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Global climate change has become the greatest threat to mankind, endangering the ecological security of the earth and the long-term development of human society. Therefore, how to effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions and curb the trend of global warming has become a common challenge facing all countries in the world. Fossil energy combustion is the fundamental cause of climate change. In this paper, the price return series of domestic energy and carbon markets are taken as the research objects. Firstly, the cross-correlation test is used to verify that there is an obvious cross-correlation between the return series of the energy and carbon markets. Based on this, the multifractal characteristics of energy market and carbon market cross-series are empirically studied. The empirical results show that there is an interactive correlation between energy and carbon markets and this relationship has multifractal characteristics; the interactive correlation between return series has multifractal characteristics. The long-range correlation between small fluctuations and large fluctuations and the fat tail distribution of return series are all reasons for the formation of multifractality. These conclusions will help to understand the non-linear dependence and potential dynamic mechanism between energy and carbon markets in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been a risen interest in heat recovery systems for building applications due to concerns about the energy crisis and global climate change. In this paper, the intention to understand the performance of a window thermoelectric heat pump/heat recovery system (Ecopump) for heating has been developed. An overview to the prototype design, heat transfer model, experimental parameters and environmental feasibility is discussed. The variation of MATLAB modelling results followed the same regularity as the experimental results. The MATLAB model along with Revit has been used to simulate the Ecopump's performance when installed in a sustainable house in the UK. From the calculation, Ecopump can provide 670 kWh heating energy and reduce 90.6 kg CO2 emissions per year. The proposed Ecopump system combined with window frame could be a promising technology to enhance space heating for domestic buildings while reducing energy consumption during daily ventilation. Further in situ experiments should be conducted to explore its comprehensive performance in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reflective coatings have been promoted for improved energy performance of buildings and are considered in some building regulations such as the California Title 24 standard. This paper provides an analysis of the energy impact of different internal and external surface coatings on heating and cooling energy performance across a variety of climates, constructions and building types. The analysis is undertaken with the ESP-r-integrated whole-building simulation program. The results are compared with other studies and conclusions are drawn. The effect of the reflectivity and emissivity of roof surfaces is shown to affect the energy performance of buildings and to vary with the context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zero-energy and zero-carbon buildings would be a huge opportunity for contrasting the climatic changes and, more in general, the deterioration of the microclimate inside and around cities. About it, a question appears compulsory: are zero-energy and zero-carbon concepts applicable at urban scale? This paper tries to answer to this question, by discussing the possible effects of the application of appropriate city planning techniques when a new settlement is designed. An integrated approach to urban planning is applied to a case study, for promoting the design of buildings with very low (or zero) energy needs, characterized by high indoor comfort conditions, by taking into consideration whole city areas, with different kinds of services. Passive heating, cooling and daylighting techniques have been combined, as well as the integration of renewable sources, in order to minimize the energy demand and environmental impact, for having a sustainable 'urban balance' and in general, a sustainable urban growth. As real case study, the design of the holiday village 'Olympiad' is presented; it should be built in an unstructured seaside area in Greece. Several indexes are introduced to evaluate the global sustainability of the settlement, through the application of the definition of 'on-grid ZEB' with reference to each building as well as for the entire village. This kind of research could help city planners for a growth inspired to general goals of urban sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change may seriously affect the energy consumption of buildings by influencing their air conditioning loads, especially the ventilation loads which vary directly with the local weather conditions. Research on how the ventilation load responds to climate change is of great significance, especially in coastline subtropical regions like Hong Kong. This paper investigated the impacts of climate change on buildings' ventilation load and building energy use in Hong Kong with the hourly meteorological data from 1950 to 2007. Results have been well validated by the simulation of a typical local hotel building during this period. The results show that climate warming increases both sensible and latent parts of the cooling ventilation load. The latent part, which occupies ∼80% of the total ventilation load, increases at a higher rate, about twice of that of the sensible one. Furthermore, it is found that the urban heat island (UHI) effect causes a much higher growth rate of the ventilation load at night, which is about three times compared with that in the daytime. The