The Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol could create a great chance for developing countries to profit from projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve the economic and environmental situation in the host country. The project cycle for the CDM differs from a usual investment project due to the need to develop a baseline for the calculation of emission reductions, registration by a national CDM body and monitoring and verification of the emission reduction by an independent entity. Before a project can be registered, its eligibility has to be checked. This means that it has to fulfil the international and national CDM criteria. We suggest national criteria concerning the CDM component, adherence to national policy goals, technological aspects, attractiveness for investor and host enterprise as well as avoidance of negative externalities. A set of sustainable development indicators is proposed for Uzbekistan. We then look at each step of project preparation and concentrate on baseline determination, using small hydropower stations in the Uzbek irrigation system as case studies. Determination of system boundaries, leakage and the lifetime of the projects are assessed. Different benchmarks for the Uzbek electricity sector are calculated. We calculate the economic attractiveness of three hydro power stations to determine whether the investment is really additional, using different discount rates and electricity price scenarios. In all scenarios we find positive costs, making the projects additional. ; Der Mechanismus für umweltverträgliche Entwicklung (CDM) des Kyoto-Protokolls eröffnet für Entwicklungsländer eine große Chance, von Projekten zu profitieren, die gleichzeitig Treibhausgasemissionen senken und die Lage der Ökonomie und Umwelt im Gastland verbessern. Der Projektzyklus eines CDM-Projekts unterscheidet sich von einer herkömmlichen Investition dadurch, dass ein Referenzfall für die Berechnung der Emissionsverringerung aufgestellt werden muss, das Projekt bei einer nationalen CDMAgentur angemeldet werden muss und eine Überprüfung und unabhängige Kontrolle der Emissionsverringerung erforderlich ist. Bevor ein Projekt angemeldet werden kann, muss geprüft werden, ob es überhaupt zulässig ist. Das bedeutet, das es die internationalen und nationalen CDM-Kriterien erfüllen muss. Wir schlagen nationale Kriterien bezüglich der CDM-Komponente, der Förderung nationaler Politikziele, technologischer Aspekte, Attraktivität für Investor und Gastfirma sowie Vermeidung negativer Externalitäten für Usbekistan vor. Wir betrachten dann die verschiedenen Schritte der Projektvorbereitung und konzentrieren uns dabei auf die Referenzfallbestimmung anhand von Kleinwasserkraftwerken im usbekischen Bewässerungssystem. Die Bestimmung der Systemgrenzen, indirekter Effekte und der Lebensdauer der Projekte werden diskutiert. Unterschiedliche Standard- Emissionsfaktoren für den usbekischen Stromsektor werden berechnet. Wir analysieren die ökonomische Attraktivität dreier Kleinwasserkraftwerke, um zu bestimmen, ob eine derartige Investition wirklich zusätzlich ist. Dabei werden unterschiedliche Diskontierungsraten und Strompreisentwicklungen berücksichtigt. In allen Szenarien kommen wir zu positiven Kosten, was bedeutet, dass die Investitionen zusätzlich wären.
Bu çalışmada, iş yerlerinde karşılaşılabilen patlama ve yangın risklerini değerlendirmek ve bu risklere karşı alınabilecek önlemleri belirlemek için Türkiye'nin ulusal mevzuatı ve TSE standartlarında belirtilen yöntemler incelenmekte ve hayali bir kimya tesisine uygulanmaktadır. Tanklar, silolar veya diğer iş ekipmanlarından ortama yanıcı gaz, sıvı veya tozların boşalabileceği tüm olası salım kaynakları incelenerek farklı yöntemlerle değerlendirilmeli ve sınıflandırılarak gerekli önlemler alınmalıdır. Hayali tesisimizdeki solvent tankı ve pompası için yaptığımız değerlendirmelerde, tank içerisinin Bölge 0 olarak sınıflandırılabileceği, pompa etrafında ise çeşitli mühendislik yaklaşımlarıyla farklı patlayıcı ortam değerlendirmeleri yapılabileceği sonuçlarına varılmıştır. Polimer toz besleme hunisi için yapılan değerlendirmede, huni içerisinin Bölge 20 olarak sınıflandırılabileceği, huni etrafında oluşabilecek patlayıcı ortamın tehlike mesafesinin ise, ilgili standartta verilen nitel yöntemlere dayanarak tahmini olarak nasıl yapılabileceği gösterilmiştir. Hidrojen tüpü için yapılan değerlendirmede, kaçak kesit alanının, tehlikeli bölge sınıflandırmasına etkisi incelenmiş, hem bölge sınıfına hem de mesafesine önemli etkileri olduğu gösterilmiştir. Bir doğalgaz vanası için yapılan değerlendirmede ise, 400 mbar ve daha düşük basınçlı doğalgaz hatlarının etrafındaki olası tehlikeli bölgelerin mesafelerinin genellikle ihmal edilebilir olacağı tespit edilmiştir. Sınıflandırılmış olan tüm tehlikeli bölgelerin dahilinde kullanılabilecek cihazların kategorileri ve diğer özellikleri belirlenmiş, bu bölgelerde patlama ve yangınlara karşı alınabilecek temel önlemler örneklenmiştir. Sonuç olarak kimya endüstrisinde sıkça rastlanabilecek tanklar, pompalar, vb. ekipmanlarla ilgili deneysel veriler üretilmesine ve Türkiye'de, yanıcı tozlarla ilgili standart testleri yapabilecek akredite laboratuvarlara ihtiyaç duyulduğu vurgulanmıştır. --- This study introduces the assessment and prevention methods of explosion and fire risks in workplaces stated in Turkey's national legislation and TSE standards, then applies these methods into fictive chemical facilities. All possible emission points on the tanks, silos or other work equipment that a flammable substance might be released from, should be examined and classified by specific methods and necessary precautions should be taken. As a result of the assessments of the solvent tank and solvent pump in our fictive facility, it has been concluded that tank interior can be classified as Zone 0 explosive atmosphere and various explosive atmosphere assessments can be made for the pump by various engineering approaches. It has also been shown that as a result of the assessment of polymer dust feed hopper, hopper interior can be classified as Zone 20 explosive atmosphere and the distance of the explosive atmosphere that can occur around the hopper can be predicted based on qualitative methods given in the relevant standard. Influence of different cross-sectional area assumptions for a leakage have been assessed on a fictive hydrogen cylinder and as a result it has been shown that assumption have a great impact on both the class and extent of the hazardous area classification. As a result of the assessment of a natural gas valve, hazardous areas around natural gas pipelines with 400 mbar or lower pressure will generally have a negligible extent. The categories and other characteristics of the equipment that can be used within these classified hazardous areas have been identified, and precautions that can be taken against explosion and fire risks in these areas have been summarized. As a result, it was emphasized that accredited laboratories for carrying out standard tests on combustible powders and experimental data for tanks, pumps, solvents etc. which are frequently encountered in the chemical industry are needed in Turkey.
