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A baseline in fuel economy is the indicator from which to start to evaluate consumption and raise awareness of the current state. Since what is not measured cannot be improved, the determination of a baseline helps to locate a starting point to establish further goals and best practices based on actual behavior. This paper explores and reviews the studies for fuel economy to determine the measurement and analysis methods that aim to the construction of fuel consumption and/or gas emission baselines by conducting a systematic literature review (SLR). The overview of literature published globally in the last ten years shows hardly any research focused on HDVs, as well as few investigations reporting gross and load weight values. Studies committed to measuring fuel consumption and/or gas emissions show small sample sizes due to limitations in scope related to the methods used, explaining the tendency to make estimates through statistical and estimation tools. Furthermore, it is important to emphasize that by abounding in the methods and the literature itself, the recent interest in expanding the sample sizes in line with the precision of the data, has presented new techniques for the measurement and estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on the existing policy framework of the Australian Government concerning solar projects. Currently, the policy favours large-scale solar projects over distributed installations, a perspective the authors contend should be reversed. Authors have systematically assessed the potential benefits of distributed installations for various stakeholders including individuals, local communities, national grids, and the government. Furthermore, the paper provides numerous reasons emphasising the importance and positive outcomes of prioritising investments in distributed solar installations over large-scale projects. The paper also outlines strategies and incentives to promote the adoption of distributed solar installations. The authors demonstrate how redirecting investments into distributed solar installations can enable the Australian Government to not only contribute to the global fight against climate change, but also create a more sustainable, prosperous, and equitable society for all Australians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The knowledge-based bioeconomy has been prioritized through European Union (EU) research and innovation policies. In December 2017, the government approved the Latvian Bioeconomy Strategy 2030, which set the horizontal strategic goal of achieving "research excellence in traditional bioeconomy industries and efficient transfer of knowledge". Therefore, the aim of the present research is to examine one of the submeasures "promoting research excellence and efficient knowledge transfer within traditional bioeconomy industries" for the implementation of the strategic goal of the Latvian Bioeconomy Strategy 2030 regarding "Knowledge and Innovations" in Latvia. The research found that the development of research on the bioeconomy depends on the overall situation in research and development (R&D) in the country. In 2021 in Latvia, total expenditure on scientific research was low, only 0.71% of GDP, of which 64% was EU funds and private funding. The national Smart Specialization Strategy (RIS3) defines five main fields to be developed in Latvia, and one of them is a knowledgeintensive bioeconomy. In 2018, 1600 scientists worked in this field, which was 23% of the total number of scientists engaged in RIS3 fields. The amount of R&D funding attracted to the bioeconomy field in 2014-2018 was only EUR 27 mln. or 14% of total funding for RIS3 fields, which indicated the insufficient ability of bioeconomy scientists to attract funding and their lower labour productivity. Nine main research institutions employed 89% of the total personnel engaged in the bioeconomy field, who were the authors of 98% of WoS-indexed research papers published in 2014-2018. In the future, the most important research priorities for the bioeconomy field are going to be mitigation of negative climate change impacts, as well as food and energy security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many initiatives to control climate change and mitigate its effects have been developed recently. The implementation of the new green logistics strategy and its effects on the commercial sectors in Oman are the subject of several initiatives and studies that are required. The fact that COVID-19 accelerates supply chain management and its operations in Oman to begin using green solutions and a sustainable business strategy to achieve sustainable development, it is critical to understand which aspects deserve specific consideration. Sustainable solutions in the field of logistics management as well as maintaining net zero emissions in the Sultanate of Oman by implementing such a strategy. Maintaining a sustainable business model and sustainable supply chain management will assist any logistics organization in Oman in reducing emissions and achieving long-term success, which directly impacts green logistics. This paper's main objectives are to examine and identify strategies for implementing the influence of green logistics on transportation and how to keep green logistics aligned with a sustainable transportation system. This research also focuses on sustainable business models that will enhance logistics in support of zero net emissions as well as sustainable solutions that will facilitate the implementation of green logistics. The goal will be possible to achieve by combining sustainable SCM with green logistics, just as the associated SCM is necessary and aligns with logistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable cities are urban center engineered to improve their environmental impact through proper urban planning and management. The implementation of green infrastructures is one of the most important characteristics in sustainable cities. Urban green areas play a basic role in the socio-economic development and in the sustainability of the cities. Climate change is one of the factors that needs to be into consideration during the design of sustainable cities, as it constitutes a major problem that humanity has to face. Urban green areas could contribute to mitigate the effects of climate change to cities' adaptation to these effects. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have an important role in addressing the major challenges related to climate change and sustainable development. They are tools that can be used for the monitoring of climate change, such as the absorption of CO2 by urban trees, the mitigation of its effects contributing to the development of the urban green economy. These tools promote new improved relationships between cities and natural environment. Main aim of this paper is to provide the CO2 absorption by urban green areas taking into account the data that entered in the online application which was constructed in the framework of the European project LIFE CliVut (Climate Value of Urban Trees) LIFE18 GIC/IT/001217. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development demonstrates a clear path to a more prosperous life for all nations. