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Paper has shaped society for centuries and is considered one of humanity's most important inventions. However, pulp and paper products can be damaging to social and natural systems along their lifecycle of material extraction, processing, transportation, and waste handling. The pulp and paper industry is among the top five most energy-intensive industries globally and is the fourth largest industrial energy user. This industry accounts for approximately 6% of global industrial energy use and 2% of direct industrial CO2 emissions. The pulp and paper industry is also the largest user of original or virgin wood, with deleterious impacts on both human health and local flora and fauna, including aquatic ecosystems. This critical and systematic review seeks to identify alternatives for mitigating the climate impacts of pulp and paper processes and products, thus making the pulp and paper industry more environmentally sustainable. This study reviews 466 studies to answer the following questions: what are the main determinants of energy and carbon emissions emerging from the pulp and paper industry? What are the benefits of this industry adopting low-carbon manufacturing processes, and what barriers will need to be tackled to enable such adoption? Using a sociotechnical lens, we answer these questions, identify barriers for the pulp and paper industry's decarbonization, and present promising avenues for future research.

Green Energy efficiency is becoming more important because of the resulting cost reduction and image of green society which helps to enhance competitiveness in a globalized green market. Pulp and paper manufacturing is a large-scale industry which is generally regarded as important for national development. The Pulp and Paper industry consumes approximately 2.5% of total industrial energy consumption in Thailand by 44 factories distributed throughout the country. Therefore, energy efficiency improvement can play a significant role in the industry. Investigations of the cost effectiveness of energy efficiency measures and technologies using bottom-up Conservation Supply Curve (CSC) in the pulp and paper mill process are required. This study examines the concept, methodology, and the usefulness of the energy conservation supply curve, and the potential to create the appropriate energy policies to the Thai Pulp and Paper Industry.

Pulp and paper production, an energy-intensive process, is among the main light industries contributing to energy saving and pollution emission reduction in China. The improvement of energy efficiency is essential for energy consumption and sustainable development. This study analyzes the negative factors in the pulp and paper sector by calculating energy efficiency from the lengthways time and investigating the gap between China and foreign countries through a horizontal comparison. Accordingly, energy efficiency has increased in the Chinese pulp and paper industry with years of efforts, but its transformation remains unclear. Furthermore, the energy-saving potential, energy cost saving, and carbon dioxide emission reduction in the pulp and paper industry are evaluated according to the Twelfth Five-year Plan (2011–2015). The results show that the pulp and paper industry has further capabilities for energy-saving and carbon dioxide emission reduction by improving energy efficiency in China, resulting in great economic benefit. In brief, new technology and energy structure adjustment are long-term strategies for energy conversation, with changes in the scale of mills expected to provide huge opportunities to improve energy efficiency in China within a short period.

This study is a systematic survey of literature on the energy-growth nexus, which has been carried out with a view to identifying the leading sources of knowledge in the forms of the most influential journals, authors, and papers. This study not only recognizes and classifies the well-known methodologies used in the energy-growth nexus analysis but also reveals intriguing content-based findings, with quantitative measures for the top 50 papers ranked according to the highest average citations per year. This survey is unique in that the process of selecting articles is entirely objective, allowing the research community's opinions to take the lead in the process rather than any subjective judgments of the authors. In this way, we examine 1041 peer-reviewed articles that specifically focused on the energy-growth nexus. We found that, as of the end of 2017, with 200 articles, Energy Policy is the leading journal publishing on this area while Energy Economics, with a total of 25,352 citation counts, holds the highest impact on this field of research. In addition, the most frequently cited article by the scholastic community in terms of average citations per year has been a literature survey conducted by Ozturk (2010) . Our study's main conclusion, based on a thorough content analysis, is that the nexus results of previous studies are generally inconclusive, with conflicting policy implications. This is not helpful and to a large extent is due to a lack of an appropriate theory. This, we contend, is essentially a methodological weakness and could be addressed by incorporating an appropriate testable economic/environmental theory.