Diese Dissertation untersucht mehrere energiewirtschaftliche Fragestellungen, in denen Marktmacht eine besondere Rolle spielt; mittels spieltheoretischer Ansätze werden die strategischen Interaktionen mathematisch formuliert und anhand numerischer Methoden Gleichgewichte der Spiele identifiziert. Der Beitrag zum wissenschaftlichen Diskurs rund um den Themenbereich Marktmacht in der Energiewirtschaft liegt in der Entwicklung neuer Ansätze, strategisches Verhalten in partiellen Gleichgewichtsmodellen abzubilden, sowie in der Weiterentwicklung numerischer Methoden zu deren Lösung. Der erste Teil dieser Arbeit befasst sich mit dem globalen Erdölmarkt und der Rolle der Organisation Erdöl-exportierender Länder (OPEC) im letzten Jahrzehnt. Ich formuliere ein Stackelberg-Oligopol, in dem die optimale Ausübung von Marktmacht durch die OPEC-Mitglieder davon abhängt, wie hoch die Kapazitätsauslastung der Nicht-OPEC-Produzenten ist. In einer numerischen Anwendung wird der tatsächliche Preisverlauf mit dem zweistufigen Modell besser abgebildet als mit Standard-Gleichgewichtsmodellen. Das nächste Kapitel wendet sich dem internationalen Erdgasmarkt und - aus mathematischer Sicht - einem mehrperiodigen Investitionsmodell zu. Ich liefere einen Beweis, daß die Berücksichtigung von Investitionen in Erdgas-Marktgleichgewichtsmodellen ein konvexes Problem darstellt und daher mit Standard-Methoden gelöst werden kann. Das folgende Kapitel entwickelt ein partielles Energiesystem-Gleichgewichtsmodell, in dem einzelne Produzenten Marktmacht über mehrere (fossile) Energieträger ausüben können. Dieser Ansatz erlaubt eine Verbindung von Energiesystemmodellen, die zur Analyse möglicher Entwicklungspfade des globalen Energiemixes verwendet werden, mit partiellen Sektormodellen für die Untersuchung von Marktmacht und detailliertem Infrastrukturausbau. Der letzte Teil der Dissertation untersucht das Verhalten national-strategischer Planer im Ausbau des (europäischen) Stromnetzes: der Ausbau von Stromtrassen kann zu Wohlfahrtsverschiebungen zwischen verschiedenen Interessensgruppen (Konsumenten, Erzeuger, Netzbetreiber) sowie über Landesgrenzen führen. Durch das Fehlen effektiver Kompensationsmechanismen im europäischen Rahmen haben nationale Akteure unter Umständen Anreize, Netzausbau in ihrem Zuständigkeitsbereich zu reduzieren, um damit Renten zu ihren Interessensgruppen zu verschieben. Dies wird anhand eines stilisierten Beispiels illustriert. ; This dissertation combines three fields of economics: I take several topics from energy economics, use game theory as the framework to mathematically formulate strategic interaction between several players in these applications, and apply and further develop numerical methods from Operations Research to solve for equilibrium solutions of these games. This work starts with a focus on the crude oil market and the role of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) over the past decade. I propose a Stackelberg oligopoly to describe how market power exertion by OPEC members depends endogenously on the spare capacity of the competitive fringe (i.e., non-OPEC supply). In a numerical exercise, this two-stage model captures the crude oil price spike of 2008 better than standard, simultaneous-move equilibrium concepts widely used in applied work. The following chapter turns from crude oil to natural gas markets and - mathematically - from a one-period quantity game to a multi-period investment model. I provide a proof that including production capacity investment decisions in large-scale partial-equilibrium models yields a convex problem, paving the way for an improvement of this widely used model class. The next chapter develops a large-scale energy system partial-equilibrium model; it combines energy system models, which incorporate fuel substitution, and sector-specific partial-equilibrium models, which are used for market power analyses and consideration of infrastructure investments. The features of this model are illustrated using a large-scale data set and two scenarios: a reduction of shale gas potential in North America, and an ambitious EU policy initiative to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Numerical results are discussed in terms of carbon leakage rates, trade flows, and fuel mix shifts. The final chapter discusses investment in European power transmission capacity. Several zonal planners play a Nash game regarding their domestic network upgrades; each player anticipates the effect on the welfare allocation and seeks to shift rents to its constituents. The game is coordinated by a supra-national agency, which decides on cross-border investment; mathematically, this constitutes a three-level equilibrium model, which is reformulated using strong duality and a variant of a disjunctive-constraints approach. Using a stylized example, numerical results illustrate that the first-best network investment can not be reached when zonal planners act strategically and compensation mechanisms are not available.
Kesselkohle ist ein wichtiger Pfeiler der weltweiten Stromversorgung, dessen Verbrauchswachstum hauptsächlich von der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung Asiens getrieben wird. Seit den frühen 2000er Jahren befindet sich der globale Kesselkohlehandel im Umbruch. Die Handelsflüsse wachsen stetig und es hat ein Konzentrationsprozess auf der Anbieterseite stattgefunden. Dies hat Befürchtungen über eine oligopolistische Marktstruktur geweckt. Die weitere Nutzung von Kesselkohle verursacht zudem erhebliche Umweltexternalitäten, insbesondere auf das Klima durch den Ausstoß von Kohlendioxid. Diese wichtigen Einflussfaktoren des Kesselkohlemarktes werden in der vorliegenden Dissertation mithilfe von numerischen partiellen Gleichgewichtsmodellen analysiert. Zuerst wird der internationale Kesselkohlehandel in der Jahren 2005 und 2006 mit dem COALMOD-Trade-Modell untersucht. Zum Zeitpunkt der höchsten Anbieterkonzentration in diesen Jahren kann kein Anhaltspunkt für strategisches Verhalten gefunden werden. Die Handelsflüsse und Preise im globalen Markt werden durch ein wettbewerbliches Modell besser abgebildet. Im liquideren atlantischen Markt, der in einer genaueren Untersuchung von 2003 bis 2006 analysiert wird, gibt es zwar Anzeichen einer punktuellen Marktmachtausübung. Dennoch kann für die folgende Modellentwicklung davon ausgegangen werden, dass Marktmacht mittelfristig kein strukturelles Problem im globalen Kesselkohlemarkt darstellt. Das umfangreiche COALMOD-World-Modell simuliert daher jährliche Handelsflüsse bis 2030 für den internationalen Handel und einheimische Märkte mit endogenen Investitionen in Abbau- und Transportinfrastruktur. Das Modell kann die Handelsflüsse für das Basisjahr 2006 nachbilden. Im Fall eines weiteren globalen Nachfrageanstiegs jenseits von 2015 kann es zu Transportengpässen sowie steigenden Beschaffungskosten kommen. Dies ist auf den großen Investitionsbedarf zurückzuführen, der nur schwer der Nachfrageentwicklung folgen