ABSTRACT
Cleaning and saving the forest is related to managing and utilizing forests' biodiversity, productivity, and considering the relevant environment. Plastic waste management is now seen as an important goal for sustainable forest use as well as incorporating recycled plastics into products. Another way that industries impact wildlife and forests is by releasing additives such as industrial gases, organic & inorganics materials, plastic & resins, fertilizers & alkalies, and chlorine. Polymer wastes manage to enter into and harm numerous biological functions of animals. In this work, the concept of sustainable Türkiye's forest practices and addressing the impact of plastic waste on the forests and environment before and during the COVID-19 epidemic are discussed along with current sources of those mentioned materials wastes that manage to enter the environment. Through this work, the data of bio thermochemistry and thermodynamics calculations of such polymers have been investigated to exhibit the range of sustainability and unsustainability of those mentioned polymers and resins in the environment due to forest climate change. Since the Türkiye chemical industry is one of the most important industrial factors, their production contributes in similar proportions to greenhouse gas emissions. Interestingly, low data on energy usage in the factories and chemical industry is available in the public domain. Ethylene production is the major product in terms of the production volume of the petrochemical industry. Nitrogenous fertilizer production is a very energy-intensive industry, producing a variety of fertilizers and other nitrogen compounds. In addition, ammonia, chlorine, and caustic soda are the most important mediator chemical material used as the main compound for almost all products. © 2023 by the authors.
ABSTRACT
The global outbreak of COVID-19 caused serious threats to public health and economic growth all around the world, but on the other hand, the betterment of the environment took place. How pandemics' health uncertainty will affect environmental quality is a crucial matter to address. The paper investigates the asymmetric association between pandemics-related health uncertainty and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in the top emitter European Union economies (Italy, Germany, France, Poland, Netherlands, Spain, Czech Republic, Belgium, Romania, and Greece). Employing data from 1996 to 2019, a unique approach called 'Quantile-on-Quantile', is adopted to evaluate the influence of various quantiles of the health uncertainty on GHG emissions. According to estimates, health uncertainty enhances environmental quality by minimizing GHG in most of our chosen nations at certain quantiles of data, which makes pandemics a blessing in disguise for environmental quality. Additionally, the estimations indicate that the grades of asymmetry between our variables varies by locality, accentuating the requisite for authorities to give specific consideration while executing health uncertainty and environmental quality policies.
ABSTRACT
The ambitious five-year strategic business plan for Petrobras presented a challenge for its Surface Installation Engineering Department. This paper explores the business case behind the strategy, initiatives and identified issues that enabled Petrobras to design, plan, contract, build and deliver more than fifteen new O&G production systems. The company transformation relied on strategic parallel initiatives. Four areas concentrated the efforts: Corporate Integration, Surface Installations, Subsea Systems and Reservoir Wells. This article focuses on the analysis of the technical actions in the Surface Installation department. Nonetheless, it summarizes the related essential efforts, as well. The optimization process started with high level assumptions, for instance to reinforce one company value. That is, to keep and develop a strong in-house technical knowledge. This allowed to continue a previous development initiative to create internal Concept and Basic Design Engineering for Standard FPSO Design. The major challenge occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. Petrobras mobilized its longest and largest Organizational Response Structure (EOR) team in its history. It involved all company departments with direct contribution of more than a thousand employees assigned for two years. With deep respect to the lives impacted and lost, there were lessons learned in this process, although Petrobras managed to continue its essential operations. From Corporate Integration perspective, Petrobras actively managed its asset portfolio to reduce the company's debt. Combined with favorable commodity prices, it allowed the company to restore and increase its financial situation to invest in oil production development despite observed volatility in the macroeconomic scenario. Regarding Reservoir and Wells, innovative technology created conditions to reduce the overall completion time. Subsea Systems layout optimizations and a more efficient resource management like the PLSV assigned fleet present significant contribution to the results. standardization process to evolve. Optimization in system machinery design templates saved time while respecting each project unique input design conditions. One of the results was a new series of FPSOs with All Electric concept design. It consequently tends to increase efficiency and overall reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Another key point identified was the interface among Petrobras, its supply partners, and shipyards. Through a permanent FPSO market monitoring committee, the process of procuring technical qualification was updated and stimulated early engagement of critical equipment suppliers. Furthermore, Petrobras have been continuously improving the drafting of contract terms for each FPSO project to stimulate shared interest. Finally, there were also improvements during FPSO construction and commissioning phase. The above mentioned efforts are expected to increase the chances of Petrobras delivering its strategic plan and sustainable growth. There are lessons learned to undertake fifteen O&G production systems in a synchronous manner. This is a considerable number of offshore projects for any operator company. © 2023, Offshore Technology Conference.
