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Dealing with the threat of anthropogenic climate change has been a challenge for policy makers for a long time. In recent years, the problems posed by climate change and solutions proposed to mitigate its effects have been framed by lexical 'carbon compounds', such as carbon footprint or carbon trading and by one dominant metaphor, the market metaphor. Through a detailed content analysis of industry and press coverage from 1985 to the present, this paper examines the fate of one important lexical compound in this context, namely low carbon, which can be used as an adjective or a noun. Over the last two decades this lexical compound moved across and between three discourses, the steel industry, the car industry and what one might call the climate change industry. Using insights from ecolinguistics and the sociology of expectations, the paper discusses how the lexical compound low carbon in general and the metaphor low carbon future in particular came to prominence in policy discourses, especially in the UK, and how they were used to frame expectations of a prosperous low carbon future, while sidelining deeper social and cultural reflections on climate change mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greenhouse gases emission inventories are computed with rather low precision. Moreover, their uncertainty distributions may be asymmetric. This should be accounted for in the compliance and trading rules. In this paper we model the uncertainty of inventories as intervals or using fuzzy numbers. The latter allows us to better shape the uncertainty distributions. The compliance and emission trading rules obtained generalize the results for the symmetric uncertainty distributions that were considered in the earlier papers by the present authors (Nahorski et al., Water Air & Soil Pollution. Focus 7(4-5):539-558, ; Nahorski and Horabik, , J Energy Eng 134(2):47-52, ). However, unlike in the symmetric distribution, in the asymmetric fuzzy case it is necessary to apply approximations because of nonlinearities in the formulas. The final conclusion is that the interval uncertainty rules can be applied, but with a much higher substitutional noncompliance risk, which is a parameter of the rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assessment of greenhouse gases emitted to and removed from the atmosphere is high on the international political and scientific agendas. Growing international concern and cooperation regarding the climate change problem have increased the need for policy-oriented solutions to the issue of uncertainty in, and related to, inventories of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The approaches to addressing uncertainty discussed in this Special Issue reflect attempts to improve national inventories, not only for their own sake but also from a wider, systems analytical perspective-a perspective that seeks to strengthen the usefulness of national inventories under a compliance and/or global monitoring and reporting framework. These approaches demonstrate the benefits of including inventory uncertainty in policy analyses. The authors of the contributed papers show that considering uncertainty helps avoid situations that can, for example, create a false sense of certainty or lead to invalid views of subsystems. This may eventually prevent related errors from showing up in analyses. However, considering uncertainty does not come for free. Proper treatment of uncertainty is costly and demanding because it forces us to make the step from 'simple to complex' and only then to discuss potential simplifications. Finally, comprehensive treatment of uncertainty does not offer policymakers quick and easy solutions. The authors of the papers in this Special Issue do, however, agree that uncertainty analysis must be a key component of national GHG inventory analysis. Uncertainty analysis helps to provide a greater understanding and better science helps us to reduce and deal with uncertainty. By recognizing the importance of identifying and quantifying uncertainties, great strides can be made in ongoing discussions regarding GHG inventories and accounting for climate change. The 17 papers in this Special Issue deal with many aspects of analyzing and dealing with uncertainty in emissions estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing energy costs and climate change legislation have prompted efforts to reduce energy consumption in UK hospitals. In addition to technological conservation strategies focussing on buildings and building services, staff-centred initiatives such as energy awareness campaigns are increasingly being considered by National Health Service (NHS) trusts due to their potential cost-effectiveness. However, hospitals are complex buildings with unique energy requirements, and it is unclear to what extent these requirements are influenced by clinical staff. This paper combines a review of staff-centred energy conservation initiatives in organisations in general and in hospitals in particular with the results of a survey-based study among NHS energy managers ( N = 70). The study findings highlight that staff-centred energy conservation initiatives are currently of interest to a majority of NHS trusts in England and may become an increasingly important part of carbon reduction strategies in hospitals in the future. Policy assumptions regarding their savings potential, however, appear to be undifferentiated, and it seems advisable to relate behavioural efforts more closely to the physical context of the respective hospital building and its service infrastructure as well as the health care processes relevant to different departments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the results of an ex-ante evaluation of the