Monitoring the Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy
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Building a Sustainable and Desirable Economy-In-Society- In-Nature
SCIENCE | ENVIRONMENT State of the World 2013 2013 STATE OF THE WORLD is Is Sustainability Still Possible? SUSTAINABILITY “State of the World 2013 assembles the wisdom and clarity of some of the earth’s finest thinkers, visionaries, and activists into a dazzling array of topics that merge to offer a compellingly lucid and accessible vision of where we are—and what is the wisest and healthiest course for the future.” OF THE WORLD STATE —NINA SIMONS, Cofounder, Bioneers Still Possible? “This edition forges a new path for the State of the World series, and for environmental thinking in general. A pivotal book that marks a defining moment for our species.” — RICHARD HEINBERG, Senior Fellow, Post Carbon Institute, and author of The End of Growth “State of the World 2013 is a powerful collection of articles, and the vision behind it is impressive. Here is a book that gets beyond ‘sustainababble’ and asks the tough, essential questions. It should make readers more determined than ever to do their part in avoiding planet-wide disaster—and better informed about how to do that.” — PETER SINGER, Professor of Bioethics, Princeton University, and author of Animal Liberation, One World, and The Life You Can Save Sustainability gets plenty of lip service, but the relentless worsening of key environmental trends reveals much of that attention to be “sustainababble.” From climate instability and species extinctions to approaching scarcities of freshwater, minerals, and energy, worrisome limits to human economic activity look more pressing each year—all while our political institutions seem impotent to address the challenge. THE WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE, in this edition of the celebrated State of the World series, takes an unflinching look at what the data say about the prospects for achieving true sustainability, 2013 what we should be doing now to make progress toward it, and how we might cope if we fail to do so. -
TOWARDS a SCIENCE-BASED APPROACH to CLIMATE NEUTRALITY in the CORPORATE SECTOR Discussion Paper
TOWARDS A SCIENCE-BASED APPROACH TO CLIMATE NEUTRALITY IN THE CORPORATE SECTOR Discussion paper Draft for initial feedback - Version 1.0 September, 2019 Alberto Carrillo Pineda, Pedro Faria ABSTRACT The Special Report on 1.5°C (SR15) released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2018 confirmed that, in order to limit global warming to 1.5°C, we need to reach net-zero CO emissions at the global level by mid-century. Since then, the concept of 2 net-zero emissions has been gaining prominence in the climate policy and climate action arena with a number of countries and non-state actors increasingly setting long-term goals to reach net-zero emissions. According to the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), by August 2019, nearly 20 countries had agreed to set long-term pathways to reach net-zero emissions, and some of them had already net-zero legislation in place (Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom and France). In the corporate sector, by September, 2019, over 50 companies had committed to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 as part of the Business Ambition for 1.5°C campaign. 1 To date, the concept of climate neutrality in the corporate sector has been approached in different, and sometimes divergent ways. The various approaches to climate neutrality differ in at least four aspects: (1) the time frame of the target (e.g. short vs long-term targets); (2) the scope of the activities included in the target (e.g. operational emissions vs value-chain emissions); (3) the climate impacts from those activities (e.g. -
Biomass Carbon Neutrality
Biomass Carbon Neutrality Position As EPA continues to consider how to regulate biogenic CO2 emissions, International Paper (IP) urges policymakers and the EPA to recognize our biomass use as carbon neutral. The efficient use of biomass residuals for energy produced and used by IP enables us to manufacture paper-based products people use every day while yielding significant carbon benefit. Policy Request International Paper encourages the Senate and the House to support a potential biomass carbon amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill and potential year-end omnibus package IP’s Efficient Use of Carbon Neutral Biomass Forest and manufacturing residuals are integral to manufacturing IP’s products and our primary energy source. A study by the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement (NCASI) shows substantial benefits in using manufacturing residuals for energy by the forest products industry. The industry’s use of biomass avoids the emissions of 218 million metric tons of CO2 annually - equivalent to removing over 40 million cars from the road. By procuring wood from suppliers who certify their forest sustainability, IP voluntarily contributes to a successful market-based system of biomass use in the U.S. that perpetuates positive carbon benefits and co- benefits including: Efficient use of forest and manufacturing residuals through combined heat-and-power (CHP) Reduction of fossil fuel and related GHG emissions at IP – down 16% since 2010 Limiting emissions of other GHGs, like methane, that could occur from residue disposal Robust recycling of paper fiber to reuse valuable biomass resources Employment of 32,000 people throughout the United States International Paper’s Role in the Carbon Cycle How Does the EPA View Biomass Carbon Neutrality? The carbon neutrality of biomass that is harvested from sustainably managed forests has been recognized repeatedly by numerous studies, agencies, institutions, legislation and rules around the world. -
Eco-Positive Design: Moving Beyond Ecological Restoration
Dr Janis Birkeland Earth & Environment ︱ Dr Birkeland, with co-authors Birte Christina Renger and David J. Midmore, discuss the positive role buildings could play in carbon sequestration. Buildings are currently a major CO2 source but the usual approach is to compensate Eco-positive design: for the emissions from a building’s Moving beyond ecological restoration operation, and not the emissions used in resource extraction and construction. They show quantitatively that, with a With a background in art, ities and buildings have greatly CHANGING OUR BUILT different approach to design, buildings architecture, planning and law, improved human life but at a ENVIRONMENTS could sequester more CO2 than they Dr Janis Birkeland from the C huge cost to the planet around Dr Birkeland has long advocated changing emit over their full lifecycle (Renger et al., University of Melbourne is well us. We have decimated the very thing the way we think about sustainability and 2015). By designing buildings to support positioned to understand and that ultimately sustains us – nature ecological design. What is now called substantial and permanent planting, address the current obstacles itself. According to the World Wildlife ‘sustainable development’ only aims to carbon amortization can be achieved to sustainability. As the Fund, for example, 50% of the earth’s improve upon best practice – which is far far earlier in the building’s lifecycle originator of net-positive design biodiversity has been lost in 50 years from ecologically and socially sustainable. compared to using only renewable energy and development or ‘Positive (WWF, 2018). At its core, Positive Each construction project diminishes the systems. -
The Ecological and Inclusive Transition Towards Carbon Neutrality
The ecological and inclusive transition towards carbon neutrality Summary March 2020 1 THE ECOLOGICAL AND INCLUSIVE TRANSITION TOWARDS CARBON NEUTRALITY The National Low-Carbon Strategy Implemented via the law of 17 August 2015 relating to energy transition for green growth, the National Low-Carbon Strategy (SNBC) serves as France’s policymaking road map in terms of climate change mitigation. It is one of the two prongs of French climate policy, along with the National Adaptation to Climate Change Plan: This second edition of the SNBC puts into action the Government’s ambition, presented in July 2017 via the Climate Plan and enshrined in the law (n° 2019-1147 of 8th November 2019 relating to energy and climate), to accelerate the implementation of the Paris Agreement by setting a target of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 within French territories, this being understood as achieving a balance between anthropogenic emissions and anthropogenic absorption of greenhouse gas, i.e. that which is absorbed by the natural environment managed by man (forest land, grassland, agricultural soils, wetlands, etc.) and certain industrial procedures (carbon capture, storage and reuse). On the basis of a forward-looking trajectory to 2050, it defines short- and medium-term greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets for France: carbon budgets. These are greenhouse gas emission ceilings not to be exceeded at the national level over five-year periods, expressed in millions of tons of CO2 equivalent1. It is consistent with France’s commitments to the European Union under the Paris Agreement, as well as national commitments including the 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 2030 compared to 1990. -
Green Economy Or Green Utopia? Rio+20 and the Reproductive Labor Class
Green Economy or Green Utopia? Rio+20 and the Reproductive Labor Class Ariel Salleh University of Sydney [email protected] Sociologists use the concept of class variously to explain and predict people's relation to the means of production, their earnings, living conditions, social standing, capacities, and political identification. With the rise of capitalist globalization, many sociologists focus on the transnational ruling class and new economic predicaments faced by industrial workers in the world-system (see, for example, Robinson and Harris 2000). Here I will argue that to understand and respond to the current global environmental crisis, another major class formation should be acknowledged - one defined by its materially regenerative activities under "relations of reproduction" (Salleh 2010). The salience of this hypothetical third class is demonstrated by the 2012 United Nations Rio+20 summit and its official "green economy" negotiating text The Future We Want (UNCSD 2012). Clearly, the question that begs to be asked is - who is the "we" in this international document, and whose "utopia" does it serve? Part of the answer is found in a recent G20 media release, suggesting that "current high energy prices open policy space for economic incentives to renewables [...] investors are looking for alternatives given the low interest rates in developed countries, a factor that presents an opportunity for green economy projects” (Calderon 2012). The UN, together with the transnational capitalist class, looks to technology and new institutional architectures to push against the limits of living ecologies, and these measures are given legitimation as "economic necessity." Yet empirically, it is peasants, mothers, fishers and gatherers working with natural thermodynamic processes who meet everyday needs for the majority of people on earth. -
