Many Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are envisaging the use of significant amounts of biomass as a primary source in their energy supply. The present ...greenhouse gas (GHG) emission inventory guidelines, based on methods and approaches originally proposed by the IPCC in the 1990s do not add the CO
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emissions from the combustion or incineration of these biogenic fuels to national total emissions, as it is assumed these emissions reverse recent CO
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removals from the atmosphere during photosynthetic growth of the biomass, largely within the Party's own boundaries. In a national annual inventory under the UNFCCC, the biomass carbon harvested in a specific year is balanced against the biomass carbon oxidation processes addressed in the energy and waste sectors of GHG inventories.
The CO
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emissions from biomass oxidation in the present Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) inventory approach are accounted for by the country harvesting the biomass via the subtraction of the harvested biomass from C pools on their lands. This harvested biomass carbon is implicitly assumed to be oxidized both in the year and the country of harvest, regardless of whether this is factual. In the case of biomass exports, the CO
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emissions from the combustion/oxidation of this harvested biomass are not included in the national totals of the country where the biomass is used, as under the present approach this would lead to double counting on the global scale. With the increasing use of biomass on industrial scales, the assumptions underlying this approach start to introduce material inaccuracies on a national scale (versus global). Biomass combustion may no longer be negligible compared with fossil fuel combustion as biogenic fuels are increasingly traded internationally. In this paper, we review the present IPCC carbon mass flow approach and propose a change in the reporting and accounting methods that has the potential to address this national GHG emissions reporting issue.
The study tests the hypothesis that in order to develop industrial enterprises in the modern realities of the BANI-world (brittle, anxious, nonlinear, incomprehensible: fragile, disturbing, ...nonlinear, incomprehensible) it is of high importance to understand the influence of the social context and assess it in the correct manner. To reach new heights of development, not only direct investments in people’s education are needed, but also indirect ones, i.e., in creating favourable living conditions. The purpose of this work is to identify the factors that are the target of indirect investments affecting the quality of human capital in industrial cities of Russia.
The topic of the article considers the functioning of the renewable energy (RE) sector in Poland. This is really important in the context of the energy transition of the national economy because it ...influences the creation of modern technologies and increases the competitiveness and innovation of the country. Poland is in a process of energy transition where the RE sector has been developing for two decades. The authors aimed to research the RE sector improvement possibilities in Poland, including the influence of this sector on chosen social and economic aspects. Because of this research’s aim a critical situation assessment of RE in Poland was conducted and a survey of a group of experts in this field was also involved. Legal, physical and mental determinants and their influence on RE sector were looked into. In the legal determinant context a necessity to simplify relevant legislation acts in Poland was found. Undoubtedly there is a need to improve several legal acts, including the Distance Act. In physical determinants it was found that solar, wind and biomass energy have the biggest chances for development. In the case of mental determinants the authors paid attention to the need of educating the public about using and obtaining energy. It is also important to make people aware how the RE sector influences the low emission economy positively. This will improve the creation of new jobs and reduce the emissions of harmful substances to the environment.
In order to limit the effects of climate change, the carbon dioxide emissions associated with the energy sector need to be reduced. Significant reductions can be achieved by using appropriate ...technologies and policies. In the context of recent discussions about climate change and energy transition, this article critically reviews some technologies, policies and frequently discussed solutions. The options for carbon emission reductions are grouped into (1) generation of secondary energy carriers, (2) end-use energy sectors and (3) sector interdependencies. The challenges on the way to a decarbonized energy sector are identified with respect to environmental sustainability, security of energy supply, economic stability and social aspects. A global carbon tax is the most promising instrument to accelerate the process of decarbonization. Nevertheless, this process will be very challenging for humanity due to high capital requirements, the competition among energy sectors for decarbonization options, inconsistent environmental policies and public acceptance of changes in energy use.
•Review of technological options for decarbonizing each energy sector.•Challenges include economic & social issues, energy supply security & sustainability.•A global carbon tax can accelerate the decarbonization process.•Long-term decision making in energy & political stability need to be ensured.•The competing energy sectors need to be prioritized for decarbonization.