Several countries have recently realized that the present development paradigm is not sustainable from an environmental and energy point of view. The growing awareness of the population regarding environmental issues is pushing governments worldwide more and more to promote policies aiming at limiting harmful effects of human development. In particular, the rapid increase of the global temperature, especially in the polar regions, and the management of human wastes, mainly plastic in seas, are some of the main points to be addressed by these novel policies. Several actions must be implemented in order to limit such issues. Unfortunately, the recent COP 24 Conference was not successful, but hopefully an agreement will be established in 2020 at the COP 26 Conference. The effort performed by policymakers must be mandatorily supported by the scientific community. In this framework, this paper aims at showing that countries worldwide are trying to negotiate an agreement to increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In addition, in this paper all the researchers reported can provide quantitative measures of the actions to be implemented in order to address a sustainable and efficient use of energy. Here, innovations in terms of novel efficient and environmentally friendly technologies mainly based on renewable energy sources have been also investigated. The study also highlights different sectors that have been involved for this aim, such as energy conversion systems, urban areas, mobility, sustainability, water management, social aspects, etc. In this framework, specific conferences are periodically organized in order to provide a forum for discussion regarding these topics. In this area the Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES) conference is the most ordinary conference. The 13th Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems Conference was held in Palermo, Italy in 2018. The current Special Issue of Energies, precisely dedicated to the 13th SDEWES Conference, is based on three main topics: energy policy and energy efficiency in urban areas, energy efficiency in industry and biomass and other miscellaneous energy systems. Keywords: sustainab

The Swedish pulp and paper industry has gone through a strategic change in its approach to electricity production and consumption over the past decade. This paper documents this reorientation, which includes increased on-site electricity production, investments and investment plans for wind power, and new partnerships concerning investments in electricity production assets. We also assess the extent to which these changes can be attributed to key energy and climate policies. Our analysis shows that this strategic reorientation has been driven by changes in the underlying economic conditions for the pulp and paper industry, in particular increases in the price of electricity following the Swedish energy market reform in 1996, and the introduction of the EU ETS. The scheme for tradable renewable electricity certificates, on the other hand, has provided a new source of income. While these market-based signals and responses are the most dominant drivers of strategic change, cognitive changes in the pulp and paper industry have also played a role in the strategic reorientation. The cognitive changes concerning the functioning of the electricity market, i.e. the pricing of electricity and influence of the EU ETS, have been particularly important in this regard.

Despite the need for increased industrial energy efficiency, studies indicate that cost-effective energy efficiency measures are not always implemented, which is explained by the existence of barriers to energy efficiency. This paper investigates whether this holds for the Swedish pulp and paper industry, and if so, investigates the barriers inhibiting and the driving forces stressing cost-effective energy efficiency investments. By so, this case study covers about 2% of the EU-25 industrial end-use of energy. The overall results from a questionnaire show that there is an energy efficiency gap in the sector and that the largest barriers were technical risks such as risk of production disruptions, cost of production disruption/hassle/inconvenience, technology inappropriate at the mill, lack of time and other priorities, lack of access to capital, and slim organization. As regards the driving forces for energy efficiency, the highest ranked driving forces were cost reductions resulting from lower energy use, people with real ambition, long-term energy strategy, the threat of rising energy prices, the electricity certificate system, the PFE. The results show that many of the barriers and driving forces were not solely market-related, e.g., lack of time or other priorities, slim organization, other priorities for capital investments, lack of staff awareness, and long decision chains indicate that firm-specific barriers plays an important role. These barriers may not be overcome by market-related public policy instruments but is rather a consequence of how the energy issue is organized within the firms. The second and the third largest driving forces, people with real ambition and a long-term energy strategy further support this. The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com: Patrik Thollander and Mikael Ottosson, An energy efficient Swedish pulp and paper industry – exploring barriers to and driving forces for cost-effective energy efficiency investments, 2007, Energy Efficiency, (1), 1, 21-34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12053-007-9001-7. Copyright: Springer-Verlag, www.springerlink.com

