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The action required to stem the environmental and social implications of climate change depends crucially on how humankind shapes technology, economy, lifestyle and policy. With transport CO2 emissions accounting for about a quarter of the total, we examine the contribution of CO2 output by scientific travel. Thankfully for the reputation of the scientific community, CO2 emissions associated with the trips required to present a paper at a scientific conference account for just 0.003% of the yearly total. However, with CO2 emissions for a single conference trip amounting to 7% of an average individual’s total CO2 emissions, scientists should lead by example by demonstrating leadership in addressing the issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) is one of the biggest international efforts aimed at better understanding the past, present, and future of climate changes in a multi-model context. A total of 21 model intercomparison projects (MIPs) were endorsed in its sixth phase (CMIP6), which included 190 different experiments that were used to simulate 40 000 years and produced around 40 PB of data in total. This paper presents the main findings obtained from the CPMIP (the Computational Performance Model Intercomparison Project), a collection of a common set of metrics, specifically designed for assessing climate model performance. These metrics were exclusively collected from the production runs of experiments used in CMIP6 and primarily from institutions within the IS-ENES3 consortium. The document presents the full set of CPMIP metrics per institution and experiment, including a detailed analysis and discussion of each of the measurements. During the analysis, we found a positive correlation between the core hours needed, the complexity of the models, and the resolution used. Likewise, we show that between 5 %–15 % of the execution cost is spent in the coupling between independent components, and it only gets worse by increasing the number of resources. From the data, it is clear that queue times have a great impact on the actual speed achieved and have a huge variability across different institutions, ranging from none to up to 78 % execution overhead. Furthermore, our evaluation shows that the estimated carbon footprint of running such big simulations within the IS-ENES3 consortium is 1692 t of CO 2 equivalent. As a result of the collection, we contribute to the creation of a comprehensive database for future community reference, establishing a benchmark for evaluation and facilitating the multi-model, multi-platform comparisons crucial for understanding climate modelling performance. Given the diverse range of applications, configurations, and hardware utilised, further work is required for the standardisation and formulation of general rules. The paper concludes with recommendations for future exercises aimed at addressing the encountered challenges which will facilitate more collections of a similar nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many higher education institutions around the world are engaged in efforts to tackle climate change. This takes place by not only reducing their own carbon footprint but also by educating future leaders and contributing valuable research and expertise to the global effort to combat climate change. However, there is a need for studies that identify the nature of their engagement on the topic, and the extent to which they are contributing towards addressing the many problems associated with climate change. Against this background, this paper describes a study that consisted of a review of the literature and the use of case studies, which outline the importance of university engagement in climate change and describe its main features. The study identified the fact that even though climate change is a matter of great relevance to universities, its coverage in university programmes is not as wide as one could expect. Based on the findings, the paper also lists the challenges associated with the inclusion of climate change in university programmes. Finally, it describes some of the measures which may be deployed in order to maximise the contribution of higher education towards handling the challenges associated with a changing climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human consumption of scarce ecological resources is at the heart of the climate change crisis. Mitigating climate change will require changes in consumer behavior. Further, to respond effectively, policymakers need information on the environmental impact of individuals' behaviors. In this paper, we study the effect of socio-demographic characteristics and personality traits on individuals' environmental impact measured by their ecological footprint. We also investigate consumers' willingness to pay for "green" goods. Using survey data from the Netherlands, first, we construct individuals' ecological footprint. The survey also uses a 50-item personality scale developed by Goldberg (1992) to construct five personality traits. We find that individuals with higher personal income, less than a high school education, males, the employed, and people living in rural areas are associated with a higher EF. We also find that consumers' WTP and demand are responsive to price increases in high-emitting goods and personality traits. We contribute to our understanding of the influence of socio-demographic and personality characteristics on the actual ecological footprint at the individual level. Further, we contribute to the economic literature on consumers' WTP for "green" products as well as the ongoing discussion on using market-based solutions to tackle climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The citizen's carbon footprint is affected by various factors, but mostly by electricity consumption, daily transportation, travelling habits, as well as municipal solid waste management, a critical factor that is not frequently incorporated in carbon footprint estimations. This paper proposes a new carbon footprint calculator, the Carbon Footprint Simulation Dashboard—COMPAIR's CO2 calculator. The CO2 calculator employs Citizen Science (CS) information in order to assist citizens in understanding and comparing how future carbon emissions will be modified in accordance with changes in their daily routines. The calculator offers several statistics, e.g., the country's average carbon footprint and comparisons between EU members with respect to sectors that shape it, along with several recommendations for those domains where carbon footprint is significantly higher than the desired limits. The novelty of this tool is the integration of waste management strategies as a dimension of the total CO2 calculation. In this framework, the study presents the development of the Carbon Footprint Simulation Dashboard while two different waste management scenarios are applied with different citizen behaviours on recycling and composting. The applications highlighted the consumption in buildings that account for almost 50% of the total CO2 emissions, while the crucial role of transportation is also a key parameter. The different waste management scenarios showed a correlation between the CO2 footprint and the overall consumption/disposal habits of citizens. In the case of advanced recycling and composting, waste management accounted for up to 7% of the CO2 emissions, and this highlights the significance of behavioural choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We are in the midst of a crisis of climate change and environmental degradation that will only get worse, unless significant changes are rapidly made. Globally, the healthcare sector causes a large share of our total environmental footprint: 4.4% of greenhouse gases. Sustainable healthcare has emerged as a way for healthcare sectors in high‐income countries to help mitigate climate change by reducing their emissions. Whether global health should be sustainable and what ethical grounds might exist to support such a claim are not questions that have been investigated. The paper argues that global health practice—the delivery of health services to underserved populations in resource‐poor areas of the world—should be sustainable as a matter of climate justice and solidarity. Reducing climate change‐related risks and harms for the vulnerable is integral to the mission of global health and thus it is necessary to consider the climate impact of its practice. The field has a duty to provide sustainable health services that are responsive to climate change‐related changes in the local burden of disease and to build sustainable health system infrastructure. Specific responsibilities for global health funders, managers, and implementers to uphold the duty are proposed. To conclude, the paper considers what limits might be placed on the duty to deliver sustainable global healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, it has become essential to consider the total carbon footprint of a construction project. Commonly, the question has been: ’What is the best material to be used in this context?’ In this paper we argue that this question is incomplete, not taking the complexity of design choices into consideration. This paper intends to share light on how to analyse some factors that influence the construction of buildings in order to contribute to climate change mitigation, taking this complexity into consideration. Calculation of fossil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for two load-bearing structures for office buildings in 4, 8 and 16 storeys with equal functional requirements; e.g. load bearing capacity, acoustic performance, fire resistance and adaptability are addressed. The main materials for the load-bearing structures are cross laminated timber (CLT) elements and precast concrete elements respectively. The result show that one cannot on a general basis conclude that either type of load-bearing structure cause less fossil GHG emissions. It is always important to consider the building design, functionality as well as external conditions such as location when considering different load-bearing structure materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can the ecological footprint framework be used for measuring resource security? Wackernagel et al. (2021) assert it can, emphasizing the role of biocapacity balance – the difference between a country's biocapacity and the ecological footprint of its consumption. This paper argues that a positive biocapacity balance is not a good indicator of resource security, as it misrepresents climate change's relevance to national resources, overlooks resource depletion, and enforces an overly restrictive notion of "semi-autarky". The paper suggests a set of guidelines to better capture resource security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mitigation