City carbon budgets: A proposal to align incentives for climate-friendly communities

Local governments can have a large effect on carbon emissions through land use zoning, building codes, transport infrastructure investments, and support for transportation alternatives. This paper proposes a climate policy instrument – city carbon budgets – that provides a durable framework for local governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Local governments would be assigned an emissions “budget”, and would be required to keep annual local transport and buildings emissions within this budget. This policy framework could be implemented and managed by a higher-level government, or might be used in awarding funds to developing country cities from international climate funds. The state of California has enacted a version of this policy. In this paper, we identify and evaluate options for creating an effective and acceptable institutional structure, allocating emission targets to localities, measuring emissions, providing flexibility and incentives to local governments, and assuring compliance. We also discuss the likely costs of such a policy.     

Development of a greenhouse gas accounting GIS-based tool to support local policy making—application to an Italian municipality

Climate change is the issue of the century and, according to Agenda 21, local actions are essential to impact global mitigation of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions (“think globally, act locally”). However, in order to plan and implement effective, sustainable actions, local authorities need detailed information on their GHG emissions and their sources. This paper presents the work that led to the development of a GIS-based tool for local GHG accounting, which provides data for local decision-makers in an innovative manner different from traditional GHG inventories. The original aspects of the study are the geo-referencing of all results and the possibility of calculating all emissions (carbon sources) and removals (carbon sinks) with input data of different accuracy.     

Quantification of provincial-level carbon emissions from energy consumption in China

Greenhouse gas emission inventories are useful tools for monitoring air quality and assisting local policy development. This article estimates CO₂ emission inventories from energy consumption and carbon intensities of provinces and municipalities in Mainland China in 1990, 1995, 2000, and 2005–2008 using the IPCC mass balance approach. Results show that China's coal-based energy structure and unique economic development have heavily impacted CO₂ emissions. Fortunately, although coal consumption has increased to over 70% of all fuel use, the share of CO₂ emissions from coal has gradually decreased due to energy consumption restructuring. The switch from coal-dominance to cleaner, renewable energies (wind, solar, natural gas, nuclear power, geothermal, biomass energy) will undoubtedly reduce CO₂ emissions in China. Results also indicate that carbon intensity has improved steadily, as China's economic development introduces new technologies intended to minimize environmental pollution and destruction. Our results suggest that China's CO₂ emissions may not be as high as expected in future, and will gradually lessen.     

American policy conflict in the greenhouse: Divergent trends in federal,regional, state,and local green energy and climate change policy

Climate change threatens significant impacts on global ecosystems and human populations. To address this challenge, industrialized nations have ratified the Kyoto Protocol and undertaken commitments to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, the primary agents linked to anthropogenic alteration of earth's climate. By contrast, the US government, led by the Bush Administration, has rejected mandatory targets for curbing emissions under the Protocol, and has instead pursued voluntary mitigation measures amid a larger push for clean coal and “next generation” nuclear technologies. These actions in total have fueled global perceptions that the US is not acting in substantial ways to address climate change. Nevertheless, action within the US is indeed moving forward, with states, cities and regional partnerships filling the federal leadership vacuum. This paper reviews the diverse policies, strategies, and cooperative frameworks that have emerged at regional, state and local levels to guide climate protection, and identifies the environmental and economic benefits linked to such programs. The paper also attempts to explain the existing federal impasse on climate policy, with attention given to how sub-national efforts may ultimately obviate national governmental inaction.     

Comparison of Turkey's performance of greenhouse gas emissions and local/regional pollutants with EU countries

Turkey signed the Kyoto Protocol on February 17th, 2009. Therefore, to fulfill the liabilities of the Kyoto Protocol, she has to review her status and make strategic plans to hold the emissions at the levels specified in the protocol. For this purpose, in this study employing data envelopment analysis (DEA), Turkey's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and local/regional pollutants compared to the European Union (EU) countries have been put in place. Since the data on Malta and Cyprus was inadequate, these two nations were excluded from the evaluation. As a candidate for EU, Turkey is required to reduce the emissions by 8% until 2012 within the framework of the Kyoto Protocol.     