economy-wide benefits that may be achieved through the implementation of the 20-year Energy Efficiency Action Plan (EEAP) in Thailand. The objective of the EEAP is to reduce energy intensity by 25 % in 2030 compared to 2010. This is to be reached by reducing the projected energy consumption by 20 % or 38 Mtoe until 2030. We have specified an analytical framework, which allows for a calculation of the overall energy cost savings, energy import cost reductions and reduced CO emissions. Moreover, we calculated the induced energy efficiency investments, employment effects and impacts on governmental budget. The evaluation shows that an effective implementation of the plan may lead to a reduction in energy expenditure of 37.7 billion EUR by 2030. Moreover, the EEAP-induced energy savings will significantly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions as well as Thailand's energy import costs and generate private investment in energy efficiency of about 5 billion EUR annually in 2030, which in turn may lead to about 300,000 new jobs. The size of the net impact of the plan on Thailand's governmental budget is uncertain due to positive and negative effects on corporate and income tax revenues, expenses for unemployment benefits, governmental energy consumption, expenses for energy subsidies and energy tax income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The small but stubbornly unyielding possibility of a very large long-term response of global temperature to increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide can be termed the fat tail of high climate sensitivity. Recent economic analyses suggest that the fat tail should dominate a rational policy strategy if the damages associated with such high temperatures are large enough. The conclusions of such analyses, however, depend on how economic growth, temperature changes, and climate damages unfold and interact over time. In this paper we focus on the role of two robust physical properties of the climate system: the enormous thermal inertia of the ocean, and the long timescales associated with high climate sensitivity. Economic models that include a climate component, and particularly those that focus on the tails of the probability distributions, should properly represent the physics of this slow response to high climate sensitivity, including the correlated uncertainty between present forcing and climate sensitivity, and the global energetics of the present climate state. If climate sensitivity in fact proves to be high, these considerations prevent the high temperatures in the fat tail from being reached for many centuries. A failure to include these factors risks distorting the resulting economic analyses. For example, we conclude that fat-tail considerations will not strongly influence economic analyses when these analyses follow the common-albeit controversial-practices of assigning large damages only to outcomes with very high temperature changes and of assuming a significant baseline level of economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crop residue removal for bioenergy can deplete soil organic carbon (SOC) pools. Management strategies to counteract the adverse effects of residue removal on SOC pools have not been, however, widely discussed. This paper reviews potential practices that can be used to offset the SOC lost with residue removal. Literature indicates that practices including no-till cover crops, manure and compost application, and return of biofuel co-products increase SOC pools and may thus be used to offset some SOC loss. No-till rotations that include semi-perennial grasses or legumes also offer a promise to promote soil-profile C sequestration and improve soil resilience after residue removal. No-till cover crops can sequester between 0.10 and 1 Mg ha per year of SOC relative to no-till without cover crops, depending on cover crop species, soil type, and precipitation input. Animal manure and compost contain about 15 % of C and thus their addition to soil can enhance SOC pools and boost soil biological activity. Similarly, application of biofuel co-products such as biochar, which contain between 45 % and 85 % of C depending on the feedstock source and processing method, can enhance long-term C sequestration. These mitigation strategies may maintain SOC pools under partial residue removal in no-till soils but are unlikely to replace all the SOC lost if residue is removed at excessive rates. More field research and modeling efforts are needed to assess the magnitude at which the different mitigation strategies can overcome SOC loss with crop residue removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As China has become the largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter in terms of total annual emissions, to promote GHG emissions reduction in China turns out to be crucial to the success of the global efforts to address climate change. This paper explores the development of the Chinese Domestic Voluntary Carbon Market (DVCM) in order to understand how carbon trading institutions have emerged and developed in China. To do this, it traces and analyzes the roles of the Chinese government and other key actors. Through process tracing and literature review, it argues that the pre-legislation and territorially fragmented development pattern of the Chinese DVCM has resulted from the activities of Chinese local governments and non-state actors under the policy experimentation approach adopted by the Chinese central government. It concludes with brief comments on the Chinese policy experimentation approach, and suggests that some measures can be taken to promote voluntary emissions reduction and policy learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we consider the buying/selling prices of carbon dioxide (CO) emission permits in trading models with uncertainty. Permission prices, although usually omitted from standard models, may significantly influence the trading market. We thus undertook to construct a more realistic trade model and to compare it with the standard one. To do this, we introduced several important changes to the standard model, namely, (1) a new optimized quality function; and (2) transactions with price negotiations between regions. We also enhanced the model using methods described in the literature to allow it to deal with reported emissions uncertainty. Additionally, we used an original method of simulating this kind of market based on a specialized evolutionary algorithm (EA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