actions in all sectors of society, including sports, to limit global warming have become an increasingly hot topic in public discussions and sports management. However, so far, there has been a lack of understanding and practical examples of how these organizations, especially in team sports, can holistically assess and reduce their climate impacts to achieve carbon neutrality. This paper presents a carbon footprint assessment, implemented actions for GHG emission reduction, and offers the example of a professional Finnish ice hockey team that achieved carbon neutrality. The study is based on a life cycle assessment method. The Results show that the team's carbon footprint was reduced from 350 tCO 2eq by more than 50% between seasons 2018–2019 and 2021–2022 in the assessed categories. The most GHG emission reductions were achieved in the team's and spectators' mobility and ice hall energy consumption. Furthermore, the team compensated for their remaining emissions to achieve carbon neutrality. Multiple possibilities for further GHG emission reductions were recognized. The majority of the GHG emissions were linked to the Scope 3 category, indicating that co-operation with partners and stakeholders was a key to success in attaining carbon neutrality. This paper also discusses the possible limitations and challenges that sport organizations face in assessing climate impacts and reducing GHG emissions, as well as the prospects of overcoming them. Since there are many opportunities for sports to contribute to climate change mitigation, relevant targets and actions to reduce GHG emissions should be integrated into all sport organizations' management. [Display omitted] • This the first assessment of professional ice hockey team's carbon footprint. • Multiple actions led to a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. • Concludes how sport organizations can manage their environmental impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

University campuses represent a heterogeneous ecosystem as to social, economic, energetic, and personal travel planning with a huge impact on hosting cities and territories. Sustainable policies are thus fundamental to reduce this impact and to adopt ecological behaviors. The measures for any University Sustainability Plan should be evaluated in terms of GHG emissions, as well as the overall impact of the university itself. Carbon footprint (CF) calculation is a relevant Decision Support tool that allows university organizations to measure and communicate the environmental effects of their activities. The aim of this paper is to present a carbon footprint methodology specifically designed to calculate the carbon footprint of large universities. The methodology was applied to calculate the CF of the University of Bologna by following international standards—i.e., the GHG protocol, the ISO 14064, and the ISO/TR 14069 guide—to understand the environmental impact caused by greenhouse gas emissions from direct and indirect university activities. The study was conducted upon the data available in 2020 and then was compared to the 2018 data, with the aim to recognize if the effect of the pandemic could have altered the results. In 2020, the University of Bologna emitted 16,467 tCO2e which became 15,753 tCO2e considering the offset and avoided emission provided by the internal production of energy from renewable sources. Comparison between 2020 and 2018 shows how, in 2018, most of the emissions came from transportation, representing 74% of the total emissions, while in 2020 almost 50% of total emissions derived by IT procurements. The case application demonstrates the way with which the methodology may be applied to assess environmental impact for complex university campuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In respect to CO2 emissions, the post-Soviet states are a scientifically interesting object of research, as each of the countries has developed via different paths since reclaiming independence from the Soviet Union. Given that each country has a different approach to the use of fossil resources, it is essential to assess their input to global carbon footprint individually. Such assessment then allows to find certain actions in the development of legislation and to apply focused techniques to reduce carbon emissions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the fossil CO2 emissions produced in the Baltic States from 1991 onward, describing challenges relating to sustainability and socio-economic, scientific, and integrated approaches to sustainable development, including clean and efficient use of energy, and thus addressing climate challenges. This paper reports on data on CO2 emissions in the Baltic States. The results show that the transition of the Baltic States from the specificities of the Soviet Union's economy to an economy integrated into global markets has led to a significant reduction in CO2 emissions. However, the development and implementation of national policies for sustainable development are still crucial for mitigation of the climate crisis. Further actions must include the implementation and monitoring of policies for sustainable development, changing of the consumption and production patterns, education and awareness of sustainability, and adaptation to global climate change, while also addressing sustainability challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of water availability and its important role in the agricultural sector, specifically in the cultivation of coffee, which has historical, cultural, and economic importance for Colombia, requires a study of the water footprint in this country. This paper presents the results of a study of the water footprint of coffee production (cultivation and wet processing) in Colombia by the traditional and ecological wet-processing methods. To this purpose, the Water Footprint Network methodology was followed according to the Water Footprint Assessment Manual (2011). The green water footprint of coffee production in Colombia was 8,746 m³ t-1 and does not have a blue water footprint as it does not require irrigation, while the gray water footprint was 7,000 m³ t-1. When the traditional wet-processing method is used, the blue water footprint is 4 m³ t-1 and the gray water footprint is 3,200 m³ t-1, while if the ecological Becolsub® technology is used, the blue water footprint is 0.60 m³ t-1 and the gray water footprint is 1,739 m³ t-1. For the Ecomill® technology, the blue one is 0.55 m³ t-1 and had no gray water footprint because it does not generate any water discharge and the little leachate that it produces is reincorporated into the process. This implies that the Becolsub® ecological processing method reduces the water footprint by 45.7% and 99.9% with the ecological Ecomill® process (no wastewater discharge) compared to traditional wet processing technology. Compared to other countries, Vietnam has the lowest green footprint in coffee cultivation, followed by Colombia, Ethiopia, Brazil, Peru, and Indonesia. The water footprint of coffee depends on the climate and yields, consequently, the water footprint of the coffee crop varies significantly between locations and the evaluation period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Despite the heightened urgency of curbing carbon emissions around the world, the healthcare sector in general, and the pharmaceutical sector in particular have received very little attention from the sustainability community in terms of their contribution to the global carbon footprint. In this paper, we conduct an analysis of the overall contributions and the historical emissions trends of the pharmaceutical sector, as well as an industry-specific comparative analysis of the major pharmaceutical companies in the world. Surprisingly, our analysis reveals that the pharmaceutical industry is significantly more emission-intensive than the automotive industry. We also use a previously published mathematical framework linking national target emissions to the target emission intensity of the pharmaceutical sector to derive the emission intensity of the pharmaceutical sector required for the US to meet its reductions commitments per the now defunct Obama-administration commitments at the 2015 Paris Agreement. We identify the excess emitters among the top-15 Pharmaceutical companies, from those that are leading the pack with their emissions improvement efforts. The results are quite instructive as we find a far greater variability amongst the Top-15 pharmaceuticals than the Top-10 automotive companies, suggesting a very disparate set of environmental practices within the industry. The paper should elicit further in-depth studies of the environmental performance of the pharmaceutical sector and help inform policy makers, business leaders and academicians on how to help curb this unwarranted level of emissions in this important and growing industry sector. Graphical abstract We conduct an analysis of the overall contributions and the historical emissions trends of the pharmaceutical sector, as well as an industry-specific comparative analysis of the major pharmaceutical companies in the world. Surprisingly, our analysis reveals that the pharmaceutical industry is significantly more emission-intensive than the automotive industry. We also use a previously published mathematical framework linking national target emissions to the target emission intensity of the pharmaceutical sector to derive the emission intensity of the pharmaceutical sector required for the US to meet its reductions commitments per the now defunct Obama-administration commitments at the 2015 Paris Agreement. We then use the same framework to identify the excess emitters among the top 15 Pharmaceutical companies, from those that are leading the pack with their emissions improvement efforts. There again, the results are quite instructive as we find a far greater variability amongst the Top 15 pharmaceuticals than the Top 10 automotive companies. Image 1 Highlights • Assessment and comparative analysis of GHG emissions of Top-15 global pharmaceutical companies. • The pharmaceutical industry emission intensity is about 55% higher than the automotive's. • There is a great level of variability in emissions (up to 5x) between peers with comparable revenues. • We calculate the intensities and maximum emissions required to comply with the Paris Agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rising temperature in the world's atmosphere is an outcome strongly linked to man-made manufactured interventions. Recreational activities in the form of tourism are such interventions that can unleash multidimensional negative externalities if not regulated properly. The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) region has become one of the major hubs for recreational activities