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and its 169 associated targets provide a reference for all nations to guide their decisions over the next 15 years towards a more peaceful and prosperous world. The Sustainable Development Goals and its associated targets are integrated, interlinked, and universal in scope. The construction industry is a key practitioner in achieving the SDGs due to its tremendous impact on the environment, economy, and society. Therefore, this paper aims to review the literature related to the role of the construction industry in the achievement of the SDGs. Generally, there are three main opinions regarding the contribution of the construction industry in achieving SDGs: one opinion is focusing on the fact that the construction industry can impact all the SDGs, while the second opinion argues that the construction industry can only play a role in achieving some of the SDGs. The third opinion, which is widely accepted by most researchers, is considering the fact that the construction industry has an impact on achieving almost all the SDGs, however, the priority and the significance of the role is not the same for all goals. When it comes to sustainable development in the context of construction industry some negative practices such as "trades-off" and "SDG Washing" are common. It has been found that the SDG 11 "Sustainable Cities and Communities" is the most dependent goal. SDG 7 "Affordable and Clean Energy" and SDG 9 "Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure" come in the second place. SDG 13 "Climate Action" and SDG 15 "Life on Land" are the third most dependent goals. On the other hand, SDG 4 "Quality Education", SDG 10 "Reduced Inequity". SDG 16 "Peace and Justise Strong Institutions" and SDG 17 "Partnerships to Achieve SDGs" are the less dependent goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buildings caused approximately 19% of the energy related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2013 [1]. One option to reduce these emissions are Building Integrated PhotoVoltaics (BIPV) [1]. Therefore, this paper investigates the potential exceptionally of vertical BIPV within the different Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP) [2]. Therefore, a carbon budget for the electrical energy consumption of the EU building stock is assumed, to compare these with the cumulated emissions of the electrical energy consumption of the EU building stock within the different SSPs. This is done with and without the massive use of BIPV. The cumulated emissions are calculated for all EU countries and different BIPV cell types. These types are multi- (mult-Si) and mono-crystalline Silicon solar cells (mono-Si) as well as Thin-Film Photovoltaic (TFPV) like Copper Indium Gallium Selenide solar cells (CIGS), amorphous Silicon solar cells (a-Si) and Cadmium Telluride solar cells (CdTe). The solar irradiation is determined and life-cycle emissions of the different BIPV are taken from papers [3], [4], [5]. Besides, the data of the current EU building stock are taken from different sources [6], [7], [8] and are forecasted for the electrical energy system with the SSP scenarios [2], [9] and for the building stock with the scenario developed by ENTRANZE [10]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing population and rising demand for better nutrition and food security, hydroponics stands to be a hope for the next generations to come. Hydroponics is one method of cultivation that eliminates soil and substitutes it with nutrient solution. It is a method that is suitable to grow a wide variety of crops like cereals, vegetables, fruits, ornamental, medicinal and fodder crops. Hydroponics is of various types like Nutrient film technique (NFT), Deep flow technique (DFT), Root dipping technique, Floating technique and Capillary action technique. This method has many more advantages when compared to the conventional agriculture like less area requirement for cultivation, non-dependence on climatic and agro-meteorological factors, soil fertility and soil destruction, efficient nutrient and water management, weed and pest free environment and leaving no chemical residues and the system's management and scope for less area and more yield. Hydroponics has the potential to tackle complex problems like climate mitigation, global hunger, malnutrition, urbanization and extra celestial farming. In this paper we have discussed the basic science, nature and concepts of hydroponics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a risk analysis, we identify the causes that could lead to unwanted events/outcomes. We introduce barriers that will reduce the probabilities of such events and also barriers that will mitigate the consequences of such events. Regarding Arctic marine transportation challenges, greater attention should be paid to communicating all work that is undertaken to enhance the safety and limit the environmental footprint of sailing along the Northern Sea Route. Training of personnel is, furthermore, carried out in accordance with the requirements set to obtain Polar Code Certificates, and evacuation, escape and rescue exercises are regularly undertaken by the owners of vessels entering the area. Support is available for rescue operations, and legal regulations are administrated by the Northern Sea Route administration. Improved information on ice and ice-flow conditions is made available by an increased number of satellite observations. A steady improvement of all safety related features is ongoing. It is necessary to identify why the problems and challenges are highlighted by commercial actors, while the opportunities and savings are not that clearly presented. This paper will discuss a series of challenges for Arctic marine transportation and how these are being mitigated. Recommendations will be given regarding the prioritization of additional mitigation measures. Of key concern is the climate impact; the Northern Sea Route could be presented as a green intercontinental transportation route in the case of the use of heavy fuel oil not being permitted, and the support of icebreakers – to ensure that schedules for all traffic can be maintained and that safety during transit is of key importance – should be highlighted. The total climate footprint of using the Northern Sea Route should be compared to the footprint of sailing alternative routes and communicated as a key opportunity for sustainable intercontinental sea transportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

First stop on the £45 billion, 215 km first phase of Britain's High Speed Two (HS2) railway between London and the West Midlands will be at Old Oak Common in north-west London. Costing £1.7 billion and due for completion between 2029 and 2033, the 14-platform structure is the UK's largest-ever new-build station. This paper provides an overview of the project and the central role collaboration has played in the contracts for enabling works, design and construction, resulting in the development of a truly integrated project team. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For increasing sustainability and mitigating climate change, corporate carbon risk management (CCRM) can be a key enabler. As we outline in this paper, companies currently lack processes and approaches in practice to actively manage complex risks caused by carbon emissions in the form of a comprehensive CCRM. To address this issue and to combine the contributions of currently separate research streams, e.g., corporate carbon accounting and corporate risk management, we develop a taxonomy that illustrates characteristics of IS-based solutions that foster an active CCRM. While our taxonomy builds on a systematic literature review, we evaluate our results with expert interviews. We conclude that CCRM is a complex field in which IS can provide significant support at many stages. Thereby, our taxonomy also contributes to Green IS research and acts as guidance for practitioners. Moreover, we discuss how Blockchains and Artificial Intelligence can pave the way towards targetoriented CCRM in companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on various statistics, this paper empirically investigated energy intensity of iron and steel, nonferrous metals, and cement sectors in Japan. We estimated the production volume, energy intensity, and energy consumption for the three sectors. The results reveal that energy consumption tended to decline, and the decrease in production amount in both three sectors was observed. While the energy intensity of the steel sector was improving, the energy intensity of non-ferrous metals and cement sectors was deteriorating. In the cement sector, expanding the use of wet waste and by-products affected the trend in energy intensity. Capacity factor also had a large impact on energy intensity. Energy intensity is one of the key indicators for climate mitigation and we have to recognize that not only internal efforts but also external factors affect the consequence of energy intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Best Available Techniques (BAT) concept first emerged in the 1960s. It primarily serves as a tool for preventing industrial pollution and setting conditions for Integrated Environmental Permits for larger industrial installations. BAT include technological, technical and managerial solutions aimed to prevent or control pollution and provide for high resource and energy efficiency (EE) of production processes and minimisation of waste. Lessons learnt by various countries prove that the BAT concept has potential for a much wider application, going beyond pollution prevention and control. This paper considers opportunities opened up by BAT with respect to achieving several of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). These opportunities form a ‘BAT flower’, petals of which are discussed in the paper. Internationally, the BAT concept is becoming an effective environmental policy instrument, and is gradually strengthening its position in the development of industrial policy. Stringent BAT requirements do not jeopardise industrial development and economic growth, but help harmonising progress towards SDG 8: Sustainable Economic Growth. Smart application of BAT requires reduction of pollution and enhanced EE. This also provides for the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions though regulatory instruments for climate change mitigation and industrial pollution often are separate, both at the national and international levels. BAT-based programmes for EE enhancement and GHG emissions reduction function in the European Union (EU), the United States (US) and Canada, making BAT a powerful instrument for energy and climate policies used to achieve SDG 13: Climate Action. Circular economy entails gradually decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources, and designing waste out of the system. BAT require minimisation of waste in all technological processes and provides advice for replacing raw materials by waste in many industrial sectors (metallurgy, construction materials industry, energy generation, etc.). Thereby BAT contribute towards achieving SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production; in particular, through the reduction of releases of chemicals, BAT support target 12.4. Important results have been achieved within green chemistry due to the application of techniques reducing or eliminating the use or generation of hazardous substances in the design, manufacture and application of chemical products. Increasingly, countries apply green chemistry principles to identify BAT. Chemical products are used in all sectors of the economy; and are crucial for both industrial and rural development, protection of terrestrial ecosystems and prevention of soil degradation. Implementation of BAT is required by international and regional conventions, such as the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution, the Minamata Convention of Mercury and the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic. This helps promote SDG 17: Global Partnership for Sustainable Development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon emission is a huge challenge for the world to combat climate change and achieve the Paris Agreement targets. To address this challenge, it is important to retrofit existing buildings towards net zero carbon (NZC). Many studies have focused on different aspects of building retrofitting towards NZC. However, a study that systematically examines the knowledge domain of building retrofitting towards NZC is lacking. This study aims to analyze the existing research domain of NZC retrofitting through a bibliometric analysis and provide pathways for future research. Based upon 517 relevant articles identified from Scopus, bibliometric analysis was conducted using the VOSviewer and Gephi software tools. Findings revealed the collaboration networks between authors, countries, organizations, and keywords in this research domain. R.F. De Masi and G.P. Vanoli are the two authors with the highest link strength, while the University of Naples Federico II has the highest number of NZC retrofitting publications. In addition, Italy is the country with the highest number of publications, but China is the most productive country when it comes to both publications and citations combined. "Energy efficiency", "energy saving", "nearly zero energy building", "net zero energy", and "renewable energy" are the most prioritized research areas. Based on identified gaps, future research directions are proposed to include (1) integration of modern technology to simulate NZC retrofitting; (2) optimization of sustainable measures to achieve NZC buildings; and (3)quantification of drivers and benefits of NZC retrofitting. The findings of this study would be useful to researchers, policymakers, and practitioners who are interested in NZC retrofitting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of urban settlements and the quality of their spaces are related to wide range of different factors, where the basis is natural capital, its components and the benefits provided from them in the form of ecosystem services. The greenery in the city significantly affects the effects of climate change. Green areas are increasing in Slovakia but the cities still do not fully exploit the potential of micro-regulatory ecosystem services. We need to focus more on reducing heat islands, dust, noise, or impacts of weather changes. The impact of greenery in cities has a positive effect on the lives of the inhabitants and urban temperature islands have a negative impact on the health of the people who live in them. The effect of temperature islands can be significantly influenced by "green buildings". We can therefore consider climate change and its negative effects to be one of the greatest threats to stability and prosperity, and it is rightly expected that the urban environment will be threatened to an even greater extent. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is essential to ensure quality of life in the future. Thus, our settlements should not only urgently proceed to a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, but also systematically prepare for the expected negative effects of climate change. Mitigation of the negative impacts of climate change is vitally important for our cities. Effective measures reducing greenhouse gas emissions (transition to renewable energy sources, changes in land use, changes in the transport system, increased energy efficiency of buildings or sustainable waste management solutions) are the fundamental topics in this field. The second step of adaptation to climate change includes vulnerability assessments, potential risks in all key areas and measures proposed to reduce the city's vulnerability. Main purpose of this paper is to entirely analyse process of cooperation of the city management with the public and private sector in relation to the implementation of mitigation and adaptation climate measures. Concluding, we are providing proposed and implemented measures and activities in the field of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and their practical demonstrations in the city of Bratislava. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A US$1 billion expansion of Tema container port in Ghana was completed in 2020, providing a four-fold increase in capacity. This paper describes the planning, procurement, design and construction of the works, which included four new berths, a 3.6 km rock breakwater, 7 million m3 of dredging, 10 million m3 of reclamation and 127 ha of support buildings and handling plant. The design significantly reduced the carbon dioxide footprint of the development and minimised the impact on the local population and environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Completed in 2021, the new Pooley Bridge in Cumbria is the UK's first stainless-steel road bridge. It replaced an iconic 1764 stone bridge that was destroyed in a storm. The enforced 18 km detour meant a replacement was quickly needed, but the World Heritage location demanded a high-quality design too. The solution was an elegant and innovative stainless-steel structure that has become a tourist attraction in its own right. This paper describes the design, offsite manufacture and construction of the multi-award-winning crossing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developments in studying Natural Gas Hydrates (NGH) have significantly affected the Oil and Gas industries. Apart from being a prominent unconventional energy source, gas hydrates serve a major role in energy storage, CO2 sequestration, flow assurance, water desalination, etc. These process demands promotion/inhibition of hydrates which becomes feasible by the application of suitable additives. This technique demands greater generation of hydrates by the application of desired promotor like tetra-n-butyl ammonium bromide (TBAB), tetrahydrofuran (THF) etc. for the greater storage of anthropogenic CO2 at subsurface. For the mitigation of climate change and development of sustainable energy, extensive research suggested the implementation of hydrate-based CO2 sequestration (HBCS) technique. The presence of hydrate plugs in oil and gas pipeline create challenges of flow assurance in oil and gas industry. Application of inhibitors alters the equilibrium pressure-temperature conditions which restrict the hydrate plugs formation in transport pipes and allow the flow ability of hydrocarbon. This paper provides brief review of various additives and their roles in oil and gas industries which provides the better understanding of hydrate phase equilibrium and kinetic conditions. Further, the future scope of bio-additives in the field of gas hydrates is also discussed with the aim to implement its application on commercial scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, to decrease greenhouse gas emissions as a part of climate change mitigation strategies, adoption of passive house approach, which is amongst the most prominent due to high energy efficiency potential, has gained momentum especially in Europe. On the other hand, global warming of 1.5 °C and 2 °C is expected to be exceeded during the 21st century and this opens a debate on the summer thermal performance of passive houses. Architects, as main actors of the design process, play a significant role for the early assessment of potentials and risks regarding the building performance. Nevertheless, the use of performance assessments in design workflows is not main stream among architects yet. At this point, for architects to be able to include performance evaluations in their workflows, simplified performance assessment methods and building performance simulation tools integrated with design tools become more significant. In this regard, this study presents a simplified thermal performance evaluation method through a systematic performance simulation in early design phase. To meet the indoor thermal comfort expectations, temperature is one of the key parameters in building design and intensively correlated with the carbon footprint in the use phase. Therefore, thermal comfort is selected as the main performance topic, and a simplified method, namely annual neutral hours, which refers to the capacity of a building to run without active heating and cooling, is presented. In this scope, the paper discusses summer thermal comfort and climate change over a residential building case study by using a Building Performance Simulation tool integrated into a 3D CAD design tool. The results indicate that the proposed methods are applicable to early design workflows and have a potential to give insight to architects by enabling quick and iterative evaluations for the detection of key parameters; thus, solution alternatives. As an additional result of the study, among other parameters, transparent envelope properties and shading elements appear to be significant to meet the expectations for future summer thermal comfort; also, it is seen that the winter performance might slightly benefit from the climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines the technical and anecdotal findings of a horizon scanning exercise into the ability of civil engineers to deliver impactful climate action. Examples of interaction between extreme weather and built environment assets are broken down via systems thinking. The concept of unconscious bias is addressed in how infrastructure climate risk is diagnosed; beyond the effects of flooding, drought, and heatwaves. Differentiations between climate mitigation, resilience and adaptation are made. Opportunities to address each throughout the infrastructure lifecycle are discussed, including how to balance conflicts of interest between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the extensive usage of electronic devices in the electrical system increases the magnitude of non-linear loads, significantly. These devices are essential at residential, factories, commercial, and office premises. Modern equipment which produced non-linear load are computers, heat pump, air conditioning system, light dimmer, and others. These appliances inject pulses into the system's current waveform and generate harmonics throughout the electrical system. This phenomenon will increase the heating of utility and other appliances which resulting in system resonance and failure of the device. A lot of harmonic mitigation methods are now available to minimize the effect. The methods categorized into the passive, active, and hybrid harmonic filter. The efficiency of each method depends mainly on applications and conditions of the system, while others need extensive systems analysis. This review paper describes the different harmonic mitigation approaches with their standard circuit connection dealing with the electrical power system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, climate change has become a focus issue all over the world. Many scientific studies have confirmed the relationship between the emission of greenhouse gas