Green Growth Policy, De-Growth, and Sustainability: the Alternative Solution for Achieving the Balance Between Both the Natural and the Economic System
sustainability Editorial Green Growth Policy, De-Growth, and Sustainability: The Alternative Solution for Achieving the Balance between Both the Natural and the Economic System Diego A. Vazquez-Brust 1,2 and José A. Plaza-Úbeda 3,* 1 Portsmouth Faculty of Business and Law, Richmond Building, Portland Street, Portsmouth P01 3DE, UK; [email protected] 2 Production Engineering Department, Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Florianópolis 88040-900, SC, Brazil 3 Economics and Business Department, University of Almeria, 04120 Almeria, Spain * Correspondence: [email protected] 1. Introduction “We are ethically obliged and incited to think beyond what are treated as the realistic limits of the possible” (Judith Butler, 2020) The existence of an imbalance between our planet’s reserves of resources and the conditions necessary to maintain high levels of economic growth is evident [1]. The limitation of natural resources pushes companies to consider the possibility of facing critical situations in the future that will make it extremely difficult to reconcile economic Citation: Vazquez-Brust, D.A.; and sustainable objectives [2]. Plaza-Úbeda, J.A. Green Growth In this context of dependence on an environment with finite resources, there are Policy, De-Growth, and Sustainability: growing interests in alternative economic models, such as the Circular Economy, oriented to The Alternative Solution for the maximum efficient use of resources [3–5]. However, the Circular Economy approach is Achieving the Balance between Both still very far from the reality of industries, and the depletion of natural resources continues the Natural and the Economic System. undeterred [6]. It is increasingly necessary to explore alternative approaches to address the Sustainability 2021, 13, 4610. -
Tracking Nordic Clean Energy Progress 2020
Progress towards Nordic Carbon Neutrality Tracking Nordic Clean Energy Progress 2020 April 2020 Tracking Nordic Clean Energy Progress 2020 Ea Energy Analyses: Anders Kofoed-Wiuff, Kirsten Dyhr-Mikkelsen, Ida Stokkebye Rueskov, Andrea Pasquali, Karla Brunak Gaia Group: Marika Bröckl, Markku Hagström Copyright © Tracking Nordic Energy Progress 2020 Nordic Energy Research, Stensberggata 27, NO-0170 Oslo, Norway Originally published in August 2019, Updated April 2020 by Ea Energy Analyses Front page photo credit: © “Is” by Johannes Jansson/norden.org Back page photo credit: Visme, Aaron Burden / Unplash Nordic Energy Research Nordic Energy Research is an institution under the Nordic Council of Ministers which manages and finances international research programs and projects that add value to national work in the Nordic countries. In addition, we perform certain secretariat and analytical functions in the energy policy cooperation under the Nordic Council of Ministers. The board of Nordic Energy Research comprises representatives from the authorities and ministries responsible for energy research funding in the five Nordic countries Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, who also contribute to the majority of the organisation’s funding. Download publications at www.nordicenergy.org/publications Foreword The Nordic countries have a common vision of a carbon neutral region expressed in the Declaration on Nordic Carbon Neutrality adopted by the Nordic prime ministers in Helsinki in January 2019. One the one hand, most of the present CO2 emissions worldwide are energy related. On the other hand, the Nordic energy sectors are frontrunners for the green transition. Therefore, the transition of the energy system is an important part of the pathway towards a carbon neutral Nordic region. -
Towards Green Growth Summary in English
Towards Green Growth Summary in English • Green growth means fostering economic growth and development while ensuring that natural assets continue to provide the resources and environmental services on which our well-being relies. To do this it must catalyse investment and innovation which will underpin sustained growth and give rise to new economic opportunities. • A return to ‘business as usual’ would be unwise and ultimately unsustainable, involving risks that could impose human costs and constraints on economic growth and development. It could result in increased water scarcity, resource bottlenecks, air and water pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss which would be irreversible; thus the need for strategies to achieve greener growth. Towards Green Growth - ISBN 978-92-64-094970 © OECD 2011 Sources of green growth Green growth has the potential to address economic and environmental challenges and open up new sources of growth through the following channels: • Productivity. Incentives for greater efficiency in the use of resources and natural assets: enhancing productivity, reducing waste and energy consumption and making resources available to highest value use. • Innovation. Opportunities for innovation, spurred by policies and framework conditions that allow for new ways of addressing environmental problems. • New markets. Creation of new markets by stimulating demand for green technologies, goods, and services; creating potential for new job opportunities. • Confidence. Boosting investor confidence through greater predictability and stability around how governments are going to deal with major environmental issues. • Stability. More balanced macroeconomic conditions, reduced resource price volatility and supporting fiscal consolidation through, for instance, reviewing the composition and efficiency of public spending and increasing revenues through the pricing of pollution. -