in the last few decades. However, the region's tourism-led environmental degradation has received scant attention in the literature. As such, this paper unveils how tourist footprint affects the region's environmental sustainability and explores potential solutions to encourage the tourism industry to be more pro-environmental. We have used the novel GMM-PVAR technique to assess how globalization, transportation, green energy, and economic growth have affected the tourism industry and carbon footprint in the BIMSTEC region from 1990 to 2019. We lean on the empirical outcomes to propose regional sustainable tourism development policies. The GMM-PVAR model indicates that renewable energy, economic growth, and the transportation sector's development positively affect the tourism industry's growth in the region. However, globalization and environmental degradation negatively influence tourists' arrival. Contrarily, transportation services, economic growth, and tourism boost the carbon footprint in the region. Although globalization and clean energy reduce carbon footprint, these indicators are insignificant, indicating that this region is still lagging in renewable energy generation and failed to reap the positive spillovers of globalization. Based on these outcomes, we propose that the region redesign its tourism industry to encourage eco-friendly tourism by leaning more on pro-environmental strategies (i.e., powering the tourism industry through the penetration of renewable energies) and tightening environmental regulations. [Display omitted] • The indicators of sustainable tourism in the BIMSTEC region are assessed. • Analysis is conducted using the novel GMM-PVAR approach. • Additionally, determinants of carbon footprint in the region are explored. • Renewable energy, GDP growth, and transportation services boost tourism while globalization reduces tourism. • Transport sector, GDP growth and tourism boost carbon footprint in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, many cities have engaged in efforts to become more sustainable. These efforts often are translated into measures to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, leading to a proliferation of standards and methods. Discrepancies exist between these various accounting approaches in terms of the definition of system boundaries, allocation procedures, quality of data, and the reporting and verification of results. This paper examines some of the most important theoretical and practical issues and challenges of urban-related GHG accounting and highlights how existing approaches deal with these. Three different GHG emission accounting standards are compared and critically analysed: the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GPC), Bilan Carbone and ISO 14064-1:2018. The Organizational Environmental Footprint (OEF) and a previous analysis about footprinting performed by the European Commission are used as analytical lenses. Based on this analysis, suggestions are made for enhancing comprehensiveness and transparency, and providing guidelines for driving cities towards a more low-carbon path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decarbonisation of stationary energy supply, particularly electricity grids, is the current focus of climate change mitigation policy. However, studies have suggested that this narrow policy focus is insufficient to achieve meaningful global emissions reductions. Using Iceland as a case study, this paper demonstrates that significant emissions arise from transport and imported products, which are often not fully captured in territorial GHG inventories. This results in high greenhouse gas emissions per capita regardless of the nation's domestic energy supply. The result is a low carbon illusion in which rich economies believe they are reducing their GHG responsibility whilst global emissions continue to grow. This paper presents the first consumption-based carbon footprint (CBCF) analysis for Iceland, a nation where the stationary energy supply is 99% renewable, and could be viewed as a decarbonisation ‘future case’ for rich nations globally. The study combines Icelandic household expenditure data with the Multi-Regional Input-Output database Eora to calculate the CBCF of Icelandic households. The average annual CBCF of Icelandic households was 10.4 tCO 2 eq/capita, similar in magnitude to other EU nations despite Iceland's unique energy supply. GHG emissions from transport, food and goods dominated the household CBCF. The national CBCF was higher than most European nations and 55% higher than the territorial emissions inventory. Approximately 71% of household emissions were attributed to imported goods, which were mapped globally revealing that the GHG emissions burden of Icelandic consumption falls primarily on developing nations. The findings suggest that a broader GHG accounting framework and resulting policy focus is required, both in Iceland and globally, that incorporates both supply and demand-based GHG reduction strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Transform office buildings towards whole-life minimum carbon. • Integrated optimisation of retrofitting plan and operating schedules. • 44%, 74% and 68% decline in whole-life costs, carbon and energy after retrofitting. • 4–51% saving in whole-life carbon emission compared to design optimisation strategy. • 10% saving in whole-life carbon emission compared to operating optimisation strategy. The state-of-the-art retrofitting strategies generally use either passive or active measures to reduce carbon emissions during its operating stage. The coordination among a range of passive and active energy devices is not considered while the concept of whole-life carbon emission minimisation is not introduced. To overcome these three research gaps and to transform existing office buildings toward minimum whole-life carbon emissions, an integrated passive and active retrofitting approach is proposed. Through two inter-related design optimisation and operating optimisation processes, the set of retrofitting options can be identified to achieve overall optimal economic, energy, and environmental performance. The first research gap, lack of simultaneous consideration of various active and passive retrofitting measures, is solved by the whole system simulation of a range of active and passive refurbishment measures. The second research gap, lack of coordination among a range of active energy devices, is solved by iteratively determining the optimal operating schedules of active energy devices with overall retrofitting plan at the design stage. The third research gap, lack of whole-life carbon emission minimisation, is solved by simultaneously minimising both embodied and operating carbon emissions. A real three-floor office building acquiring retrofitting is used to test the effectiveness of this integrated passive and active retrofitting approach. Compared to the building at its current status, there could be 44%, 74% and 68% reduction in lifelong costs, carbon emissions and energy usages if the proposed retrofitting strategy is adopted. Compared to retrofitting the building using the state-of-the-art "design optimisation only" strategy, the proposed retrofitting approach can reduce 5.36%-34.37% whole-life energy consumption and 4.31%-51.10% carbon emissions. Compared to retrofitting the building using the state-of-the-art "operating carbon emission only" strategy, there is 11.92%, 10.55%, and 10.48% reduction in whole-life cost, energy usage and carbon emissions, respectively. Therefore, this paper is innovative in an aspect that minimum whole-life carbon emissions can be reached through integrated design of passive and active retrofitting measures. It can provide building owners, energy engineers and decision-makers with insightful building retrofitting solutions to tackle the energy crisis and climate change problems. This proposed retrofitting approach can also be modified to provide guidance in designing new low-carbon buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study discusses the result of a life cycle assessment (LCA) for three Egyptian aquaculture farms categorized as semi-intensive culture. The cradle-to-grave system was used to calculate the overall carbon footprint of fish unit production. The major data came from a study of three feed factories in Egypt, which included a wide range of feed manufacturing and agricultural practises in order to reveal the varied greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Pre-farm, farming, and post-farming were the three stages of the life cycle assessment. Feed manufacture, which was primarily tied to the production and processing of raw materials, was the largest source of GHG emissions for all three processes. GHG emissions were also produced during the transport of raw materials to the factory. GHG emissions were also produced during the transportation of raw materials to manufacturers, as well as feed from factories to fish farms, via ship or road. Energy consumption in feed factories varies due to variances in design technology and manufacturing efficiencies. Feed conversion ratios (FCR) have a significant influence on GHG emissions since more feed is required to produce one kilogramme of fish. The kind of packaging material and energy utilised in the factories had an impact on GHG emissions, as each type had a distinct emission factor (EF). Aside from fingerling production, there are direct and indirect N2O emissions, as well as post-farming operations like packaging, ice serving method, and customer transportation. The conclusions of the investigation revealed that According to the results of the study, the emissions linked with the three farms varied greatly. Hanafy farm had the greatest emissions, with 3.265 kg CO2e/kg fish and 50.917 tonnes CO2e/Season, followed by Hashim farm with 2.259 kg CO2e/kg fish and 45.829 tonnes CO2e/Season, and finally Aly farm with 2.223 kg CO2e/kg fish and 38.864 tonnes CO2e/Season. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is growing interest in identifying the impacts of extreme climate events on natural systems. Two principles of such detection are that it should be based on a scientific understanding of the processes by which climate affects the system of interest and that non-climate factors that also affect the system should be controlled for. Using a simple temperature-dependent predator-prey model, this paper illustrates the importance of these principles in the context of establishing a link between temperature and population extremes. The results suggest that a naive approach based only on the co-occurrence of temperature and population extremes may fail. In the second part of the paper, some reasons for focusing attention on the ecological impacts of extreme climate events are briefly reviewed. It is suggested that, while extreme ecological events may be important for society, this does not imply that an analysis aimed at connecting them to extreme climate events should necessarily be based on extreme events themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One proposed strategy to solve current environmental challenges is industrial and urban symbiosis (I/UrS); however, appropriate evaluation methods are needed so that the potential benefits of I/UrS can be quantified. Several evaluation methods have been applied separately to study I/UrS, but no integrated studies have been conducted by applying different methods in the same case study area. Therefore, this study aimed to establish a comprehensive framework to evaluate I/UrS by combining the material flow analysis (MFA), carbon footprint (CF) and emergy methods. First, we developed a unified database and step-by-step process to clarify the waste distribution and recycling processes in an industrial city. Then a baseline scenario and an I/UrS scenario were set up to define the baselines and effects of I/UrS and compare the results. Finally, the three methods were applied to identify physical features in the I/UrS system. The MFA-based results showed that the use of I/UrS led to a 6.4% reduction in the physical value of material use. The CF-based results indicated that reduction of waste and by-products results in a 13.8% reduction in CO 2 e emissions. The emergy-based results showed that, with the implementation of I/UrS, the value of the emergy sustainability index (excluding labor and services) improved greatly (a 49.2% emergy reduction) as compared with the baseline case (a 14.3% reduction). In addition, the effects of implementing I/UrS by waste and by-product exchanges for blast furnace slag, scrap steel, waste paper, and waste plastic were evaluated. Whereas the CF reductions of unit ton of blast furnace slag is relatively low, emergy reductions of that is comparatively high. If policymakers only consider CF results when addressing the issue of climate change, the effects on emergy will be underestimated in this case. We conclude that the main actors in this area release huge emissions, but they also have a high potential to reduce their environmental loads. In addition, with appropriate designs, waste paper and plastics recycling could be highly efficient. Finally, the integration of the three evaluation methods should contribute to creating a low carbon and more resource independent society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the effect of inherent uncertainty on the willingness-to-pay (WTP) for a policy aimed at reducing expected climate change impacts. To do this, it relates outcome uncertainty to the probability of occurrence of one of these impacts within a given time horizon. Unlike the existing studies, this paper links outcome uncertainty to the uncontrollable component of environmental uncertainty derived from the stochastic nature of an ecosystem's behavior. Results show that the WTP for the policy in the presence of uncertainty does not decrease compared to the scenario where climate change impacts are assumed to occur with certainty. This suggests individuals are adopting a precautionary attitude when stating their WTP. Thus, the paper provides economic justification for preventive measures in highly uncertain contexts. However, findings are not conclusive with respect to the influence of the degree of uncertainty on the support for such measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Rivers are among the ecosystems most sensitive to climate change. Whilst methods quantifying the impact and uncertainty of climate change on flow regime are well-established, the impact on hydroecological response is not well understood. Typically, investigative methods are qualitative in nature or follow quantitative methods of limited scope, whilst the effect of uncertainty is frequently minimised. This paper proposes a coupled hydrological and hydroecological modelling framework to assess the impact of climate change on hydroecological response quantitatively. The characterisation and reduction of modelling uncertainties was critical to the development of the framework. The ability of the framework is illustrated through application to a case study river, the River Nar, Norfolk, England, using the UKCP09 probabilistic climate projections (high emissions scenario, SRES A1F1). The results show that, by the 2050s, a reduction in instream biodiversity is virtually certain if future emissions follow the assumptions of SRES A1F1. Disruption to the natural low flow processes, essential to ecosystem functioning, is also indicated. These findings highlight the importance of the framework in water resources adaptation, particularly with respect to future environmental flows management. Highlights • We propose a modelling framework to assess hydroecological response to climate change. • Characterisation and reduction of uncertainty considered throughout. • Provides quantifiable measure of the uncertainty in the hydroecological projections. • Case study sees reduced instream biodiversity and disruption to flow processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Agricultural water and land, which are intricately related, are the two most critical resources for food production. However, the sustainability of agricultural water and land resources is faced with challenges due to intensive human activities and climate change. This paper builds crop water footprint model under uncertainty, and evaluates regional crop (rice, maize and soybean) blue and green waterfootprint under different probability. On this basis, the water footprint characteristics and differences of crops were analyzed. Then, an optimization model of crop planting structure with the objectives of minimum blue water footprint and the maximum agricultural net benefit was constructed and Monte Carlo simulation method was used to solve the model. The model can take into account the crop water footprint at different probabilities, enabling decision makers to combine years of information to make better decisions. Then, the model was applied to the Hulan River Irrigation District, and three scenarios were designed to analyze the optimal planting structure under different conditions. Under different scenarios, the optimization results have certain differences, but overall, increasing the area of crop cultivation, especially rice, has a good role in promoting regional agricultural development. Due to the optimization of the planting structure, the net benefit of the irrigation area increased by 7%, 15% and 5% in each of the three scenarios. Solutions are valuable for producing scientific alternatives that help decision makers determine the water and soil relationship management policies they need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The basic materials industries together with the utility sector account for significant carbon footprints and are challenged to meet emerging Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions targets. The emitting processes are often co-located in industrial parks, resulting in spatially concentrated, stationary carbon dioxide emissions. Given the multitude of sources from which carbon dioxide could be captured and of possible sinks in which carbon dioxide could be utilized or stored, there is a need to systematically screen the lowest cost footprint reduction options for a given industrial park. This paper presents the first approach to the systematic design of low cost carbon integration networks for industrial parks through integrated analysis of sources, utilization and storage options, as well as capture, separation, compression and transmission options. The paper outlines the optimisation-based approach and illustrates its application with an example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are mainly responsible for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere and thus for climate change. The European Union (EU) set up a series of strategies and policies to facilitate the elaboration of climate change mitigation and adaptation of urban plans. To do this, it is necessary to measure the city's GHG emission level. The Urban Carbon Footprint (UCF) and its derivation, the Relative Carbon Footprint (RCF), represent the most appropriate tools for obtaining this important information. The present paper applies these indicators to a small city (150 000 inhabitants) located in Southern Italy, a novelty for academic studies, which usually concentrate on megacities. The study focuses only on CO 2 emissions, as these represent 90% of the total GHGs released in urban areas. The findings showed that in 2015 the total UCF was equal to 288 ktCO 2 , specifically deriving from electricity and natural gas consumption. Moreover, Residential, Industry and Tertiary are the most carbon-intensive economic sectors. The RCF was equal to 0.30; the city emission levels were lower than the national average. Therefore, the municipality represents a typical “net-consumer” community, dominated by homes with territorial emissions due to consumption and characterized by a low number of industries and an average income per capita that is 50% lower than the national one. Starting from these results, the study proposed an urban action plan according to the EU mitigation and adaptation policies. This plan could help the local government improve its environmental sustainability, even if more public city-level data is required for a more comprehensive analysis. Finally, it would be more appropriate for all actions to be aligned under a unique policy process to seize the opportunity to link the various local intervention policies from different fields, taking into account their existing funding, tools, processes, and resources. Capitalizing on the adaptation/mitigation connection will allow municipalities to leverage their climate change action efforts and accelerate progress toward their climate and energy goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meeting the commitments made in the Paris Agreement on climate change will require different approaches in different countries. However, a common feature in many contexts relates to the continued and sometimes increasing significance of the carbon footprints of urban centres. These footprints consider both production or territorial (i.e. Scope 1 and 2) emissions, and consumption or extra-territorial (i.e. Scope 3) emissions. Although a growing number of cities have adopted targets for their production-based emissions, very few have even started to analyse or address their consumption-based emissions. This presents a potential challenge for urban policymaking if consumption emissions rise while production emissions fall, and for climate mitigation more broadly if emissions are effectively migrating to areas without carbon