kann. COALMOD-World wird im Weiteren genutzt, um das Wechselspiel zwischen Klimapolitiken und globalem Kesselkohlemarkt zu untersuchen. Eines der Ergebnisse ist, dass die Effektivität von regionalen Politiken erheblich beeinträchtigt werden kann, falls es zur Verschiebung der Nachfrage in Länder, die weniger oder keine klimapolitischen Anstrengungen tätigen, kommt. Diese Dissertation trägt zur energieökonomischen Literatur in vielerlei Hinsicht bei. Es wird eine aktuelle Marktmachtanalyse des internationalen Kesselkohlemarktes durchgeführt. Die Methodenforschung wird durch einen Beitrag zur Anwendung von "conjectural variations" zur Abbildung strategischen Verhaltens bereichert. Diese Modelle können problematisch sein, da sie nicht in jedem Fall eine Nash-Lösung abbilden. Deswegen wird ein Alternative für die Modellierung von Oligopolen mit einem wettbewerblichen Rand vorgeschlagen. Des Weiteren beinhaltet COALMOD-World mehrere methodische Neuerungen, z.B. einen endogenen Kostenmechanismus. Zudem ermöglicht das Modell eine Quantifizierung des theoretisch viel erforschten "Carbon Leakage" Effekts, hier über den globalen Kesselkohlemarkt. ; Steam coal is one of the main pillars of global electricity generation and its consumption is increasing, mainly driven by the growing Asian economies. Since the early 2000s the global steam coal trade underwent some significant changes. The international seaborne trade flows are growing rapidly and on the supply side a process of mergers and acquisitions increased market concentration, fueling fears that an oligopolistic market structure would develop similarly to the other fossil fuel markets (oil and natural gas). Concerning environmental externalities, the continued use of coal poses a serious problem especially because of the high carbon dioxide emissions that exacerbate climate change. This thesis presents several numerical partial equilibrium models to analyze these main issues affecting the market. In a first step the international seaborne trade of steam coal in the years 2005 and 2006 is investigated using the COALMOD-Trade model. At the time when market concentration on the supply side was the highest, we find no evidence of non-cooperative strategic behavior. The international trade flows and prices are better represented by a competitive model. However, a further analysis of the more mature and liquid Atlantic sub-market between 2003 and 2006 finds some evidence of market power exertion in this region. Yet we conclude that there is no structural market power problem in the mid-term for the global steam coal market. The large scale COALMOD-World model is thus based on the assumption of perfect competition and computes yearly trade flows until 2030 including both international trade and domestic markets as well as endogenous investments in mining and transport infrastructure. This model replicates actual trade flows for the base year 2006. One main finding is that, if global demand continues to increase after 2015, global supply costs may rise due to the large need of investments. COALMOD-World is also used to analyze the interactions between climate policies and the global steam coal market. We find that the effectiveness of regional policies reducing coal demand can be undermined by demand shifting to countries with less stringent climate goals. This thesis contributes to the energy economics literature in several respects. An updated analysis of market power in the global steam coal market is performed. Furthermore, a contribution is made concerning the use of conjectural variations to represent strategic interactions on a market, especially how conjectural variations models may fail to represent Nash equilibria. Thus, an alternative for the modeling of oligopoly markets with a competitive fringe is proposed. The COALMOD-World model contains novelties such as an endogenous cost mechanism that have not yet been used in other energy and resources market models. Finally, while the mechanisms of carbon leakage through energy markets are well understood in theory, we are able to provide a quantification for the order of magnitude using the COALMOD-World model.
In this study, the potential global loss of species directly associated with land use in the EU and due to trade with other regions is computed over time, in order to reveal differences in impacts between the considered alternatives of plausible bioenergy policies development in the EU. The spatially explicit study combines a life cycle analysis (LCA) for biodiversity impact assessment with a global high resolution economic land use model. Both impacts of domestic land use and impacts through imports were included for estimating the biodiversity footprint of the member states of the (EU28). The analyzed scenarios assumed similar biomass demand until 2020 but differed thereafter, from keeping the growth of demand for bioenergy constant (CONST), to a strong increase of bioenergy in line with the EU target of decreasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 80% by 2050 (EMIRED) and with the baseline (BASE) scenario falling between the other two. As a general trend, the increasing demand for biomass was found to have substantial impact on biodiversity in all scenarios, while the differences between the scenarios were found to be modest. The share caused by imports was 15% of the overall biodiversity impacts detected in this study in the year 2000, and progressively increased to 24% to 26% in 2050, depending on the scenario. The most prominent future change in domestic land use in all scenarios was the expansion of perennial cultivations for energy. In the EMIRED scenario, there is a larger expansion of perennial cultivations and a smaller expansion of cropland in the EU than in the other two scenarios. As the biodiversity damage is smaller for land used for perennial cultivations than for cropland, this development decreases the internal biodiversity damage per unit of land. At the same time, however, the EMIRED scenario also features the largest outsourcing of damage, due to increased import of cropland products from outside the EU for satisfying the EU food demand. These two opposite effects even out each other, resulting in the total biodiversity damage for the EMIRED scenario being only slightly higher than the other two scenarios. The results of this study indicate that increasing cultivation of perennials for bioenergy and the consequent decrease in the availability of cropland for food production in the EU may lead to outsourcing of agricultural products supply to other regions. This development is associated with a leakage of biodiversity damages to species-rich and vulnerable regions outside the EU. In the case of a future increase in bioenergy demand, the combination of biomass supply from sustainable forest management in the EU, combined with imported wood pellets and cultivation of perennial energy crops, appears to be less detrimental to biodiversity than expansion of energy crops in the EU.