ABSTRACT
Objectives/Scope: Kuwait Energy is exploring, developing, and operating four concessions located in the Western Desert and the Gulf of Suez in Egypt;the company implemented many projects that had a significant impact on saving operating expenses and reducing greenhouse emissions to preserve the environment. One of these recent executed projects was replacing scattered diesel generators with a Central gas-driven electric power grid in Al- Jahraa field in East Abu-Sennan concession. In this , we present the challenges we faced during the planning phase and execution strategy applied to overcome these challenges. Methods: Al-Jahraa Field includes 13 running wells, a waterflood station, and a main oil and gas production plant. The field electricity is supplied by 15 scattered diesel generators for wells and facilities, consuming 100,000 liters of diesel per month. During the feasibility study phase of the project, many challenges were faced which had a negative impact on the project's economical assessment and that would result in cancelling the project, the challenges were summarized as following;the existence of wells at long distances from the site of the proposed main power station, which would require extending long lengths of electric power cables at a high cost, also the expected delay in the implementation and commissioning of the project resulting from the long delivery time of materials, especially copper cables and main switchgear during the COVID-19 pandemic. Several scenarios were studied for connecting the wells to the power station: The first scenario was to connect all wells and field facilities directly to the main power station. In this case, the estimated power cable lengths required to be extended were 25,000 Mt, in addition to using two 1 MW generators, one in service and the other would be a standby generator to provide backup power during a repair or maintenance service. This option economic model showed negative NPV due to the high cost of cables and extended execution time. Therefore, this option was cancelled. The second alternative was to connect each group of wells to three power stations to be operated using three diesel generators of 500 kVA for each station, with three backup generators. But the implementation of this option would lead to saving the cost of copper cables by 50%, but the cost of purchasing generators would increase due to the increase in the number of stations accordingly, in addition to the increase in operating expenses resulting from the increase in fuel consumption and maintenance cost compared to the first option. The third alternative, in which the economics of the project proved to be the best, is to divide the wells into three groups. Each of the two remote groups of wells are connected to an electric distribution panel, and then the two panels are connected by a main cable to the main power station. Moreover, the project cost was reduced by 50% due to the implementation of the following innovative optimization approach: • Re-using ESP cables instead of copper cables optimized both cost and delivery time as these materials are pulled from ESP wells. • These cables are designed for harsh downhole conditions increases its durability and extends its lifetime. • Using step-up and step-down transformers enabled us to reduce cable sizing, which also reflected on the lower cost of the project and, accordingly, increased its feasibility to be constructed. • An Incremental development approach, was followed in the management and implementation of the project, led to the speed of project delivery, and reduced the project risks and uncertainties. Results: The project was completed and commissioned within the allocated budget and time frame, leading to: ◦ 100% reduction of diesel fuel consumption levels. ◦ +68% reduction in total emissions;emissions are reduced by 2.5tons per year on average. ◦ reduced operational costs for each kilowatt hour generated due to using associated gas as fuel and releasing 13 rental generators. ◦ With the replacement of 1 rental generators with just one, the amount of maintenance waste, such as batteries, used oil, oil filters, fuel filters, and so on, is significantly reduced. ◦ These projects showed positive economic indicators (+NPV), with less than 1 years of payback. Conclusion: From this project's planning, execution, and results, we can claim that if risk assessments, detailed scope of work, good resource and time management, and cost-effective choices were addressed carefully, shall result in outstanding performance. The design of a high-efficiency electrical power supply system and use of associated gas in power generation reduces levels of fuel consumption, GHG emissions, and operational costs. Power generation project is a repeated case performed in one of our own assets in Egypt due to positive results and are easily transferable to sister IOCs & NOCs. Copyright © 2023, Society of Petroleum Engineers.