reduction targets or capabilities. To explore these issues, in this paper we analyse and compare production- and consumption-based emissions accounts for urban centres in China, the UK and the US. Results show that per-capita income and population density are strong predictors of consumption-based emissions levels, and consumption-based emissions appear to diminish but not decouple with higher per-capita incomes. In addition, results show that per-capita income is a predictor of net emissions - or the difference between production- and consumption-based accounts - suggesting that continuing increases in per capita income levels may drive the ‘leakage’ of urban emissions. These findings highlight a risk in placing too much faith in city-level climate strategies focused only on production-based emissions, and stress the importance of new city-level initiatives that focus on consumption-based emissions, especially in cities that are shifting from producer to consumer city status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing number of studies show that efficiency improvements alone will not be sufficient to attain the substantial emission reductions needed to mitigate global warming to a target of 2 °C. Consumption side changes are likely to be needed to achieve sufficient emission reductions. The United Nations emphasize the importance of developed countries taking the lead in lowering emissions to achieve the sustainable development goals. This paper assess to what extent Norwegian households can lower their carbon footprint consistent with territorial emission reductions towards the 2 °C target of global warming through implementing a set of behavioral actions. We evaluate the efficacy of the set of actions both initially and after considering rebound effects. A multiregional environmentally extended input-output database is linked with the Norwegian consumer expenditure survey to analyze both average and marginal expenditure per unit of increased income. Further, linear programming is applied to examine the changes needed by households to reach different emission reduction targets. We find that households implementing the full set of actions without re-spending can obtain a 58% decrease in their carbon footprint. When accounting for the effect of re-spending, this reduction drops to 24–35%, which is not within the requirements of the 2 °C target. The optimization analysis suggests households can achieve reductions up to 45% by restricting re-spending to specific goods and services. This indicates that curbing the rebound effect is key to achieving real reductions in household carbon footprints. We show that changing consumption patterns can significantly contribute to lowering anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions without compromising the level of economic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting urban transition is critical, particularly for China’s rapid urbanization. Circular economy strategy is widely recognized as an effective way to achieve a low-carbon transition of cities through improved waste recycling and industrial symbiosis. However, the evidence of low-carbon benefit is less reported. While the carbon footprint (CFP) represents a mature tool responding to climate change concerns, limited studies have made use of CFP as a proxy for the performance of urban circular economy promotion. The aim of this paper is to investigate the CFP with a ten years span (2002–2012) of Guiyang, so as to understand how its circular economy practices have led to low-carbon benefits. Guiyang, one of China’s national pilots of the Circular Economy (CE) City, the Low-Carbon City, as well as the Ecological Civilization City, has offered an ideal laboratory where the opportunities and challenges for a low-carbon urban transition can be explicitly discussed. A hybrid model that integrates an input-output (IO) approach and process-based inventory analysis is developed to distinguish between direct carbon emissions of sectors from energy consumption, and indirect carbon emissions related to upstream and downstream flows both from production and consumption perspectives. The CFP of Guiyang in 2002, 2007 (after becoming the circular economy pilot) and 2012 (with implementation of urban industrial symbiosis) are analyzed by taking the 2002 as year of business as usual (BAU) scenario. Particularly, we identify scenarios related to proposed urban industrial symbiosis. Results imply that dramatic resource saving and CFP reductions could be achieved simultaneously. Changes to the CFP in 2002, 2007 and 2012 provide critical insights into the role of circular economy in speeding up urban transition towards a low-carbon society. Finally, policy recommendations to tackle the barriers to regional low-carbon transition are proposed. We believe that this study is informative for policy makers of urban planning by shedding a light on innovative eco-industrial development and urban transition in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forest and building sector is of major importance in climate change mitigation and therefore construction materials based on forest products are of great interest. While energy efficiency has had a large focus in climate change mitigation in the building sector, the carbon footprint of the construction material is gaining relevance. The carbon footprint of construction materials can vary greatly from one type to another, the building sector is consequently demanding documentation of the carbon footprint of the materials used. Using an environmental product declaration (EPD) is an objective and standardised solution for communicating the environmental impacts of construction products and especially their carbon footprint. Nevertheless, it is challenging to include the features of forest products as pools of carbon dioxide. There is currently a focus on research into methods for the accounting of sequestered atmospheric carbon dioxide and also implementation of these methods into technical standards. This paper reviews the recent research and technical standards in this field to promote a common understanding and to propose requirements for additional information to be included in EPDs of forest-based products. The main findings show the need for reporting the contribution of biogenic carbon to the total on greenhouse gas emissions and removals over the product's lifecycle. In order to facilitate the implementation of more advanced methods from research, the EPD should also include more detailed information of the wood used, in particular species and origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessments of climate change impacts on freshwater ecosystems are generally based on global climate models (GCMs) and ecologically relevant “time-averaged” hydrological indicators derived from long-term records. Although uncertainties from GCMs have been recognized, the influence of downscaling methods remains unclear. This paper evaluates the influence of applying different downscaling methods of increasing complexity (annual scaling, monthly scaling, quantile scaling, and weather generator method) on the assessment of ecological outcomes. In addition to time-averaged indicators, “sequence-dependent” metrics which involve ecological dynamics by considering the impacts of flow sequencing are also adopted. In a case study in Australia, the condition of river red gum forest was assessed. Results show that the choice of downscaling methods can be of similar importance as that of GCMs in ecological impact studies. Where sequence-dependent metrics are adopted, more sophisticated downscaling techniques should be used to better represent changes in the frequency and sequence of flow events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Recent research on the B&R eco-environment is reviewed. • The B&R is likely to face environmental challenges due to its fragile background. • Four key aspects of the ecological environment are studied. • Sustainable development should be promoted under socioeconomic frameworks for the B&R. • Future research directions for improving the B&R eco-environments are proposed. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will play an essential role in boosting the world's economy. However, the main portion of the Belt and Road (B&R) is in arid, semi-arid, or sub-humid fragile ecological regions, which with global climate change and the intensification of human activities will face many pressing environmental challenges in the future. Despite this, in the existing research on the B&R, papers in the field of natural sciences are less than 1.2–4.3% of the total number of papers on the main databases, which is far lower than the coverage in humanities and social sciences. And those focused on the ecological and environmental issues along the B&R are even fewer, so necessary understanding of both the risks and adequate mitigation measures remains unclear. This paper systematically reviews the relevant research on the eco-environments along the B&R, and summarizes it in terms including of spatial patterns and cognition, cost efficiency and evaluation, ecological security and evaluation, ecological footprint and carrying capacity. It further suggests that a better understanding of environmental changes and their effects on the B&R is needed. Additionally, it is essential that the potential positive socio-economic impacts for the future under the BRI are sustainable. Finally, future research directions are proposed to improve for the better eco-environments in B&R regions with consideration of global changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite many studies in literature demonstrate the environmental sustainability of organic food, a debate is still open in the scientific community on the effect of organic farming on global warming and climate change mitigation. This paper aims to contribute to a more informed debate on the actual contribution to climate change in terms of GHG emissions of organic and conventional agriculture. For this purpose, the production process of an organic vs conventional wholemeal bread locally produced in central Italy by a small-medium bakery enterprise was compared and the carbon footprint (CF) was assessed by means of the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. We found that the CF of 1 kg of the conventional wholemeal bread was 24% less respect to the same organic bread, with 1,18 and 1,55 kg CO 2 eq respectively. On the contrary, if the CF is assessed per unit of cultivated area (hectare), wheat organic cultivation showed a better performance in terms of GHG emissions than conventional by 60%, with 1,15 and 2,87 Mg CO 2 eq ha −1 respectively. The higher CF per unit of organic product is due to the lower yield per unit of area cultivated with organic farming and to the consequent attribution to a