1,246 research outputs found
Expert Weighting Based Dynamic Eco-efficiency Assessment of World Consumption
Optimizing the consumption of natural resources and ensuring the availability
of resources for both current and future generations has been the target for sustainability
research. This paper aims to assess the eco-efficiency of global resource consumption
through the environmental footprint perspective. The study effectively utilized
EXIOBASE 3.41, a multi-region input-output (MRIO) database, for collecting data and
Multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach for eco-efficiency assessment.
Besides, the present paper utilizes expert weighting strategies such as EPP, SAB,
Harvard, and EQUAL for assigning relative significance to various environmental
indicators. Primarily, the data sample represents the influence of environmental
stressors like GHG emission, land use, energy use, material consumption, water
consumption. The study expands through three major scenarios in terms of importance
to the economic and environmental outcomes. As such, with three scenarios and four
weighting strategies, twelve situations are considered for the purpose of the study. The
study findings indicate that the eco-efficiency score for given weighting strategies
concerning economic and environmental impact demonstrates a significant statistical
difference. The countries like China, India, Russia, Mexico, and Turkey are worst
performing while Switzerland, Japan, UK, Germany, and France are best performing in terms of eco-efficiency score. Finally, k-mean clustering algorithm has applied to rank the countries centered on eco-efficiency score and weighing strategie
The energy and carbon inequality corridor for a 1.5 °C compatible and just Europe
The call for a decent life for all within planetary limits poses a dual challenge: provide all people with the essential resources needed to live well and, collectively, not exceed the source and sink capacity of the biosphere to sustain human societies. We examine the corridor of possible distributions of household energy and carbon footprints that satisfy both minimum energy use for a decent life and available energy supply compatible with the 1.5 °C target in 2050. We estimated household energy and carbon footprints for expenditure deciles for 28 European countries in 2015 by combining data from national household budget surveys with the environmentally-extended multi-regional inputâoutput model EXIOBASE. We found a top-to-bottom decile ratio (90:10) of 7.2 for expenditure, 3.1 for net energy and 2.6 for carbon. The lower inequality of energy and carbon footprints is largely attributable to inefficient energy and heating technologies in the lower deciles (mostly Eastern Europe). Adopting best technology across Europe would save 11 EJ of net energy annually, but increase environmental footprint inequality. With such inequality, both targets can only be met through the use of CCS, large efficiency improvements, and an extremely low minimum final energy use of 28 GJ per adult equivalent. Assuming a more realistic minimum energy use of about 55 GJ aeâ1 and no CCS deployment, the 1.5 °C target can only be achieved at near full equality. We conclude that achieving both stated goals is an immense and widely underestimated challenge, the successful management of which requires far greater room for maneuver in monetary and fiscal terms than is reflected in the current European political discourse
The energy and carbon inequality corridor for a 1.5 °C compatible and just Europe
The call for a decent life for all within planetary limits poses a dual challenge: provide all people with the essential resources needed to live well and, collectively, not exceed the source and sink capacity of the biosphere to sustain human societies. We examine the corridor of possible distributions of household energy and carbon footprints that satisfy both minimum energy use for a decent life and available energy supply compatible with the 1.5 °C target in 2050. We estimated household energy and carbon footprints for expenditure deciles for 28 European countries in 2015 by combining data from national household budget surveys with the environmentally-extended multi-regional inputâoutput model EXIOBASE. We found a top-to-bottom decile ratio (90:10) of 7.2 for expenditure, 3.1 for net energy and 2.6 for carbon. The lower inequality of energy and carbon footprints is largely attributable to inefficient energy and heating technologies in the lower deciles (mostly Eastern Europe). Adopting best technology across Europe would save 11 EJ of net energy annually, but increase environmental footprint inequality. With such inequality, both targets can only be met through the use of CCS, large efficiency improvements, and an extremely low minimum final energy use of 28 GJ per adult equivalent. Assuming a more realistic minimum energy use of about 55 GJ aeâ1 and no CCS deployment, the 1.5 °C target can only be achieved at near full equality. We conclude that achieving both stated goals is an immense and widely underestimated challenge, the successful management of which requires far greater room for maneuver in monetary and fiscal terms than is reflected in the current European political discourse.Peer Reviewe
Carbon Management Strategy and Carbon Disclosures: An Exploratory Study
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a concept aimed to ensure that corporations conduct their business in an ethical manner by taking care of their environment and human resources in addition to their economic impact. Often times, CSR refers to the steps undertaken by a corporation to measure its efforts to improve the environment and social well-being. One of the aspects of CSR pertains to the disclosure of emission information and carbon management strategy (CMS). Carbon Management refers to analyzing and focusing on those areas within the corporation where cost reductions can be made via energy reductions, waste management and reduced resource consumption. In this paper, we examine the role of an effective CMS on the emission disclosure behavior of firms. We utilize the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) surveys to find that firms adopting an effective CMS are more likely to disclose the information about both direct and indirect emissions
