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Paper has shaped society for centuries and is considered one of humanity's most important inventions. However, pulp and paper products can be damaging to social and natural systems along their lifecycle of material extraction, processing, transportation, and waste handling. The pulp and paper industry is among the top five most energy-intensive industries globally and is the fourth largest industrial energy user. This industry accounts for approximately 6% of global industrial energy use and 2% of direct industrial CO 2 emissions. The pulp and paper industry is also the largest user of original or virgin wood, with deleterious impacts on both human health and local flora and fauna, including aquatic ecosystems. This critical and systematic review seeks to identify alternatives for mitigating the climate impacts of pulp and paper processes and products, thus making the pulp and paper industry more environmentally sustainable. This study reviews 466 studies to answer the following questions: what are the main determinants of energy and carbon emissions emerging from the pulp and paper industry? What are the benefits of this industry adopting low-carbon manufacturing processes, and what barriers will need to be tackled to enable such adoption? Using a sociotechnical lens, we answer these questions, identify barriers for the pulp and paper industry's decarbonization, and present promising avenues for future research. •This review identifies carbon-intensive processes in the pulp and paper industry. •Presents decarbonizing practices, potential transformations and innovations. •Presents promising avenues for future research. •No agreed consensus on the most promising technologies to achieve net-zero in the pulp and paper industry. •Pulp and paper products are associated with other sociotechnical systems that create compelling interdependencies among industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global anthropogenic activities resulting in the emission of harmful greenhouse gases (GHGs) to the atmosphere have increased the challenges faced from climate change. The greater awareness of the need to mitigate climate variability has brought about intense focus on the adverse impacts of fossil-fuel based energy on the environment. Being the single largest source of carbon emissions, energy supply has attracted much attention and more so that, climate change impacts extend beyond national boundaries. Since energy use is sine qua non to economic development, scientists have reiterated the necessity of developing and utilising renewable energy. Although, past and present CO 2 emissions have and are majorly caused by industrialized countries, it is envisaged that future GHGs emissions would be mostly from developing countries as they industrialize. Renewable energy sources that include biomass, hydroelectric, wind, solar and hydrothermal systems, are carbon-neutral, releasing relatively no emissions. This paper discusses the initiatives associated with the provision of renewable energy to the energy mix in Nigeria as an indication of the country’s commitment to adopt a sustainable development strategy in shaping the economy. It reviews the literature and employs a discourse analysis to examine the limited use of renewable energy sources in Nigeria and the factors prevailing against their development. The paper concludes by identifying social and political obstacles as most significant roadblocks towards rapid implementation of a green economy through the deployment of renewable energy for sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The GCC experience is the only successful Arab experience at the level of regional cooperation in the Arab region. This success can only be enshrined by the Council's ability to continue. Also, these countries succeeded in promoting a rapprochement between their States and the Arab region and its surroundings. The three wars in the area posed significant challenges to the Gulf Cooperation Council. Arabian Gulf authorities have sensed the need to develop a strategic partnership focus on the defense and the sustainability of the GCC countries, and their well-being. Climate change has sparked a war; all the wealth and luxury enjoyed by the people of the Gulf States will be affected by climate change. The impact of climate change appears in many forms, including an increase in the average ambient temperature in the region with severe decrease in precipitation. The area climate is rapidly changing because of human activities from year to year and decade to decade. The Arabian Gulf region is interested in climate change on several levels, and there is a growing awareness in the area. The potential for climate change is affecting many sectors and systems, like distilled water processing, food security, renewable energies and public health. This paper will discuss these issues in this paper. The information presented in this article aims to give a review and discussion of the effect of climate change in the GCC to the researchers; decision makers, politicians, and engineers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the net effect of renewable energy policy in Spain from 2002 to 2017 and calculates its cost-effectiveness in terms of CO 2 emission reductions in the production of electricity. Our conclusions indicate that although the phasing out of Feed-in Tariffs reduced the regulatory costs, it also limited renewable participation in the electricity market, leading to an increased electricity price and higher emissions. According to our results, the joint effect of (i) the value of avoided emissions due to renewable energy participation and (ii) the merit order effect was able to compensate for the regulatory costs (subsidies) up until 2010, while the sign of the net effect was reversed from 2011 to 2017. Finally, we find that the economic implications of emission reductions are highly dependent on how the social cost of carbon is measured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The co-benefits approach is a concept that aims to align the climate change issue with the local development goals. The premise of this approach is that the mainstreaming of the climate mitigation issue within the local level polices will result in various local environmental and non-environmental co-benefits in addition to a reduction of GHG emissions. The implementation of the