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Transition to low carbon sea transport is a logical response to the extreme dependency of the Pacific Islands region on imported fossil fuel, its significant vulnerability to the effects of climate change and the critical shipping needs of Pacific Island countries (PICs). Building on previous work in low carbon sea transport in the Pacific, this paper further considers the barriers to achieving such transition by assessing, through a ‘post-Paris Agreement’ lens, the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) submitted by PICs and contrasting these to the near total lack of investment and planning for low carbon transition in the transport sector with the parallel occurrence in the electricity sector where ~USD 2 billion of donor investment is deployed or queued despite electricity using only ~20% of fossil fuel across the region. Consistent with recent international studies, inadequate and inappropriate financing and policy have been identified as dominant transition barriers for low carbon sea transport development in PICs. This paper further examines the regional level barriers to policy development, and finds them inhibited by the silo nature of the major regional actors. The implications that the Paris Agreement has for climate financing to support the essential research and capacity development needed to underpin a successful low carbon sea transport transition strategy at any useful scale and speed are also considered in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the seafood sector in Indonesia, using fish supply-demand modeling, with special focus on the growing role of aquaculture in the country's food portfolio. The paper describes six scenarios for future fish supply–demand dynamics and examines the role of aquaculture growth in fish supply in Indonesia. A business as usual scenario (BAU) assumed exogenous variables of our supply-demand model following historical trends. Five alternative scenarios explored the implications of stagnant capture fisheries; export-oriented growth of aquaculture; domestic-oriented aquaculture growth; slow growth of aquaculture sector; and disease outbreaks to key aquaculture species. The BAU scenario projected that fish supply and demand in Indonesia continues to increase over time and strong aquaculture growth is critical to meet increasing demand for fish. Stagnant capture fisheries resulted in increasing fish prices and decreasing fish consumption. Export-oriented aquaculture growth benefitted fish supply and exports, but also helped lower domestic prices and thus increase consumption. An emphasis on domestic aquaculture commodities increased fish supply, providing best domestic consumption outcomes and lower consumer prices. Slow aquaculture growth reduced fish supply and led to undesirable increases in domestic prices and decreasing domestic consumption as a consequence. Disease outbreaks in shrimp and carp aquaculture resulted in a short-term reduction in aquaculture output and increasing fish prices, lowering fish consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy efficiency improvements in the shipping industry are being driven by economics, compliance and customer requirements. Whilst various technological and operation improvements are known and available, with many being demonstrated to be cost effective and with savings reported in the industry, their take up in the world fleet remains low. This low take-up can be considered due to many different barriers, as explored in various research studies. However the aim of this paper is first to understand how these barriers are created by considering how ship operations function day-to-day within the context of mainstream business practice. A holistic view of operations is required and is presented in this paper, including consideration of business focus areas in parallel with the functions of technical, operational and commercial stakeholders. With this laid-out, gaps within existing operations are discussed in relation to areas for practical improvements. From here, non-prescriptive mechanisms to enable a desired future are proposed; including the integration of mandates, processes and systems. Case studies are given throughout the paper using hull and propeller maintenance as a recurring example of a typical decision making processes and best practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potential for implementing carbon capture in Nordic industry sectors such as iron and steel production, cement and lime production, onshore and offshore oil and gas activities and pulp and paper production has been addressed. In Norway, much of the CO 2 is emitted from the oil and gas sector. In Denmark the power and heat production comprises the largest share while in Sweden and Finland biomass based industry such as power and heat production in CHP plants and pulp and paper production generates most of the CO 2 emissions. Iceland emits most CO 2 from metal industry, in particular non-ferrous metal production. In a Nordic perspective, the oil and gas industry has a high potential for implementation of CCS along with iron and steel production and cement production. Only cement production and pulp and paper production industries seem to have potential to decrease the CO 2 emissions close to zero. Capturing biogenic CO 2 from pulp and paper production could remove CO 2 from the atmosphere and create a carbon sink. Clustering of emission sources and implementing a joint CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) chain could possibly lower the CCS unit costs. Process alterations and industry specific solutions due to the implementation of CCS in industry could improve existing processes. However, the possibility for carbon leakage could decrease the competitiveness of Nordic industries significantly as long as there is no global agreement on reduction of CO 2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global