Features,trajectories and driving forces for energy-related GHG emissions from Chinese mega cites: The case of Beijing,Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing

With China’s rapid economic development and urbanization process, cities are facing great challenges for tackling anthropogenic climate change. In this paper we present features, trajectories and driving forces for energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from four Chinese mega-cities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing) during 1995–2009. First, top-down GHG inventories of these four cities, including direct emissions (scope 1) and emissions from imported electricity (scope 2) are presented. Then, the driving forces for the GHG emission changes are uncovered by adopting a time serial LMDI decomposition analysis. Results indicate that annual GHG emission in these four cities exceeds more than 500 million tons and such an amount is still rapidly growing. GHG emissions are mainly generated from energy use in industrial sector and coal-burning thermal power plants. The growth of GHG emissions in four mega-cities during 1995–2009 is mainly due to economic activity effect, partially offset by improvements in carbon intensity. Besides, the proportion of indirect GHG emission from imported energy use (scope 2) keeps growing, implying that big cities are further dependent on energy/material supplies from neighboring regions. Therefore, a comprehensive consideration on various perspectives is needed so that different stakeholders can better understand their responsibilities on reducing total GHG emissions.     

Analyzing the effects of Energy Action Plans on electricity consumption in Covenant of Mayors signatory municipalities in Andalusia

The Covenant of Mayors (CM) is an initiative by which towns, cities and regions voluntarily commit to reduce their CO₂ emissions beyond the European Union climate targets, through policies promoting energy saving and renewable energy. The aim of this paper is to analyze whether joining the CM is reducing municipalities' electricity consumption, and therefore their emissions. For this purpose, the evolution of total, household and public administration electricity consumption from 2001 to 2012 is analyzed by using panel data econometric techniques. This analysis is made for municipalities in Andalusia, the region of Spain with more signatories. Obtained results show that the CM is having a positive effect on the electricity consumption reductions, since the municipalities have greater rates of reduction of electricity consumption after signing the CM. Therefore, it may be considered appropriate to promote policies which incentivize the municipalities to join the CM and develop their action plans, as this can reduce their electricity consumption.     

Life cycle assessment (LCA) of waste management strategies: Landfilling,sorting plant and incineration

This paper focuses on a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of four waste management strategies: landfill without biogas utilization; landfill with biogas combustion to generate electricity; sorting plant which splits the inorganic waste fraction (used to produce electricity via Refuse Derived Fuels, RDF) from the organic waste fraction (used to produce biogas via anaerobic digestion); direct incineration of waste. These scenarios are applied to the waste amount and composition of the Municipality of Roma (Italy) and are evaluated under different points of view: global and local emissions, total material demands, total energy requirements and ecological footprints. Results, reliable for most of the European big cities, show landfill systems as the worst waste management options and significant environmental savings at global scale are achieved from undertaking energy recycling. Furthermore, waste treatments finalized to energy recovery provide an energy output that, in the best case, is able to meet the 15% of Roma electricity consumption.     

Embodied greenhouse gas emission by Macao

Comprehensive inventory of cities' greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) is the basis for cities to make appropriate mitigation plans. However, previous studies on cities' GHG emissions consider emissions occurring within the city boundary (Scope 1) and out of boundary electricity emissions (Scope 2), but neglect indirect emissions associated with commodities consumed by cities (Scope 3), resulting in emission leakage. To cope with this problem, a systematic accounting covering all 3 scopes is presented in a case study of Macao for the years 2005–2009, based on the latest embodied emission intensity databases for China and for the world. The results show that total emissions are dominated by indirect emissions mainly embodied in imports, which is 3–4 times direct emissions during the period concerned. It is verified that accounting under Scopes 1 and 2 cannot capture the full picture of cities' emissions, especially cities like Macao which are dominated by service industry and inevitably sustained by massive materials and services from other regions. Our study suggests that Macao should adjust its current GHG mitigation policies which consider only its emissions occurring within its border, as Macao is a net GHG emissions importer. This work is the first assessment of Macao's embodied GHG emissions.     