co-benefits approach aims to strengthen the policy making process, which is identified as being especially important in context of developing cities. This paper attempts to confirm this by analyzing a planning process of and global and local benefits generated by an innovative project related to provision of bicycle parking. The paper firstly overviews recent co-benefits literature related to urban transport in general and active travel in particular, as well as evaluated benefits related to bicycle infrastructure provision. Then, taking the case of the Serbian city of Novi Sad, this paper examines local drivers behind the bicycle project implementation, the reduction of CO 2 emission generated by the increase of cycle commuters, the project impact on individual commute behavior as well as potential for income generation. The results support arguments towards relevance of implementation of the co-benefits approach within processes of cycling planning and popularization, particularly highlighting the role and possibilities for implementation of co-benefits projects related to bicycle parking facilities. This case study is relevant as it identifies and analyses a real-life action to respond to both, global and local sustainability challenges, but also, as it points to an action at the city level that has potential for diffusing desirable changes into wider society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concrete is the most highly used construction material globally. This is largely due to its durability, versatility and manufacture from inexpensive and readily available materials. Although concrete has become an essential and ubiquitous construction material for modern society, its use has significant environmental impacts. The full cement and concrete lifecycle, from production to final disposal, accounts for nearly 10% of global energy-related CO 2 emissions with the majority of these emissions produced from cement, which is the binding material that holds concrete together. The cement and concrete industry (CCI), which is integral to global infrastructure development, is therefore confronted with a growing need to decarbonize its operations and products, as well as to support the decarbonization of associated end-user sectors. This paper provides a systematic and critical review of more than 800 studies to highlight ways in which the CCI can decarbonize. A socio-technical perspective is used to understand the full range of industrial and economic activities where a decarbonized paradigm for cement and concrete production is relevant. This perspective is further used to assess key technical, economic, social and political factors that will drive a net-zero transition in the CCI over the long term. • Reviews the cement and concrete industry (CCI) decarbonization literature. • Describes the CCI's sociotechnical system and energy and environmental impacts. • Highlights barriers and opportunities for CCI decarbonization. • Outlines technologies and policies to mitigate negative CCI impacts. • Proposes gaps and future agendas for CCI decarbonization research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the funding trends, topical themes, and notable gaps in global public research funding across the areas of energy, climate change, transport, and industrial decarbonisation from 1990 to 2020. The paper organizes its analysis along the themes of financial and spatial patterns of funding, patterns of disciplinary funding, and the temporality (and shifting research priorities) within funding patterns. It finds that funding for energy and climate research remains concentrated within the European Commission, United Kingdom and United States. Climate change adaptation research is the most funded general area, and the specific topics of energy efficiency, climate resilience, and climate information systems, managing climate risks, energy storage, carbon dioxide removal and solar energy are the most funded technologies. There is significant diversity in the disciplines funded, with the social sciences supported almost as much as the engineering and physical sciences and meaningful amounts of funding disbursed to the arts and humanities and the life sciences. A large majority of projects identify themselves as transdisciplinary. The paper, lastly, discusses research gaps and future research questions. • Systematically explores research funding on climate change and energy from 1990 to 2020. • Catalogues public research programs across the largest funders and countries in the world. • Examines the top-awarded universities, top-awarded disciplines and interdisciplinary funding patterns. • Evaluates how research funding shapes the dynamics on knowledge and technology innovation. • Analyses spatial patterns of funding, disciplinary politics, and shifting research priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities use a big amount of energy resources and account for over 70% of global carbon emissions. Form and position of urban blocks not only influence the micro-climate but also the energy performance of each block; so, considering the building without studying the effect of its surroundings is senseless. This paper provides a review of research on the impact of urban block form on the environmental performance of buildings and their direct environment. For this purpose, all papers are categorised in three main groups: • Thermal behaviour inside and outside the building. • Solar access inside and outside the building. • Indoor and outdoor natural ventilation. A discussion of these studies reflects the impact of urban block form parameters on the energy performance of the building and reviews existing methods and techniques to predict thermal behaviour, solar access and ventilation on a neighbourhood scale. This study is useful for planners and architects who are responsible for decision-making during the design phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is one of the main threats of the modern society. This phenomenon is associated with the increase of the greenhouse gases (GHGs, mainly carbon dioxide – CO 2 ) emissions due to anthropogenic activities. Main causes are the burning of fossil fuels and land use change (deforestation). Climate change impacts are associated with risks to basic needs (health, food security and clean water) as well as risks to development (jobs, economic growth and the cost of living). Taking into account this