Life cycle assessments carried out to assess paper recycling have arrived at different conclusions, partly due to methodological differences in the inventory analysis. Important methodological issues include the definition of system boundaries, allocation, assumptions and choice of data. Forestry, electricity production, recycling and final waste management are important parts of the wood-fibre life cycle. This overview demonstrates the significance of different methodological problems, presents various solutions and offers recommendations. The starting point in an efficient and accurate assessment is the decision at hand, rather than the life cycle of the product investigated. To obtain the environmentally optimal wood-fibre system, recycling should ideally be assessed in connection with other waste management, forestry and energy policies.

Based on a study of policy-induced changes in the Swedish pulp and paper industry, this paper follows a process of socio-technical regime destabilisation. Results from the study show that in industries where established firms have significant power, processes of endogenous renewal are more likely to destabilise established regimes than processes based on niche solutions. Further, the study shows how policy measures aimed to destabilise the current regime may result in different responses, owing to the different capabilities of individual firms. The analysis suggests that heterogeneous capabilities within established industries provide possibilities for policy makers to initiate change.

Energy technologies based on biomass conversion are put forward as major means to curb climate change and enable a transition to a carbon neutral society. Many policies at international and national level are set up to support this transition. The pulp and paper industry is strongly linked to the conversion of biomass in Sweden and have a decisive role for the future of these technologies. This study aims to describe and explain the Swedish pulp and paper industry’s reaction to policy with regard to the development of biorefineries. It turns out that firms are developing along two technological trajectories; 1) gasification for fuel production with a business model similar to the current one and 2) separation and refining for production of high value products, which requires a modified business model. Firms are also repositioning themselves within the regime and across regime borders. We conclude that the regime is in a phase of fragmentation. The policy implications from this analysis are that effective policy intervention needs to consider that multiple signals that are affecting the regime and policies should be designed depending on what degree of regime fragmentation that is desirable.

LBNL-XXXX E RNEST O RLANDO L AWRENCE B ERKELEY N ATIONAL L ABORATORY Emerging Energy-Efficiency and Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Technologies for the Pulp and Paper Industry Lingbo Kong, Ali Hasanbeigi, Lynn Price China Energy Group Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts Department Environmental Energy Technologies Division Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory November 2012 This work was supported by the China Sustainable Energy Program of the Energy Foundation and Dow Chemical Company (through a charitable contribution) through the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE- AC02-05CH11231.

This paper focuses on Togo’s Poverty Reduction Strategy. The Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper adopted by the government in March 2008 has allowed Togo once again to benefit from international financial cooperation. With a view to improving political and economic governance, the government continued the ongoing process of national reconciliation and political reform, strengthening the rule of law and the security of persons and property, and implementation of institutional reforms. The government has introduced reforms designed to improve governance in nonperforming state enterprises and in the banking sector.

This paper reports on progress made on Nicaragua’s National Human Development Plan as of 2010. The operational goal for Nicaragua’s National Human Development Plan is economic growth with increased employment and reduced inequality and poverty. The results for 2007–10 highlight a significant reduction in inequality among Nicaraguans based on better distribution of income and consumption. This has been possible owing to redistributive government policies with positive results, economic recovery, and positive economic growth in the midst of a world financial and economic crisis.

The UK government traditionally used the electricity supply industry to support a nuclear programme which cost some £40 billion in current prices to produce expensive electricity, and also to support British Coal. The creation of a privatized and competitive electricity supply industry exposed the inadequate performance of these undertakings, and they could not be sustained in a competitive market. There were successive crises first of the nuclear programme and then British Coal. The government's energy policy is now to rely on the market to provide an efficient and diverse energy supply for generation. Markets break the political nexus. They are not perfect, and they are generally uncertain and messy. But given the past failures of the UK government, they are preferable to politicians, civil servants, and supplicants for public patronage at public expense.

