ABSTRACT
To achieve carbon emission reduction target (CERT) by 2030 and carbon-neutrality in 2050, it is important to actively reduce the emission gap in the private building sector. However, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukraine war are threatening the green remodeling policy (GRP) worldwide. Therefore, this study analyzed energy consumption savings, GHG emission reduction, and net present value when applying green remodeling to a private building to predict whether or not the current GRP could achieve 2030 CERT and 2050 carbon-neutrality. The main findings are as follows. First, yearly electricity and gas consumption of 84.97 m2 type households can be reduced by 6.19% and 15.58% through green remodeling. Second, based on the energy saving, yearly GHG emission can be reduced about 0.34tCO2eq. Third, the economic feasibility of green remodeling cannot be achieved via the current policy, and NPV17 decreases up to USD-51,485 depending on the credit loan interest rate and the green remodeling interest subsidy program. In other words, it is difficult to reach 2030 CERT and 2050 carbon-neutrality via the current policy. Therefore, the South Korean government is required to reorganize financial policies, establish active systems, increase public awareness of the policy, and improve energy efficiency technology. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.
ABSTRACT
As the industry recovers from the recent downturn in petroleum commodity prices and the economic impacts from coronavirus (COVID-19), governing authorities in most countries are imposing methodological measures to promote the reduction of carbon footprint. This affects every industry including the petroleum sector. Therefore, most investors and stakeholders have increased their focus on Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) policies. During the well construction phase, a transition from a hydraulic to an electric tong is achieved, resulting in carbon footprint reduction. Achieving carbon neutrality or carbon emission reduction while producing hydrocarbons is one of the topmost key performance indicators (KPIs) in the industry. With the implementation of digital technologies in the tubular and casing connection make-up process, a hydraulic tong is substituted with an electric tong of an equivalent specification. The energy consumption for both systems are calculated and compared. Other important KPIs on tracking operational cost are also assessed and the results are then compared to determine the benefits of implementing the upgraded digitalized tong solution. The electric tong digitalized solution, commercially available in the petroleum industry, is a key enabler for carbon emission reduction while running tubulars in/out of the wellbore. This solution is one of the milestones that serve as foundation to advocate carbon reduction. Eventually, this will lead to establishing carbon neutrality during hydrocarbon extraction and production. The results concluded that a digitalized solution eventually reduced personnel on board working in the "red zone," which eventually leads to carbon emission reductions caused by a decrease in fuel consumption. The decrease of 43% in CO2 emission is observed while performing tubular connection process. Moreover, an overall comparison between a legacy system with the digitalized electric system displayed more than 59% reduction in CO2 during the tubular running services. In addition to carbon reduction, this electric power and control solution allows for more precise torque control, leading to enhanced system integrity and increased reliability achieved by cleaner energy. With this digital solution, not only is the safety and well-being of rig personnel enhanced to avoid any recordable incidents, the reduction of carbon emission is also achieved, aligning to the objectives of current ESG regulatory authorities. This paper will provide comprehensive details on the novelty of this technology and solution offered to the industry. © 2022, Offshore Technology Conference. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Against the background of seeking to achieve carbon neutrality, relationships among renewable-energy companies around the world have become multiple and complex. In this work, the Pearson, Kendall, tail, and partial correlation coefficients were applied to 51 global companies - including solar and wind firms, independent power plants, and utilities - to explore the linear, nonlinear, extreme-risk, and direct relations between them. Sample data from 7 August 2015 to 6 August 2021 were considered, and three sub-periods were extracted from these sample data by analysis of the evolution of multiple correlations combined with event analysis. A four-layer correlation network model was then constructed. The main results are as follows. (1) The multiple relations among the selected firms underwent dramatic changes during two external shocks (the China-US trade war and the COVID-19 pandemic). (2) The extreme-risk network layer verified that the trade war mainly affected the relationships among companies in the solar industries of China and the US. (3) During the COVID-19 pandemic period, the linear and direct relationships among wind firms from Canada, Spain, and Germany were significantly increased. In this sub-period, edge-weight distributions of the four different layers were heterogeneous and varied from power-law features to Gaussian distributions. (4) During all the sub-periods, most companies had similar numbers of neighbors, while the numbers of neighbors of a few companies varied greatly in the four different layers. These findings provide a useful reference for stakeholders and may help them understand the connectedness and evolution of global renewable-energy markets. © 2023 Author(s).
