digital.library.ryerson.ca/islandora/object/RULA:8613/datastream/AnHr_Lubna/view (5MB) https://digital.library.ryerson.ca/islandora/object/RULA:8613/datastream/Wind_Lubna/view (6MB) https://digital.library.ryerson.ca/islandora/object/RULA:8613/datastream/Toro_Lubna/view (6MB) https://digital.library.ryerson.ca/islandora/object/RULA:8613/datastream/Thby_Lubna/view (6MB) https://digital.library.ryerson.ca/islandora/object/RULA:8613/datastream/Otta_Lubna/view


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