latent part of the cooling ventilation load at night, which is found to be the most sensitive component to the climate change, plays a most significant role in the energy consumption increase. The possible measures were thus suggested to avoid negative changes of the ventilation load. Besides, reducing the UHI effect by better urban planning also significantly benefits the local buildings with a long air-conditioning operation time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study the Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) data for the Seeb/Muscat area of the Sultanate of Oman is presented and analyzed. The analysis shows that diurnal variations in dry-bulb temperature are relatively small. However, seasonal variation indicates two distinct seasons: the hot season covering the months of April through to October (ambient temperature exceeds 30°C for most of the hours) and the relatively cool season covering the months of November through to March (ambient temperature less than 27°C for most of the time). Air conditioning (AC) is required over the seven-month hot season period. During the cool season the outdoor conditions are favourable for natural ventilation. The outdoor design temperature for the hot season may be deduced from the cumulative probability distribution calculated for the season. It is around 40°C based on 2.5% summer frequency level. The high level of solar radiation flux available in Seeb (exceeding 500 W/m2 for March through October) makes it attractive for solar energy based technologies. The information presented in this paper is essential for designers, architects, planners and contractors for proper design and selection of energy systems and application of energy-related projects in the most populated region in the Sultanate of Oman. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Located in the arid climatic zone of Algeria, the region of Ain Sefra is a victim of climatic change, which faces several geographical, ecological, economic and even social problems. The present study investigated the relationships between various drought indices and the evolution of land use elements in Ain Sefra from 1977 to 2017 using the Modified Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index. It was revealed that there is a considerable growth of sands estimated at 286.61% of the area, moving toward the north and northeast of the study area during the last decades. The combination of drought indices and remote sensing seems to be most promising, whose results are valuable tools for guidance and decision support to local and regional authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology faces many challenges in climates that are characterized by arid nature with high dust frequencies and high relative humidity levels, which make dust build-up extremely problematic. Soiling and condensation affect the performance of PV systems and greatly degrades their power output. Covering the PV panels during non-operation will greatly improve the overall efficiency and reduce the PV soiling. In the present study, a motorized curtain is developed to cover the PV module surface during nights and dust storms. This system successfully reduced the impact of the condensation and the accumulation of soiling that could affect the performance of the PV panels and reduce their efficiencies. This study also experimentally investigates utilizing a superhydrophobic (laboratory-prepared nano-coating) and a superhydrophilic coating on the PV module surface to reduce the impact of soiling. These two proposals could heavily reduce the frequency of cleaning the PV panel, therefore, reducing water consumption, particularly for areas with limited water supply. This study uses experimental data as a method to demonstrate the impact of dust, humidity and nano-coating on the performance of PV panels. In addition, PVsyst was used to demonstrate and verify the soiling impact on the performance of PV modules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The future development of the world is threatened due to global warming and climate change mainly driven by carbon emissions. Conducting an extensive study on the influencing factors of regional energy consumption and prediction through scenario simulation is of great significance for China in order to meet its aim of achieving carbon peak by 2030. The affected areas of the lower Yellow River are one of the main grain-producing areas in China, and it is facing a strong demand for urbanization and rapid economic development. Based on the night light data, this study demonstrates that the carbon emissions from energy consumption in the study area showed an upward trend from 2000 to 2018 with obvious spatial distribution differences. Economic development had a significant positive effect on the increase in carbon emissions from energy consumption; energy consumption intensity showed a significant negative effect. The study area achieves the carbon peak target in 2027 only under the low-carbon scenario. This study is helpful to realize ecological protection and high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin and also has reference significance for other developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of economic growth, demand for energy increases as well as raw materials. The fact that energy sources are mostly fossil fuels has increased interest in causation between growth and environmental pollution. As global warming and climate changes gain importance in recent years, environmental pollution continues to be discussed in the economic literature. As Turkey's economy grows rapidly, its increasing energy needs are often met with fossil fuels because they are cheaper than other options. This study analyzes the availability of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis, which analyzes an inverse U-shaped relation among carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per capita and output for Turkey in the period 1961–2018. The study used the autoregressive distributed lag to demonstrate the short- and long-term relationship between CO2 emissions per capita, real income per capita, industry and trade openness. The conclusions do confirm that there is a quadratic relation between income and CO2 emissions, supporting EKC relation in the long term. The results also demonstrate that the CO2, which is a major component of greenhouse gases, are mainly specified by income in the long term and short term. The contribution of industry to CO2 is minimal in the long run, while trade openness does not have any effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the fast growth of population in India, consumption of energy is growing at a rapid rate. Today's energy consumption and its utilization at an optimum level is a big challenge in the nation. There are various factors like a demand to mitigate global energy, availability, accessibility, cost, environmental change and storage facility of energy which are important in modern days. Majority of the population is shifting towards the city in comparison to a rural area (town, village and kasbah). According to this fact, the consumption of energy is increasing in cities. The small- and large-scale industries are located nearby the city, because of the easy availability of raw materials, better transportation services and other resources. So, the requirement of energy in a continuous manner is the prime need in these areas. In rural areas, people are using low-grade energy, and thereby there is not so much burden of energy required. It is also observed that there is a maximum loss of electricity due to transmission in India. Oil, gas and electricity are major resources to supply the energy need of the countrymen. However, the fuel situation of the nation with the shortage of fossil fuels creates pressure to drive the nuclear investment for electricity and nearly 25% contribution by 2050. The nation's dependency on oil and gas is a critical issue, so the country is looking forward to various renewable energy resources. To accomplish this target, various government organizations are investing in solar and wind energy-related projects along with remote location pilot projects. The role of policymakers in this direction is to develop future strategies to decrease the gap between demand and supply of electricity for the growth of sustainable development. In the present work, energy production from various resources, supply, new policy implementation and import of energy is discussed in India. The study concludes that coal and petroleum product import is continuously increasing in the country for power generation and increasing the level of greenhouse gases. So, the Indian government is investing in power generation projects based on renewable energies in the country. 'Solar Mission' to achieve a goal of 20 000 MW solar electricity and 60 GW wind power generation by 2022 is already running in this direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric carbon dioxide is one of the primary greenhouse gases on earth and its continuous emission by manmade activities is leading to a rise in atmospheric temperature. On the other hand, various natural phenomena exist that contribute to the sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, i.e. its capture and long-term storage. These phenomena include oceanic, geological and chemical processes happening on earth. In addition to the above-mentioned nonbiological methods, various biological methods viz. soil carbon sequestration and phytosequestration have also been contributing to fixation of atmospheric carbon. Phytosequestration is mainly performed by several photosynthetic mechanisms such as C3, C4 and crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) pathways of plants, carboxysomes of cyanobacteria and pyrenoids of microalgae. For an effective mitigation of global climate change, it is required to stabilize the CO2 concentration to viable levels. It requires various permutations and combinations of naturally existing and engineering strategies. Although numerous strategies are in commodious use in the present times, the issues of sustainability and long-term stability still exist. We present an overview of the natural and manmade biological and nonbiological processes used today to reduce atmospheric CO2 levels and discuss the scope and limitations of each of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization, along with other cases of land cover and land use changes, has significant climate impacts in tropical regions with the added complexity of occurring within the context of global warming (GW). The individual and combined effects of these two factors on the surface energy balance of a tropical city are investigated by the use of an integrated atmospheric modeling approach, taking the San Juan Metropolitan Area (SJMA), Puerto Rico, as the test case. To achieve this goal, an ensemble of climate and weather simulations is performed, with climate scenarios combining urban development and sprawl with regional climate change over the past 50 years and the short-term simulations designed to test the sensitivity to different urban vegetation configurations as mitigating alternatives. As indicator of change, we use the thermal response number (TRN), which is a measure of the sensible heating to the thermal storage of a surface or region, and the Bowen ratio, which is defined as the ratio of sensible to latent heat fluxes. The TRN of the area occupied by the SJMA has decreased as a consequence of replacing the lowland coastal plain vegetation with man-made materials, indicating that it takes less energy to raise the surface temperature of the urban area, whereas the TRN of forested regions has remained virtually unchanged. The GW signal also has effects on the thermal response of the SJMA, where dryer current conditions generate lower TRN values. Differences owing to GW are more evident in the Bowen ratio pattern, mostly associated with the drier present conditions observed and its effects on sensible and latent heat fluxes. In terms of testing different mitigation strategies, the short-term simulations show that the urban area is more efficient in partitioning surface energy balance terms when green roofs are specified, as opposed to including vegetation inside the urban core. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Located in the ‘Hot Summer Cold Winter’ climatic zone of China, the Yangtze River Delta area is one of the most challenging regions for providing occupant comfort in buildings, and effects of climate change in the next 100 years will make further increase in energy consumption. This article uses climate change data from HadCM3 to generate test reference years (TRYs) compiled for 2020s, 2050s and 2080s under various future scenarios for the cities of Ningbo, Shanghai and Hangzhou. Simulations were then conducted to see if effects of climate change can be contained or even reversed with improvements in building standards, and it was shown that energy consumption can be significantly reduced with building improvements, even in the face of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents methodologies and case studies of low carbon technology screening under different building function and climate conditions. Low carbon technologies are selected under a three-step approach—be lean, be clean and be green. Advanced building physics modeling tools are utilized to study the performance of various low carbon strategies. Among these newly boomed low carbon technologies, renewable technologies are attracting a lot of attentions; however, as a first step, it is crucial that the potentials of the site and the building are maximized. This article illustrates how the performance-based approach is applied in different building sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated that ill-effects of carbon emissions will grow to 5% by 2050. Although ICAO had initially endorsed the idea of the emissions trading system to meet CO2 emission reduction objectives, prospects for a comprehensive global agreement appear to be distant, and a multi-faceted approach is required with a strong commitment from all stakeholders. Other options could be the usage of carbon neutral fuels, coming from biomass, algae and most recently the usage of CO2 in the air and water in the atmosphere, and then the Fischer Tropsche process to combine the H2 and CO2 together to produce oil (Louise and Paul. Aviation and climate change. House of Commons Library, 2008). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flaring of oil-associated gas continues to generate insidious environmental and energy consequences against efforts toward sustainable development for Nigeria. This study compared some of the economic benefits lost due to flared gas at flow stations with fuelwood energy consumption. The objectives were to assess comparative cost suffered by host communities, estimate greenhouse gases emissions of burnt-off gas and evaluate possible effects of post-global financial meltdown support policies on climate change. Parameters for evaluating the environmental and energy impacts were measured directly or collected from flow stations through opinion surveys and meetings. An inventory of the motors, voltages and power ratings of the machines used at the flow stations was made, with a view to quantifying the energy involved in drilling operations. For estimation of health risks and gaseous emissions, SIMPACTS method was used. Results from the study show that an annual average of 2040 MJ of fuelwood is consumed in Nigeria, 77.3% of the sourcing is done by children and the time spent in fuelwood trips is between 4 and 5 h, at a frequency of three to four times a week. This amount of fuelwood consumed examined alongside 2.5billion standard cubic feet of gas flared per day, revealed the quantity of energy that ought to be saved and related avoidable extreme weather conditions that prevail in Nigeria. Therefore, gas flaring violates the tenets of sustainable development and seriously contributes to global warming. In conclusion, flare down can be achieved by utilizing micro-gas turbines, re-injection and pursued as part of a new agenda for responsible governance in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The annual rate R(t) at which human activities emit (waste) heat energy into the surface-atmosphere system (SAS) has been steadily increasing with time since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Calculations show that R(t) will equal the annual rate at which solar energy is absorbed into the SAS at about the year 2143. It is established here that the anthropogenically generated (waste) heat energy enforces or amplifies the naturally existing SAS temperature oscillations and hence also the associated weather-related disasters. This enforcement or amplification applies also to the horizontal momentum vectors V(t) of wind patterns such as cyclones, the variation patterns K(t) of rain-fed floods, the variations X(t) of wind-driven coastward-moving ocean waves, and so on. It is implicit that continuation by humans of increasingly producing and using energy (however clean) at efficiencies less than 100% will reach a stage at which the Earth will be climatically uninhabitable. Thus, unless appropriate measures are taken to limit R(t), it is hereby recommended that designs of buildings and other civil structures should take into account factors representing influences due to V(t), K(t) and X(t) as safety precautions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]