ABSTRACT
The last century has witnessed European commercial aviation flourishing at the cost of environmental degradation by boosting greenhouse gas and CO2 emissions in the atmosphere. However, the outcry for net-zero emissions compels the sector's supply chain to a minimum 55% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions below the 1990 level by 2030 and zero CO2 emissions by 2050. This study examines a European environmental sustainability path toward a green commercial aviation supply chain. Driven by literature and a review of related documents, two propositions were advanced to orient perspectives on the relationship between pollution and the commercial aviation supply chain and actions being taken toward environmental sustainability. In semi-structured interviews, seventeen aerospace associates endorsed pollution sources in the commercial aviation supply chain during the four stages of the aircraft life cycle, including extracting the raw materials, manufacturing, ground and flight operations, and end-of-service. They recommended transitioning into green commercial aviation through the widespread deployment of innovative technologies, from modifying airframes to changing aviation fuel, utilizing alternative propulsion systems, adopting circular manufacturing, and improving air traffic management.
ABSTRACT
The selection of potential suppliers has recently become a big challenge for the manufacturing industries due to the rapid spread of covid-19 and the escalating frequency of natural calamities such as earthquakes and floods. When decision-makers (DMs) consider quantity discounts from multiple sources, things get much more complicated. Although previous studies have looked at selecting suitable suppliers from economic and environmental aspects, no one has considered foreign transportation risks while evaluating the textile industry's global green suppliers. In this regard, for the first time, this study combines economic and environmental factors with the foreign transportation risk criterion to develop a holistic model for global green supplier selection and order allocation (SS&OA) in the textile industry under all-unit quantity discounts. Initially, the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) method is used to calculate the relative weights of the criteria. Second, a multi-objective linear programming (MOLP) model is developed to reduce the total procurement cost, quality rejection rate, delivery lateness rate, greenhouse gas emissions from product procurement, and foreign transportation risks. Subsequently, the developed MOLP model is transformed into a fuzzy compromise programming (FCP) model to obtain order allocation quantities among selected suppliers with their offered quantity discount rates. A real-life case study of the Pakistani textile industry is presented to validate the proposed methodology's applicability by determining the optimal order allocation quantities among multiple suppliers based on two decision-making attitudes of DMs (neutral and risk-averse). Finally, sensitivity and comparative analyses are carried out to guarantee that the proposed technique produces accurate and optimal solutions. The final results of the proposed methodology show that it can effectively manage data uncertainties during SS&OA compared to other existing approaches. The suggested integrated methodology's outcomes can assist the supplier organization in overcoming its current shortcomings and developing a long-term relationship with the buyer organization. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd
ABSTRACT
A bold, visionary, transforming, systemic, holistic, integrated, caring, inclusive, equitable, sustainable, and resilient paradigm for fast transitions toward a clean energy and decarbonized future is imperative and urgently needed. Business as usual and silo approaches are not viable with the changes that are occurring. These changes are linked and interacting systems of physical, natural, health, social, economic, finance, governance, and institution. The effects and impacts are dire, existential, and pervasive. The 2021 IPCC Report Physical Science Basis: Summary for Policymakers, in clear language stated "it is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, oceans and land”. The scientific communities in the US, Europe, Asia and other regions all subscribe to this situation. Well documented global empirical evidence is also confirming the profound systems and systemic transformations that are occurring. Business, industry, and the general public, in particular youths, worldwide are all increasingly demanding actions – that transcend words of what needs to be done to deeds of how and now. In the US, the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, would allocate US 370 billion for combating climate change and clean energy production. The IRA is the largest climate spending package ever. President Biden has called for 100% clean electricity by 2035 and pledged to cut carbon emissions by 50%–52% below 2005 levels by the end of this decade, doubling the previous target. A decarbonized future was endorsed by Leaders at the 2021 G-7 Carbis, UK Summit. There is growing realization that the global climate change crisis requires strengthened and expanded global cooperation with new, innovative and non-bureaucratic mechanisms for collaboration. The 2021 IPCC Report summarized that global surface temperature will continue to increase until at least the mid- century under all emissions' scenarios considered. "Global warming of 1.5 and 2°C will be exceeded during the 21st century unless deep reductions in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions occur in the coming decades.” The UNEP and IEA contends reducing anthropogenic methane emissions will help mitigate climate change and is a cost-effective proposition. The release of methane and micro-organisms from melting of permafrost needs to be better studied and understood., The confluence of increased heat, humidity, fine particulates air pollution, water contaminants and the COVID pandemic, will exacerbate health burdens. This will have serious consequences for human wellbeing, and cascading into national and global security. With climate