smaller amount of products of the GHG emissions generated in the field phase of the life cycle. Whereas, the CF per hectare is higher when conventional practices are applied due to the higher use of raw materials (higher seed density, agrochemicals for fertilization and plant protection) respect to the same organic system. Results of the study demonstrate that organic farming for wheat cultivation in Italy is a low-carbon agriculture with a lower contribution to climate change in terms of GHG emissions per hectare respect to the conventional wheat cultivation, although implications of the reduced productivity and the consequent need of more cultivated land should be considered. However, more research is needed to better explore the potential of organic farming and to improve organic food production, optimizing the balance between the use of resources and yields, to ensure sufficient organic food supply at global level. A more comprehensive assessment of the actual GHG emitted in the atmosphere from both organic and conventional agricultural systems can be provided when the CF is assessed per unit of area, in addition to the CF per product unit, especially if also the carbon sink of the agrosystem is included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon footprint (CF) and inequality reductions were two of the most important sustainable development goals. However, there was a lack of understanding of the latest equality of carbon footprint across regions. Based on the multi-regional input-output table and the China Family Panel Studies survey data of 17 provinces, this paper examined the evolution of carbon footprint and inequality in China. The results showed a stark disparity between regions and a declined inequality in the last few years. Specifically, the CF per capita in northern provinces (Liaoning, Shanxi, Heilongjiang, Shandong and Shaanxi) exceeded the average level in 2017. From 2015 to 2017, the carbon inequality showed a downward trend, with a national CF-Gini coefficient decrease from 0.31 to 0.28. Meanwhile, the gap between CF per capita in urban areas and rural areas was declining, with a growth rate at 18% and 32% from 2015 to 2017, respectively. In addition, CF per capita from various consumption categories indicated that household equipment and daily necessities, residential, transportation and communication were the three most important sources, with a downward trend from 2015 to 2017. This study would provide policymakers with deep insights into policies to achieve just transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The aim of the present work is to estimate the carbon footprint of the Greek electricity sector and the associated damages. This is being realized by quantifying the external cost related with the climate change airborne emissions (i.e. carbon dioxide) generated during all stages of the power plants life cycle in Greece. For this purpose, the paper applies the EcoSenseLE tool, together with the basic principles of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach. The examined external cost has been calculated for seven types of power plants. Results show that hydro and wind power plants have an excellent performance; close to them is the performance of PV and biomass-fired power plants. The performance of natural gas-fired power plants is good, while the performance of oil-fired power plants is, as it is expected poor. Lignite clearly has the worst performance, which affects the average external cost of the sector, since it is the dominant energy source in electricity production in Greece. Regarding the life cycle stages, for thermal systems, the climate change external cost is primarily made of CO2 emitted at the power plant, while in hydro, wind and PV systems, it is totally associated with the plant construction stage. Moreover, the paper includes also issues regarding the evolution of the examined footprint within the next years, considering the various Greek national policies and measures that have been announced and started to be realized; the cost/benefit analysis (CBA) of these policies and measures based on this footprint; and the investigation if this CBA is being affected by the CO2 abatement cost associated with the various external cost estimation approaches. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

There are many opportunities for consumers to design their lives more sustainably. While a rapidly growing body of literature has investigated how consumers can reduce carbon footprints in key consumption areas, such as food, housing and mobility, an overall framework that allows structuring those options across all consumption areas is still missing. Hence, this paper presents a novel and systematic framework to identify improvement options that promote climate change mitigation and structure them based on their primary mode of impact on GHG emissions. The framework targets consumer practices and focuses on ambitious, but technically and socioeconomically feasible strategies for consumers to lower their carbon footprint. Four major categories for reducing consumption-based emissions form the basic framework, which are then subdivided into behavioural strategies and sub-strategies. The practical application of the framework is illustrated by using food consumption as an example. Systematically identifying improvement options can advance a holistic understanding of the range of behavioural strategies targeting consumer choices that operate at different stages in the supply chain. It thus provides a starting point for addressing critical questions related to the role of consumers in supporting climate change mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decreasing household size is a global trend, driven by urbanization and multiple other socioeconomic trends. Going solo poses a great environmental challenge, as the possibility to benefit from scale economies in consumption and its greenhouse gas impacts is not taken advantage of. In other words, understanding of intra-household sharing patterns of different consumption categories is increasingly important in climate change mitigation. This paper explores the relationship between household sizes, urban structures, and greenhouse gas impacts of lifestyles. When urban areas grow outwards, the household sizes also grow. As a result of this, the increase in intra-household sharing seems to alleviate the negative GHG implications of urban sprawl, which is highly logical but yet not comprehended. Thus, the rise of collaborative consumption offers potential to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of solo dwellers, and compensate for the lower intra-household sharing with inter-household sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon emissions from products contribute to anthropogenic climate change. Because of the growing concern over the environmental impact of production and consumption of consumer goods, carbon footprint information started to appear on labels of several products. In this paper we use both parametric and non-parametric econometric models in order to estimate Egyptian consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for carbon-labeled products. Contingent valuation methods based on log-logistic, log-normal and Weibull regression models revealed that consumers in Egypt are willing to pay a price premium of approximately 75 Egyptian pounds (EP) for carbon-labeled products based on the single-bound dichotomous choice (SBDC) model and up to 90 EP based on the double-bound dichotomous choice (DBDC) model. From a socio-economic perspective, results have also revealed that income, age, gender, and educational level have a significant influence on the respondent's WTP. Implications of this study highlight the fact that understanding consumers' preferences for eco-friendly products may play an important role in formulating environmental policy changes to face complex problems as diverse as environmental pollution or global climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of society to mitigate climate change is particularly important. However, generations, different age cohorts are differently related to and concerned about climate change. The main criticism of the young generation is that they talk about climate change a lot but do not behave in a climate-friendly manner. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyze the difference of climate change perception, responsibility and climate-friendly behavior among Baby Boomer generation, Generations X, Y and Z in all European Union (EU) countries. After applying the Chi-square test, the results showed that younger people in the EU tend to have the perception of climate change more often than their older counterparts. Moreover, people from younger generations tend to place responsibility of solving climate change on the business/industrial sectors and environmental groups more often than the preceding generations do. Furthermore, more of young people assumed personal responsibility, used environmentally friendly alternatives to personal cars, and considered carbon footprint before purchasing a product, as opposed to older generations. However, the youth separated waste and decreased the use of disposable items less comparing with older generations. Applying binary logistic regression, the results showed that climate change perception and placement of responsibility on environmental groups positively and statistically significantly influenced all climate-friendly actions of the youth. Personal responsibility statistically significantly decreased probability of all climate-friendly actions. Responsibility placement on the government and business/industrial sectors reduced the probability to carry out waste reduction behavior. Thus, this study revealed that young people are not always climate-friendly, and this study provides the insights into how to promote climate-friendly behavior among youths. • Youth in the EU tend to have the perception of climate change more often than older people. • Youth more used environmentally friendly alternatives to personal cars, and considered carbon footprint. • Youth separate and reduce waste less comparing with older generations. • Climate change perception positively influenced all climate-friendly actions. • Responsibility placement on separate groups differently influenced climate-friendly behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though the need for holistic climate change education has been realized around the world, there is a lack of studies that examine the multidimensional impact of climate change education in higher education. To amend for this gap in literature, this paper uses a pre- and post-questionnaire (N = 245) to examine how students' knowledge, values, worldview and willingness to take mitigative climate actions change during a course