pproximately half of human-induced carbon dioxide (CO) emissions are taken up by the land and ocean, and the rest stays in the atmosphere, increasing the global concentration and acting as a major greenhouse-gas (GHG) climate-forcing element. Although GHG mitigation is now in the political arena, the exact spatial distribution of the land sink is not well known. In this paper, an estimation of mean European net ecosystem exchange (NEE) carbon fluxes for the period 1998-2001 is performed with three mesoscale and two global transport models, based on the integration of atmospheric CO measurements into the same Bayesian synthesis inverse approach. A special focus is given to sub-continental regions of Europe making use of newly available CO concentration measurements in this region. Inverse flux estimates from the five transport models are compared with independent flux estimates from four ecosystem models. All inversions detect a strong annual carbon sink in the southwestern part of Europe and a source in the northeastern part. Such a dipole, although robust with respect to the network of stations used, remains uncertain and still to be confirmed with independent estimates. Comparison of the seasonal variations of the inversion-based net land biosphere fluxes (NEP) with the NEP predicted by the ecosystem models indicates a shift of the maximum uptake period, from June in the ecosystem models to July in the inversions. This study thus improves on the understanding of the carbon cycle at sub-continental scales over Europe, demonstrating that the methodology for understanding regional carbon cycle is advancing, which increases its relevance in terms of issues related to regional mitigation policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many European politicians argue that the EU should set tougher emission targets than what is required by the Kyoto protocol, and moreover, that emission trading with other countries outside EU should be limited so as to keep emission quota prices high. One of the arguments, frequently cited for such a policy, is the need for technological development. However, the literature on climate change and technological innovation does not unambiguously support the need for setting high emission taxes today. In this paper we investigate the relationship between emission taxes and technological change further by modeling innovation activity explicitly. In our model both the amount of R&D and the amount of carbon abatement are decided in a decentralized way by the market as a response to an emission tax. Moreover, we introduce several distinct failures in the market for new innovations, among others, insufficient patent protection and intertemporal knowledge spill-overs. Our findings suggest that governments should under some circumstances set a higher carbon tax today if we have technological change driven by R&D than if we have pure exogenous technological change. Based on numerical simulations these circumstances are (a) positive intertemporal knowledge spillovers and/or (b) weak patent protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are required to develop and report a national inventory of greenhouse gases not controlled by the Montreal Protocol. In the Asia region, "Workshops on Greenhouse Gas Inventories in Asia (WGIA)" have been organised annually since 2003 under the support of the government of Japan. WGIAs promote information exchange in the region to support countries' efforts to improve the quality of greenhouse gas inventories. This paper reports the major outcomes of the WGIAs and discusses the key aspects of information exchange in the region for the improvement of inventories. Results: The major outcomes of WGIAs intended to help countries improve GHG inventories, can be summarised as follows: (1) identification of common issues and possible solutions by sector, (2) reporting country inventory practices, and (3) verification of the UNFCCC reporting requirements. Conclusion: The workshops provided the opportunity for countries to share common issues and constraints pertinent to GHG inventories and to exchange information regarding possible solutions for those issues based on their own experience. The relevance of information exchange is determined due to emission sources, emitting mechanisms from sources, and technologies used. Information exchange about emission sources that are unique to Asia, like those of the agriculture sector, contributes significantly to the accumulation of knowledge at the regional and global levels. Enabling countries to verify their national circumstances with the reporting requirements under UNFCCC is also an essential part of the WGIA information exchange activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although there is broad agreement that negative carbon emissions may be required in order to meet the global climate change targets specified in the Paris Agreement and that carbon sequestration in the terrestrial biosphere can be an important contributor, there are important accounting issues that