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Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) have become critical tools for assessing the costs and benefits of policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Three models currently inform the social cost of carbon dioxide (SCCO2, the net present value of damages from one additional ton of CO2) used by the US federal government, several states, and Canada. Here we present a new open-source implementation of one of these models (PAGE09) in the Julia programming language using a modular modeling framework (Mimi). Mimi-PAGE was coded using best coding practices (such as multiple code reviews by different individuals during development, automated testing of newly-committed code, and provision of documentation and usage notes) and is publicly available in a GitHub repository for community inspection and use under an open source license. In this paper we describe the Julia implementation of PAGE09, show that output from Mimi-PAGE matches that of the original model, and perform comparisons of the run time between the two implementations.

Aluminum production is among the most energy-intensive industries and accounts for one percent of total global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The ongoing increase in world aluminum demand means that this industry’s energy use and CO2 emissions will continue to grow. There is significant incentive to develop, commercialize and adopt emerging energy efficiency and CO2 emissions-reduction technologies for aluminium production. Although studies from around the world have identified a wide range of energy efficiency technologies applicable to the aluminum industry that have already been commercialized, information is limited and/or scattered regarding emerging or advanced energy efficiency and low-carbon technologies that are not yet commercialized. This report consolidates available information on 10 emerging aluminum industry technologies, with the intent of providing a well-structured database of information on these technologies for engineers, researchers, investors, aluminum companies, policy makers, university students, and other interested parties. For each technology included, we provide information on energy savings and environmental and other benefits, costs, and commercialization status; we also identify references for more information.

Introduction: The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an important cooperative framework that increasingly affects the global economy, trade, and emission patterns. However, most existing studies pay insufficient attention to consumption-based emissions, embodied emissions, and non-CO2 greenhouse gases (GHGs). This study constructs a GHG emissions database to study the trends and variations in production-based, consumption-based, and embodied emissions associated with BRI countries.Outcome: We find that the per capita GHG emissions of BRI countries are lower than the global average but show significant variation within this group. We also find that trade-embodied emissions between BRI countries and China are growing. As a group, BRI countries are anet exporter of GHGs, with a global share of net export emissions of about 20%. In 2011, nearly 80% of GHG export emissions from BRI countries flowed to non-BRI countries, and nearly 15% flowed to China; about 57% of GHG import emissions were from non-BRI countries, and about 38% were from China.Conclusion: Therefore, this study concludes that the BRI should be used to coordinate climate governance to accelerate and strengthen the dissemination and deployment of low-emissions technologies, strategies, and policies within the BRI so as to avoid a carbon-intensive lock-in effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eco-cities have attracted international attention from governments, corporations, academics and other actors seeking to use sustainable urban planning to reduce urban environmental impacts. China has devoted significant political will and economic resources to the development of new-build eco-city projects, reflecting the Chinese government's goals to build a 'harmonious society' in which environmental sustainability and social stability are mutually reinforcing. We critically analyse the case of the Sino-Singapore Tianjin eco-city to demonstrate that the eco-city's ecologically modernizing visions of eco-urbanism construct a protective environment for its residents that constrains broader consideration of social sustainability. Through analysis of the marketing and presentation of specific domestic and other spaces of the eco-city, we examine the application of ecologically modernizing construction and technology to the design of the city. We argue that the eco-city is discursively constructed as ecologically beneficial for its inhabitants rather than for the broader socio-environmental landscape. Our analysis of residential spaces in Tianjin eco-city introduces the question of what 'eco' means when considering the construction of eco-urban environments for the city's residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]