on climate change. Though the course was designed to be multidisciplinary and holistic, the results show that the course had limited impact. First, the pre-post tests showed a significant increase in science knowledge, but knowledge on mitigative actions remained unchanged despite related course assignments. Second, though participants' worldview seemed to change or strengthen during the course, minimal changes were seen in students' willingness to take mitigative actions. However, an increase in biospheric values -a strong predictor of pro-environmental behavior - was seen in some segments of participants, potentially predicting a lower carbon footprint for those students in the future. Furthermore, the findings suggest that during the course, individuals found new, environmentally friendly ways to address their hedonic pleasures, also potentially having long-term positive effects. Some differences in gender and field of study were noted. Implications of the findings are discussed in relation to planning and implementing holistic climate change education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Carbon footprint has become a term often used by the media in recent days. The human carbon footprint is professed to be a very serious global threat and every nation is looking at the possible options to reduce it since its consequences are alarming. A carbon footprint is a measure of the impact of human activities on earth and in particular on the environment; more specifically it relates to climate change and to the total amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide emitted. Effort of individuals in minimizing the carbon footprint is vital to save our planet. This article reports a study of the carbon footprint of various types of shopping bags (plastic, paper, non-woven and woven) using life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) technique in two stages. The first stage (baseline study), comprised the study of the impact of different types of shopping bags in the manufacturing phase, without considering their usage and disposal phases (cradle to gate stage). The LCIA was accomplished by the IPCC 2007 method, developed by the Inter Panel on Climate Change in SIMAPRO 7.2. The GWP (Global Warming Potential) values calculated by the IPCC 2007 method for 100 years were considered as a directive to compare the carbon footprint made by the different types of shopping bags under consideration. The next stage was the study of the carbon footprint of these bags including their usage and disposal phases (cradle to grave stage) and the results derived were compared with the results derived from the baseline study, which is the major focus of this research work. The values for usage and end-of-life phases were obtained from the survey questionnaire performed amongst different user groups of shopping bags in China, Hong Kong and India. The results show that the impact of different types of shopping bags in terms of their carbon footprint potential is very high if no usage and disposal options were provided. When the carbon footprint values from different disposal options were compared, the carbon footprint values were lower in the case where a higher percentage of reuse is preferred to recycling and disposing to landfill. The results indicate that a higher percentage of reuse could significantly scale down the carbon footprint. Once the shopping bags reached the point where they can no longer be reused, they must be forwarded to recycling options, rather than being disposed to landfill. At this juncture, consumer’s perceptions and behaviours in connection with the respective government’s policies in promoting & facilitating recycling systems could be critical in reducing the carbon footprint of various shopping bags. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The purpose of this paper is to analyze climate change and ecological destruction through the prism of the core general principles of political economy. The paper starts with the principle of historical specificity, and the various waves of climate change through successive cooler and warmer periods on planet Earth, including the most recent climate change escalation through the open circuit associated with the treadmill of production. Then we scrutinize the principle of contradiction associated with the disembedded economy, social costs, entropy and destructive creation. The principle of uneven development is then explored through core–periphery dynamics, ecologically unequal exchange, metabolic rift and asymmetric global (in)justice. The principles of circular and cumulative causation (CCC) and uncertainty are then related to climate change dynamics through non-linear transformations, complex interaction of dominant variables, and threshold effects. Climate change and ecological destruction are impacting on most areas, especially the periphery, earlier and more intensely than previously thought likely. A political economy approach to climate change is able to enrich the analysis of ecological economics and put many critical themes in a broad context. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Increased biofuel production has prompted concerns about the environmental tradeoffs of biofuels compared to petroleum-based fuels. Biofuel production in general, and feedstock production in particular, is under increased scrutiny. Water footprinting (measuring direct and indirect water use) has been proposed as one measure to evaluate water use in the context of concerns about depleting rural water supplies through activities such as irrigation for large-scale agriculture. Water footprinting literature has often been limited in one or more key aspects: complete assessment across multiple water stocks (e.g., vadose zone, surface, and ground water stocks), geographical resolution of data, consistent representation of many feedstocks, and flexibility to perform scenario analysis. We developed a model called BioSpatial H2O using a system dynamics modeling and database framework. BioSpatial H2O could be used to consistently evaluate the complete water footprints of multiple biomass feedstocks at high geospatial resolutions. BioSpatial H2O has the flexibility to perform simultaneous scenario analysis of current and potential future crops under alternative yield and climate conditions. In this proof-of-concept paper, we modeled corn grain (Zea mays L.) and soybeans (Glycine max) under current conditions as illustrative results. BioSpatial H2O links to a unique database that houses annual spatially explicit climate, soil, and plant physiological data. Parameters from the database are used as inputs to our system dynamics model for estimating annual crop water requirements using daily time steps. Based on our review of the literature, estimated green water footprints are comparable to other modeled results, suggesting that BioSpatial H2O is computationally sound for future scenario analysis. Our modeling framework builds on previous water use analyses to provide a platform for scenario-based assessment. BioSpatial H2O's system dynamics is a flexible and user-friendly interface for on-demand, spatially explicit, water use scenario analysis for many US agricultural crops. Built-in controls permit users to quickly make modifications to the model assumptions, such as those affecting yield, and to see the implications of those results in real time. BioSpatial H2O's dynamic capabilities and adjustable climate data allow for analyses of water use and management scenarios to inform current and potential future bioenergy policies. The model could also be adapted for scenario analysis of alternative climatic conditions and comparison of multiple crops. The results of such an analysis would help identify risks associated with water use competition among feedstocks in certain regions. Results could also inform research and development efforts that seek to reduce water-related risks of biofuel pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A framework and set of methods to provide quantification of carbon footprint for an office in Singapore is presented in this work. As office operations become the center of many organization's activities, a rising awareness of climate change puts the focus on the carbon footprint of office operations. Various international standards have provided guidelines in assessing the carbon footprint of organizations. However, a lack of explicit formulation and procedure in these standards makes them difficult to apply. Furthermore, organizations that are just starting to assess their footprint may not have the resources and trained personnel to perform a full-scale assessment. To fill this gap, the framework proposed in this paper categorizes the emission sources from an office into several categories: core devices, shared resources, pantry, and transportation; and a set of quantification methods then guide the practitioner in a visual manner to do their office carbon footprint. A case study was conducted with an organization in Singapore. Results showed that the organization has a monthly office carbon footprint of 2306.57 kg CO 2 e, with major emissions coming from the air-conditioning system and private car usage. The study showed that the method can be used to assess the overall emissions, as well as identifying the major emission sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human activities create more reactive nitrogen than is created through natural processes every year. The excess reactive nitrogen in the environment causes various negative effects including eutrophication, climate change, acidification, and human health problems. The sources of the excess nitrogen are mainly fertilizers and animal and human waste generated by food production and consumption. Therefore, our food choices have major effects on the nitrogen load to the environment. To quantify the load, a consumption-based accounting tool, called the nitrogen footprint, has been recently developed. In current nitrogen footprint models, seafood is calculated as a single category using the same simple assumptions as livestock. However, there is a variety of types and methods of production of seafood. In addition, world per capita consumption of seafood is projected to continue expanding. In this paper, we propose a new nitrogen footprint model to evaluate the impact of seafood in detail, present the results of the model applied to Japan as a case study, and explain the important parameters that are needed to accurately evaluate the load of seafood consumption. Our model tracks the feeding steps in detail, considering differences among fed aquacultured seafood, non-fed aquacultured seafood (mainly bivalves and filter-feeding carp), and captured seafood. Our model evaluates the Japanese food nitrogen footprint of fed aquacultured seafood as 0.7 kg-N/capita/year, ca. 