often discourage forest carbon sequestration projects. The legislation establishing the California forest offset program, for example, requires that offsets be "real, additional, quantifiable, permanent, verifiable, and enforceable". While these are all clearly desirable attributes, their implementation has been a great challenge in balancing complexity, expense, and risk. Most forest offset protocols carry similar accounting objectives, but often with different details, (e.g. Richards and Huebner in Carbon Manag 3(4):393–410, 2012 and Galik et al. in Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change 14:677–690, 2009). The result is that the complexity, expense, and risk of participation discourage participation and make it more difficult to achieve climate mitigation goals. We focus on the requirements for accounting and permanence to illustrate that current requirements disproportionately disadvantage small landowners. Results: The simplified 1040EZ filing system for U.S. income taxes may provide insight for a protocol model that balances reward, effort, and risk, while still achieving the overall objectives of standardized offset protocols. In this paper, we present initial ideas and lay the groundwork behind a "2050EZ" protocol for forest carbon sequestration as a complement to existing protocols. Conclusion: The Paris Agreement states that "Parties should take action to conserve and enhance, as appropriate, sinks and reservoirs of greenhouse gases." The Paris Agreement also refers to issues such as equity, sustainable development, and other non-carbon benefits. The challenge is to provide incentives for maintaining and increasing the amount of carbon sequestered in the biosphere. Monitoring and verification of carbon storage need to be sufficient to demonstrate sequestration from the atmosphere while providing clear incentives and simple accounting approaches that encourage participation by diverse participants, including small land holders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has emerged as one of the most important environmental issues worldwide. As the world's biggest developing country, China is participating in combating climate change by promoting a low carbon economy within the context of global warming. This paper summarizes the pathways of China's low carbon economy including the aspects of energy, industry, low carbon cities, circular economy and low carbon technology, afforestation and carbon sink, the carbon emission trading market and carbon emission reduction targets. There are many achievements in the implementation of low carbon policies. For example, carbon emission intensity has been reduced drastically along with the optimizing of energy and industry structure and a nationwide carbon trading market for electricity industry has been established. However, some problems remain, such as the weakness of public participation, the ineffectiveness of unified policies for certain regions and the absence of long-term planning for low carbon cities development. Therefore, we propose some policy recommendations for the future low carbon economy development in China. Firstly, comprehensive and long-term planning should be involved in all the low carbon economy pathways. Secondly, to coordinate the relationship between central and local governments and narrow the gap between poor and rich regions, different strategies of carbon emission performance assessment should be applied for different regions. Thirdly, enterprises should cooperate with scientific research institutions to explored low carbon technologies. Finally, relevant institutions should be regulated to realize comprehensive low carbon transition through reasonable and feasible low carbon pathways in China. These policy recommendations will provide new perspectives for China's future low carbon economy development and guide practices for combating climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biomass waste streams are a possible feedstock for a range of eco-friendly products and a crucial alternative energy source for achieving carbon neutrality; therefore, the efficient management of biomass waste has taken on a greater significance in recent years. Due to its well-comparable physic-chemical properties with fossil diesel, biodiesel is a potential substitute for fossil fuel. This study aimed to synthesize biodiesel from the widely available non-edible seed oil of Sisymbrium irio L. (a member of the Brassicaceae family) via a transesterification procedure over a homemade TiO2 catalyst. At 1:16 oil to methanol ratio, 93% biodiesel yield was obtained over 20 mg catalyst at 60 °C and 60 min. The ASTM methods were used to analyze the fuel properties. The quantitative and qualitative analysis was performed by FT-IR, GC-MS, and NMR spectroscopy. GC-MS study confirms 16 different types of fatty acids of methyl esters. FT-IR analysis showed important peaks that confirm the successful occurrence of biodiesel. 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR showed important peaks for converting triglycerides into corresponding FAMEs. The acid value (0.42 mg KOH/mg/kg), flash point (106 °C), and water content (0.034) of biodiesel are below the specified limit of ASTM D6751 whereas kinetic viscosity (3.72 mm2/s), density (0.874 kg/L), cloud point (− 4.3 °C) and pour point (− 9.6 °C) and high heating value (41.62 MJ/kg) fall within the specified range of ASTM D6751 test limit. The Unsaturation degree and oxidative stability of biodiesel are above ASTM D6751 test limit. The physic-chemical properties of the SIB confirm that it is eco-friendly fuel and a competitive source for manufacturing biodiesel on a commercial scale. Furthermore, the SIB is engine friendly and has good fuel efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]