change, therapeutics and vaccines will not work. The article provides a brief overview of the unprecedented climate related hurricanes, storms, floods and wildfires disasters occurring in all regions of the world. It highlights of some of the key effects, impacts and consequences with current policies and practices with regard to the energy-climate conundrum. There is an imperative to change course toward a decarbonized future. A number of systemic expeditious interventions are delineated. These include actions by all on:. The* fundamental need to change behavior;*afforestation, reforestation, rehabilitation of wetlands, mangroves, wastelands and coral reefs to restore ecosystem functions which would also create significant number of employment and livelihoods' opportunities;*retrofitting existing structures to be more energy efficient, incorporate increasing renewable energy, sustainability and resiliency criteria, – to "build back better” and provide jobs;*the life cycle of food and agriculture practices need to be systemically examined to reduce adverse impacts on climate, Energy, environment and health. There are difficulties and challenges. The commensurate opportunities and benefits of a decarbonized paradigm include clean and safe jobs;healthy quality of life;and a sustained and resilient future for current and future generations. © 2023 American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
ABSTRACT
Background and Objective: There have been significant effects of the current coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) infection outbreak on many facets of everyday life, particularly the environment. Despite the fact that a number of studies have already been published on the topic, an analysis of those studies' findings on COVID-19's effects on environmental pollution is still lacking. The goal of the research is to look into greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution in Bangladesh when COVID-19 is under rigorous lockdown. The specific drivers of the asymmetric relationship between air pollution and COVID-19 are being investigated. Methods: The nonlinear relationship between carbon dioxide ( C O 2 ) emissions, fine particulate matter ( P M 2 . 5 ) , and COVID-19, as well as its precise components, are also being investigated. To examine the asymmetric link between COVID-19 factors on C O 2 emissions and P M 2 . 5 , we employed the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model. Daily positive cases and daily confirmed death by COVID-19 are considered the factors of COVID-19, with lockdown as a dummy variable. Results: The bound test confirmed the existence of long-run and short-run relationships between variables. Bangladesh's strict lockdown, enforced in reaction to a surge of COVID-19 cases, reduced air pollution and dangerous gas emissions, mainly C O 2 , according to the dynamic multipliers graph.
ABSTRACT
Climate change has become mankind's main challenge. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from shipping are not totally irresponsible for this representing, roughly, 3% of the global total;an amount equal to that of Germany's total GHG emissions. The Fourth Greenhouse Gas Study 2020 of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) predicts that the share of GHG emissions from shipping will increase further, as international trade recovers and continues to grow, alongside with the economic development of India, China, and Africa. China and the European Union have proposed to include shipping in their carbon emissions trading systems (ETS). As a result, the study of the relationship between the carbon finance market and the shipping industry, attempted here for the first time, is both important and timely, both for policymakers and shipowners. We use wavelet analysis and the spillover index methods to explore the dynamic dependence and information spillovers between the carbon finance market and shipping. We discover a long-term dependence and information linkages between the two markets, with the carbon finance market being the dominant one. Major events, such as the 2009 global financial crisis;Brexit in 2016;the 2018 China-US trade frictions;and COVID-19 are shown to strengthen the dependence of carbon finance and shipping. We find that the dependence is strongest between the EU carbon finance market and dry bulk shipping, while the link is weaker in the case of tanker shipping. Nonetheless, carbon finance and tanker shipping showed a relatively stronger dependence when OPEC refused to cut production in 2014, and when the China-US trade disputes led to the collapse of oil prices after 2018. We show that information spillovers between carbon finance and shipping are bidirectional and asymmetric, with the carbon finance market being the principal transmitter of information. Our results and their interpretation provide guidance to governments on whether (and how) to include shipping in emissions trading schemes, supporting at the same time the environmental sustainability decisions of shipping companies. © 2023 The Authors
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic brought confinement that caused a drastic change throughout society. Mobility was reduced, education suffered a substantive change, distance learning, and digital skills were developed. Climate change and environmental pollution indicators indeed decreased. However, the quantification of the environmental footprint of the new form of remote work (digital carbon footprint) has not been considered in systematic studies. There are not many tools to calculate the corresponding emissions. The main objective of this educational research work was to determine the carbon footprint of digital activities in a company during the confinement caused by COVID-19 through a Challenge-Based Learning methodology. A one-semester academic program was designed to develop energy auditing skills for students of Sustainable Development Engineering. A company (training partner) was determined to validate the evaluation instruments. Techniques for data collection, questionnaires, and analysis of energy consumption data were designed. A helpful protocol was defined to determine the digital carbon footprint generated in the pilot company, allowing us to scale our research towards quantifying Greenhouse Gas emissions in Institutions or Companies of greater size. The soft and disciplinary graduation competencies of the students were solidly developed and evaluated through internal instruments and by the training partner standards. Finally, we propose mitigation measures aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals, in line with the new Green and Sustainable Digital Education trend. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