Contents

The structures of the problems of acid deposition and global climate change, which are superficially similar, are shown to have important differences: acid deposition is a local and regional environmental problem while the geographical dimension of the 'greenhouse' issue is global; the temporal scales of two problems are different; and the scales of emissions involved are also very different. Four generic policy options that exist for both acid deposition and global climate change are examined, namely, emissions control, technology development, scientific research to improve understanding and reduce uncertainty, and effects mitigation. The principal policy questions in both areas are examined.<>     

Get rid of it: To what extent might improved reliability reduce self-generation in Nigeria?

Despite the global concerns surrounding the threats of climate change to both human health and sustainable environments, gasoline- or diesel-powered generators with non-negligible emissions have become a popular choice among Nigerian households due to the poor publicly provided electricity. This study examines the extent to which an improvement in publicly supplied electricity may reduce backup generation and, by implication, reduce emissions from Nigerian homes. The results from a random-effects probit analysis reveal that, although improved electricity service quality would significantly reduce self-generation, self-generation would continue in the country, especially among rich and educated households. The study concludes by highlighting the policy implications of the findings.     

治理污染源 恢复清澈蓝天

2010年以来,我国的多个大城市和工业集中地区出现了严重的雾霾天气,使我国82%重点区域的城市空气质量达不到新修订的环境空气质量标准。其原因主要是空气中细微颗粒物PM2.5、SO2、NOx等污染物严重超标。介绍了污染物主要来源——燃煤电厂、工业生产和汽车尾气的减排形势和目前应采取的对策。燃煤电厂可以采用脱硫、脱硝、湿式电除尘等复式净化技术,并通过治污资金投入等政策激励来达到国家规定的污染物排放标准。石化行业应继续采取关停老旧装置、新建补建环保设施、采用先进技术、优化操作等措施来减少烟尘和废气的排放。政府应积极推进成品油质量升级和LNG(液化天然气)汽车发展,加大电动汽车、氢燃料电池汽车的研发力度,严格城市汽车尾气的管理,必须保证车辆上的原装催化剂达到法规规定的寿命。政府还应强化相关立法和监管执法,以形成一个完整的在用车污染管理制度体系,保证从新车到报废的全过程污染物排放始终达标。     

Kyoto Protocol implementation in Serbia as precognition of sustainable energetic and economic development

The paper gives reasons for low energy efficiency typical of the Serbian economy, which is based on outdated and dirty technologies. The comparison of selected economic indicators and indicators of energy efficiency in both Serbia and the European Union points out the benefits of the Kyoto Protocol implementation due to the growth of competitiveness in the global market. Serbia has no obligation to reduce GHG emissions, the authors point to the proposals whose implementation along with the mechanisms of the Protocol can enable Serbia the access to markets that trade GHG emissions and the access to dedicated funds, self-financing or attracting foreign investments to raise energy efficiency, which will be accompanied by adequate economic benefits. A similar principle can be applied in all countries that are not obliged to reduce GHG emissions. The application of different mechanisms aiming to increase energy efficiency in Serbia, could contribute to the increase of GDP annual growth rate from 5% to 7%, which cannot be achieved by any other economic instrument. Energy efficiency, which is actually a question of competitiveness of each economy, can finance itself through the mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol by selling excess emissions resulting from improved energy efficiency.     