firms are increasingly adopting greenhouse gas mitigation targets in response to climate change. These targets serve as a spur for carbon mitigation initiatives, provide guidelines to select appropriate mitigation actions, and set the standards to measure the progress of the mitigation efforts. Despite their important functionalities, firm-level mitigation targets have rarely been studied. In this paper we aim to provide a comparative view on mitigation targets set by global firms across different countries and industrial sectors. The analysis focuses on four dimensions, i.e., adoption, metric, scope, and stringency. We find Japan far leads the other major countries in terms of target adoption, but the targets of Japanese firms are generally less stringent. Canadian firms are laggards in both target adoption and target stringency. The mitigation targets are also considerably uncommon among Australian firms. Firms in developing countries fall behind in target stringency and display a significantly greater divergence than developed countries in sectoral adoption rate. The European Union firms are most likely to cover the emissions in their supply chains in targets. Target stringency has substantially tightened from 2005 to 2012. For all the countries in this study, around 95% of the firm-level targets are more stringent than the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions submitted to the Paris Agreement. Setting mitigation target has a significant positive impact on both the likelihood of investing in renewable energy and the amount of investment in renewable energy. However, there is no evidence that more stringent targets lead to higher investment. These findings point to the most pressing issues with regard to corporate mitigation target-setting that policymakers and corporate management should address. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Net Zero Energy Building (NZEB) is a term, subject to ambiguity, that could be used to describe a building with characteristics such as equal energy generation to usage, significantly reduced energy demands, energy costs equalling zero or net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Despite lacking an authoritative definition of NZEBs, this relatively new emerging concept in Australia provides significant opportunities to reduce GHG emissions, energy usage and operational energy costs for buildings owners. This paper aims to explore the existing NZEB models, assess the progression of NZEB literature, identify key policies encouraging NZEB development and recognise potential areas of NZEB research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Paris Agreement reached during the COP21 in December 2015 represents a timid step towards burden sharing in emission mitigation involving all countries. However, given the heterogeneity of countries and their relative differences in vulnerability to climate change damage and in mitigation costs, compensating schemes are required to reach an effective agreement. This paper investigates the role of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) as a potential compensating measure for both adaptation and mitigation actions under a global climate regime. A dynamic climate-economy computable general equilibrium model (GDynEP) is developed by including both a monetary valuation of climate change damage costs and two alternative methods to determine the allocation of GCF resources among receiving countries and between adaptation and mitigation contributions. Results show that, despite the high costs associated with the implementation of mitigation actions, most developing countries would face even higher costs in case of inaction. Furthermore, the preference of a country for an allocation method is strongly influenced by its characteristics and needs. Consequently, a main policy conclusion is to design country-specific sharing rules for GCF in order to maximize country participation in a global agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An estimated 1.2 billion people around the world don't have access to electricity, while many more suffer from supply that is of poor quality. Domestic energy poverty is most severe in the rural areas of South Asia, South East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Basic energy needs, such as cooking and lighting, are covered using traditional biomass and fossil fuels. These are consumed inefficiently in fire stoves and flame lamps. This situation hampers economic growth and social development and implies severe stress on resources and the environment. Photovoltaics could play a major role in overcoming domestic energy poverty, especially as most of the affected regions are within the Earth's Sunbelt. This paper provides such a solution in the form of a solar home system with lithium-ion battery in combination with an energy efficient multicooker and LED lamps to cover the needs for cooking and lighting for one family. A solar home system layout is provided and assessed in terms of its cost and benefits in contrast with the existing practices for cooking and lighting in developing regions. Thereby, evolutionary aspects are taken into account to capture the incremental cost advantage of the solar home system technology over time, and with that support the idea of projecting large-scale implementation in developing regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a set of prospective LCA studies of electricity production technologies of the Spanish mix from 2014 to 2050. The projection of the power system has been done by using the TIMES-Spain energy model, in which two prospective scenarios have been implemented, a Business as Usual (BaU) and other with a target of 80% reduction in CO 2 emissions by 2050 with respect to 2005 levels. Accordingly, projections of ten LCA impact categories have been obtained. Concerning the evolution of the electricity mix, the coal power