The impact of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions on the increase in the average temperature on the planet and the risk of initiating irreversible processes are recognized by most of the scientific community as real threats to humanity. Many countries have a legal and institutional framework for a consistent industrial policy taking into account the climate and environmental components, including carbon accounting. Russia is a country with high intensity of production-based CO2 emissions. In is well-known that the industry generates necessary hence it induce demand for products from other sectors of the economy. Environmental and social parameters in the formation of industrial policy should not be considered as any limitations for the development of industry. Despite a serious change in the agenda for the industrial policy in recent years, caused by COVID-19 and by current geopolitical situation in the world, it is highly undesirable to lag behind in this area, since it is necessary for international cooperation and human technological development. Low-carbon areas correspond to the modern ideology of industrial policy for many countries. The novelty of the study is the evaluation of the total GHG (greenhouse gases) intensity of Russias industry by means of intersectoral model. The paper analyses some of industrial policy measures and their implementation that affect low-carbon economic development. The proposed study could be of interest for other economies aiming to reduce their carbon footprint. © 2022 International Multidisciplinary Scientific Geoconference. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The primary goals of this study are to determine if the datasets of positive COVID-19 test cases and CO2 emissions from Connecticut over the span of March 24th, 2020-October 31, 2021 are in any ways correlated. With climate change a prominent issue facing the entire world today, it is important to explore methods of providing records of past patterns of greenhouse gas emissions in order to inform decision making that could reduce future ones. Autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) modeling is also implemented in this paper to provide forecasting based on CO2 emissions in CT starting from 2019. The most significant results from this paper are as follows: the CO2 emission data of transportation sectors including ground transportation, domestics aviation, and international aviation and weekly COVID-19 positive test cases data has a strong relationship during the first 28 weeks of the pandemic with a correlation of -86.34%. The CO2 emissions experienced on average a -22.96% change of pre-pandemic vs during initial quarantine conditions and at most a - 44.48% change when comparing the pre-pandemic mean to the during initial quarantine minimum value. Lastly, the ARIMA model found to have the lowest Akaike information criterion (AIC) was ARIMA (4,0,4). In conclusion, in the event of a collective global pandemic and lockdown conditions, less traveling resulting in a correlated decrease of CO2 emissions. This means that perhaps concentrated efforts on reducing unnecessary travel could help mitigate the levels of carbon dioxide emissions as a more long-term solution to climate change opposed to the pandemic's short-term example. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Southeast Asia is one of the world's most energy-intensive and climate vulnerable regions, with rapid urbanization and industrialization increasing its greenhouse gas emissions and a high exposure to extreme weather events. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a massive impact on the region's economic growth. Decisions taken by leaders today to revive economies will either entrench the region's dependence on fossil fuels or accelerate decarbonization efforts to achieve the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. This article recalls the imperative of a green, climate resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic to put ASEAN economies on a sustainable and inclusive development path before discussing the chronic infrastructure investment gap and reviewing options to catalyze climate investment to address this gap and finance recovery efforts. © 2023 American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic forced upon the world, severe social distancing restrictions, which led to prolonged confinement across populations. The latter directly impacted actors along the supply chain in a variety of industrial sectors (for instance, raw material suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and customers, among others). Some actors involved had to cease participation altogether due to closures. As a result, the supply chain requires restructuring and its reactivation requires careful consideration. In addition to the pandemic, poor air quality has brought about an environmental crisis in recent years. Primary polluters include greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by manufacturers and distributors. Therefore, this research studies the problem of restructuring a particular multicommodity and hierarchized supply chain. Specifically for companies dealing with situations derived from a reduction in manufacturing capacity and service level in light of the pandemic. In this case, a company (leader) is faced with selecting customers that it will service in pursuit of maximizing profit, all while looking to minimize GHG emissions. The consolidated demand is nearshored once the leader company decides on the customers to be supplied. That is, an order is placed on a company with a lower hierarchy (follower). The follower, in turn, aims to minimize its own manufacturing costs without