1,246 research outputs found

    Expert Weighting Based Dynamic Eco-efficiency Assessment of World Consumption

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    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

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    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 input–output 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 ae−1 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

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    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 input–output 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 ae−1 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

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    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

    Infrastructure systems modeling using data visualization and trend extraction

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    “Current 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 effectiveness”--Abstract, page iv

    Building the knowledge base for environmental action and sustainability

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