45% of that of all seafood, whereas the previous model evaluates it as 3.36 kg-N/capita/year. Our results demonstrate that the key factors for assessing the nitrogen load of seafood are the proportions of fed aquaculture and of plant protein in feed. In order to enable food choices that will effectively reduce nitrogen release, we provide the virtual N factors (per intake nitrogen release during production) for different seafood as 0.2 (non-fed aquacultured and captured), 4.8 (freshwater and diadromous fish), 3.9 (demersal fish), 3.4 (pelagic fish and other marine fish), and 8.2 (crustaceans). Our results show that eating more non-fed aquacultured and captured seafood and less fed-aquacultured shrimps and prawns could reduce our nitrogen load from food consumption as effectively as choosing poultry instead of beef. Although its evaluation is limited to nitrogen load related to food itself and not including the load from energy use, etc., our detailed nitrogen footprint model for different seafood categories and production sources can quantify the effectiveness of policies and actions that link sustainable consumption and sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, contributing toward the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consideration of the impact of climate change has penetrated urban infrastructure planning worldwide, and the water sector is no exception. This paper provides an approach to incorporate a low-carbon consideration and climate externalities into an environmental economic analysis for an urban water treatment work planning with a case study from Ningbo, China. The discounted incremental costs are calculated with carbon footprint accounting. The analysis confirms that the inclusion of GHG emission costs as a component in the techno-economic criteria affects the priority ranking for the siting options, and may lead to an entirely different decision on the siting of the water supply facility. However, these criteria should be cross-examined with a sensitivity test during the decision making process, with the discounting rate and carbon pricing level being the main sensitivity factors. This study suggests that the benchmark discount rate for the water supply infrastructure average incremental economic cost accounting should be decreased from 6% to 4.5–4.0%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the booming research on the environmental footprint of, for example, electrical vehicles, heat pumps and other (smart) electricity consuming appliances, there is a clear need to know the hourly CO 2 content of one kW h of electricity. Since the CO 2 footprint of electricity can vary every hour; the footprint of for example an electric vehicle is influenced by the time when the vehicle is charged. With the availability of the hourly CO 2 content of one kW h, a decision support tool is provided to fully exploit the advantages of a future smart grid. In this paper, the GWP (Global Warming Potential) per kW h for each hour of the year is calculated for Belgium using a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach. This enables evaluating the influence of the electricity demand on the greenhouse gas emissions. Because of the LCA approach, the CO 2 equivalent content does not only reflect activities related to the production of the electricity within a power plant, but includes carbon emissions related to the building of the infrastructure and the fuel supply chain. The considered feedstocks are nuclear combustible, oil, coal, natural gas, biowaste, blast furnace gas, and wood. Furthermore, renewable electricity production technologies like photovoltaic cells, hydro installations and wind turbines are covered by the research. The production of the wind turbines and solar panels is more carbon intensive (expressed per generated kW h of electricity) than the production of other conventional power plants, due to the lower electricity output. The overall average GWP per kW h is 0.184 kg CO 2 eq/kW h. Throughout the 2011 this value ranges from a minimum of 0.102 kg CO 2 eq/kW h to a maximum of 0.262 kg CO 2 eq/kW h depending on the timing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beef cattle are unique, because they not only suffer from climate change, but they also contribute to climate change through the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG). Mitigation and adaptation strategies are therefore needed. An effective way to reduce the carbon footprint from beef cattle would be to reduce the numbers and increase the production per animal, thereby improving their productivity. Sustainable crossbreeding systems can be an effective way to reduce GHG, as it has been shown to increase production. There are a wide range of different cattle breeds in South Africa which can be optimally utilized for effective and sustainable crossbreeding. This paper reports on the effects of crossbreeding on the kilogram calf weaned per Large Stock Unit (kgC/LSU) for 29 genotypes. These genotypes were formed by crossing Afrikaner (A) cows with Brahman (B), Charolais (C), Hereford (H) and Simmentaler (S) bulls and by back-crossing the F1 cows to the sire lines. A LSU is the equivalent of an ox of 450 kg with a daily weight gain of 500 g on grass pastures with a mean digestible energy (DE) content of 55% and a requirement of 75 MJ metabolizable energy (ME). Crossbreeding with A as dam line increased the kgC/LSU on average by 8 kg (+6%) - with the CA cross producing the most kgC/LSU (+8%) above that of the AA. The BA dam in crosses with C, H and S, increased kgC/LSU on average by 26 kg (+18%) above that of the AA dam, with the H x BA cross, producing the most kgC/LSU (+21%). The BA, CA, HA and SA F1 dam lines, back-crossed to the sire line breeds, increased kgC/LSU on average by 30 kg (21%), 21 kg (15%), 19kg (13%) and 26 kg (18%) above the that of the AA, respectively. The big differences between breeds in kgC/LSU provide the opportunity to facilitate effective crossbreeding that can be useful in the era of climate change. From this study it is clear that cow productivity can be increased by up to 21% through properly designed, sustainable crossbreeding systems, thereby reducing the carbon footprint of beef production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beef cattle are unique, because they not only suffer from climate change, but they also contribute to climate change through the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG). Mitigation and adaptation strategies are therefore needed. An effective way to reduce the carbon footprint from beef cattle would be to reduce the numbers and increase the production per animal, thereby improving their productivity. Sustainable crossbreeding systems can be an effective way to reduce GHG, as it has been shown to increase production. There are a wide range of different cattle breeds in South Africa which can be optimally utilized for effective and sustainable crossbreeding. This paper reports on the effects of crossbreeding on the kilogram calf weaned per Large Stock Unit (kgC/LSU) for 29 genotypes. These genotypes were formed by crossing Afrikaner (A) cows with Brahman (B), Charolais (C), Hereford (H) and Simmentaler (S) bulls and by back-crossing the F1 cows to the sire lines. A LSU is the equivalent of an ox of 450 kg with a daily weight gain of 500 g on grass pastures with a mean digestible energy (DE) content of 55% and a requirement of 75 MJ metabolizable energy (ME). Crossbreeding with A as dam line increased the kgC/LSU on average by 8 kg (+6%) - with the CA cross producing the most kgC/LSU (+8%) above that of the AA. The BA dam in crosses with C, H and S, increased kgC/LSU on average by 26 kg (+18%) above that of the AA dam, with the H x BA cross, producing the most kgC/LSU (+21%). The BA, CA, HA and SA F1 dam lines, back-crossed to the sire line breeds, increased kgC/LSU on average by 30 kg (21%), 21 kg (15%), 19kg (13%) and 26 kg (18%) above the that of the AA, respectively. The big differences between breeds in kgC/LSU provide the opportunity to facilitate effective crossbreeding that can be useful in the era of climate change. From this study it is clear that cow productivity can be increased by up to 21% through properly designed, sustainable crossbreeding systems, thereby reducing the carbon footprint of beef production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Many current organic arable agriculture systems are challenged by a dependency on imported livestock manure from conventional agriculture. At the same time organic agriculture aims at being climate friendly. A life cycle assessment is used in this paper to compare the carbon footprints of different organic arable crop rotations with different sources of N supply. Data from long-term field experiments at three different locations in Denmark were used to analyse three different organic cropping systems (‘Slurry’, ‘Biogas’ and ‘Mulching’), one conventional cropping system (‘Conventional’) and a “No input” system as reference systems. The ‘Slurry’ and ‘Conventional’ rotations received slurry and mineral fertilizer, respectively, whereas the ‘No input’ was unfertilized. The ‘Mulching’ and ‘Biogas’ rotations had one year of grass-clover instead of a faba bean crop. The grass-clover biomass was incorporated in the soil in the ‘Mulching’ rotation and removed and used for biogas production in the ‘Biogas’ rotation (and residues from biogas production were simulated to be returned to the field). A method was suggested for allocating effects of fertility building crops in life cycle assessments. The results showed significantly lower carbon footprint of the crops from the ‘Biogas’ rotation (assuming that biogas replaces fossil gas) whereas the remaining crop rotations had comparable carbon footprints per kg cash crop. The study showed considerable contributions caused by the green manure crop (grass-clover) and highlights the importance of analysing the whole crop rotation and including soil carbon changes when estimating carbon footprints of organic crops especially where green manure crops are included. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Over the past decades, the cost-effectiveness principle or a cost–benefit analysis has typically been employed as an assessment tool for the expansion of drinking water utilities. With changing public awareness of the inherent linkages between greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, the addition of this new consideration in the assessment regime has altered the landscape of the traditional evaluation matrix. This paper presents a comparative evaluation based on a suite of carbon footprint and cost data associated with 20 expansion alternatives for a systematic priority analysis of a drinking water infrastructure system in South Florida. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]