exceeding the pollution limits imposed by the government. However, its manufacturing plan inevitably pollutes and incurs different costs. In addition, the follower's decisions impact both leader's objective functions. We propose a bi-objective bi-level programming model to study this situation. To solve the problem in reasonable computational time, a heuristic algorithm that takes into account existing asynchrony between leader and follower companies is proposed to approximate the Pareto front. Computational experimentation reveals that the proposed algorithm provides good trade-off solutions, which can reduce GHG emissions by 67% on average without significantly affecting company revenue. Moreover, the algorithm is able to provide solutions for instances of up to 1000 nodes in a competitive computational timeframe. In addition, we discuss the advantages of computing GHG emissions proposed herein. Finally, useful managerial insights are discussed by performing a sensitivity analysis regarding the distribution company's minimum acceptable level of profit. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd
ABSTRACT
Energy consumption is one of the most important variables that have an impact on the environment. One of the nations in the world with the highest per capita electrical energy usage is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Many attempts are being made in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to lower energy consumption and electricity consumption to achieve sustainability. In this work, the data on the energy consumption of two mosques in Hail City were analyzed, and the opportunities for energy conservation and the use of solar energy were studied to make mosques sustainable. Annual energy use intensity was determined to be 100 and 121 kWh/m2 for the Al-Khashil and Al-Jamil mosques, respectively. While Al-Khashil's mosque envelope is insulated, energy efficiency measures implemented to the walls of Al-Jamil's mosque resulted in reductions in energy consumption of 27%, 13%, and 6%, respectively. The most effective energy efficiency option is a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system with a high energy efficiency ratio, which can reduce cooling demand by more than 30%. If the condition of Saudi Building Code 601 is met, then it has the potential to cut energy usage by 35.4% and 63.3% for Al-Khashil and Al-Jamil, respectively. Due to coronavirus disease 2019, Al-Khashil's electricity usage was reduced by 58,737 kWh, or 39.9%, in 2020 compared to 2019. When using data from RETScreen and ATLAS, there were inconsistencies of up to 28%, but for DesignBuilder, the findings were the closest to the billing data. The mosques Al-Khashil and Al-Jamil have a combined yearly photovoltaic energy output from the suggested systems of around 135.93 MWh and 33.98 MWh, respectively. For the mosques, Al-Khashil and Al-Jamil, the yearly yield factor and capacity factor were both 1887.9 kWh/kWp/year and 21.9%, respectively. The annual greenhouse gas emission reductions from photovoltaic systems for Al-Khashil and Al-Jamil were 102.9 tCO2 and 25.72 tCO2, respectively. Concerning economics, the following results were obtained: The levelized cost of energy of photovoltaic systems is 0.0901 SR/kWh (0.024 $/kWh);the net present value and internal rate of return for photovoltaic systems are not suitable as a result of the current prices and the system applied in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. If the electricity produced from photovoltaic systems is injected into the grid at a rate of 0.32 SR/kWh, which is comparable to the SEC tariff for the mosque or government sector, then the simple payback time is 5.14 years. © The Author(s) 2023.
ABSTRACT
Since the containment measures placed in several countries to deal with Covid-19 pandemic, air and noise pollution has been significantly reduced, but what about soil pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from waste management? Covid-19 has given a break to the earth by immobilizing a very large part of the world economy, industrial activity, and transport and by having an important modification on the Moroccan consumer behaviour. This demographic evolution and change of consumption do not infect the resources, but are a source of degradation and pollution of the different environmental components. Among these sources, we find the production of household and similar waste. Our objective is to rate the impact of this pandemic on waste production, in Ajdir landfill, El Hoceima, which reflects the activity of the Moroccan citizen (between March 20 and April 27, 2020), and the initiatives that have been taken and launched to solve the problems at the level of each province through the establishment of a provincial master plan for the management of household and similar waste. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
The impact of the climate change response on the labour market is an important question for policymakers, while the net positive effect of green policies on the labour market is seen as one of the arguments in favour of a green transition. This is particularly important for the tourism labour market, which was severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examined the effect of carbon taxes on tourism employment for European countries that have levied a carbon tax over the past thirty years. A macroeconomic panel data regression model ex-post study was applied by contrasting the obtained results via a robustness check. The estimation results indicate a slightly positive and significant association between the carbon tax and tourism employment, which was additionally tested by considering revenue recycling, early adopters of the carbon tax, and a higher carbon tax compared to countries with a lower carbon tax. We cannot conclude that these factors matter for tourism employment, proving the robustness of the results. Revenue-neutral carbon taxation, policies to address the skills gap, push and pull incentives, and active labour market policies to facilitate the quick re-integration of jobseekers into employment are viewed as pivotal to ensure a smoother transition toward a sustainable tourism labour market. © 2023 by the author.