Over the past decade, Morocco has experienced a surge in electricity demand, driven by economic growth and population expansion. This study aims to delve into the factors influencing electricity ...consumption in Morocco from 2000 to 2020, examining both the overall national trends and sector-specific dynamics. Indeed, we employ the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) to assess changes in electricity consumption, considering various components like electricity's share, energy intensity, economic structure, economic activity, and population. At the national level, our findings indicate that economic growth has been the primary driver, contributing 66.22% to the total change in electricity consumption, followed by electricity's share effect (39.15%), population scale (29.44%), and the sectorial structure effect (10.85%). Conversely, energy intensity exhibited a declining trend, acting as a restraining factor. Among the analysed sectors, we observed distinct patterns that exhibited some degree of variation. While the agricultural, transport, and residential sectors were primarily affected by the production-per-capita effect, the industrial and commercial sectors were mainly influenced by the intensity effect. The results mentioned above highlight the significance of recent efforts to improve energy efficiency within the Moroccan economy. They also emphasize the necessity of further developing these strategies and introducing novel approaches to rationalize electricity consumption.
Photovoltaic (PV) energy has recently been gaining much attention worldwide. It is the least expensive energy source which can be used to replace part of the energy from fossil fuels. The European ...Union (EU) published the European Green Deal in 2019 with the aim of achieving climate neutrality. The PV solar energy market has gained technological maturity and can help to achieve these climate targets.
This article provides an analysis of PV energy usage in the EU by comparing the consumption of PV energy in EU countries. The study is important because there has been a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. The PV energy is getting more interest worldwide as a source of clean and cheap energy. The data were then analyzed for the world, the EU, and the USA. The main sources of information were the Statistical Office of the European Communities (EUROSTAT) data and International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) data. Extended methods were used to check the processes in PVs and a multi-step procedure was conducted. The first step was to check the stationarity of the process by using the Augmented Dickey-Fuller test (ADF test), which involved testing two hypotheses. The first hypothesis was that the process of PV capacity is stationary, and the second hypothesis was that the time series process is not stationary. In the second step, descriptive statistics were used to analyze the changes in PV consumption in EU countries. In the third step, an Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model was created in which one-dimensional autoregression models and a moving average for forecasting were calculated for each EU country. Finally, the procedure was supplemented with additional information for a prognosis.
This research demonstrated a huge increase in the development of PVs in EU countries. All countries of the EU increased their PV capacity from 2000 to 20. The largest PV producers are Germany, Italy, and Spain, and the smallest are Latvia, Bulgaria, and Lithuania.
The key policy implications are as follows: the European Union (EU) should finance the changes in the energy sector to a greater extent. Moreover, the PV development in the EU will be dependent on the climate and energy policies. The development of PV will depend on the actions of not only the EU but also global markets players such as China and the USA.
•Review of current development of photovoltaic.•Assessment of stationarity of photovoltaic capacity using ADF test and ARiMA model.•Verification of the proposed model for photovoltaics prognosis.•Evaluation Renewable Energy Policy of the European Union.•Photovoltaic role in sustainable development.
Energy shortage, global warming, and climate change led to an increase in the use of alternative sources of energy, with renewable energy sources (RES) playing a fundamental role in this new ...energetic paradigm. However, the investment costs often constitute a major barrier to their spread use. Moreover, the overall benefits of renewable energy technologies are often not well understood and consequently they are often evaluated to be not as cost effective as traditional technologies. From the moment that the energy sector started a deregulation process, with a high level of competitiveness and associated increased market uncertainty, traditional project evaluation techniques alone became insufficient to properly deal with these additional risk and uncertainty factors. The diffusion of the renewable energy technologies is also affected by this feature. The way investors evaluate their investments call now for the use of more sophisticated evaluation techniques. Real options approach can deal with these issues and, as so, began to be considered and applied for the energy sector decision aid. This approach it is now extensively widespread in evaluating investment projects in the energy sector. A large set of applications in almost all fields of energy decision making, from electricity generation technologies appraisal to policy evaluation is available in the literature. However the use of this technique in the field of RES is still limited and worth to be analysed. This paper addresses this issue. A review of the current state of the art in the application of real options approach to investments in non-renewable energy sources and RES is presented, giving perspectives for further research in this field.
In this work, we examine the impact of market competition on CEOs' salaries by analyzing a sample of allS&P American firms in the energy sector, in the 1992–2015 time-span, and measuring market ...competition by means of the so-called Herfindhal-Hirschman-Index. We divide industries into three sub-groups based on small, medium and high market concentration and try to expand our research by exploring the impact of the recent financial crisis. The paper investigates how CEOs' salaries are affected by firm-level determinants, e.g. firm size, returns on assets, returns on equity, capital expenditure, market concentration, Tobin's Q etc, as well as by the individual characteristics of each CEO, e.g. CEOs age, gender. Based on our findings, the market concentration index in the US energy sector has a negative and statistically significant impact on CEO salary for all firms that operate in either a highly monopolistic or a purely competitive environment. The results of this empirical work are robust after examining for different alternative high order fixed effects specifications.
•We study the impact of competition on CEO salary in the US energysector.•CEO salary is negatively affected by a highly monopolistic environment.•CEO salary is negatively affected by a purely competitive environment.•The paper's findings are robust across different estimators.
The paper is a study of the composition of 15 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the snow cover of Vorkuta (Komi Republic) in the impact zone of the fuel and energy complex in 2017 and 2023. ...We have identified high aerotechnogenic pollution of the Vorkuta city and adjacent territories with PAHs during heating with fuel oil and coal, with a mean concentration of 301.6 ng/L (meltwater plus particles) and spatial distribution of 85.2 μg/m2. There is a significant decrease in PAH levels when the fuel for thermal power plants has been changed to natural gas, with a mean concentration of 26.1 ng/L (meltwater plus particulates) and spatial distribution of 4.9 μg/m2. The deposition areas of different PAH fractions are identified in the impact zones of Thermal Power Plants 1 and 2, the Central Boiler House and the urbanised areas of the Vorkuta agglomeration. 2-4-ring PAHs dominate in the emissions, accounting for 92–100 % of the sum of PAHs from coal/oil combustion and 66–93 % from natural gas combustion. The indicator ratios of PAHs in the snow cover of Vorkuta in both 2017 and 2023 indicate their predominantly pyrogenic genesis. The environmental risk coefficients of PAHs in the snow cover and their change from 2017 to 2023 are calculated. TEQ changed from 2.1 ng/L (mean) in the 2017 season to 1.7 ng/L (mean) in the 2023 season. The risk quotients have been reduced from moderate risk to low risk. Reconstruction of thermal power plants when replaced by more environmentally friendly fuel (natural gas) reduces the amount of atmospheric emissions of organic pollutants.
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•The highest PAHs pollution were observed in 2017 from the combustion of coal and fuel oil.•PAH levels decrease significantly when fuel is changed to natural gas in power plants.•2-4-ring PAHs are dominant for combustion of all fuel types in the research area.
The present communication deals with addressing the problem of handling the uncertainties in the process of green supply chain management system through an integrated approach that takes the ...information in the form of q-rung picture fuzzy sets and quantitatively blends it into the decision-making techniques of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (WASPAS). The proposed model has been implemented in stage-wise form for outlining the potential strategic plans for green supply chain management in the energy sector. At every phase of the study, the detailed analysis has been presented in an interlinked manner for solving the underlying problem of decision-making. A brief sensitivity analysis and comparative study of the potential strategic plans with respect to the deterministic parameters have been performed for better understanding, consistency, and reliability. The findings of the propositions illustrate that while making prioritization for potential strategic plans, concentrating on utilizing customer relationship management to meet the needs of the customers is more prominent than examining the procedure for developing new services and products.
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