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Based on provincial panel data from 2000 to 2014, this paper measured the total factor energy efficiency by adopting the dynamic slacks-based measure model, and then employed the spatial econometric model to analyze the impact of regional mitigation of carbon dioxide on energy efficiency from both intra-regional and inter-regional perspectives in China. The results show the following: first, the average of total factor energy efficiency presents a rising trend from 2000 to 2014, and it shows a significant difference among regions. Second, the direct effect of carbon productivity on energy efficiency is positive, but the indirect effect is negative. The share ratio of direct and indirect effects is 1: −0.96; the total effect is positive but insignificant. Based on this conclusion, the paper provides some relevant policy suggestions and measures for regionally saving energy resources and relieving environmental constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluating the operational efficiency of emissions trading pilots has become a crucial task faced by China's emissions trading scheme in its stable transition from pilot programs in limited areas to a nationwide carbon trading market. A number of factors contribute to the difficulty of such evaluations, such as differences in system design, the absence of evaluation systems and the complexity of external factors. A study of the seven major carbon emissions trading pilots in China was conducted. In this paper, the institutional arrangements of carbon emissions trading pilots are differentiated based on six dimensions: distribution systems, flexible mechanisms, emissions control scope, transaction rules, reporting and verification systems, and legal systems. In addition, an evaluation index system is constructed to determine the input and output efficiency of the carbon emissions trading market. The Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method is used to calculate regional difference coefficients, revise the output index data, and effectively control the influence of the non-equilibrium external environment on efficiency. A Super Slack Based Model (Super-SBM) model is used to measure the operational efficiency of the carbon emissions trading market in the pilot area, and the results indicate that (1) for countries and regions with external environments facing uneven development, a differentiated system design should be developed; (2) the lack of changes in the overall ordering of the pilot efficiency demonstrates that institutional arrangements play a decisive role in the operational efficiency of China's carbon emissions trading market; and (3) none of the seven carbon emissions trading pilots has been operating effectively in China. The results indicate that a series of measures should be formulated, including the introduction of mechanisms for increasing quotas; increasing the flexibility of offsetting mechanisms; lowering the market access threshold; expanding the coverage of emissions control; training and restoring the professional monitoring reporting verification (MRV) ability; strengthening efforts associated within incentives and sanctions; and enhancing the legal enforcement of relevant policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizations are under increasing pressure from governments and stakeholders to reduce carbon emissions from their business operations for climate change mitigation. Universities are not exempt from this challenge and are operating in a complex external environment, not least responding to the UK government's Climate Change Act 2008 (80% carbon reductions by 2050 as per 1990 baseline). In 2012–2013, the UK Higher Education (HE) sector consumed 7.9 billion kWh of energy and produced 2.3 million tonnes of carbon emissions. This indicates the scale of the challenge and carbon management is central to reduce carbon emissions. However, effective processes for implementing and embedding carbon management in organizations in general, and universities in particular, have yet to be realized. This paper explores the critical success factors (CSFs) for embedding carbon management in universities and, more widely, in organizations. This exploratory study adopted a mixed-methods approach including the content analysis of universities' carbon management plans alongside semi-structured interviews in the UK HE sector. The paper identifies six key factors for successfully embedding carbon management that are pertinent not just for the HE sector, but to organizations broadly: senior management leadership; funding and resources; stakeholder engagement; planning; governance and management; and evaluation and reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an accounting of GHG emissions on the basis of which options for current and future emissions reduction in the fast-growing city of Kampala are synthesized. The emission inventory was conducted in 2012 using the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions attributable to geographic areas. The inventory estimates the emissions attributed to Kampala city within its boundaries and to the city region that spans a larger area. The total emissions stand at 714,902 t CO2e