ABSTRACT
Pit latrines are widely promoted to improve sanitation in low-income settings, but their pollution and health risks receive cursory attention. The present narrative review presents the pit latrine paradox; (1) the pit latrine is considered a sanitation technology of choice to safeguard human health, and (2) conversely, pit latrines are pollution and health risk hotspots. Evidence shows that the pit latrine is a 'catch-all' receptacle for household disposal of hazardous waste, including; (1) medical wastes (COVID-19 PPE, pharmaceuticals, placenta, used condoms), (2) pesticides and pesticide containers, (3) menstrual hygiene wastes (e.g., sanitary pads), and (4) electronic wastes (batteries). Pit latrines serve as hotspot reservoirs that receive, harbour, and then transmit the following into the environment; (1) conventional contaminants (nitrates, phosphates, pesticides), (2) emerging contaminants (pharmaceuticals and personal care products, antibiotic resistance), and (3) indicator organisms, and human bacterial and viral pathogens, and disease vectors (rodents, houseflies, bats). As greenhouse gas emission hotspots, pit latrines contribute 3.3 to 9.4 Tg/year of methane, but this could be an under-estimation. Contaminants in pit latrines may migrate into surface water, and groundwater systems serving as drinking water sources and pose human health risks. In turn, this culminates into the pit latrine-groundwater-human continuum or connectivity, mediated via water and contaminant migration. Human health risks of pit latrines, a critique of current evidence, and current and emerging mitigation measures are presented, including isolation distance, hydraulic liners/ barriers, ecological sanitation, and the concept of a circular bioeconomy. Finally, future research directions on the epidemiology and fate of contaminants in pit latrines are presented. The pit latrine paradox is not meant to downplay pit latrines' role or promote open defaecation. Rather, it seeks to stimulate discussion and research to refine the technology to enhance its functionality while mitigating pollution and health risks.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Pesticides , Humans , Sanitation , Toilet Facilities , Hygiene , Menstruation , Pharmaceutical PreparationsABSTRACT
Apart from the many social and health problems it has caused, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a severe impact on most sectors of the economy worldwide. One of the areas where such impact is noticeable is the textile, apparel, and fashion (TAF) industry. The lockdowns and limited access to retailer outlets resulted in a considerable drop in consumption, creating problems related to the excess of stock, the decrease of sales, and the disposal of non-used items. This paper outlines the implications of the COVID-19 on the TAF sectors and European retailers. It analyzes how the current supply chains exacerbated stock control problems, and it reports on the changes in consumption during the pandemic. The worldwide restrictive measures implemented to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic were responsible for significant profit losses. Also, the decrease in consumption, caused by several geographically wide lockdowns, prompted a subsequent reduction in orders and sales, resulting in a significant number of constraints. The implementation of more environmentally friendly processes, including sustainable circularity as a competitiveness source to keep the TAF sectors in the loop and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, may help address the problems associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in the sustainability context, as reported in this paper. © The Author(s) 2022.
ABSTRACT
Grandfather rights require airlines to operate at least 80 % of their slots, if they are to keep them in the next scheduling period. To prevent losing slots, the airlines may operate slot-rescue flights, an airline strategy called slot hoarding. We model strategies of a monopolistic airline which chooses between long-haul and short-haul flights at a slot-coordinated airport. In cases of a binding use-it-or-lose-it rule, we observe a bias in the airline route network in favor of slot-rescue flights on short-haul distances. Slot-rescue flights reduce airline profits, but raise consumer surplus and airport profits. The overall effect of slot-rescue flights on welfare, however, remains ambiguous. Recently, slot hoarding and its climate impact have received considerable attention during the COVID-19 pandemic. We show that the environmental effects of slot-rescue flights are asymmetric. The climate damage of slot hoarding in the EU is reduced by the EU ETS, whereas CORSIA is rather ineffective. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd