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The application of a photovoltaic (PV) system for zero energy buildings is crucial to balance energy consumption. This paper investigated the potential of PV systems for buildings in different climate zones of China. The tilt angle, orientation, plot ratio, PV conversion efficiency and location were selected to study their influences on electricity production. The performance of the PV system was analyzed based on a residential building, and employed RETScreen in combination with TRNSYS. The results indicate that southwest China is the best place to develop zero energy buildings. Low-rise residential buildings can realize zero energy in China when the PV conversion efficiency is higher than 20%. However, an energy balance only occurs in the southwest when the PV conversion efficiency is 10%. For different building heights, with a high conversion efficiency (20%), the energy consumptions rates are less than 15 kW h/m2a all over China. In the southeast, the effect of the building shape on energy generation can be ignored due to the high solar elevation angle in the summer. Although the optimal tilt angle varies for different cities, the energy deviations are less than 10% when tilt angle is within 10° of the optimal angle. This study proposed a formula to evaluate the potential of a building PV system. The maximum difference between the simulated and calculated results is approximately 10%, which is reasonable and acceptable. This paper provides some references for the application of PV systems in zero energy buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Improving rural household energy efficiency is an important policy issue for climate change mitigation in China. A better understanding of the factors affecting farmers' energy-efficient appliance use behavior can help policymakers design more effective policies. This paper explores the effect of farmers' risk preferences and loss aversion on their energy-efficient appliance use behavior in rural China. Using unique data from a survey and a paired lottery experiment completed by 235 rural household heads in the Dazu District of China, this study finds that the farmers' risk preferences and loss aversion have significant effects on their energy-efficient appliance use behavior. The more risk-averse farmers are less likely to buy or use energy-efficient appliances. The farmers who are more loss averse are more willing to purchase and more likely to use durable energy-efficient appliances. In addition, the farmers' demographic factors (age, gender, education, and family location), their perceptions of climate change adaptation and their trust attitudes have significant effects on their energy-efficient appliance use behavior. This paper contributes to the emerging literature that relates risk preferences and loss aversion in experiments to farmers' energy-efficient appliance use behavior. Highlights • The analysis is based on a unique data set combining a survey and economic experiments. • The average response of our sample is risk averse and loss averse. • The more risk-averse farmers are less likely to use energy-efficient appliances. • The more loss-averse farmers are more willing to use durable energy-efficient appliances. • Farmers' socioeconomic status and trust attitudes affect their use behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A number of empirical methods have been developed to study China's sectoral carbon emissions (CSCE). Measuring these emissions is important for climate change mitigation. While several articles have reviewed specific methods, few attempts conduct a systematic analysis of all the major research methods. In total 807 papers were published on CSCE research between 1997 and 2017. The primary source of literature for this analysis was taken from the Web of Science database. Based on a bibliometric analysis using knowledge mapping with the software CiteSpace, the review identified five common families of methods: 1) environmentally-extended input-output analysis (EE-IOA), 2) index decomposition analysis (IDA), 3) econometrics, 4) carbon emission control efficiency evaluation and 5) simulation. The research revealed the main trends in each family of methods and has visualized this research into ten research clusters. In addition, the paper provides a direct comparison of all methods. The research results can help scholars quickly identify and compare different methods for addressing specific research questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to reduce the amount of energy being spent in the construction industry and to achieve the EU Climate and Energy Package goals by 2020, new ways of constructing houses is required. This research proposes construction of bio-based nearly zero energy or passive houses as one solution. Typical house construction methods in the Balkan region are analysed and compared to current Austrian house construction methods (in particular straw bale house built to passive house standards), since Austria is now one of the leading countries in Europe when it comes to offering smart and eco-friendly construction methods. This paper aims to enhance the understanding of the environmental performance of straw bale house in the Balkan region, develop the mainstream acceptance and use of straw as a construction material by proving that, such home is not only healthier for the environment, but also economically justifiable to construct than concrete/brick homes usually built in this region of the world. This is done via energy analysis in both BIM and Baubook software and construction cost calculation and comparison of two different house types virtually placed in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a representative country of Balkan region. Type 1 is bio-based house, while Type 2 is concrete house of similar geometry. During the analysis, it was discovered that Type 1 house is in compliance with passive house standards, while Type 2 isn't. Furthermore, energy use intensity according to BIM analysis for Type 1 is half of the value