ABSTRACT
The complexity of the EU carbon neutrality policy is addressed by evaluating the impacts of the interaction among different policy instruments. An energy-economic dynamic CGE model based on GTAP utilities is developed for simulating different policy scenarios starting from a business as usual case where the economic impacts related to the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery measures are included. The instruments tested as part of the EU climate strategy are the removal of fossil-fuel consumption subsidies, a carbon pricing mechanism and the public support to clean energy technologies. The modelling approach is based on a revenue recycling mechanism to finance clean energy technologies. We find that the simultaneous implementation of all instruments under the EU climate strategy including the removal of subsidies to fossil fuels and the reuse of revenues to foster the technological transition of the energy system is a win-win solution for a sustainable and decarbonised EU economy. © 2023 The Author(s)
ABSTRACT
Food supply chains hold significant embodied carbon emissions that need to be mitigated and neutralized. This study aimed to explore the historical Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions associated with household food consumption at a local scale i.e. across the eight English regions and the four nations that comprise the United Kingdom (UK). UK EatWell guidelines were used to explore the potential change in emissions and food costs in a scenario of transitions to healthier diets across the study areas. These emissions were calculated based on food consumption data before the advent of the Covid-pandemic i.e. between the years 2001 and 2018. Spatial data analysis was used to explore if the study areas had any significant correlations with respect to the emissions during the study period. The results displayed a potential reduction in GHG emissions for all study areas in the explored scenario. Further impacts include a reduction in household food costs across a majority of the areas during the study period. However, a consistent trend of significant correlations among the study areas was absent. This study concludes that local or regional policymaking should take precedence over national regulations to achieve healthier diets that are both carbon-neutral and affordable for the households. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
ABSTRACT
Kazakhstan has a relatively high level of overall gender development, as well as of female employment in its energy industries. Diverse views and backgrounds are necessary to address the challenges of curbing emissions in Kazakhstan, a major fossil fuel producer and exporter. However, our analysis of the Labor Force Survey indicates that female representation among energy sector managers and overall workforce has been falling over time. Moreover, we find that women in Ka-zakhstan’s coal mining, petroleum extraction, and power industries are concentrated in low‐skilled and non‐core occupations. Next, by analyzing data on labor compensation within energy occupa-tions, we discover signs of persistent vertical discrimination, which may reduce incentives for women to upgrade their skills. Finally, we find that major shocks, such as the COVID‐19 pandemic, may stall or reverse prior progress in increasing the energy sector’s gender diversity. Our findings contribute to raising gender awareness among the stakeholders in Kazakhstan’s energy sector in order to facilitate evidence‐based gender mainstreaming. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
ABSTRACT
Cultivating talents for executing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) activities is increasingly essential for the education sector. It is because the social and ecological resilience of the human society depends on guiding human development towards sustainability. To prepare future professionals to manage climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic recovery challenges, the article proposes several ESG educational models, based on and design workshop outcomes using stakeholder analysis and the ESG and carbon neutrality research. Three partner maps for ESG consulting, reporting, and engaging have been developed, with special attention on the use of digital technologies to manage carbon emission for green and just transitions. Based on these maps, a model 'Smart Customer System on Carbon Information' is proposed. The model highlights the importance of collaboration across professions such as management, accounting, public administration, public relations, communications, business intelligence, and data sciences, resulting in an integrated capability building roadmap among stakeholders. Future education practices and research must advance and facilitate the overall 'smart customer journey' of carbon emission reporting in order to account for ESG records for a net-zero carbon-neutral future, with the help of information and communication technologies. © 2021 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 worldwide, the world's political and economic environment has been accelerated and the strategic competition and confrontation between China and the West have intensified. The populism, nationalism and local protectionism brought by COVID-19 are rising day by day, which further magnify and accelerate the adjustment of the international political pattern. The "going global" environment facing China is becoming more and more severe and complex. In addition to the stricter review threshold and multi-party containment constraints, overseas project development also faces travel restrictions and isolation measures brought by the epidemic, which also makes it difficult to effectively carry out preliminary work such as project business contact and investment bidding. At the same time, the global emission peak and carbon neutrality boom has led to a decline in coal demand to a certain extent. One belt, one road, and key areas for China's coal based energy industry, and a combination of energy planning policies of some countries and regions, should be applied to promote the development of coal based projects in a timely and orderly manner. © 2022 by Aussino Academic Publishing House.
ABSTRACT
To meet the 2060 carbon neutrality target, China will need to phase out existing coal-fired power plants by 2050 or before. The electricity supply sector directly employs over 2 million and an additional 2 million when indirect employment including product and machinery production are included. To investigate the policy options and pathways available to meet the national climate goal while transitioning this jobs-intensive and economically powerful sector, we developed a plant-level job accounting model, and combine it with a power sector optimization model to assess job loss in the coal sector, as well as job creation in the burgeoning renewable power sector in China. We find that national and provincial policy actions to support an early and managed transition help to ensure a job-rich and both geographically and socioeconomically equitable shift from coal to clean energy. Specifically, the projected decline in fossil-fuel jobs can be fully offset by job new creation in the expanding renewable energy sector. Current COVID-19 economic stimulus plans include a potential new coal boom, where China could build up to 247 GW of additional plants, and thus delay the transition by a decade or more. We find that this action would result in up to 90% of coal-fired workers losing jobs between 2030 and 2040 without a clear pathway to absorb these workers in what will be an already mature clean energy economy. Provinces with massive coal fleets and limited renewable energy resources, notably Anhui, Henan, Hebei and Shandong, etc., would face a particularly disruptive mismatch of job gains and losses. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd
ABSTRACT
As the main source of electricity from renewable energy, PV will play a key role in various fields and scenarios to achieve carbon neutrality. With technological advances in the photovoltaic industry and declining costs per kilowatt-hour, the cost of photovoltaic per kilowatt-hour has fallen by more than 90% globally in the past decade, with the biggest decline compared to wind, natural gas, coal and nuclear power. The year 2020 has been an extraordinary year. Under the pressure test and numerous challenges of the global epidemic, the global photovoltaic industry has maintained a good momentum of development thanks to the rapid and effective control of the COVID-19 in China and the obvious growth of the domestic market. Based on the domestic monocrystalline silicon photovoltaic leading A company as an example, through to the company business model and the results of data analysis in recent years, suggested that the company in the four aspects to carry on the improvement and optimization, including: further globalization, adhere to customer value orientation, implement the product strategy and tries to build up A creative organization, leading to the photovoltaic industry as A whole in China benign development help. © 2021 The Author(s)