phenomenon, several countries participated in the last United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris (21st Conference of the Parties – COP21) and agreed to reduce their GHG emissions to limit the rise in global temperature to less than 2 °C. Main commitments and actions are focused in energy efficiency, renewable energy deployment and forest protection (increasing the CO 2 natural sinks). In this context, biofuels (from non-edible feedstocks) have the potential to replace fossil based fuels in the transport sector, being a carbon-neutral fuel. In particular, algae–based biofuel can play a dual role in this scenario: as photosynthetic organisms, algae can capture CO 2 from industrial emissions or from atmosphere and the resulting biomass can be used to produce a wide range of materials including biofuels. Therefore, this paper reviews the research advances of algae cultures with focus on the applications (CO 2 capture and bioenergy production) related to the targets of COP21 agreement. Main recent advances in algal research studies and projects are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a response to climate change, low carbon development has attracted a growing public attention. It is urgent to implement low carbon economy through technological innovation so that carbon emissions can be reduced effectively. The synergy and cooperation amongst the participants is required due to various challenges such as: multi-participants, multi-objectives and multi-technologies. These present significant challenges to the low carbon technology (LCT) innovation development. The objective of this study is to identify the relevant driving forces of LCT innovation and their interaction in the construction industry. This paper firstly analyzes the interrelationships of the participants via a methodology of system dynamics (SD) and questionnaire survey. The main driving forces and related influential factors are highlighted by means of a deductive method. Moreover, a SD model is established to examine the driving forces where government and private firms all play a role. The results show that LCT integration driving forces are significantly influenced by the continuous changes of a particular low carbon project as well as the number of participating enterprises. All the driving forces reflect an increasingly level of effectiveness. According to the model simulation, it will take a long period of time to transform traditional projects to low carbon projects. China needs at least 21 years that the quantity of low carbon buildings exceeds that of traditional ones. As a result, the building and construction industry is facing a significant challenge in terms of carbon emissions reduction. The numbers of enterprises participating in LCT innovation will not always increase with the enhancement of driving forces. Rather, it will keep at a stable level after a certain growth. A particular one single driving force has limited impact on the growth of low carbon projects and participating enterprises. System integration plays a crucial role to achieve the low carbon development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

World climate change occurring mainly due to human activities has led to an environmental concern all over the planet. Global CO 2 emission has reached an alarming level which is regarded as the most lethal anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. To have a check on the carbon emissions, many clean coal technologies were proposed out of which Chemical Looping Combustion (CLC) technology came out as the most promising technology of all. The process of CLC avoids direct contact between the fuel and the air. It is based on the transfer of oxygen from air to fuel by means of a metal based oxygen carrier and this process is blessed with inherent sequestration of CO 2 . This paper presents a review of the CLC technology and it׳s all round advancement during last 10-15 years. The all round development of the process include progress in terms of the use of gaseous, solid as well as liquid fuels, the evolution in the oxygen carriers and the reactor systems being used in the process. The development in the oxygen carriers has gained maturity, the use of solid fuels is gaining momentum, and the liquid fuels need further attention for its development. Recently, a fair number of hours of continuous operation in pilot plants have instilled the confidence required in further development of this process towards commercialization. The big stride that the CLC technology has taken in such a small duration of time, there leaves no doubt that this technology has the potential to grow manifolds with further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To promote the transition towards a low carbon economy, the Scottish Government has adopted ambitious energy-related targets, including generating all electricity from renewable sources by 2020. To achieve this, continued investment will be required across a range of sustainable technologies. Hydropower has a long history in Scotland and the present-day operational capacity of ~1.5 GW already makes a substantial contribution to the national energy budget. In addition, there remains potential for ~500 MW of further development, mostly in the form of small to medium size run-of-river schemes. Climate change is expected to lead to an intensification of the global hydrological cycle, leading to changes in both the magnitude and seasonality of river flows. There may also be indirect effects on water flows, such as changing land use, enhanced evapotranspiration rates and an increased demand for irrigation, all of which could affect the water available for energy generation. In this paper we describe Scotland׳s currently installed hydropower capacity and present a review of the scope for future development. We also review the potential impacts of climate change, highlighting possible adaptation measures as well as key factors likely to determine financial viability over the coming decades. We present a summary of the present state of knowledge regarding the resilience of Scotland׳s hydropower resource to a changing climate, and identify key areas where further research is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heating represents the largest proportion of energy use as supplied to consumers across all end energy uses. Therefore, there is huge potential for energy savings in the heating sector in order to reduce the emission of CO 2 . District heating (DH) has been considered an efficient, environmentally friendly and cost-effective method for heating in buildings, and is playing an important role in the mitigation of climate change. In the interest of fairness and in the highly competitive market the DH companies operate, there is a strong need to develop a novel heat pricing mechanism in order to promote sustainable development of DH systems. In this paper, existing methods and models regarding heat pricing have been reviewed. The features of different pricing mechanisms have been analysed, including advantages and disadvantages. Insights into developing an advanced pricing mechanism for DH systems have been offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental concern in light of anthropogenic climate change is directly concerning the building sector as one of the major energy consumers and CO 2 producers. To reduce the environmental impact of new and refurbished buildings, one of the most promising policies is the widespread adoption of Building Energy Regulation Codes (BERC), since they have a direct impact on the everyday work of local planners, architects, engineers and building companies. This article will look at how BERCs were implemented in Italy, where Regions and municipalities have developed in recent years a number of local regulations trying to drive the market towards more energy efficient practices. This happened in a legislative vacuum because the Italian Government implemented the European Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings (2002/91/EC) only in 2005 and defined the related National Guidelines only in 2009. This article provides an overview on EPBD implementation in Europe and a Geocluster Italian distribution of BERCs in order to show their geographical distribution and their influence on the construction sector practices, focusing in particular on the region of Lombardy. Then the article describes the methodology followed for the definition of BERCs in nine municipalities in the same region. In conclusion, the paper presents the practical application of one of the nine BERCs to a NZEB residential case study as an example of what the EBPD recast define as nZEB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming and climate change concerns have triggered global efforts to reduce the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) is considered a crucial strategy for meeting CO 2 emission reduction targets. In this paper, various aspects of CCS are reviewed and discussed including the state of the art technologies for CO 2 capture, separation, transport, storage, leakage, monitoring, and life cycle analysis. The selection of specific CO 2 capture technology heavily depends on the type of CO 2 generating plant and fuel used. Among those CO 2 separation processes, absorption is the most mature and commonly adopted due to its higher efficiency and lower cost. Pipeline is considered to be the most viable solution for large volume of CO 2 transport. Among those geological formations for CO 2 storage, enhanced oil recovery is mature and has been practiced for many years but its economical viability for anthropogenic sources needs to be demonstrated. There are growing interests in CO 2 storage in saline aquifers due to their enormous potential storage capacity and several projects are in the pipeline for demonstration of its viability. There are multiple hurdles to CCS deployment including the absence of a clear business case for CCS investment and the absence of robust economic incentives to support the additional high capital and operating costs of the whole CCS process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon dioxide emissions from human activities are the primary cause of recent climate change. In the United States, the road transportation sector is one of the largest sources of these emissions. Any policies to reduce emissions must therefore include mitigation strategies for on-road transportation. The aim of this paper is to propose a multi-criteria method, Analytical Hierarchy Process, to rank various on-road emissions mitigation strategies including reduce, avoid, and replace strategies. The method׳s results are obtained based on a survey of transportation and climate science professionals. The Analytical Hierarchy Process was applied to two regional scenarios of a midsize-small city (Lubbock, Texas) and a metropolitan area (Dallas, Texas). To evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies, the Motor Vehicle Emissions Simulator model was run for Dallas. The aim of the model was to estimate the potential carbon dioxide mitigation for a given strategy allocation. Our survey identified no difference between the rankings of reduce, avoid, and replace strategies for our metropolitan and midsize-small city areas. Reduce strategies had the highest preference score of 40% followed by avoid strategies with 36% and replace strategies with 24%. An optimum mixed mitigation scenario would achieve reductions in carbon dioxide emissions of 17% by 2030 from 2010 levels. The contributions of this study are two-fold. First, we evaluate generic scenarios in detail and apply them to a real-world case study. Second, the approach is both simple and generalizable. Applications of this type of platform include ranking transportation strategies on mitigating carbon dioxide emissions, evaluating the strategies, prioritizing budgets, and developing assessments of mitigation potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural changes in climate due to internal as well as external factors, like anthropogenic emission, fossil fuel combustion, transportation and heating which cause CO2 emissions is one of the major issues which causes global warming (increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases). The production of algae is identified as one of the solutions of carbon sequestration along with production of renewable fuel solving the problem of food crisis to a certain extent. This review paper summarizes how CO2 levels affected micro algal species. Several species of algae as Scenedesmus obliquus, Botryococcus braunii, Chlorella vulgaris, Nannochloropsis oculata have been reported to accumulate high concentration of lipid. These species are suitable for biofuel production as well as Carbon fixation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]