such as carbon dioxide and global climate change. Reducing the emission of greenhouse gas is an effective way to solve the problem of climate change. This paper presents a new method for reducing carbon emissions: using the photosynthesis of plants to achieve carbon fixation in plant factory. In order to verify the feasibility of this method, we built a closed artificial light plant factory adopting LED lighting to conduct the experiment of carbon dioxide enrichment. The results shows that the production of the plants increased by 20%-25% and the plants fixed a considerable amount of carbon dioxide by increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the environment to 1000 ppm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper does a qualitative assessment of the current European Union policies for dealing with climate change. In the EU mitigation policies are derived from the international agreements for reducing and limiting greenhouse gases emissions. Mitigation policies have a strict compliance regime using both positive and negative reinforcement. On the other side, adaptation measures, meant to increase nature's and society's resilience to climate change negative impact, are designed more as recommendations complementing sectoral policies. Agriculture has a relatively low potential of curbing GHG emissions but are some of the most vulnerable sectors to climate change. By examining the relative projected efficiency of EU's mitigation efforts compared to the overall goal of stopping global warming, the paper finds that there is clear imbalance between mitigation policies and adaptation policies. It concludes that in the absence of matching binding commitments from other large emitters of GHG, the climate objective will not be met. This requires at European level a medium and long-term strategy for the societal and economic adaptation to the new climate conditions and, on short-term, more focus on adaptation policies in vulnerable sectors such as agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to highlight the benefits of financing Green bonds by linking them to Floating Rate Notes (FRN). Climate change and its global impacts are a common concern for all nations. The global leaders across the world have pledged collectively to invest $1 trillion in Green bonds by 2020 with a common vision for limiting the climate change increase to below 1.5 °C above the pre-industrial level by the end of the century. The findings of this study suggest that achieving the milestone goals is possible through the participation of every individual. Out of the all-out bonds that were universally given a year ago, more than 3% of the financial backers were put into green bonds. This market has tremendous development potential for future issuance since there is a change in perspective in the financial backers' interest towards feasible speculations. Over 3% of the global investors have participated in Green bond investments. Adding the feature of FRN to the issuance of Green bonds will attract more participants, which will help meet the financial goals faster and a quicker response towards the decided framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current context of climate change, a special place is occupied by the field of energy plants. One of the renewable sources providing the biomass necessary for the generation of bioenergy, widely used in the last decades in the EU countries is the Miscanthus culture, which by capitalisation provides a series of economic benefits, but especially in terms of environment. This can be used for the production of electricity and/or thermal energy both in large power plants (30 MW +), which use thousands of tons of biomass annually, and in small domestic systems that use several tons, during the winter months. By using the Miscanthus in the combustion process, the carbon dioxide emissions are reduced and the methane emissions from the deposits are eliminated. In the case of applying the technology for Miscanthus culture direct harvesting (culture of perennial plants, over 2 m high, and high density), the technological process consists of cutting, chopping and loading in the means of transport of the harvested material. The paper presents the technological process of direct harvesting and analysis of the results obtained, achieved with the help of the trailed forage harvester CTF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most emerging technologies for climate change mitigation are Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS). Some countries have been developing CCS and CCUS projects and they are at different stages of deployment at the moment. Despite signing of the international agreements on climate change mitigation, Russia does not provide development of CCS technologies and their deployment. Considering long-term development of such technologies, its major objective is to increase public awareness of carbon capture, storage and utilization. Currently the issue of shaping public awareness on CCS and CCUS technologies has gained enormous momentum in the Russian Federation. The main purpose of awareness campaign is to create public perception focused on saving energy resources and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The high level of public awareness and approval of such projects will stimulate CCS and CCUS projects deployment in the Russian Federation. The level of public awareness on CCS and CCUS technologies is determined by different sources of information. Currently Social Media is the most popular way of getting information in the Russian Federation and globally. The paper discusses the research results of spreading information on CCS and CCUS technologies in the Social Media. It provides the analysis of existing social groups and topic video content in the social networks. The recommendations for developing system of actions to improve Russian public awareness on CCS and CCUS technologies are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper considers the causes of freshwater scarcity and its worsening, and gives recommendations for the prevention, remediation and mitigation of climate change negative effects on groundwater. Wet technology sectors have been developed rapidly in the global market. Currently, there is already a clear increase in freshwater scarcity. According to the UN, over 1.2 billion people live under constant growth of freshwater scarcity, and FAO predicts that the number of those living in water scarcity conditions will exceed 4 billion people [1] by the middle of the third decade of the XXI century. As far as is known, G. Rodda, as early as 1997, offered an ascending global water consumption curve (under 3 possible scenarios) and a descending curve of economically available water resources. Already existing factors of negative anthropogenic impact on water sources (pollution, depletion due to unacceptably high water intake, draining of raised bogs with the inevitable depletion of small rivers fed by raised bogs, deforestation watershed, etc.) were taken into account [2]. The analysis shows that the curves of water consumption and available resources intersect in 2035–2045 (depending on the scenario). It is projected that, considering the water consumption level over the past 10 years, which has grown 10 times, the amount of available resources is decreasing more rapidly than during the period taken as the basis for extrapolation. Thus, with appropriate adjustments, the intersection is anticipated in 2025-2030. In recent decades, freshwater scarcity has been increasing in regions where it did not