Nowadays, an important debate in the international economies is the problem of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change related. Discussions begin to gain the world with the signature of the Kyoto Protocol (1997), where an international agreement was reached to reduce global emissions. However, in this context of mitigation, many controlling policies are based on reducing domestic emissions of GHG, which ignores, for example, CO2 emissions embodied in international trade. Moreover, given sudden expansion and globalization of world economies, pollution embodied in trade flows becomes important for measurement of responsibilities, because the use of final goods and production inputs that a country need not necessarily produced by itself, leading to a growing concern about the problem of carbon leakage. Thus, many studies have taken into consideration the estimated emissions embodied in international trade through, for example, the input-output analysis. In this context, this paper seeks to make an empirical investigation on the responsibility for emissions and international trade. We use data from WIOD, where the data structure consists of Input-Output Tables for 40 countries (27 EU countries and 13 other selected countries) plus the "Rest of the World" for the period 1995 to 2009. Furthermore, the production side is disaggregated into 35 productive sectors. Finally uses atmospheric emissions of CO2 for the same 40 countries selected and RoW. The overall aim is to measure emissions embodied in international trade and to analyze the interactions in terms of sectors and regional, from such countries. We propose the following specific aims: a) to observe, through CO2 emissions in international trade, if there is a concentration of emissions and if this behavior is maintained over the years (1995-2009), b) measure CO2 emissions embodied in production and consumption, c) measure the CO2 emissions embodied in exports and imports of each country and thus verify if the international trade has been used as a way to reduce emissions by countries, d) construction carbon balance for each country. The methodology used involves input-output techniques for calculating carbon emissions embodied in international trade. Thus, aggregate indicators for different countries are obtained, such as coefficients of intensity of CO2 emissions. Moreover, trade balances global CO2 emissions embodied in international trade are calculated and the major net exporters and net importers of CO2 emissions in the world economy are identified. Moreover, these indicators represent the empirical basis for the discussion on the responsibility for emissions, being possible, for example, to make a discussion of responsibilities between producer and consumer countries for environmental impacts. Finally, Miyazawa multipliers are calculated, a methodology that approach the issues of feedback loop between countries, through the decomposition of the Leontief inverse matrix in sub-matrices.
3rd Workshop of CODE-BRIGHT Users. 2011, Barcelona. ; Anthropogenic CO2 emissions are expected to continue to increase worldwide in the next decades. This could dramatically increase CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. One potential mitigation action is CO2 permanent storage in deep saline aquifers. CO2 is injected as a supercritical fluid (temperature and pressure higher than 31.1 ºC and 7.38 MPa, respectively) so as to obtain a relatively high density that minimizes the volume occupied by this greenhouse gas. CO2 density is highly dependent on temperature and pressure because of its high compressibility (Vilarrasa et al., 2010a), adopting a wide range of values (450-800 kg/m3). Since CO2 is lighter than brine, flow is affected by buoyancy. Buoyancy produces an upslope migration of the CO2 bubble in sloping aquifers. The post-injection fate of CO2 in sloping aquifers has been investigated (e.g. Hesse et al., 2008; Elenius et al., 2010) but without considering the actual shape of the CO2 bubble at the end of injection. However, the shape of the CO2 bubble at the end of injection affects its posterior evolution (McMinn & Juanes, 2009). Gasda et al. (2008) studied the effect of a slope up to 1º during the injection period using a 2D model, which represents injection through a horizontal well. However, CO2 injection through a vertical well, which implies a 3D geometry, has not yet been investigated.CO2 will be injected in the Hontomín CO2 pilot storage site, Burgos (Spain). Hontomín is the site for the CO2 storage Technology Demonstration Plant (TDP) of the Compostilla OXYCFB300 project, operated by Energy City Foundation (CIUDEN). CO2 will be injected through a vertical well in a flank of a dome-like structure with a slope close to 20º at a depth around 1450 m. CO2 injection tests are aimed to gain knowledge on trapping mechanisms and CO2 bubble and pressure evolution. Pressure evolution is important for assessing the caprock integrity and to avoid the open up of preferential paths for CO2 leakage (Vilarrasa et al., 2010b, 2011). These processes are relatively well known in horizontal aquifers, but a high uncertainty still exists in sloping aquifers. ; V.V. wishes to acknowledge the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCI), through the "Formación de Profesorado Universitario", and the "Colegio de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos – Catalunya" for their financial support. Additionally, we would like to acknowledge the Spanish Government (Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade) through the CUIDEN foundation (project ALM/09/18; www.ciuden.es) and the 'MUSTANG' project (from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013 under grant agreement nº227286 ; www.co2mustang.eu) for their financial support. ; Peer reviewed
This report is on possible improvements on management of revenues from auctioning of European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) allowances and use of flexibility mechanisms in Romania. The principal objective of this report is to propose improvements on management of revenue from the auctioning of EU ETS allowances, as well as describe possible use of flexibility mechanisms in Romania, in order to mobilize and enable both public and private actors to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from economic activities in non EU ETS sectors in line with EU targets. The report focuses on possible actions in the timeframe 2016-2020, aligned with EU ETS phase and EU target for 2020 and 2030. The report is positioned amid the wider context of a vision for Romania to become a climate resilient, low-carbon economy, which has mainstreamed its climate policies and actions into smart, green, and inclusive growth, described in the National Climate Change and Low Carbon Green Growth Strategy for Romania 2016-2030 and 2015-2020 Climate Action Plan prepared by the World Bank for Romania. The report found that until now, there had been no clear and effective procedure for the administration of ETS auctioning revenue, and no selection and prioritization criteria. The lack of selection and prioritization criteria and guidance for using ETS auctioning revenue to finance GHG emission reduction projects allowed for the selection of projects without proper assessment in terms of their reduction of GHG emissions, as well as cost effectiveness and other important factors. In order to maximize the environmental, social, and economic impact of possible sectoral climate investment programs, and based on international experience, the World Bank's expert team proposes to use the following criteria for prioritizing and selecting non-EU ETS sectoral programs to be financed with EU ETS auctioning revenue: (i) cost efficiency of Emissions Reduction; (ii) leverage of public money to private finance; (iii) possibility for rapid development and scale up; (iv) lack of other financing mechanisms; and (v)support for job creation. Based on these criteria, the report recommends supporting the following climate investment programs for the years 2016-2020:(a) replacing household light bulbs, air conditioning units, individual heating systems, refrigerators, and washing machines with more performant ones; (b) upgrading household buildings insulation; (iii) implementing local, small- and household-scale renewable energy production; and (iv) forestry and biomass production, and land use improvements. It was concluded that the proposed improvements on managing revenue from the auctioning of EU ETS allowances laid out in this report could be used by the Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests, as a responsible body for climate policy, for internal discussions with other Romanian ministries and agencies to reach consensus on the next steps.