from different sectors, where 441,750 t CO2e are from stationary units, 26,407.3 t CO2e from mobile units, 203,637 t CO2e from wastes, 29,926.4 t CO2e from industrial processes and product uses, and 35.5 t CO2e from agriculture, forestry and land use. Using the adjusted population of the city, the per-capita emission stand at 0.396 t CO2e for the in-city and 0.181 t CO2e for the city region. Given the growth pattern and, options are analyzed that include a range of scalable actions by the city region such as low-carbon infrastructure including off-grid energy systems; decentralized systems for water–sewerage–energy infrastructure; energy-efficient infrastructure, spatial configurations of land; and micro/meso-scale options around energy efficient buildings, the bus rapid transport system, green infrastructure urban agriculture and forestry for GHG sequestration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important challenge for many countries in the quest for a responsible, low-carbon economy is identifying the key economic sectors responsible for CO2emissions and understanding what national initiatives might be appropriate to address these emissions, taking into account the role played by different production sectors and their relationship with other sectors and atmospheric pollution. In this paper, we apply input–output analysis to identify the key economic sectors that produce CO2emissions in Malaysia from the production perspective, and we identify the sectors that should receive more consideration for mitigation policies. Results indicate the primary key sectors that demonstrated strong distribution and total effects were the energy and transportation sectors. Whether to use demand- or supply-side measures to mitigate CO2emissions is discussed in the conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A reduction in the CO2 emission intensity (ton per gross domestic product) from a base year to a target year with different rates of reduction in each individual year can yield different cumulative CO2 emissions over time, which could have different effects on the climate. In this paper, an indicator is proposed to measure the extent to which the cumulative CO2 emissions are generated by a specific reduction trajectory of CO2 emission intensity, especially for emerging economies with a relatively higher economic growth rate. The proposed indicator is important for less-developed countries and regions in which economic growth is heavily reliant on energy and in which significant potential exists for improvement of energy efficiency. The indicator is applied to evaluate the CO2 emission reduction performance in China's 12th Five-Year Plan period, and the result is not encouraging, especially when the likely gap between the energy conservation goals and temperature goals is further examined. Mitigation goals should be set by considering not only the performance in the final year, but also the reduction in cumulative emissions over the evaluation period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: GHG budgets highlight a need for urgency, yet analyses are often CO2-focused, with less attention paid to non-CO2. Results: In this paper, scenarios are used to explore non-CO2 drivers and barriers to their mitigation, drawing out implications for CO2 management. Results suggest that even optimistic technological and consumption-related developments lead to on-going increases in global N2O, largely to improve food security within a changing climate. This contrasts with existing analysis, where lower levels of N2O by 2050 are projected. Conclusions: As avoiding '2ｰC' limits the emissions budget, constraints on reducing non-CO2 add pressure to energy system decarbonization. Overlooking how a changing climate and rising consumption restricts efforts to curb non-CO2 will result in policies aiming to avoid 2ｰC falling short of the mark. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates the long-run impact of financial development, energy consumption and economic growth on greenhouse gas emissions for India, in the presence of endogenous structural breaks, over the period 1971–2013. The autoregressive distributed lag bounds testing procedure (ARDL) and Hatemi-J threshold cointegration technique were used to test the variables for cointegration. ARDL bounds test did not confirm any cointegrating relationship between the variables. The threshold cointegration test establishes the presence of long-run impact of financial development, energy use and economic growth on greenhouse gas emissions in India. The results reveal that the long-run relationship between the variables has witnessed two regime shifts, in 1978 and 2002. The empirical evidence shows that financial sector development and energy consumption in India degrade the environment. Unlike previous studies, this paper finds no statistical evidence of a long-run relationship between economic growth and environmental deterioration. The study also challenges the existence of an environmental Kuznets curve in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: For effective and practical implementation of border carbon adjustment, it is crucial to determine the carbon content of imports/exports. In this paper we discussed two criteria. One is direct carbon emissions, which accounts for direct emissions generated from production. The other is embodied emissions, which accounts for the total emissions generated directly and indirectly in the supply chain. Results/discussion: By simulating Japan's carbon tax policy and three border tax adjustment measures, we found that Japan's carbon tax policy cannot effectively address domestic mitigation, nor create real threats to carbon leakage and international competitiveness. Conclusion: To design effective and world trade organization-compatible carbon adjustment measures, it is important to ensure that the emissions criteria are identical to the carbon coverage defined by domestic carbon policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shanghai is a rapidly developing metropolitan area and concentrations of greenhouse gases are high. Carbon-sink and carbon-source estimation are of significance for carbon-emissions reduction. This paper describes the effect of land-use change on the variation of urban net carbon emissions, and discusses the probable spatiotemporal impact on the dynamics of carbon emissions using coupled SD (system dynamics) and CLUE-S (the conversion of land use and its effects at small regional extent) models. The results show that: increase in construction land and decrease in agricultural land have positive and negative effects on land-use emissions, respectively; under the Basic Policy scenario, total net carbon emissions will continue to increase, from 39.43 to 80.28 Mt, with a decreasing growth rate; the increase/decrease in carbon emissions occurs mainly in urban–rural fringes and source water areas; the conversion of all land-use types to construction land is the main carbon source, while the conversion of agricultural land to ecological land is the main carbon sink. Two land-use strategies are suggested for the mitigation of carbon emissions in Shanghai. It is also shown that the coupled models are suitable for simulating and predicting spatiotemporal city-level net carbon emissions and are applicable to similar cities in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study an effort-sharing approach based on Inertia and Capability principles is proposed to assess European Union (EU27) carbon budget distribution among the Member States. This is done within the context of achieving the Green Deal objective and EU27 carbon neutrality by 2050. An in-depth analysis is carried out about the role of Economic Decoupling embedded in the Capability principle to evaluate the correlation between the expected increase of economic production and the level of carbon intensity in the Member States. The study proposes a simple mathematical model as a policy tool to assess and redistribute Member States' carbon budgets as frequently as necessary to encourage progress or overcome the difficulties each Member State may face during the decarbonization pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To fully analyze the forestry and wood products sector's impact on climate protection through the reduction of CO2emissions, it is necessary to integrate all aspects of both carbon storage and the substitution effects of forestry and wood use. Substitution effects are assessed based on specific assumptions derived from life-cycle assessment studies, which for the purpose of comparison usually refer to the respective energy mix. This definition is, however, normative. Different assumptions regarding fossil fuel substitution, such as marginal benefit or changing energy mix, are also possible. This paper discusses which of these alternative assumptions are most appropriate for analyzing fossil fuel substitution and then, based on three different approaches (status quo, changing energy mix, marginal fossil), shows the variation in the results these assumptions provide. The calculations include three different forest management strategies in order to show the effects of forest C sinks and different wood volumes available for use (material and energy). Long-term simulations tracking the C effects of forestry and wood use reveal the greatest variations. These findings are useful for deciding between different forestry management scenarios and strategies for wood product and energy use from a climate protection perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper analyzes the convergence process in CO2emissions per capita among 10 South American countries from 1980 to 2010 based on their Kaya components, namely, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, energy intensity and CO2intensity. This work tries to find out whether a set of countries of a given region share common convergence patterns in CO2emission per capita and in its driving forces. First, a descriptive statistical analysis is carried out, and then Phillips and Sul methodology is applied to test the existence of convergence clubs in the pathway of evolution of each Kaya component. An analysis of inequality was also performed, considering three exogenous groups of countries. The results show that the region, as a whole, does not present a global convergence pattern regarding CO2emissions per capita; however, the evidence suggests the formation of various convergence clubs for each Kaya component and even for the Kaya identity as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The current status of CO2emissions from Iran's power sector and the socio-economic factors that influence these emissions are fully covered in this paper. To begin, the amount of CO2emissions is calculated based on the IPCC guidelines for national GHG inventories. The analysis of socio-economic influencing parameters is performed by the stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence and technology (STIRPAT) model using population size, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, electricity intensity and consumption of energy resources for electricity generation. Then CO2emissions related to the electricity consumption in six sectors (residential, industrial, public, agriculture, trade and lighting) as well as grid losses and internal electricity consumption of power plants are estimated. Finally, CO2emissions from Iran's power sector are compared with their alternatives in Turkey and China. The results indicate that CO2emissions increased from 78.778 Tg in 2003 to 149.691 Tg in 2013, and the average CO2specific emission factor is 571.29 g/kWh. The outputs of the STIRPAT model illustrate that population size, GDP per capita, electricity intensity and the consumption of fossil fuels for electricity generation positively influence CO2emissions, while electricity generation by hydropower, renewable energies and nuclear energy negatively do. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In December 2011, the Australian Government introduced the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI), a project-based, baseline-and-credit offset scheme for emissions and removals from the land use, land use change and forestry, agriculture and waste sectors. The scheme is one of the most robust of its kind, having several innovative design features developed to deal with integrity and perverse impact risks, and promote co-benefits. Despite this, there are a number of issues undermining the capacity of the CFI to realize cheap abatement opportunities and improve environmental outcomes. This paper provides an overview of the CFI and an analysis of the obstacles to its success. Suggestions for improvements are made, including substituting a flexible permanence period–permanence deduction mechanism for the existing 100-year rule and modifying the risk of reversal buffer and leakage deduction processes to improve returns to project proponents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to explore the changes in the pure GHG emission performance of 11 Korean manufacturing industries to determine whether the green policy was effective in terms of its impact on green productivity. For this purpose, the latest non-radial metafrontier Malmquist CO2 emission performance index (NMMCPI) was used. By using this methodology, technological heterogeneities and slack variables could be incorporated into the previous Malmquist CO2 emission performance index (MCPI). The NMMCPI can be derived by solving several non-radial data envelopment analysis (DEA) models. The NMMCPI is decomposed into three indices; an efficiency change (EC) index, a best-practice gap change (BPC) index, and a technology gap change (TGC) index. By fixing the non-energy inputs, the partial-factor GHG emission performance was measured. Based on the proposed indices, 11 Korean manufacturing industries were analyzed for the period 2011-2016. Empirical results showed an average decrease of 1.5% in the GHG emission performance; the results also revealed variations among industries in EC, BPC and TGC. In addition, it was found that the productivity of each industry is driven mainly by a different factor. Thus, policymakers should consider these factors and propose policies that will support the specific requirements in each industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates ways to effectively reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in Indonesia's manufacturing industry, by firm characteristics. It is important to determine the firm characters that have the greatest potential to decrease CO2 emissions. The Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) method is used to decompose CO2 emissions into the key factors influencing changes in CO2 emissions, such as economic activity, industrial structure, energy intensity, energy structure, and emissions coefficient during the 2010–2018 period. The findings indicate that changes in CO2 emissions in industrial sub-sectors vary. High technology firms had the lowest average emissions compared to firms with other technology. Large-sized firms had the lowest emissions than small and medium firms. Foreign private firms had lower emissions than national private firms did. Firms in the Java–Bali location had, on average, highest emissions than those outside Java–Bali. Exporting firms had lower average emissions intensity compared to non-exporting firms. This study's novelty is an analysis of the effect of components that affect changes in CO2 emissions in firm groups based on their characteristics so that policymakers can focus on the potential reduction in CO2 emissions in certain groups of firms, namely firms that use the most energy intensively, is inefficient, and uses low-quality energy. Comparative analysis using firm characteristics reveals that energy-intensive firms' economic growth determines changes in CO2 emissions in Indonesia's manufacturing industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy intensity, which measures the technical level of energy utilization of industry, is an important indicator for research on energy consumption or related emissions. With scholars paying attention to the residential sector, the application of this index has become very extensive. However, this study indicates that energy intensity is unavailable in research on residential issues. The results show the following: the energy intensity effect obscures the effect of other factors on residential energy consumption (REC), turning out to be an inappropriate index for investigation of REC; energy prices affect REC significantly; the energy consumption intensity effect, which is caused by changes of energy prices, contributes most to the decrease of CO2emissions, while the energy expenditure proportion effect contributes remarkably to the increase of emissions; and there are tremendous differences between the variation tendencies of rural and urban energy expenditure proportion: the rural proportion was stable before 2002 and had a sharp increase then, while the urban energy expenditure proportion experienced two progressions of rising and falling. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A study was conducted on mango orchards with different collar diameter in the age group 2–10 years old with the objective of finding out the best growth model for prediction of biomass and carbon stock. The biomass components of mango trees in the orchard were measured and fitted to various growth models, namely Linear, Allometric, Logistic, Gompertz, Richard's, Negative exponential, Monomolecular, Mitcherlich and Weibull to find out the parameter estimates of the models and validated the best fitted model. Among the models, Gompertz was found best suited for prediction of biomass and carbon stock in mango orchards. The various criteria selected for best fitted model having lowest Akaike information criteria (AICc) of 90.62, lowest root mean square error (RMSE) of 1.56 kg tree−1 and highest adjusted R2 of 0.973. The predicted total biomass varied from 0.53 to 10.5 Mg ha−1 with mean annual increment of 0.26–1.05 Mg ha−1 in 2–10-year-old mango orchards. The highest predicted total biomass carbon in a 10-year-old mango orchard with an average collar diameter of 14.33 cm was 3.87 Mg ha−1. The carbon mitigation potential of a 10-year-old mango orchard was highest with 3.0 Mg ha−1 with a corresponding carbon dioxide mitigation of 11.04 Mg ha−1 in hot and sub-humid climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work is intended to present an investigation into the macroeconomic reasons for carbon dioxide emissions in Pakistan for the period 1971-2016. This study adds to the current empirical literature on the association among carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption, economic growth and the level of investment in Pakistan. The data has been checked for its stationarity by applying the augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) unit root test, and then a cointegration test helped in the estimation of long-run equilibrium association between environmental variables. The outcomes of the co-integration test suggest the presence of a long-run equilibrium connection between series. The results of Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) demonstrate that all variables transform to sustain long-run equilibrium. The outcomes of a Granger causality test showed that causality runs from economic performance and population toward CO2 emissions, while bi-directional causality is found between carbon dioxide emissions and energy usage, and carbon dioxide emissions and trade openness. The results of cumulative sum of recursive residuals (CUSUM) and cumulative sum of recursive residuals squares (CUSUMSQ) show the stability of the functional relationship established in the present work, which implies that this model is an adequate and useful tool for strategy formulation. So, an upsurge or a decrease in macroeconomic series will cause and has caused variations in carbon dioxide emissions in the long run in Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single-day trawling is commercially practiced along Thoothukudi coast, involving a total of 275 trawlers of varying length range operated from Thoothukudi fishing harbour (8°47’N, 78°9.5’E). The trawlers can be classified in three categories: vessels with overall length (OAL) of 40–50′ (Type 1), OAL 50–60′ (Type 2) and OAL above 60′ (Type 3). Trawlers with OAL of 45′, 55′ and 65′ were selected for the study. Irrespective of the type of vessel, the power required for towing the net was found to be unnecessarily high. The excess power wasted due to faulty trawl designs in Type-1, Type-2 and Type-2 vessels was 55, 87 and 133 hp, respectively. While trawling with optimal trawl design would contribute only 28.67% of the brake horse power (BHP) of the Type 3 vessels, the existing design of trawl used in this type of vessels contributed as much as 50.83% of the BHP. The Type-1, Type-2 and Type-3 trawlers were found to operate with excess fuel consumption at the rate of 103, 212 and 418 L of diesel per cruise, respectively. Based on the annual fuel consumption, true total annual CO2emission was estimated as 458 tons. The study revealed that the total fuel consumption can be reduced by 40% by optimizing the trawl design and reducing the free-running speed, free-running duration and trawling speed. Further, vessels with an OAL of 60′ and above may be permitted for multi-day fishing in distant waters after suitably limiting the number of fishing trips/month in order to minimize the fuel loss through free running. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms facing a regulatory environment are unlikely to maintain an optimal combination of input rates subject to market prices while bearing the costs incurred by this allocative inefficiency. The distance function approach, widely used in the extant literature, fails to capture the costs of this allocative inefficiency, resulting in the underestimation of CO2abatement costs. In this study, we test for the allocative efficiency of inputs for the Korean steel industry over 1990–2010 by estimating the shadow cost function as a function of unobservable shadow input prices. The effect of CO2reduction on allocative inefficiency costs is subsequently analyzed. Empirical results indicate that the hypothesis of allocative efficiency for all inputs is rejected, and a 1% reduction in CO2emissions would result in a 0.22% increase in allocative inefficiency costs for the median year, 2000. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Buildings are a major contributor to climate change. Use phase has traditionally been the focus area, but the importance of construction-phase has increased with the emergence of energy-efficient buildings. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is arguably the best method to assess and analyze the emissions caused by buildings. However, within LCA there are two very different approaches – process LCA and input–output (IO) LCA – which lead to different results. When looking at the scale of published LCA results, it is evident that IO LCAs are placed at the top end, and process LCAs at the bottom end. It is thus questionable whether LCA can provide data that can be used for decision-making and policy formation. This study takes a step toward filling this gap by presenting a comparison of process and IO LCA results of the pre-use phase of a residential concrete element building in Finland. Exactly the same scope is utilized in order to maximize comparability. The results depict how the two main LCA methods produce significantly different results. The implications of acknowledging this are discussed. The results fall in midway between the extremes published using the two methods but still deviate from each other by a multiplier of almost 2. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present study was conducted in climatically vulnerable villages in Western India to evaluate the impact of climate resilient management practices such as improved agronomic practices, nutrient management, water management and residue management on carbon balance using the Ex-ante Appraisal of Carbon balance Tool (EX-ACT) developed by FAO. This model predicts the changes in the carbon emissions (source capacity) and sinks (sink capacity) using default emission coefficients for a time period of 20 years. The results revealed increase in sink capacity across the villages ranging from 16.4 (Chomakot) to 96.9% (Khuntil) in annual crops, and 4.8 (Bhalot) to 63.8% (Khuntil) in perennials. The fertilizer management increased the sink capacity varying from 3.1 (Chomakot) to 39% (Magharvada). However, the emissions ranged from 17 (Magharvada) to 93.2% (Bharu) in livestock and 6.8 (Bharu) to 83% (Magharvada) due to non-forest land-use change in majority of the villages. In irrigated rice, an increase in sink of 4.6% (Khuntil) and emission of 12.8% (Chomakot) was observed. However, interestingly, based on balance sheet of all the sources and sinks, a sink varying from 1621 to 10410 Mg CO2-eq was observed across the villages, indicating the significant impact of management practices on reducing the GHG emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Climate change has become a global issue. Universities, as major contributors to carbon emissions, have been asked to make efforts to reduce their carbon emissions. In this situation, carbon absorption by forests has been regarded as a means of mitigating carbon emissions. Therefore, this study examined the factors in carbon emissions, as well as the influence of carbon absorption on carbon reduction, through a data-centered analysis on the campus. An analysis of the Pusan National University campus, as an example, showed that the primary cause of carbon emissions is the use of electricity in buildings on the campus (63.8% of the total amount of emitted carbon), followed by indirect carbon emissions by movement of the campus’ members (21.5%). However only 0.66% of the amount emitted carbon is absorbed by forests. Therefore, effect of carbon reduction on the campus caused by carbon absorption is too small. Although the carbon absorption effect of the trees is inadequate, the value of trees still exists due to their environmental effects. Based on the results of this study, it is possible to reduce carbon emission by reducing electricity use and vehicle operation and provide a plan for using carbon absorption as a complementary measure. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A recent commentary inCarbon Managementby Fidelet al.(http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17583004.2017.1306408) question the data selection and the analysis techniques used by Bachet al. (Carbon Management,https://doi.org/10.1080/17583004.2016.1213608) to assess two key aspects of biochar application in crop production, the effect on crop yield and the long-term carbon sequestration in soil. However, the arguments by Fidelet al. are not convincing. For farmer's decision whether biochar use in crop production might be economically profitable the low median values and large variability of results on yield effect in field trials form a sufficient base to abstain from biochar amendment to soil, therefore a detailed meta-analysis of data is not necessary. Future research may demonstrate under which conditions a pronounced positive and long-lasting effect of biochar application can be expected. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Recent studies have demonstrated a cost-effective potential to reduce the CO2 emissions in the existing world shipping fleet by 15%, and by 30% for the 2030 fleet. Methods & results: CO2 abatement pathways for shipping towards 2050 have been modeled, using a new probabilistic model. In addition to measures analyzed in the past, the uptake of alternative fuels is modeled. The results show that with uptake of operational and technical measures, as well as biofuels and liquefied natural gas, the cost-effective CO2 reduction potential in 2050 is in the order of 50%. Conclusion: For shipping to substantially contribute to a 2°C pathway, a financial incentive for biofuel is one alterative, but nuclear power in large ships could also cut emissions drastically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite widespread use in the literature, there seems to be little consensus on what the term 'carbon (C) sequestration' means. We differentiate between endogenous C, which fluxes within a system, and exogenous C, which fluxes between systems. Here we define 'endogenous C sequestration' as occurring when C fixation to release ratio is greater than one (fixation(a,s)/release(a,s) >1), expressed at the briefest, annually (a) and budgeted within a specified system (s). We distinguish between sequestered C (stored for >1 year) and temporarily utilized biologic C (i.e., labile C present within a living organism), developing equations for herbaceous and woody plant systems. Standardized expression of C sequestration with incorporation of descriptors, for example 'somatic C sequestration(10 year, forest)', clarifies the location, timescale and system being considered and should allow for increased transparency and improved communication for climate change debates and C budgeting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In order to better understand the local sociopolitical power relations governing the CDM, and its prospects for reducing emissions and promoting sustainable development, the case of Gujarat, India, is investigated; a state key to the country's engagement with the CDM, with a project portfolio dominated by small-scale wind energy projects. Results: The state's CDM portfolio is the result of both state- and district-level institutions and regulatory frameworks that favor renewable energy development. Case study results indicate that CDM projects bring short-term fiscal benefits to higher social strata within rural communities, with minimal cross-generational benefits and depleting subsistence-based agricultural livelihoods. Conclusion: The CDM in India is in need of increased regulation and monitoring on the ground, in order to better assess the localized microeconomic and environmental impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By promoting the conservation and restoration of natural ecosystems, policymakers have a unique opportunity to mitigate climate change while providing social and environmental benefits. Here we highlight how nature-based mitigation strategies for multiple benefits can be supported by three key areas of scientific research, drawing upon examples of research by Conservation International and its partners. First, monitoring of ecosystems can quantify the magnitude of emissions released from conversion and degradation, and can inform prioritization and planning efforts. Second, understanding the synergies and tradeoffs between climate change mitigation and other ecosystem benefits can aid in designing policy instruments, selecting management techniques and geographically targeting actions. And third, research on the design of policies, incentives and practices can enhance mitigation initiatives' provision of both climate and noncarbon benefits. Achieving multiple benefits can in turn increase the sustainability of and investment in nature-based mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]