Assessment of environmental and economic performance of Waste-to-Energy facilities in Thai cities

Waste-to-Energy (WtE) technologies seem to be an option to tackle the growing waste management problems in developing Asia. This paper presents a quantitative assessment of the environmental and economic attributes of two major WtE technologies: landfill gas to energy (LFG-to-energy) and incineration in Thai cities. Net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, net fossil resource consumption and net life-cycle cost (LCC) were used as the basic indicators for measuring performance of these two technologies from a life cycle perspective. The assessment found that at the current efficiency level, both the LFG-to-energy project and the incineration facility contribute to GHG mitigation and fossil resource savings as compared to the Business as Usual (BAU) practice. However, the financial returns from these operations are very low and insufficient to compensate the costs. The paper argues that substantial improvements of WtE plants can be made by adopting proper management practices, enhancing the efficiencies of energy production. Such upgrading would further reduce GHG emissions, increase fossil resource savings and strengthen the financial performance to the benefit of local governments. The authors recognize the potential of incorporating other treatment options along with WtE technologies, for moving towards more sustainable waste management approaches like integrated waste management systems.     

Estimating GHG emissions of marine ports—the case of Barcelona

In recent years, GHG inventories of cities have expanded to include extra-boundary activities that form part of the city's urban metabolism and economy. This paper centers on estimating the emissions due to seaports, in such a way that they can be included as part of the city's inventory or be used by the port itself to monitor their policy and technology improvements for mitigating climate change. We propose the indicators GHG emissions per ton of cargo handled or per passenger and emissions per value of cargo handled as practical measures for policy making and emission prevention measures to be monitored over time. Adapting existing methodologies to the Port of Barcelona, we calculated a total of 331,390 tons of GHG emissions (CO₂ equivalents) for the year of 2008, half of which were attributed to vessel movement (sea-based emissions) and the other half to port, land related activities (land-based emissions). The highest polluters were auto carriers with 6 kg of GHG emissions per ton of cargo handled. Knowing the highest emitters, the port can take action to improve the ship's activities within the port limits, such as maneuvering and hotelling. With these results, the port and the city can also find ways to reduce the land-based emissions.     

A missing link? The case of Norway and Sweden: Does increased renewable energy production impact domestic greenhouse gas emissions?

This article examines how the EU׳s RES directive¹ will impact domestic greenhouse gas emissions in Norway and Sweden by 2020. The directive aims for a higher RES share in the energy consumption mix, and Norway and Sweden have established a common electricity certificate scheme to help achieve these RES goals. In terms of how these two national RES plans will impact domestic emissions by 2020, factors such as nuclear power, consumption changes and the energy balance must be considered. The most practical approach to evaluate the plans’ impact on emissions is to focus on changes in carbon-based consumption within the three directive sectors.The Norwegian RES action plan will not affect domestic emissions unless the electricity surplus generated by the certificate market is used to phase out fossil fuels in domestic sectors beyond the scope of the RES directive. The use of electricity to phase out fossil fuel consumption in the offshore sector would substantially reduce Norwegian emissions figures. The Swedish plan would positively impact Swedish greenhouse gas emissions; however, this impact is limited, primarily because a substantial increase in energy consumption is expected.     

Two birds,one stone? Local pollution regulation and greenhouse gas emissions

In most countries, environmental regulation focuses on local pollution, which causes damages near the emission source, while regulation on global pollutants such as greenhouse gases (GHGs) has been slow. Theoretically, local and global pollutants can either be substitutes or complements in production. A firm's response to local pollution regulation can lead greenhouse gas emissions to decrease if the firm switches energy source from oil to natural gas, or to increase if it reduces the temperature of a natural gas-fired boiler, which causes NOx emissions to fall but CO₂ emissions to rise. Consequently, local pollution regulation may either intensify or reduce global warming concerns. We exploit new data on US GHG emissions and variation in local pollution regulation across US counties to estimate this relationship. We find no evidence that more stringent local pollution regulation changes GHG emissions from the non-energy sectors. The lack of a statistically detectable effect cannot be explained by a decrease in production or by firms switching production to less regulated countries, and it is true on aggregate as well as for individual polluting industries, though in some instances the coefficients are not precisely estimated. Therefore, local pollution regulation is unlikely to suffice to address global warming.     