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Tracing Pathways of Resource Use in the World Economy: An Analysis of National and Sectoral Influence across the Global Water-Energy-Land System
A research and policy agenda has emerged in recent years to understand
the interconnected risks natural resource systems face and their
exploitation drives. The so-called Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus has
served as a focal point for the conceptual, theoretical and empirical
development of this agenda. However, boundaries for WEF nexus assessment are usually established without a foundational understanding of major interactions and risks across the water-energy-land (WEL) system. Consequently, priorities drawn from nexus studies might simply be an artefact of the partial scope of nexus assessment rather than a
reflection of major risks to the WEL system and the activities which it
supports. This thesis demonstrates how macro-economic methods of
resource accounting can be used to broaden nexus assessment, sectorally and spatially, to identify and compare different sources of water, energy and land use, in individual countries and globally. A study of
water and land use embodied in international soybean trade (Chapter 3)
reveals that while single commodities can be analysed in this way, data
and time constraints involved in using Material Flow Analysis (MFA) data
make global assessment of water, energy and land use pathways across
different production and consumption systems challenging. However,
Multi-Regional Input-Output Analysis (MRIOA) is found to offer a
practical approach to this end. By combining economic and environmental accounts from the Eora MRIO database, resource risk indices, and techniques for production source decomposition, this thesis examines thewater, energy and land footprints of 189 countries. Chapter 4 evaluates the scale of national water, energy and land use embodied in domestic production and international trade; Chapter 5 compares the contribution of food and non-food related sectors within this context; and, Chapter 6 reveals how these impacts are distributed across supply networks. Linking national consumption to resource origins reveals that countries are often highly exposed to over-exploited, insecure, and degraded water, energy, and land resources. These risks are found to originate from multiple sectors, including food, textiles and construction, and are primarily indirect, stemming from international trade and production up-stream national supply networks. These findings highlight the partiality of studying the WEL system within a single sector, across a
limited supply chain scope, and at a sub-global scale. Policy interventions within this context need to reflect how resource pressures are transmitted through consumption and production systems between local, national, and global scales. However, further research is also needed to expose the links between inequality, ideology, overconsumption and environmental exploitation which drive decisions in relation to water, energy and land resources.Cambridge Commonwealth Trust: Vice Chancellor's Awar
Infrastructure systems modeling using data visualization and trend extraction
âCurrent infrastructure systems modeling literature lacks frameworks that integrate data visualization and trend extraction needed for complex systems decision making and planning. Critical infrastructures such as transportation and energy systems contain interdependencies that cannot be properly characterized without considering data visualization and trend extraction.
This dissertation presents two case analyses to showcase the effectiveness and improvements that can be made using these techniques. Case one examines flood management and mitigation of disruption impacts using geospatial characteristics as part of data visualization. Case two incorporates trend analysis and sustainability assessment into energy portfolio transitions.
Four distinct contributions are made in this work and divided equally across the two cases. The first contribution identifies trends and flood characteristics that must be included as part of model development. The second contribution uses trend extraction to create a traffic management data visualization system based on the flood influencing factors identified. The third contribution creates a data visualization framework for energy portfolio analysis using a genetic algorithm and fuzzy logic. The fourth contribution develops a sustainability assessment model using trend extraction and time series forecasting of state-level electricity generation in a proposed transition setting.
The data visualization and trend extraction tools developed and validated in this research will improve strategic infrastructure planning effectivenessâ--Abstract, page iv
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United States Household Carbon Footprints: Quantifying the relationship between household-level income inequality and greenhouse gas emissions (1996-2015)
As long as humanity has existed, we have altered our environment to provide goods, services, and (more recently) wealth to people. Over the last several centuries, the scope and pace of this transformation has accelerated with the onset of technological innovation, social and economic reorganization, and an ensuing population boom. Today, humanityâs demands on nature have become the dominant force shaping the critical earth systems upon which all life depends. From local land-use change to the global climate many of these anthropogenic pressures pose an existential threat to nature and the dependent social systems that rely on them. Yet, extreme economic and social inequality within and across human societies leads to significant inequality in who reaps the benefits of these transformations, who reaps the harms, and who makes the decisions on that benefit-harm distribution. Here I quantify, at high granularity and over a 20-year period (1996-2015), the GHG emissions footprints of United States households, based on the flow of income, goods and services these emissions enable. I compare the scale and distributions of household-level GHG emissions across different social groups and responsibility frameworks and provide policy insights related to those findings
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