exist before and is aggravating everywhere. The obvious reason is the increased water consumption by the growing population and economy. However, if the issue was limited only to this reason, only relative indicators of water availability (not necessarily real consumption) would deteriorate: amount of water resources per capita and per unit of output. However, fresh water of satisfactory quality is shrinking, not only in relative but also in absolute terms. This fact is often underestimated, and sometimes goes unnoticed. Nevertheless, it allows understanding the essence of the water scarcity widening process and determining the basic principles of strategy which will allow the developing mankind to solve a problem. To analyse it, it is necessary to start with the natural science aspect, and then move to the economic and political aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intent of this paper is to record concrete attributes and demonstrate the urgency that the practice of applying measurements of climate change mitigation and prevention must include the reform of bad positions that have appeared and that were nurtured in housing architecture in Serbia, by a procedure made of correct, aimed and very precise mechanisms and adequate measures with a small consumption of means, having in mind hard present conditions. The paper starts based on the problem that Serbia is now facing a new legalization wave of illegal housing objects that is threatening to enable a legal existence of over 1.5 million buildings that are very vulnerable and under any standard in the context of climate change. The methodology of this study is to, through contemporary key terms and phenomenon of climate change, vulnerability, mitigation and adaptation (that are well known in theory, but not implemented in practice), provide an access into the existing state of the built environment, and based on a comparative analysis to valorize and systematize this discrepancy. This rendering that explicitly quantifies vulnerable places might have the strength to encourage more serious considerations of the processes that are occurring in Serbia and also in environments that toughly and stubbornly hang on to the highest standards of constructing in the spirit of climate change prevention and mitigation, but to also clearly profile recommendations in solving existing and future climate changes. The contribution of this study is seen in formulating successful anticipations and visions of the ecological, bioclimatic and energetic aspect of reconstructing problematical housing fund in Serbia. As an admonition, the paper also indicates on the necessity of an awakening of individuals, groups and organizations, and on the encouragement and exchange of information and experiences to improve individual and collective knowledge and to affirm an informatively-creative, developmentally-encouraging, and artistically-creative approach of initiating various actions that are in relation to present ecological problems. In applying such a procedure it is possible to provide a base to diminish the gap between conscientious states and Serbia and that living in Serbia should not be shadowed by the fact that it is becoming socially unacceptable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to highlight the fact that unplanned settlements as environments, despite the professional designing ignorance, contain as part of their context certain methodological, design and cultural premises, embodied in spatial forms and unplanned settlement construction manners that all together have direct potential to offer design responses to climate change that can be applied for the advancement of housing to create healthier, safer, more durable environments. Methodologically, the paper begins with an interpretation that suggests that the physical spatial patterns of unplanned settlements were created without professional influence and represent a quality formed by traditional construction knowledge induced by the need to functionally organize a community where everyday activities take place. In such spirit, the man and nature relation inside these settlements is already existent which enables a variation of the produced spatial research (house and settlement) in ecology terms. So, it is possible to systematize inside a settlement a base of characters of physical structure that hold a potential for further designing and culturally acceptable advancements of housing, which at the same time integrate recommendations in taking concrete actions to enhance the possibility of adapting this space by existent and also reduce spatial vulnerability by future climate changes. The study is based on multiple methods which include a case study of their manifestation in representative spatial typology of unplanned settlements in Belgrade, Serbia. The purpose of the paper is firstly to emphasize the fact that microenvironments like this already offer their own ways to participate in the creation of cities of the future. Drawing attention to very concrete resources of unplanned settlement communities which integrate responses to changing climatic conditions such as flooding, extreme storms and extreme heat, has high effect: it will be very useful for the replication and advancement of efforts for the shaping (operationalization) of innovative strategies which will provide reasonably affordable housing to the population that it will serve when it comes to housing advancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presence of prosumers who own distributed renewables coupled with backup options, such as fossil-fueled units and storage, has been viewed as an effective option to enhance the power system's resilience. The current rate design is that the transmission surcharge mainly is for recovering costs associated with lumpy transmission investment, variable cost related to routine maintenance, and expected revenue to cover other costs of transmission system. Thus, a decline in reliance of bulk power market owing to an increase of consumers converting to prosumers will therefore shift transmission costs to other tradi-tional consumers. Death spiral, which describes a situation by which consumers might self-sort to become a prosumer, thereby leaving con-sumers who are financially unable to convert to prosumers, bear an increasing transmission surcharge, is recently subject to debates and considered as an unintended consequence. This paper studies the impacts of transmission surcharge in pres-ence of prosumers by explicitly considering their optimization problem in the market. The prosumers are formulated either as a price-taker or a strategic entity and are assumed to decide amount of renewable to forgo, amount of dispatchable energy to produce, and amount of energy to sell into or buy from the bulk energy market while subjecting to uncertain output from renewables. We find that transmission cost does not necessarily increase with proportion of prosumers in the market. The bulk power market could benefit from lower power prices due to zero marginal cost renewables introduced by prosumers. Transmission surcharge could be worsened by strategic prosumers as they reduce their procurement from the bulk energy market. Our analysis, therefore, contributes to the recent debates to the transmission costs in presence of prosumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective mitigation efforts, commensurate with the challenges of climate change, remain difficult to construct. A better understanding of the social conditions that promote large-scale mitigation would therefore be a high