America's bottom-up climate change mitigation policy

Many diverse actions can be taken to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Increasingly in the United States, policy-makers at sub-national levels are setting emission targets and implementing plans for sector-specific GHG reductions. In this paper, local, state, and regional policy actions in the US are inventoried and analyzed as to their potential effect on national emissions. The realization of all existing sub-national initiatives, as of September 2007, could stabilize US emissions at 2010 levels by the year 2020. The scale of these many decentralized mitigation actions, and their tendency to follow consistent steps, provide a counterpoint to oft-cited drawbacks of decentralized environmental policy. It also indicates that the US has been more committed to climate change mitigation than is generally acknowledged.     

Reducing conflicts between climate policy and energy policy in the US: The important role of the states

The absence of US national action on global climate change policy has prompted initiatives by the US Congress, cities, states, and regions toward what is likely to become a long-term, collaborative effort to harmonize national energy and climate policies. This upward evolution in the face of a reluctant administration is historically consistent with the development of national legislation on other environmental and social issues in the US. At the heart of this movement is the need to resolve conflicts between high-intensity use of low-cost fossil energy supplies, and the dominating impact of carbon dioxide emissions on global climate change. US states are among the largest carbon dioxide emitters in the world and play a critical role in supplying and transforming energy, as well as consuming it, for economic advantage. State governments are also likely to have to shoulder some of the cost of potentially extensive climate damages and bear the brunt of the cost of implementing future federal mandates. As a result, many are taking proactive stances on the development of climate mitigation policy to prepare for, accelerate, and/or guide national policy. As US states show leadership on addressing greenhouse gas emissions, they also play an important role in forging policies and measures that reduce economic conflict between energy and climate goals. A number have launched or completed greenhouse gas mitigation plans and other major policies in the past few years that address these conflicts through: (1) finding ways to reduce mitigation costs, including the use of incentive-based policy instruments; (2) promoting an open and democratic policy process that includes major stakeholders; (3) promoting equity across socioeconomic groups, regions, and generations; and (4) promoting interregional cooperation. The results are promising and suggest that the state arena for climate and energy policy is evolving quickly and constructively toward alternatives that reduce conflict. Regional efforts are also unfolding, along with greater congressional attention to the lessons learned and commitments made by sub-federal actions. In the next few years many national energy and climate conflicts are likely to be tested and addressed by states. Among these, Pennsylvania is likely to be an important player due to its high profile of energy production and potential for leadership.     

European perspective on absorption cooling in a combined heat and power system – A case study of energy utility and industries in Sweden

Mankind is facing an escalating threat of global warming and there is increasing evidence that this is due to human activity and increased emissions of carbon dioxide. Converting from vapour compression chillers to absorption chillers in a combined heat and power (CHP) system is a measure towards sustainability as electricity consumption is replaced with electricity generation. This electricity produced in Swedish CHP-system will substitute marginally produced electricity and as result lower global emissions of carbon dioxide. The use of absorption chillers is limited in Sweden but the conditions are in fact most favourable. Rising demand of cooling and increasing electricity prices in combination with a surplus of heat during the summer in CHP system makes heat driven cooling extremely interesting in Sweden. In this paper we analyse the most cost-effective technology for cooling by comparing vapour compression chillers with heat driven absorption cooling for a local energy utility with a district cooling network and for industries in a Swedish municipality with CHP. Whilst this case is necessarily local in scope, the results have global relevance showing that when considering higher European electricity prices, and when natural gas is introduced, absorption cooling is the most cost-effective solution for both industries and for the energy supplier. This will result in a resource effective energy system with a possibility to reduce global emissions of CO₂ with 80%, a 300% lower system cost, and a 170% reduction of the cost of producing cooling due to revenues from electricity production. The results also show that, with these prerequisites, a decrease in COP of the absorption chillers will not have a negative impact on the cost-effectiveness of the system, due to increased electricity production.