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The upcoming network investment decisions and regulatory framework adopted by distribution system operators (DSOs) are most likely to be impacted by the integration of fluctuating distributed generation. The economical hosting capacity (HC) improvement method is investigated in this paper as a trade‐off between curtailment and upgrade using a Monte Carlo simulation procedure. The associated costs of both methods are vital indicators for network operators that are trying to maximize the HC and minimize cost. In addition, the breakeven point where curtailment and upgrade costs intersect is the decisive point at which network upgrade becomes sensible as marginal curtailment cost exceeds upgrade cost. A shift in global climate conditions can impact the photovoltaic (PV) levels that motivate network operators to investigate PV penetration, especially in colder climate regions. Thus, the primary objective of this paper is to investigate the shift of the breakeven point to guide DSOs to either adopt PV curtailment as a temporary measure or grid upgrade as a risk aversion strategy considering Finnish climate and load patterns. The real‐time load and PV generation data are utilized for the simulations to consider the dynamic performance indication of three Finnish distribution networks. Curtailment remains a low‐cost option to obtain a percentage HC rise of 13%, 7%, and 8% for rural, suburban, and urban regions, respectively, beyond which curtailment compensation cost surpasses upgrade cost. In essence, PV curtailment serves as an immediate and least‐cost solution to relieve network violations and defer network investment until the HC level (118%, 106%, 97%) making the upgrade a practical option afterwards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the energy sector is the largest global contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU) sector account for up to 80% of GHG emissions in the least developed countries (LDCs). Despite this, the nationally determined contributions (NDCs) of LDCs, including Nepal, focus primarily on climate mitigation in the energy sector. This paper introduces green growth—a way to foster economic growth while ensuring access to resources and environmental services—as an approach to improving climate policy coherence across sectors. Using Nepal as a case country, this study models the anticipated changes in resource use and GHG emissions between 2015 and 2030, that would result from implementing climate mitigation actions in Nepal's NDC. The model uses four different scenarios. They link NDC and policies across economic sectors and offer policy insights regarding (1) energy losses that could cost up to 10% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030, (2) protection of forest resources by reducing the use of biomass fuels from 465 million gigajoules (GJ) in 2015 to 195 million GJ in 2030, and (3) a significant reduction in GHG emissions by 2030 relative to the business‐as‐usual (BAU) case by greater use of electricity from hydropower rather than biomass. These policy insights are significant for Nepal and other LDCs as they seek an energy transition towards using more renewable energy and electricity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effectiveness of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as an imperative decarbonization technology relies on the sealing capacity of a fine‐grained caprock to permanently store CO2 deep underground. Uncertainties in assessing the caprock sealing capacity increase with the spatial and temporal scales and may delay CCS deployment at the gigatonne scale. We have developed a computationally efficient transport model to capture the dynamics of basin‐wide upward CO2 migration in a multi‐layered setting over geological time scales. We find that massive capillary breakthrough and viscous flow of CO2, even through pervasively fractured caprocks, are unlikely to occur and compromise the storage security. Potential leakage from the injection reservoir is hampered by repetitive layering of overlying caprocks. This finding agrees with geologic intuition and should be understandable by the public, contributing to the development of climate policies around this technology with increased confidence that CO2 will be indefinitely contained in the subsurface. Plain Language Summary: Massive and timely deployment of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) at the gigatonne scale is a critical component of the majority of pathways toward reaching the Paris Agreement emissions abatement targets to mitigate climate change. Although CCS has been successfully deployed at multiple sites around the world, concerns about long‐term containment, especially for gigatonne‐scale storage, are causing uncertainty about the ability of geological layers to permanently store CO2 underground. This uncertainty is delaying the widespread deployment of CCS. This paper focuses on assessing the possibility of basin‐wide CO2 leakage through a typical multi‐layered geological setting with a sequence of aquifers and fine‐grained caprocks (e.g., shales). Numerical transport models, constrained by hydraulic properties