E-waste is a generic term comprising all electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) that have been disposed of by their original users, and includes everything from large household appliances, such as refrigerators, microwave ovens, television sets, and computers, to hand-held digital apparatuses, cell phones and toys. E-waste is today the fastest growing sector of the municipal solid waste stream and currently comprises more than 5% of its total flow, which is equivalent to 20-50 million tones a year worldwide. These enormous quantities in combination with the fact that e-waste contains a wide range of hazardous compounds have turned e-waste into a global environmental issue. When the e-waste is taken care of, either in general waste processes or in recycling processes, these hazardous compounds may be released and thereby become a threat to humans and the environment. In addition, in some processes used, new hazardous compounds, such as dioxins, may be formed as the original e-waste components are degraded. Consequently, to avoid serious impacts on human health and the environment it is crucial to ensure that e-waste is properly taken care of, all the way from collection and handling through recycling and disposal. However, e-waste also contains several valuable components, such as precious metals and various plastics that may be profitable to extract during the end-of-life treatment processes. This adds an economical incentive to process e-waste adequately. The best option, both from an environmental and a recovery efficiency point of view, is unquestionably to recycle the e-waste in modern recycling facilities using state-of–the–art technologies with efficient emission control systems. However, due to insufficient legislation and recycling collection systems in many countries, this option is seldom practiced, when seen on a global scale. Instead a large part of the e-waste generated in the world is sent, mostly illegally, to developing countries such as, China, India, Nigeria and Ghana, where the ewaste is disassembled by poor people using rudimentary methods, in the hunt for valuable materials. Another large fraction of the e-waste generated in the world is treated as general municipal solid waste, and is thus incinerated in waste incineration facilities or just put on landfills. Only a minor fraction (around 10%) is treated in recycling facilities adapted for its purpose. Even if all end-of-life treatment processes creates emissions of hazardous compounds, that may have negative impacts on human health and the environment, some processes are worse than others. This report summarizes and compares the hazards and risks that may arise in different processes. The compounds of concern are several and include organic as well as inorganic compounds. The organic compounds include various brominated flame retardants, brominated and chlorinated dioxins (PCDD/Fs and PBDD/Fs), brominated and chlorinated benzenes and phenols, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and naphthalenes (PCNs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), nonylphenol, organophosphorus flame retardants, phthalate esters and freons. The inorganic compounds include antimony, arsenic, asbestos, barium, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, selenium, tin, yttrium, and zinc. Some are of concern because they are very toxic and other mainly because they are very abundant in e-waste. There are also some more discrete chemicals present in ewaste that may be of concern. These are liquid crystals from liquid crystal displays (LCDs), toner dust from toner cartridges and nanonparticles from various products. The components and materials that are of most concern are: printed circuit boards (PC-boards), batteries, cathode ray tubes (CRTs), LCDs, plastics, PCB-containing capacitors, equipment containing freons, toner cartridges and various mercury containing components. Most risks arise during the uncontrolled e-waste recycling activities that occur in developing countries, and are results of the rudimentary methods used. These include manual disassembly and sorting; heating and acid leaching of printed circuit boards (PC-boards); shredding, melting and extrusion of plastics; open burning of plastic coated wires and other components; and sweeping and collection of toners from toner cartridges. These activities are mostly carried out directly on the ground in open air or in poorly ventilated workshops, and involve minimal emission control systems and personal protection for the workers. Humans and the environment in the areas where this is carried out may therefore be highly exposed to the emissions generated. The recycling workers and the local residents are particularly exposed via dust generated during dismantling and shredding processes, and fumes and smoke generated during acid digestion processes and various high temperature processes, such as open burnings and heating, melting, and extrusion processes. The environment is mainly contaminated from the open burning processes and through leakage from dumped residues of various recycling activities, e.g. stripped cathode ray tubes (CRTs) and PC-boards, spent acids from the digestion processes and residual ashes. The compounds of most concern during these activities vary depending on the material being recycled and the methods used. However, on the whole, lead seems to be particularly problematic among the metals, and dioxins (chlorinated and brominated) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) among the organic compounds. These compounds are all very toxic and may potentially be emitted in large amounts during rudimentary e-waste recycling activities. Lead and PBDEs because they both are highly abundant in e-waste, and dioxins because the formation conditions many times are ideal in the processes used. As a consequence, extremely high levels (in some cases the highest ever measured) of these compounds have been measured in environmental as well as human samples collected in areas where uncontrolled e-waste recycling is taking place. These have also been connected to various negative health effects observed among the people in these areas. Regarding the dioxins, it seems like the brominated and the mixed brominated/chlorinated congeners contribute to the total dioxin-like toxicity to at least the same extent as the purely chlorinated congeners, which is important to remember as most monitoring campaigns only include analyses of chlorinated dioxins. Furthermore, there are convincing evidences that the emissions from the uncontrolled e-waste recycling industry are contributing significantly to the regional as well as the global pollution for some compounds. Risks also arise when e-waste is treated as general municipal solid waste. During incineration, a wide variety of hazardous compounds may be emitted to the atmosphere via the smoke and exhaust gases, both in gaseous form and bound to particles. The compounds emitted may be those that were present in the original waste, but probably more important are those compounds that may be formed during the incineration processes, e.g. PCDD/Fs and PBDD/Fs. This is because the e-waste, being a complex fuel, may function as precursors for many different compounds in thermal processes. In fact, the conditions for dioxin formation are many times ideal when e-waste is incinerated, which is partly due to the presence of PVC-plastics and BFRs as dioxin precursors and partly due to the presence of copper and antimony as very potent catalysts in the transformation reactions. In modern incineration facilities the emission of these and other compounds may be minimized by process optimization and flue gas treatment systems. However, during open burning of e-waste, as occurs in many developing countries, the emissions may be substantial. Besides dioxins, a number of other pollutants are emitted in large quantities, e.g. PAHs, various chlorinated and brominated compounds and several metals, including lead, copper, antimony, zinc, tin, arsenic, nickel, chromium, cadmium, barium and beryllium. In addition to the atmospheric emissions, hazardous compounds may leak from the residual ashes to the ground and to aquifers in the surroundings. However, this has so far been scarcely investigated. During landfilling, hazardous compounds may leak to the surrounding environments, including nearby surface water and groundwater reservoirs, and also evaporate to the atmosphere. Leakage may occur for most compounds in the waste due to the long time spans involved, but of particular concern are the leakage of lead and various other metals, as well as PBDEs and phthalate plasticizers. Evaporation mainly occurs for volatile compounds, of which mercury and its methylated derivatives are of most concern. The extent of leakage and evaporation from a landfill depends on the properties of the contaminants in question, but also on the design of the landfill (i.e. if it is open or sealed), the properties of the material being stored (e.g. type of waste, if it has been pre-treated in some way etc.), and on various environmental factors (such as the ambient temperature and pH and humic content in the infiltrating water). Recycling under controlled conditions that are carried out in facilities adapted for its purpose is much better from a risk perspective point of view, both for the recycling workers, the local residents, and for the environment. However, risks may occur during these activities as well. For the workers, the largest risk is to be exposed to dust during dismantling, shredding and separation of the e-waste as well as during the subsequent pyrometallurgical processes. In addition, workers may be exposed to volatile compounds, such as mercury, that may be accidentally released during breakage of components in which these compounds are encapsulated. For the environment and the general population, the largest risks arises during the pyrometallurgical processes and during other high temperature processes, such as those used during plastic recycling and incineration of residual waste (justified in the recycling industry as energy recovery). During these, substantial amounts of PCDD/Fs and PBDD/Fs as well as other chlorinated and brominated compounds may be emitted, and in case of the pyrometallurgical processes, a wide range of metals (similar to the once emitted from uncontrolled processes) may also be emitted. Even if these emissions should be possible to minimize by using optimized processes together with modern dust containment and flue gas treatment systems, existing emission data indicate that this is not always satisfactorily done. Significant levels of several compounds have thus been found in and around some of these facilities. From this, it can be concluded that there is no completely safe end-of-life process available to deal with the e-waste of today. Controlled recycling is much better than uncontrolled recycling, incineration or landfilling, but hazards and risks will occur in all cases. This is simply a consequence of the multitude of hazardous compounds that are present in e-waste. To reduce the risks further, cleaner products containing less hazardous compounds have to be produced. Furthermore, to solve the e-waste problem in a wider perspective, the quantities of e-waste generated have to be reduced. Besides by decreasing the consumption, products with greater life-spans that are safer and easier to repair, upgrade and recycle have to be developed. The ultimate goal must be to ensure that the quantities of e-waste generated are minimized, and that the e-waste which does arise is recycled and disposed of in the best achievable manner to minimize impacts on human health and the environment.