plants retirement by 2020 has been observed in both scenarios. The main differences befall on the natural gas contribution, higher in the BaU scenario than in 80% scenario and connected to the Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants usage. In addition, LCA categories selected show overall reductions in the long term reaching from 21% in Ozone Depletion to 85% in Acidification in the BaU scenario, and from 56% in Ecosystems to 87% in Acidification in the 80% scenario. However, Abiotic Depletion potential grows up to 5-times by 2050 due to the metal requirements of the solar photovoltaic technologies, significantly present in the mix. Likewise, the analysis of the endpoint categories (Human Health and Ecosystems) concludes that their evolution is much affected by the presence of the natural gas CHPs and, furthermore, existing fossil options are the main cause of damage by far. Hence a fossil-renewable transition is needed in terms of sustainability. In summary, it is recommended to use energy systems modelling frameworks to develop comprehensive prospective LCA studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land is a scarce resource affecting the implementation of many sectoral policies. In Indonesia, the expansion of palm oil plantations has led to non-sustainable land use practices in past years, particularly deforestation. More recently, the government has set ambitious targets for the adoption of biodiesel which will require expansion of oil palm plantations, thus putting further pressure on land. Meanwhile, the need to guarantee food supply, forest conservation and climate change mitigation also imply challenges when it comes to land allocation and use. This paper examines the role that land plays in the implementation of sectoral policies in Indonesia, exploring the availability of land to satisfy the multiple goals defined in national policies. We explore land competition resulting from allocations made in official policy documents starting with biofuel policy. The analysis of policy goals and coherence when it comes to land allocation is made in relation to agriculture, climate and forestry policies. We conclude that adjustments need to be made in the policies to avoid overlappings and misinterpretations when it comes to land allocation. The area made available for meeting each sectoral policy goal when taking into account cross sectoral interactions is: 14.2 Mha for agriculture, 43 Mha for climate mitigation measures, 9.2 Mha for forestry, and 20.9 Mha for biofuels. A more uniform land classification and development of a common reference database will increase transparency on land allocation and use, and help to monitor land use change, ultimately supporting the achievement of multiple national goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates a methanol (MeOH) synthesis route based on CO 2 utilization integrated with enhanced gas recovery (EGR) and geo-sequestration (e.g. depleted gas wells near EGR unit). A key driver behind this work is the need to understand the proposed MeOH synthesis route in relation to the dynamics of the CO 2 breakthrough phenomenon associated with EGR. The performance of the proposed MeOH synthesis is evaluated via model analysis of various process flowsheet configurations and reported in terms of CH 4 intensity, CO 2 intensity, thermal energy intensity, methanol productivity and CO 2 uptake flexibility. It is found that the proposed MeOH scheme can effectively consume natural gas (NG) with relatively high CO 2 content (up to 23.2% mole). Simulation results show that the proposed MeOH synthesis process configuration, utilizing EGR and using CO 2 geo-sequestration and utilization components, results in the highest CO 2 abatement intensity (45.5%) among other comparable scenarios investigated here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite providing water-related services as the primary purpose of urban water system (UWS), all relevant activities require capital investments and operational expenditures, consume resources (e.g. materials and chemicals), and may increase negative environmental impacts (e.g. contaminant discharge, emissions to water and air). Performance assessment of such a metabolic system may require developing a holistic approach which encompasses various system elements and criteria. This paper analyses the impact of integration of UWS components on the metabolism based performance assessment for future planning using a number of intervention strategies. It also explores the importance of sustainability based criteria in the assessment of long-term planning. Two assessment approaches analysed here are: (1) planning for only water supply system (WSS) as a part of the UWS and (2) planning for an integrated UWS including potable water, stormwater, wastewater and water recycling. WaterMet 2 model is used to simulate metabolic type processes in the UWS and calculate quantitative performance indicators. The analysis is demonstrated on the problem of strategic level planning of a real-world UWS to where optional intervention strategies are applied. The resulting performance is assessed using the multiple criteria of both conventional and sustainability type; and optional intervention strategies are then ranked using the Compromise Programming method. The results obtained show that the high ranked intervention strategies in the integrated UWS are those supporting both water supply and stormwater/wastewater subsystems (e.g. rainwater harvesting and greywater recycling schemes) whilst these strategies are ranked low in the WSS and those targeting improvement of water supply components only (e.g. rehabilitation of clean water pipes and addition of new water resources) are preferred instead. Results also demonstrate that both conventional and sustainability type performance indicators are necessary for strategic planning in the UWS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]