of intact and pervasively fractured caprocks (as the best‐ and worst‐case scenarios, respectively), enable us to draw unambiguous limits on the CO2 leakage rates over previously unexplored temporal and spatial scales. We show that CO2 leakage to shallow sediments in both extreme scenarios is quite unlikely and the injected CO2 will be contained in the subsurface over millions of years. These findings should offer confidence to industrial developers, policy‐makers, investors, and most importantly, the public that CCS provides a secure and environmentally sound carbon removal option. Key Points: We develop a numerical transport model to understand the long‐term fate of CO2 in gigatonne‐scale geologic carbon storageCO2 leakage is dominated by molecular diffusion at inherently slow rates, hardly approaching a meter per several thousands of yearsThe long‐term potential for CO2 leakage from a multi‐layered system is low, making geologic storage a secure decarbonization technology [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate transboundary pollution problems in the Yangtze River Delta Region where emission permits trading and abatement costs under learning by doing. At first, we use the optimal control theory to analyze two‐area transboundary pollution problems and give an empirical study for the Shanghai Municipality and Zhejiang Province by using four‐order Runge‐Kutta method and the authentic economic data. Then, we extend two‐area transboundary pollution problems to three‐area transboundary pollution problems and also give an empirical study by adopting the authentic economic data of Shanghai Municipality, Zhejiang Province, and Jiangsu Province. Finally, we get a similar conclusion that the abatement cost will decrease with the amelioration of abatement technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to theoretically examine the efficiency of a cost‐share agri‐environmental program through a farm life cycle lens. Faced with a growing environmental impact from agricultural production, the farmer must decide when and how aggressively to invest in environmental capital. The steady state of the optimal control problem reveals the trade‐off between allocating farm profits to consumption versus environmental improvements. A payment from a cost‐share program reduces the time to investment in environmental capital, and also permanently increases the farmer's level of investment. A lack of targeting results in inframarginal farmers being paid more than the minimum amount that is required to induce investment. The portion of both the marginal payment and the average payment that induces new investment declines as the government's share of the payment increases, and this decline decreases overall program efficiency. Despite this inefficiency, a larger payment from a cost‐share program is shown to decrease the farm's environmental impact in both the short and long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is under pressure to improve its agricultural productivity to keep up with the demands of a growing population with increasingly resource-intensive diets. This productivity improvement must occur against a backdrop of carbon intensity reduction targets, and a highly fragmented, nutrient-inefficient farming system. Moreover, the Chinese government increasingly recognizes the need to rationalize the management of the 800 million tonnes of agricultural crop straw that China produces each year, up to 40% of which is burned in-field as a waste. Biochar produced from these residues and applied to land could contribute to China's agricultural productivity, resource use efficiency and carbon reduction goals. However competing uses for China's straw residues are rapidly emerging, particularly from bioenergy generation. Therefore it is important to understand the relative economic viability and carbon abatement potential of directing agricultural residues to biochar rather than bioenergy. Using cost-benefit analysis ( CBA) and life-cycle analysis ( LCA), this paper therefore compares the economic viability and carbon abatement potential of biochar production via pyrolysis, with that of bioenergy production via briquetting and gasification. Straw reincorporation and in-field straw burning are used as baseline scenarios. We find that briquetting straw for heat energy is the most cost-effective carbon abatement technology, requiring a subsidy of $7 MgCO2e−1 abated. However China's current bioelectricity subsidy scheme makes gasification ( NPV $12.6 million) more financially attractive for investors than both briquetting ( NPV $7.34 million), and pyrolysis ($−1.84 million). The direct carbon abatement potential of pyrolysis (1.06 MgCO2e per odt straw) is also lower than that of briquetting (1.35 MgCO2e per odt straw) and gasification (1.16 MgCO2e per odt straw). However indirect carbon abatement processes arising from biochar application could significantly improve the carbon abatement potential of the pyrolysis scenario. Likewise, increasing the agronomic value of biochar is essential for the pyrolysis scenario to compete as an economically viable, cost-effective mitigation technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]