Purpose Sustainability involves a strong interrelationship of ecological, cultural, technological, scientific, economic and social aspects and deserves to undertake a holistic treatment. Abundant evidence has being collected related to the several risks and conflicts derived from unsustainable oil exploitation and fossil fuel energy sources. In the past few years, several environmentally friendly technologies are being developed for oil exploitation in the Argentine Patagonia. The purpose of this paper is to examine them under a holistic prospect to provide an overall outlook for a wide audience and making it attractive for teaching sustainability in higher education.
Design/methodology/approach The environmentally friendly technologies chosen to be examined are Green Chemistry, cleaner production processes and alternative energy sources. Vaca Muerta, located at Neuquén Basin in Argentine Patagonia, is one of the world's major deposits of tight oil and shale gas. Fracking technology, required for this exploitation, is controversial; it poses critical issues concerning ecological risks such as oil leakage and serious soil damage.
Findings Research results on the germination of a native gramineae in polluted soils are described in this paper under several conditions and show its potential for the phytoremediation of damages aroused from unsustainable oil exploitation. In addition, student's feedback regarding fracking was examined by a questionnaire presenting different and contradictory perspectives with open and Likert-type items. This study complements previous observation on the open acceptance of the Green Chemistry fundamentals as the contribution of the scientific-technological knowledge to the sustainable development and higher education approaches from Argentina.
Research limitations/implications A clear result of these experiences is that the immediate impact is stronger that that noted when just scientific and technological aspects are taught; teachers expressed they would try to repeat these exercises in their classes in middle and high schools. This feeling of fear is important for people to understand the severity of climate change, though it is also essential to help people move past fear, to use the urgency of the problem to motivate action. Results of this research suggest that the best way to understand climate risks is interactive learning.
Originality/value This study describes related scientific, technological and societal research in the fields of soil remediation and sustainable production that are key values in higher education, as scientific and societal communities play an essential role. From a holistic approach to a complex problem, this paper describes research on different aspects that converge into the viewing of the radical change in the society's behavior that is urgently required for a sustainable development in harmony with the planet. In spite of their importance, there are few publications with an interdisciplinary overview about sustainable development in Latin America. The value and originality of this work is that it focuses on the need of teaching sustainability in different areas of higher education with a holistic prospect.
Between 2000 and 2012, 2.3m sq. kilometers of tree cover, equivalent to 6.4 times the size of Germany, were lost globally due to land cover change. Forest loss often comes with significant social and environmental costs. Deforestation contributes 12% - 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions, reduces biodiversity and threatens traditional livelihoods. Forest conservation policies have shown mixed results worldwide. The success of instruments depends on both their policy design and the context to which they are applied. Even well designed policies can fail to avoid deforestation, when the bio-physical, socio-economic, and the political context are overlooked. This thesis investigates the role of the political context as a potential inhibitor or facilitator of forest conservation in Brazil. Brazil is an ideal case to study the political economy of forest conservation. During the 2000s the country introduced a substantial forest conservation reform and deforestation rates subsequently fell by 80%. The realized policy-mix included different disincentive and incentive components. Effective measures include the expansion of protected areas, the increase in field-based environmental law enforcement, fines and credit restrictions to environmental offenders. To understand the role of the political sector, this thesis analyzes three Brazilian forest conservation policies that address the political context and the environmental governance at the local level: An anti-corruption policy targeting districts' administrational responsibilities, though leaving environmental performance uncontrolled; a naming and shaming policy targeting districts with high deforestation rates; and an incentive-based payments for environmental services program combined with forest friendly investments to residents in protected areas. Impacts and the mechanism through which these polices effect environmental outcomes are analyzed with a combination of spatial data processing techniques and quasi-experimental methods. High resolution satellite data is used to construct yearly outcomes on forest losses, degradation, and fires. Spatial matching and panel data estimations allow to control for selection biases and potential leakage effects. The analysis of the anti-corruption policy reveals a robust relation between corruption and deforestation, though no effect from publishing the corruption findings. A very high reduction in deforestation rates is caused by the naming and shaming policy. This effect can be explained by an reputational risk effect that caused stakeholders to form conservation alliances. The payment for environmental services program had no sizable effects on forest cover. The missing effects can best be explained with the imperfect policy designs at hand. Whereas the high conservation impact of the naming and shaming policy stands as an example of how to shape political contexts towards better environmental governance. Given a reasonably well functioning institutions and enforcement system as in Brazil during the study period, complementary contextualized polices can remove potential inhibitors to conservation and motivate actors to create new conservation incentives. In addition, immediate effects are best achieved when targeting regions with high deforestation pressures, if evasive behavior of targeted actors is monitored at the same time. ; Der Einfluss politischer Maßnahmen auf Abholzung im Brasilianischen Amazonas Im Zeitraum von 2000 bis 2012 wurde der weltweite Waldbestand um 2,3m Quadratkilometer aufgrund von Landnutzungsänderungen dezimiert, dies entspricht 6,4 Mal der Größe Deutschlands. Waldverlust geht oft mit signifikanten und Umweltkosten und sozialen Kosten einher. Abholzung trägt zu den globalen Treibhausgasemissionen mit 12% - 30% bei, reduziert Biodiversität und bedroht traditionelle Existenzgrundlagen. Waldschutzpolitiken haben weltweit sehr unterschiedliche Wirkungen gezeigt. Ihr Erfolg hängt sowohl von ihrer Politikgestaltung, als auch von dem Kontext, in welchem sie eingesetzt werden, ab. Selbst gut gestaltete Politiken können das Ziel Abholzung zu verhindern verfehlen, wenn der bio-physische, sozio-ökonomische und politische Kontext nicht beachtet wird. Diese Dissertation untersucht die Rolle des politischen Kontextes als potenzieller Hemmer oder Verstärker von Waldschutz in Brasilien. Brasilien ist eine ideale Fallstudie, um die politische Ökonomie des Waldschutzes zu untersuchen. In den 2000er Jahren führte Brasilien eine maßgebliche Waldschutzreform durch, woraufhin die Abholzungsraten um 80% sanken. Das neue Politikportfolio beinhaltet verschiedene Komponenten aus negativen und positiven Anreizen. Effektive Maßnahmen umfassen eine die Expansion der Naturschutzgebiete, Verstärkung der umweltrechtlichen Strafverfolgung, Geldstrafen und Kreditrestriktionen für Umweltsünder. Um die Rolle des politischen Sektors zu verstehen, untersucht diese Dissertation drei brasilianische Waldschutzpolitiken, die den politischen Kontext und die Umwelt auf lokaler Ebene adressieren: Eine Anti-Korruptionspolitik, die die administrative Verantwortung der Distrikte anvisiert, jedoch Umweltperformance unkontrolliert lässt; eine Politik des Anprangerns, die auf Distrikte mit hohen Abholzungsraten abzielt; und ein Anreizprogramm mit Zahlungen für Umweltdienstleistungen in Kombination mit umweltfreundlichen Investitionen für Bewohner von Waldschutzgebieten. Die Auswirkungen und Mechanismen, durch die diese Politiken Umweltergebnisse beeinflussen, werden anhand einer Kombination von räumlichen Datenverarbeitungs-techniken und quasi-experimentellen Methoden analysiert. Hochauflösende Satellitendaten werden genutzt, um jährliche Daten für Waldverlust, -degradation, und -feuer zu konstruieren. Mit Hilfe von räumlichen, statistischen Zuordnungsverfahren (matching) und Paneldaten-Schätzungen werden Stichprobenverzerrung (selection biases) und potenzielle Ausweicheffekte (leakage effects) kontrolliert. Die Analyse der Anti-Korruptionspolitik zeigt eine robuste Beziehung zwischen Korruption und Abholzung, jedoch keinen Effekt durch die Veröffentlichung der Korruptionsergebnisse. Eine sehr hohe Reduzierung der Abholzungsrate wird durch die Politik des Anprangerns erzielt. Diese kann, unter anderem, anhand eines Reputationsverlustes erklärt werden, der dazu führt, dass Interessengruppen Waldschutzallianzen gründen. Das Programm von Zahlungen für Umweltdienstleistungen hat kaum Auswirkungen auf den Waldschutz. Die fehlenden Effekte können am besten auf das zugrundeliegende, unvollkommene Politikdesign zurückgeführt werden. Wohingegen der hohe Schutzeffekt der Politik des Anprangerns als Beispiel dient für die Entwicklung einer besseren Umweltsteuerung durch den zugrundeliegenden politischen Kontext. Bei hinreichend funktionierenden Institutionen und Strafverfolgung, wie es in Brasilien im untersuchtem Zeitraum der Fall war, können ergänzende, kontextualisierte Politiken potenzielle Hemmnisse im Waldschutz beseitigen und Akteure motivieren neue Schutzanreize zu kreieren. Des Weiteren werden unmittelbare Effekte größtmöglich erzielt, wenn auf Regionen mit hohem Abholzungsdruck fokussiert wird und gleichzeitig ausweichendes Verhalten kontrolliert wird.
Master in the Electric Power Industry ; The following document provides a review of the Energy Poverty related issues across a selection of Member States: Italy, France, Germany, UK and Spain, the official and unofficial definitions for energy poverty and vulnerable consumers, the different indicators to address this problem and the tackling instruments available (in terms of financial help, consumer protection or energy efficiency measures). As a starting point, it is analyzed the role acquired by each Member States on the protection of vulnerable customers and scope of the term Energy Poverty and its coverage. Then, the support metrics for policy-makers are classified according to (Heindl, 2013) criterion: subjective and objective indicators depending on several factors such as living conditions, income or energy expenses. Some of the indicators presented correspond to the social bonus (discount on electricity or gas tariffs); Low Income High Costs (LIHC) indicator (ratio between energy expenses and income); or the Poverty Line (based on the minimum income standard). With regards to current policies, these are characterized by their scope and some examples are: social tariffs (Italy, Spain and France), which are effective short-term financial helps to reduce the price of energy bills; and long-term policies in terms of energy efficiency programmes for buildings, inefficient appliances renovations through loans or incentives (StromCheck or Habiter Mieux). However, still the financial source is the key point of these instruments which place in a disadvantage position the non-eligible customers who usually pay e.g. tariff discounts through general taxation. In order to analyze the problem more accurately it is necessary to collect information available from data sources and surveys, which are the bases for calculating indicators' thresholds and analyzing the impact of current policies. After the study of the whole figure of each country, it is done a revision of four proxy indicators (EU-SILC, 2015), namely, people at-risk-of poverty or social exclusion, arrear on utility bills, inability to keep home adequately warm, and dwellings with leakages and damp walls, to evaluate and compare the current status of energy poverty main drivers across countries. Some of the conclusions are concerning to the available information mechanisms and accessibility for customers such as billing transparency rules; good price comparison instruments; or disconnection restrictions. For these reasons, it is proposed a higher degree of retailers relationship with customers. This can be achieved by means of close and customized services, as these companies are one of the key points for acquiring accurate information of household energy needs. Co-operation between municipalities and retailers can create a major source of detailed knowledge of households that suffer energy poverty. Local institutions in partnership with social and energy organisations can collect more accurate amounts of data from a closer perspective of the poor areas where there is people with financial needs, poor levels of education and where buildings are most energy inefficient.
The international trade dispute over Ontario's "green energy" policies is a harbinger of similar problems to come; an early example of the emerging conflict between industry rules aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and existing trade deals between national governments. We live in a world without formalized and sweeping multilateral climate change treaties between major economies, but one with many sweeping trade treaties between them. That discrepancy is setting up the conditions for more trade disputes in the future. Governments have every incentive to position climate change policies, as Ontario has, as support for new growth industries and the creation of local "green jobs." But they also have every incentive to want to prevent the leakage of those envisioned economic benefits to outside parties, at the very least when those outside parties come from places that do not share the burden of climate change mitigation. The current trade-law framework has lent itself to the interpretation, by arbitration panels, that "free riders" — that is, industries and countries that bear little to no responsibility for shouldering the costs of climate change policies — are nevertheless entitled to share in the commercial benefits that may be created by climate policies in jurisdictions that do make efforts to reduce carbon emissions. In short, if a corporation or state-owned enterprise from a country lacking climate change policies wants to take advantage of the economic benefits of Ontario's feed-in-tariff program, it would seem there is little Ontario can do to stop it, without running afoul of trade agreements. The result is a worst-case scenario. The problem of climate change continues to worsen, while governments — national and sub-national — face disincentives for implementing regulations and subsidies that might help mitigate the problem. This is because they cannot be sure that they will not be left to shoulder the cost while foreign actors, without similar environmental commitments, take advantage of the attendant economic benefits. There is also the real possibility that some governments may disguise anti-trade motives by cloaking them under the cover of environmental policy. These conflicts need not happen and, if we are committed to slowing climate change, it cannot be allowed to happen. The global trading community must find ways to exempt domestic climate change policies from traditional tariff and trade commitments, while also guarding against the potential abuse of that exemption. One possibility is exempting from tariff restrictions "border carbon adjustments" (BCAs), which apply varying tariffs to goods moving across borders based on the carbon emitted across the supply chain. The corporate sector's increasing sophistication in quantifying supply-chain emissions, as part of corporate competitive efforts, makes BCAs more feasible for governments to implement. And there is already some evidence to suggest that BCAs can be accommodated within the current WTO rules, although some bending of the rules may be required. Still, the climate change threat is grave and urgent. If ever there was a reason to bend global trade rules, accommodating earnest climate-change-mitigation efforts is arguably the best one yet.