of the Type 2 house. Peak heating load for Type 2 house is much larger than for the Type 1 house. Global warming potential of Type 1 house is negative, which means that bio-based materials absorb CO 2 during its life. Global warming potential for Type 2 is 435.02 kgCO 2 /m 2 . In addition to this, it costs slightly less to construct Type 1 house than Type 2 house. Therefore, this paper proves that Type 1 – Bio-based house is cheaper to construct and more energy efficient than Type 2 – Concrete house that is typically being constructed in the Balkan region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an expectation that the insurance sector should be leading business efforts in responding to climate change due to their inherent exposure to increasing risks. However, insurance companies normally operate on a one year time horizon - underwriting risks through policies which change each year to reflect new knowledge of these risks. The ClimateWise principles is a voluntary initiative of the insurance sector that was launched in 2007 to provide a basis for insurance companies to engage with climate change risks. This paper introduces the ClimateWise initiative and explores progress made since its launch. The paper presents new knowledge on whether this voluntary initiative provides a useful structure for the insurance sector in responding to the challenge of climate change. It finds that while the insurance sector has engaged with climate change, there is much more to do and we welcome the recent changes to ClimateWise that more accurately reflect this. The paper concludes that ClimateWise has been a useful initiative for the insurance companies and as a potential benchmark for the sector it offers some value. However, ClimateWise has not provided a strong enough engagement across the sector to embed climate action into business decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This research experiment is the first study to provide detailed insights into resource use by guests staying in self-contained B&B style accommodation. Self-contained accommodation is a neglected yet important sub-industry in the hospitality sector, as it represents the largest and fastest growing share of accommodation providers in many regions. The study provides valuable data from a smart metering system, collecting data every minute over four seasons and indicates sustainable consumption opportunities using renewable energy, guest behaviour change and eco-conservation. Our results reveal that guests, when exposed to sustainability advice and communication (i.e. Intervention Group), saved 27% electricity, 22% gas, 22% water and 10% firewood. Differences between Intervention and Control Groups were also observed in terms of daily peak consumption and seasonal patterns. There are further saving opportunities, but findings also highlight social practice complexities to navigate guests' individual thermal comfort knowledge and daily routines. Transitions can be achieved through advanced smart services for direct and indirect customer feedback and host training. This paper is the first to detail findings from smart meter monitoring using high resolution at tourist accommodation, providing new insights into social practices and analysis of water energy nexus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Accurate estimation of solar radiation components of a specific location has been one of the most important issues of solar energy applications. In this paper, a new approach, named Weighted Gaussian Process Regression (WGPR), is developed for multi-step ahead forecasting of daily global and direct horizontal solar radiation components in Saharan climate. The WGPR is tested using global and direct solar radiation data recorded over three years (2013–2015) in a semi-arid region in Algeria. It consists of forecasting 10-steps ahead for both components with automatic selection of relevant climatic data. In this respect two different architectures of WGPR are proposed, WGPR Parallel Forecasting Architecture (WGPR-PFA) and WGPR Cascade Forecasting Architecture (WGPR-CFA). The proposed approach proved to be effective with respect to the basic GPR in terms of accuracy and processing time for daily global and direct solar radiation forecasting. Forecasting with WGPR-CFA led to error RMSE = 3.18 (MJ/m2) and correlation coefficient r2 = 85.85 (%) for the 10th daily global horizontal radiation, and RMSE = 5.23 (MJ/m2) and correlation coefficient r2 = 56.21(%) for 10th daily direct horizontal radiation. The achieved results specify that the developed WGPR approach can be adjudged as an efficient machine learning model for accurate forecasting of solar radiation components. Graphical abstract Image Highlights • A new GPR model is developed for multi-step ahead forecasting. • Two different architectures of WGPR are proposed. • A case study of Ghardaïa regionhas been considered in this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Knowledge about the environmental impact of alcohol is limited and as an effect alcohol is often excluded from environmental studies of diets or included in incomplete ways. This paper describes the climate impact of beer, wine and liquor by using life cycle assessment. The climate impact is quantified per litre of specific alcoholic beverages and per total amount of alcohol consumed based on self-reported data of 50 000 individuals from 2009 within two population-based cohorts in Sweden. The results show that alcoholic beverages generate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the range of 0.73–2.38 kg carbon dioxide equivalents (CO 2 e) per litre. Alcohol consumption in the population studied generates on average 52 kg CO 2 e per person and year. Within the 10% of the population with the highest intake of alcohol GHG emissions are up to 202 kg CO 2 e per person and year. Consumption of wine is responsible for the largest share of GHG emissions from alcoholic beverages (61%) followed by beer (33%), while liquor and strong wine account for a smaller share (6%). Alcohol consumption among men generates 90% higher GHG emissions than among women. Alcohol consumption and in consequence alcohol-related emissions are decreasing with increasing age of men and women. Our results indicate that alcohol consumption in Swedish men and women is responsible for an average of 3% of total diet-related GHG emissions and in sub-populations with the highest consumption up to 6–11%. Limiting alcohol could be an effective option to reduce the climate impact of diets, especially among men. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • Beer, wine and spirits generate 0.73–2.38 kg of CO 2 equivalents per litre. • Alcohol intake generated 52 kg of CO 2 equivalents per person and year. • Alcohol intake among men generates 90% higher GHG emissions than among women. • GHG emissions from alcohol intake decrease with increasing age. • Alcohol intake in Sweden is responsible for about 3% of dietary GHG emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a yield of efforts in the international climate policy and emerging consumer awareness there is a growing interest for the quantification of corporate level carbon footprints. As a consequence, there have been numerous initiatives, guidelines and calculation methods emerged recently to be able to quantify company level direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions. Most of them are based on the philosophy and classification of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. This paper intends to provide a comparison of freely available online corporate level carbon footprint calculators with a novelty value of addressing their validity and reliability. Validity here refers to the issue whether different calculators cover the same or similar aspects or scopes of the corporate carbon footprint, while reliability addresses the question whether different calculators deliver the same or similar result if we use the same input data. Based on the example of an imaginary enterprise, we argue that validity is partly achieved, while reliability of the calculators is relatively low. This means that online corporate carbon calculators can be useful to provide a first insight for companies into their carbon footprints and they can also be useful for temporal comparisons at the level of one company (if the activity of the company is not too complex.) However, these calculators do not seem to be very appropriate for comparisons among different companies or with external benchmarks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Life cycle assessment and life cycle cost analysis are suitable tools in trying to minimize environmental impact and cost. To get reliable results it is crucial to set up correct system boundaries for the investigation, but it is often difficult to understand a complex products system because of the cascade effects of consequences that can be induced even by small changes. In this paper the effects and consequences evaluation (ECE) method is introduced to systematically identify and organize the effects and consequences for a design change of parts of a complex system. The method is applied in a case study of external wall insulation for a new building to investigate the importance of correct system boundaries. Using the methodical approach in identifying all significant consequences showed that unexpected unit processes can be important when deciding on the relevant system boundary. We also conclude that such processes can have a significant impact on the final results by calculating the change in global warming potential and life cycle cost for the processes affected by the design option. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International climate funds play a key role in supporting the adaptation policies of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to climate change by reducing their vulnerability. The mechanism of contributions established at national level under the Paris Agreement of 2015 lays the foundations to help international donors better understand each country's climate needs. With this in mind, this paper aims to provide some policy suggestions emerging from the analysis of the impact some variables have on reducing vulnerability. To this end, we consider the vulnerability index of 33 SIDS countries in terms of adaptation and mitigation policies. Based on the data availability, we use the panel-corrected standard errors estimator in time span from 2010 to 2014, taking into account the spatial heterogeneity of vulnerability. Our findings display that foreign aid and social development variables are crucial to promoting adequate and balanced responses to climate change. Therefore, we can confirm the effectiveness of external funds in reducing vulnerability. Domestic resources alone do not appear able to help SIDS due to endogenous limits of countries beneficiaries. The approach proposed in this paper can be extended to other small countries which are not islands, as well as to islands that are not nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The industries are one of the major factors leading the impacts of global climate change. Their participation in the global process of climate mitigation and adaptation is fundamental, since these large greenhouse gas emitters and their investors could take action to change the path towards a low carbon economy. Nevertheless, surprisingly, no study has found in the literature on climate risk management by the world's largest emitters. This paper presents the context in which companies are asked to disclose to interested parties and potential investors not only shallow questions about sustainability, but also information on climate change and climate risks. Therefore, the main objective is, among others, to investigate the relationship between emission intensity and the number of climate projects implemented. The paper focused on the world's 100 largest GHG emitters, identified by a Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) classification list. It was developed an analysis based on their CDP reports for the period 2015 to 2017. The results showed that the level of disclosure of climate risks is low, with an average score of only 31% in 100. By 2017, 11.1% had not implemented any mitigation project to reduce the impact on climate change. The sample companies realize that their business is more severely threatened by climate regulations than the market and physical risks. The survey found that companies are investing more in energy efficiency as an effective way to reduce emissions. Evidence shows that the number of projects implemented is not related to the intensity of emissions, size, power of the shareholders and the country of origin of the company, but its profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

World leaders signed the Paris Agreement in 2015 to keep global temperatures well below 2 °C. This Paris Agreement will facilitate achieving Sustainable Development Goal-13 (Climate Action) by 2030. However, without collective action, it is quite impossible to achieve the terms of this agreement. In this regard, the mass media can contribute to making people aware of the subsequent effect of climate change at all levels. The mass media, as a source of information, might play a significant role in raising public awareness and understanding of climate sciences. This paper examines the influence of the mass media on awareness, attitudes and knowledge of climate change, which may lead to environmentally friendly behaviour. This paper employs structural equation modelling to examine the relationship among the studied variables. The results reveal that the mass media influences awareness, attitudes and knowledge of climate change. This study also finds mediating effects of awareness, attitudes and knowledge of climate change between the mass media and environmentally friendly behaviour. The results imply that the mass media contributes to creating awareness, enhancing understating and shaping favourable attitudes towards climate change. The findings could guide policymakers to take appropriate steps to promote a greater awareness of climate change using the mass media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A variety of methods have been proposed to assist the integration of microgrid in flow shop systems with the goal of attaining eco-friendly operations. There is still a lack of integrated planning models in which renewable portfolio, microgrid capacity and production plan are jointly optimized under power demand and generation uncertainty. This paper aims to develop a two-stage, mixed-integer programming model to minimize the levelized cost of energy of a flow shop powered by onsite renewables. The first stage minimizes the annual energy use subject to a job throughput requirement. The second stage aims at sizing wind turbine, solar panels and battery units to meet the hourly electricity needs during a year. Climate analytics are employed to characterize the stochastic wind and solar capacity factor on an hourly basis. The model is tested in four locations with a wide range of climate conditions. Three managerial insights are derived from the numerical experiments. First, time-of-use tariff significantly stimulates the wind penetration in locations with medium or low wind speed. Second, regardless of the climate conditions, large-scale battery storage units are preferred under time-of-use rate but it is not the case under a net metering policy. Third, wind- and solar-based microgrid is scalable and capable of meeting short-term demand variation and long-term load growth with a stable energy cost rate. A Flow Shop System Integrated with Renewable Microgrid. Image 10472 • Joint approach to microgrid sizing and flow shop scheduling under load and generation uncertainty. • Addressing hourly and seasonality variation of renewable generation under time-of-use tariff. • Characterizing hourly capacity factor using 0.77 million wind and weather data over eleven years. • Using levelized cost of energy for assessing the economic viability of microgrid technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Load matching is an inevitable problem that restricts the development of photovoltaic (PV) system used in buildings. The objective of this paper is to solve this problem by conducting a load matching assessment and optimization of PV system in different climate zones of China. The influences of the tilt angle, orientation, PV plot ratio and building height on the achievement of zero energy buildings (ZEBs) were evaluated. The PV potentials of roofs and facades were analyzed and optimized based on self-sufficiency and self-consumption. Net load variance and the maximum electricity import were employed as indices to evaluate the performance of PV systems in different climate zones of China. The results of the load matching assessment show that electricity generations from roof PV systems in low-rise buildings can meet most of the energy demand (at least 70%) in all climate zones of China. East and west facades of mid-rise buildings have an advantage over south façades in Kunming and Guangzhou in terms of load matching. It is necessary to combine roofs, south, east and west facades to meet the ZEBs requirement of for high-rise building. When the heating/cooling demand is dominant, the tilt angle should be higher/lower than the latitude of the specific location. This research will be helpful in designing building PV systems in different climate zones of China. Load matching analysis is helpful in designing building PV system in different climate zones of China. The results show that east and west facades of mid-rise buildings have an advantage over south façade in Kunming and Guangzhou. It is necessary to combine roof, south, east and west facades to meet the requirement of ZEBs for high-rise building. Image 1 • Load matching with PV system were analyzed for zero energy buildings. • PV potential were investigated based on self-sufficiency and self-consumption. • The optimal combinations of PV system were obtained in different climate zones. • East and west facades have advantages over south façade in Kunming and Guangzhou. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]