investigative priority. The creation of plans for intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) following the 2015 Paris COP provides an opportunity to understand the social conditions that foster thoroughgoing climate mitigation efforts. In this paper, we analyze why nations made varying levels of mitigation ambition commitments in their INDCs. To do this, we create a metric for measuring mitigation ambition based on the percent emission declines and the target years specified in nations' INDCs. We find that nations that score highly on global indices of good governance and that have lower levels of income inequality (measured by the Gini coefficient) have made more ambitious pledges that should reduce emissions. We also find regional patterns of commitments. EU nations have made identical pledges that should reduce carbon emissions, while nations in the Middle East have made pledges that allow emissions to increase unabated. These findings reveal that stronger states that invest in public goods and enjoy high levels of economic equality commit to deliver collective benefits for all, like climate stabilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photovoltaic (PV) technology is considered as a very promising solution for electricity generation in the quest for combating climate change. However, several grid issues are emerging when its share in the electricity generation mix increases significantly. A promising way to combat this, is the installation of battery energy storage systems (BESS). This paper presents the project Erigeneia which aims to develop a new advanced energy management system (EMS) algorithm in order to support the increase the PV hosting capacity of the grid. The EMS will incorporate the functions of energy management, frequency and voltage regulation and power smoothing at both residential (decentralised) and community (centralised) levels. Furthermore, a battery sizing algorithm and forecasting tool will be developed. The solutions will be implemented and tested at five residential storage systems in Cyprus and at one central storage system in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental issues have gained importance across national borders. Climate change mitigation is one of the major global purposes. To achieve the goal it is necessary to solve a number of issues. The key one is to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emissions while keeping high growth rates of living standard, industry and economy. Some countries develop such technologies to decrease greenhouse gases emissions, in particular, carbon capture and storage technologies (CCS technologies). Meanwhile, the development of CCS technologies has advantages and disadvantages both for global economy and the economy of the Russian Federation. The potential of CCS technologies development in the Russian Federation is also caused by the level of public environmental awareness of CCS projects deployment. Currently global community attitude to the CCS technologies development is controversial. Thus, the study of public environmental awareness and improving public perception of CCS technologies development is an extremely essential issue. The paper reviews the level of public awareness concerning CCS technologies across the world. It provides the comparison of public awareness in different countries. The recommendations for raising Russian public awareness of CCS technologies are made [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the paper has been analyzed the state of the tropical forests in Central African Region. The trends and causes of deforestation are revealed, and the associated decrease in the ecosystem function of tropical forests CO2 sequestration by atmosphere. Model calculations based on the Spatial Model of the Global Carbon Cycles in Atmosphere - Plants – Soil System (APS) represent the response of vegetation to an increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air and quantitatively determine the parameters of the biotic regulation of tropical forests. In order to assess the state of vegetation cover, in addition to model calculations, remote sensing data were used. The NDVI index was determined during the growing seasons (2000-2019) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, we have seen stark disruptions to global freight and logistics systems, from the Covid-19 pandemic to geopolitical conflict, shipping lanes being blocked by sideways ships, and natural disasters causing devastation in communities across the globe. On top of these challenges, the industry is grappling with the global transition to net zero emissions. It is clear that a fundamental shift in freight and goods movement is underway. What is not clear is what this will look like in practice. How can we, as engineers, make the infrastructure changes necessary to support this net zero transformation? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks an answer about the level of awareness of green economics/green jobs as a concept for sustainable growth among the young population in Europe. In order to provide a basis for sustainable growth we take into consideration the essential issues. Green economics is an emerging field of economics combining knowledge from the natural sciences and economy, thus offering unique insights into four areas: climate changes mitigation, businesses, political and moral. The conclusions refer to the future needs for building awareness and creating a solid base for knowledge sharing on sustainable development issues among the young population. In addition, recommendations for inclusive policy dialogue to facilitate such growth are part of the focus as well. The research group targeted 30 people from five European and one African country between 18 to 25 years of age. A method using qualitative research combined with exploratory research has been used for this survey and its analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global heating is happening at an unprecedented speed. As a result, both human society and natural ecosystems are facing significant challenges. Numerous tools and policies are being implemented both for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Substantial amount of funding has been pledged by international governments and private corporations to support these efforts. One of particularly promising tools that tends to gain popularity for addressing climate change are Nature-based Solutions. These tools can be used for both climate change mitigation and adaptation. Additional benefits provided by the application of Nature-based Solutions include support of biodiversity and associated ecosystem services, which in turn foster well-being of the human society. Implementation of the solutions, however, is challenging and requires stakeholder support, thorough research, multi-stakeholder collaboration and financial resources. Implementation and management of Nature-based Solutions for climate change may take several decades until they reach their full potential. This makes stakeholder engagement and attraction of essential investments particularly problematic. Application of modern technologies can support implementation of the solutions and help overcoming the above listed challenges. However, the use of information technologies in design, management and implementation of the Nature based Solutions tends to be limited, in particular in the Global South, where resource constraints and lack of awareness and/or skills may discourage stakeholders from use of the technologies. Thus, we discuss opportunities for application of