The international trade dispute over Ontario's "green energy" policies is a harbinger of similar problems to come; an early example of the emerging conflict between industry rules aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and existing trade deals between national governments. We live in a world without formalized and sweeping multilateral climate change treaties between major economies, but one with many sweeping trade treaties between them. That discrepancy is setting up the conditions for more trade disputes in the future. Governments have every incentive to position climate change policies, as Ontario has, as support for new growth industries and the creation of local "green jobs." But they also have every incentive to want to prevent the leakage of those envisioned economic benefits to outside parties, at the very least when those outside parties come from places that do not share the burden of climate change mitigation. The current trade-law framework has lent itself to the interpretation, by arbitration panels, that "free riders" — that is, industries and countries that bear little to no responsibility for shouldering the costs of climate change policies — are nevertheless entitled to share in the commercial benefits that may be created by climate policies in jurisdictions that do make efforts to reduce carbon emissions. In short, if a corporation or state-owned enterprise from a country lacking climate change policies wants to take advantage of the economic benefits of Ontario's feed-in-tariff program, it would seem there is little Ontario can do to stop it, without running afoul of trade agreements. The result is a worst-case scenario. The problem of climate change continues to worsen, while governments — national and sub-national — face disincentives for implementing regulations and subsidies that might help mitigate the problem. This is because they cannot be sure that they will not be left to shoulder the cost while foreign actors, without similar environmental commitments, take advantage of the attendant economic benefits. There is also the real possibility that some governments may disguise anti-trade motives by cloaking them under the cover of environmental policy. These conflicts need not happen and, if we are committed to slowing climate change, it cannot be allowed to happen. The global trading community must find ways to exempt domestic climate change policies from traditional tariff and trade commitments, while also guarding against the potential abuse of that exemption. One possibility is exempting from tariff restrictions "border carbon adjustments" (BCAs), which apply varying tariffs to goods moving across borders based on the carbon emitted across the supply chain. The corporate sector's increasing sophistication in quantifying supply-chain emissions, as part of corporate competitive efforts, makes BCAs more feasible for governments to implement. And there is already some evidence to suggest that BCAs can be accommodated within the current WTO rules, although some bending of the rules may be required. Still, the climate change threat is grave and urgent. If ever there was a reason to bend global trade rules, accommodating earnest climate-change-mitigation efforts is arguably the best one yet.
2017 Fall. ; Includes bibliographical references. ; Government-mandated improvements in fuel economy and emissions from internal combustion engines (ICEs) are driving innovation in engine efficiency. Though incremental efficiency gains have been achieved, most combustion engines are still only 30-40% efficient at best, with most of the remaining fuel energy being rejected to the environment as waste heat through engine coolant and exhaust gases. Attempts have been made to harness this waste heat and use it to drive a Rankine cycle and produce additional work to improve efficiency. Research on waste heat recovery (WHR) demonstrates that it is possible to improve overall efficiency by converting wasted heat into usable work, but relative gains in overall efficiency are typically minimal (~5-8%) and often do not justify the cost and space requirements of a WHR system. The primary limitation of the current state-of-the-art in WHR is the low temperature of the engine coolant (~90°C), which minimizes the WHR from a heat source that represents between 20% and 30% of the fuel energy. The current research proposes increasing the engine coolant temperature to improve the utilization of coolant waste heat as one possible path to achieving greater WHR system effectiveness. An experiment was performed to evaluate the effects of running a diesel engine at elevated coolant temperatures and to estimate the efficiency benefits. An energy balance was performed on a modified 3-cylinder diesel engine at six different coolant temperatures (90°C, 100°C, 125°C, 150°C, 175°C, and 200°C) to determine the change in quantity and quality of waste heat as the coolant temperature increased. The waste heat was measured using the flow rates and temperature differences of the coolant, engine oil, and exhaust flow streams into and out of the engine. Custom cooling and engine oil systems were fabricated to provide adequate adjustment to achieve target coolant and oil temperatures and large enough temperature differences across the engine to reduce uncertainty. Changes to exhaust emissions were recorded using a 5-gas analyzer. The engine condition was also monitored throughout the tests by engine compression testing, oil analysis, and a complete teardown and inspection after testing was completed. The integrity of the head gasket seal proved to be a significant problem and leakage of engine coolant into the combustion chamber was detected when testing ended. The post-test teardown revealed problems with oil breakdown at locations where temperatures were highest, with accompanying component wear. The results from the experiment were then used as inputs for a WHR system model using ethanol as the working fluid, which provided estimates of system output and improvement in efficiency. Thermodynamic models were created for eight different WHR systems with coolant temperatures of 90°C, 150°C, 175°C, and 200°C and condenser temperatures of 60°C and 90°C at a single operating point of 3100 rpm and 24 N-m of torque. The models estimated that WHR output for both condenser temperatures would increase by over 100% when the coolant temperature was increased from 90°C to 200°C. This increased WHR output translated to relative efficiency gains as high as 31.0% for the 60°C condenser temperature and 24.2% for the 90°C condenser temperature over the baseline engine efficiency at 90°C. Individual heat exchanger models were created to estimate the footprint for a WHR system for each of the eight systems. When the coolant temperature increased from 90°C to 200°C, the total heat exchanger volume increased from 16.6 × 103 cm3 to 17.1 × 103 cm3 with a 60°C condenser temperature, but decreased from 15.1 × 103 cm3 to 14.2 × 103 cm3 with a 90°C condenser temperature. For all cases, increasing the coolant temperature resulted in an improvement in the efficiency gain for each cubic meter of heat exchanger volume required. Additionally, the engine oil coolers represented a significant portion of the required heat exchanger volume due to abnormally low engine oil temperatures during the experiment (~80°C). Future studies should focus on allowing the engine oil to reach higher operating temperatures which would decrease the heat rejected to the engine oil and reduce the heat duty for the oil coolers resulting in reduced oil cooler volume.