Introduction to Energy Transition and Green New Deal in Korea
Introduction to Energy Transition and Green New Deal in Korea Kwanghee Yeom BERLIN, NOVEMBER 2020 Who is Agora Energiewende? Agora Energiewende: An independent and non-partisan Think Tank & Policy Lab ~ 50 experts on energy system transformation Diverse financing structure (primarily philanthropic foundations) Vision: A prosperous & carbon neutral global economy by 2050 We advise & inform policy decisions to deliver clean power, heat & industry – in DE, EU and around the globe 3 The role of Agora in policy debates The Policy funnel Agenda setting Solution development Legislation Climate and energy topics Solution entering the space Acceptable corridor political process for outcome Agora Narrowing down the solution space to ensure decisions within an acceptable NGOs, interest groups, corridor through thought leadership, companies, others strategic anticipation, joint fact finding Advocacy, campaigning, etc. & strategic communication time Agora Energiewende The role of Agora in policy debates Towards a Climate-Neutral Germany A Clean Industry Package for the EU 5 Our global partners: The International Network of Energy Transition Think Tanks 6 Energy Transition in Korea Korea and Brazil at a glance Korea and Brazil Comparative indicators between Korea and Brazil KOR BRA Surface area [km²] 100,284 8,515,767 Population [thousand, 2019] 51,225 211,050 Population density [per km², 2019] 529.8 25.3 GDP [billion current USD, 2019] 1,530.7 2,055.5 GDP per capita [current USD, 2019] 30,025.2 9,821.4 GDP growth rate [annual %, const. 3.1 1.1 2010 -
Youthxchange Green Skills and Lifestyles Guidebookpdf
The United Nations Educational, Scientifi c, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) www.unesco.org The United Nations Educational, Scientifi c and United Nations Educational, Scienti c Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was founded on and Cultural Organization November 16, 1945. This specialized United Nations Tel: +33 (0) 1 45 68 10 00 United Nations agency’s mission is to contribute to the building Fax: +33 (0) 1 45 67 16 90 Educational, Scientific and United Nations Cultural Organization of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable [email protected] Educational, Scientific and development and intercultural dialogue through Cultural Organization education, the sciences, culture, communication and information. For more information: UNESCO Division for Inclusion, www.ilo.org Peace and Sustainable Development International Labour Organization 7, place de Fontenoy Tel: +41 (0) 22 799 6111 75732 Paris Cedex 07 France Fax: +41 (0) 22 798 8685 Tel: +33 (0) 1 456 810 36 [email protected] Fax: +33 (0) 1 456 856 44 Email: [email protected] www.unesco.org/education This publication is a contribution to: – The Global Action Programme (GAP) on Education for Sustainable Development, which seeks to generate and scale-up ESD as the follow up to the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. The GAP’s priority action area #4 focuses on empowering and mobilizing youth. For more information: http://en.unesco.org/gap youth change – The 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production’s Sustainable Lifestyles & Education Programme, X which aims to foster the uptake of sustainable ©Thad Mermer Green Skills and Lifestyles Guidebook lifestyles as the common norm, with the objective of ensuring their positive contribution to addressing global challenges. -
Update on Recent Progress in Reform of Inefficient Fossil-Fuel Subsidies That Encourage Wasteful Consumption
UPDATE ON RECENT PROGRESS IN REFORM OF INEFFICIENT FOSSIL-FUEL SUBSIDIES THAT ENCOURAGE WASTEFUL CONSUMPTION Contribution by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to the G20 Energy Transitions Working Group in consultation with: International Energy Forum (IEF), Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the World Bank 2nd Energy Transitions Working Group Meeting Toyama, 18-19 April 2019 Update on Recent Progress in Reform of Inefficient Fossil-Fuel Subsidies that Encourage Wasteful Consumption This document, as well as any data and any map included herein, are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. This update does not necessarily express the views of the G20 countries or of the IEA, IEF, OECD, OPEC and the World Bank or their member countries. The G20 countries, IEA, IEF, OECD, OPEC and the World Bank assume no liability or responsibility whatsoever for the use of data or analyses contained in this document, and nothing herein shall be construed as interpreting or modifying any legal obligations under any intergovernmental agreement, treaty, law or other text, or as expressing any legal opinion or as having probative legal value in any proceeding. Please cite this publication as: OECD/IEA (2019), "Update on recent progress in reform of inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption", https://oecd.org/fossil-fuels/publication/OECD-IEA-G20-Fossil-Fuel-Subsidies-Reform-Update-2019.pdf │ 3 Summary This report discusses recent trends and developments in the reform of inefficient fossil- fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption, within the G20 and beyond.