Job generation has been a part of the national dialogue surrounding energy policy and renewable energy (RE) for many years. RE advocates tout the ability of renewable energy to support new job opportunities in rural America and the manufacturing sector. Others argue that spending on renewable energy is an inefficient allocation of resources and can result in job losses in the broader economy. The report, Study of the Effects on Employment of Public Aid to Renewable Energy Sources, from King Juan Carlos University in Spain, is one recent addition to this debate. This report asserts that, on average, every renewable energy job in Spain 'destroyed' 2.2 jobs in the broader Spanish economy. The authors also apply this ratio to the U.S. context to estimate expected job loss from renewable energy development and policy in the United States. This memo discusses fundamental and technical limitations of the analysis by King Juan Carlos University and notes critical assumptions implicit in the ultimate conclusions of their work. The memo also includes a review of traditional employment impact analyses that rely on accepted, peer-reviewed methodologies, and it highlights specific variables that can significantly influence the results of traditional employment impact analysis.

Will climate change stay below the 2 degree target in the 21st century on the basis of the COP 21 results? Looking into challenges and opportunities, this paper answers: To stay below the global 2dt is neither a real choice for the world society nor for businesses and civil societies in specific countries. It is a global guideline, scientifically developed for global negotiations, which should be broken down to national interests and actors. Key questions concerning the energy sector from the perspective of national interests are how to create and sustain a momentum for the inevitable energy transition, how to encourage disruptive innovations, avoid lock in effects, enable rapid deployment of energy efficiency and renewable energies etc. Or in other words: how to get to a competitive, economically benign, inclusive, low carbon and risk minimising energy system. With this background the paper argues that "burden sharing" is a misleading perception of strong climate mitigation strategies. It is more realistic to talk about "benefit sharing", using the monetary benefits and co-benefits of climate mitigation (e.g. energy cost savings, revenues from CO2-tax or emission trading systems) to help vulnerable national and international actors to adapt to the unavoidable climate risks. It has to be demonstrated on country level that the technologies and policy mix of strong climate mitigation and risk-minimising actions are indeed "benefit sharing" strategies which should be chosen anyhow, even if there was no climate change. For China and Germany this paper includes basic findings supporting this view. Bleibt nach den Beschlüssen von COP 21 der Klimawandel im 21. Jahrhundert unter dem 2 Grad Ziel? Dieses Papier argumentiert: Unter dem 2 Grad Ziel zu bleiben ist weder in globaler noch in nationaler Hinsicht ein reales Aktionsziel. Es handelt sich um eine globale Zielorientierung, die auf Basis bestmöglicher wissenschaftlicher Analysen für ein weltweites Klimaschutzregime entwickelt worden ist, aber auf nationale Interessen, Strategien und Akteure heruntergebrochen werden muss. Aus nationaler Perspektive ist zu fragen, wie eine Dynamik in Richtung der ohnehin notwendigen Transformation des Energiesystems erreicht werden kann: Wie können Innovationen ermutigt, Lock-in Effekte vermieden und die focierte Markteinführung von Effizienz und Erneuerbaren beschleunigt werden, um auf eine risikominimales Energiesystem rascher umzusteuern? Das Papier argumentiert, dass "Burden Sharing" eine irreführende Wahrnehmung dieses Transformationsprozesses darstellt. Es handelt sich vielmehr um einen komplexen Prozess des "Benefit Sharing", der mit einschließt, dass besonders verwundbaren Ländern und Akteuren die Anpassung an den unvermeidlichen Klimawandel erleichtert wird. Insofern gilt es nach COP 21 primär durch System- und Szenarienanalysen zu demonstrieren, dass nationale Strategien und Techniken des Klimaschutzes und der Risikominimierung ohnehin implementiert werden sollten, auch wenn es den Klimawandel nicht geben würde. Am Beispiel China und vor allem der Energiewende in Deutschland werden diese Thesen konkretisiert.

ISEBE : International Symposium of Environmental Biotechnology and Engineering, Mexico, MEX, -; Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) is the most populated urban area in the country. In 2010, MCMA required 14.8% of total energy domestic demand, but greenhouse gas emissions accounted for 7.7% of domestic emissions. Mexico has massive renewable energy potential that could be harnessed through solar photovoltaic (PV) technology. The problem to explore is the relationship between local and federal public strategies in MCMA and their stance on energy transition concern, social empowerment, new technology appropriation, and the will to boost social development and urban sustainability. A public policy typology was conducted through instruments of State intervention approach, based on political agenda articulation and environmental local interactions. Social equality is encouraged by means of forthright funding and in-kind support and energy policies focus on non-renewable energy subsidies and electric transmission infrastructure investment. There is a lack of vision for using PV technology as a guiding axis for marginalized population development. It is essential to promote economic and political rearrangement in order to level and structure environmental governance. It is essential to understand people's representation about their own needs along with renewable energy.

Turkish electricity market law (EML) came into force in 2001 aiming at establishing a financially strong, stable, transparent and competitive electricity market based on bilateral contracts. Also, a balancing and settlement system (BSS) was put into practice in November 2004 to create a market where uncontracted generation can be traded, and actual implementation of the BSS started on August, 1st 2006 following a 21-month virtual implementation period. However, BSS has always been criticized from its beginning as transferring excessive profits to private generation companies. The present paper analyzes the implementation of BSS and argues that current BSS not only undermines the healthy development of the electricity market in Turkey but also prevents power investments due to uncertainties it created. It concludes that since the inconsistency between the objectives of EML and results of BSS in practice is obvious, Turkish policy makers need to modify current electricity market policy in line with suggestions presented in the paper.

Human has always searched for higher living standards and greater power. Higher energy consumption, conversion, quality and efficiency have greatly served for the purpose with some consequences. Yet, the energy crisis in 1970s forced countries to take more imposing and complicated measures for energy saving and efficiency. For instance, the European Union set forward the 2010 Energy Performance of Buildings Directive legislation to lessen building energy consumption. The International Energy Agency (IEA) proposed its ‘25 Energy Efficiency Policy Recommendations’ in 2008 to save energy and to reduce annual CO2 emissions. Education and energy are two key concepts in people’s life. As schools play a significant role in education, they can play a similar role in energy consumption and education. Millions of students are enrolled in pre-primary, primary and secondary education around the world every year and countries spend significant amount of their GDP on education. It provides great opportunities to governments and schools to reduce energy consumption, save environment, and teach future generations the importance of building/following policies and standards through education as energy policy and education in schools have become an applying issue in today’s world and for the future. The aim of this article is to emphasize the importance of energy users’ behavior, school energy education and policies as building and implementing a school energy policy with the help of energy education and (inter)national standards can pay off not only within school areas but also nation-wide in the long run. Additionally, this article provides step-by-step energy policy guidance with a sample primary school energy policy for schools from the beginning and recommendations to raise school members’ energy awareness. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2016.v6n2p183

While this is not the paper on a full emissions trading scheme (ETS) that had been indicated, comments are provided on the narrower focus of domestic offsets. The design is closely allied to Treasury’s design of a carbon tax as set out in a policy paper (National Treasury 2013), with domestic carbon off-sets designed to reduce tax liability by up to 10%, for activities not covered by the tax. ERC has commented separately on the tax policy, and the present comments should be read together with those comments. The finding that carbon offset projects can generate significant local sustainable development benefits (p. 16) should be treated with caution. The experience with the CDM has been mixed, as assessed for example in (Ellis, Winkler, Morlot & Gagnon-Lebrun 2007). Market mechanisms generally favour low-cost reductions, and require clear policy guidance and / or financial incentives to deliver additional benefits.

Our analysis of the carbon tax as proposed in Treasury’s policy paper is that it is both low relative to the required task and includes a complex set of exemptions. The effective tax rate of R12-48 / t CO2-eq is too little to transform South Africa’s energy economy, and does not make a sufficient contribution to bending the curve of our national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, so that it starts following a benchmark ‘peak, plateau and decline’ GHG emission trajectory, as set out in our climate policy (RSA 2011).