modern technologies for implementation of Nature-based Solutions and the ways to lower financial and other barriers to their application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sericulture is an agro-based labor intensive industry which has socio-economic and environmental potentials supportive to the Philippine government's and global programs on poverty alleviation, gender and development and environmental concerns for climate change adaptation and mitigation. This paper presents the R & D management practices and strategies employed in the implementation of the CHED funded project entitled, "Silk Technology Promotion and Commercialization: CHED-DMMMSU Strategy for Employment Generation of Young Graduates as Agribusiness Entrepreneurs and in Support to RA 9242". This also presents a bird's eye view on the project which institutionalized the CHED-SUC-Farmers Partnership Scheme at DMMMSU to develop farmers as Agribusiness Entrepreneurs using Sericulture as a Tool and in support to RA 9242 and climate change adaptation as a result of the management strategies. The project employed management strategies and best practices which resulted to the conduct of extension activities and researches which increased the concerned R & D Managers'/researchers' outputs and social responsibility in promoting livelihood generation and climate change adaptation and mitigation using sericulture as a tool and garnering international research awards and outputs relevant to attainment of institutional objectives and performance indicators for SUC leveling. In addition, such management strategies enabled the project to produce a total of 1,316 kilograms fresh cocoons valued at P184,240 and 146 kilograms raw silk valued at P365,000.00 and 2,190 meters 100% silk fabric valued at P1,533,000 from March 2009 to November, 2011 in support to climate change adaptation and mitigation. The 44,050 mulberry trees planted in the different areas has a total carbon dioxide sequestration of 173 tons per annum at a rate of 54 tons per hectare per year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is one of the major challenges of our century - a complex area in which to improve our knowledge and understanding to take immediate measures to effectively address and correct, in terms of the challenges of climate change, respecting precautionary principle. (Romanian National Strategy on Climate Change). In this paper we discussed the main issues facing the wine and measures to mitigate possible negative effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to contribute to high living standards, climate mitigation and energy supply security, future urban energy systems require a holistic approach. In particular an intelligent integration of thermal networks is necessary. This paper will briefly present the "smart city" concept and introduce an associated definition for smart thermal networks defined on three levels: 1. the interaction with urban planning processes and the interface to the overall urban energy system, 2. the adaptation of the temperature level and 3. supply and demand-side management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European policy on reducing greenhouse gas emissions can be particularly supported by Electric Vehicles’ market penetration in the following years. This paper overviews the so far penetration of the Electric Vehicles Technology in Europe and at the same time aims to provide an estimation about the future penetration based on appropriate prognostic tools. For this reason, the authors analyze the so far statistical data of the Electric Vehicles sales and use both the linear regression and Brown method to estimate their foreseen market penetration within the next decades. The results of this study can provide an insight about the future of Electric Vehicles penetration and their potential contribution in climate change mitigation and ancillary services to the grid. This study results, foresee that CO2 emissions reduction lie between 5% and 9, 53% by the year 2030 compared to the base year 2017. These results imply that further policy measures and incentives need to be given for supporting Electric Vehicles further in the next years to follow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses some important fundamental issues behind application of renewable energy (RE) to evaluate its impact as a climate change mitigation technology. The discussed issues are the following: definition of renewable energy, concentration of RE by weight and volume, generation of electrical energy and its power at unit area, electrical energy demand per unit area, life time approach vs. layman approach, energy return time, energy return ratio, CO2 return time, energy mix for RES production and use, geographical distribution of RES use, huge scale of energy shift from RES to non-RES, increase in energy consumption, Thermodynamic equilibrium of earth, and probable solutions for energy future of our energy and environmental crisis of today. The future solution (that would enable to human civilization further welfare, and good living, but with lower release of CO2 in atmosphere) may not be only RES. This will rather be an energy mix that may contain nuclear energy, non-nuclear renewable energy, or fossil energy with CO2 sequestration, efficient energy technologies, energy saving, and energy consumption decrease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary cities have taken up efforts to decarbonize urban mobility which has led to a growth in electric vehicles and investment in new renewable energy opportunities. The current transport sector contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, and traffic congestion. This has led to a growth in studies to develop a reservoir of knowledge on sustainable mobility to address this challenge. The global shift towards electric vehicles has provided greater energy efficiency as part of the global climate change mitigation strategies, however, electric vehicles are not widely adopted in developing countries due to factors such as insufficient charging stations. Globally this shift to electric vehicles and the spatial distribution of charging stations has been informed by the private sector. This has led to city authorities to be reactive to the implementation of electric vehicle and its charging infrastructure. There is hence a need to assess the readiness of spatial planning to facilitate the transition towards electric vehicles and its infrastructure. Given this emerging trend in urban mobility transition, there have been lack of proactive policy initiatives to inform the adoption of electric vehicles. Using a qualitative research approach this study unpacks the adoption of electric vehicles from urban spatial planning perspective. Fifteen participants from the city of Tshwane were interviewed using a semi-structured interview format. The participants were selected using snowball sampling and purposive sampling. Content analysis was used to develop themes. Findings of the study reveal areas where the charging infrastructure is placed, as these can be found in public spaces such as shopping malls and office parks in the city of Tshwane. The implications of the study are creation of a reservoir on knowledge to inform plans for developing countries such as South Africa to integrate spatial distribution of charging stations with sustainable mobility initiatives. Future studies should develop a framework to inform the broader aspects of spatial planning in relation to innovative sustainable transport systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]