This review paper examines the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets postulated by a range of organizations seeking to reduce the consequences of global climate change and how, or if, the global tourism sector can achieve its share of those targets. It takes both existing estimates of current tourism GHG emissions and emissions projected in a business-as-usual scenario through to 2035 and contrasts them with the "aspirational" emission reduction targets proclaimed by the sector. Analysis reveals that with current high-growth emission trends in tourism, the sector could become a major global source of GHGs in the future if other economic sectors achieve significant emission reductions. Success in achieving emission reductions in tourism is found to be largely dependent on major policy and practice changes in air travel, and stated tourism emission reduction targets do not appear feasible without volumetric changes considering the limited technical emission reduction potential currently projected for the aviation sector. The opportunities and challenges associated with a shift towards a low-carbon global economy are anticipated to transform tourism globally and in all respects. Much greater consideration and dissemination of these issues is required to inform future tourism development and travel decisions.
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Energiebeheer gericht aanpakken, Het analyseren van doelstellingen, resultaten en impacts van energie- en broeikasgasbeheersprogramma’s in bedrijven (met een samenvatting in het Nederlands): De wereldwijde uitstoot van broeikasgassen moet drastisch worden teruggebracht om de mondiale stijging van de temperatuur tot het relatief veilige niveau van maximaal 2 graden Celsius te beperken. In de komende decennia zal de verbetering van de energie-efficiëntie de belangrijkste strategie zijn voor het verminderen van de energiegerelateerde uitstoot van broeikasgassen. Hoewel er een enorm potentieel is voor verbetering van de energie-efficiëntie, wordt een groot deel daarvan nog niet benut. Dit wordt veroorzaakt door diverse investeringsbarrières die de invoering van maatregelen voor energie-efficiëntie verbetering verhinderen. De invoering van energiemanagement wordt vaak beschouwd als een manier om dergelijke barrières voor energiebesparing te overwinnen. De invoering van energiemanagement in bedrijven kan worden gestimuleerd door de introductie van programma's voor energie-efficiëntie verbetering en vermindering van de uitstoot van broeikasgassen. Deze programma's zijn vaak een combinatie van verschillende elementen zoals verplichtingen voor energiemanagement; (ambitieuze) doelstellingen voor energiebesparing of beperking van de uitstoot van broeikasgassen; de beschikbaarheid van regelingen voor stimulering, ondersteuning en naleving; en andere verplichtingen, zoals openbare rapportages, certificering en verificatie. Tot nu toe is er echter beperkt inzicht in het proces van het formuleren van ambitieuze doelstellingen voor energie-efficiëntie verbetering of het terugdringen van de uitstoot van broeikasgassen binnen deze programma's, in de gevolgen van de invoering van dergelijke programma's op de verbetering van het energiemanagement, en in de impact van deze programma's op energiebesparing of de vermindering van de uitstoot van broeikasgassen. De centrale onderzoeksvraag van dit proefschrift is als volgt geformuleerd: "Wat is de impact van energie- en broeikasgasmanagement programma’s op het verbeteren van het energiemanagement in de praktijk, het versnellen van de energieefficiëntie verbetering en het beperken van de uitstoot van broeikasgassen in bedrijven?".
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Energy management and carbon accounting schemes are increasingly being adopted as a corporate response to climate change. These schemes often demand the setting of ambitious targets for the reduction of corporate greenhouse gas emissions. There is however only limited empirical insight in the companies’ target setting process and the auditing practice of certifying agencies that evaluate ambition levels of greenhouse gas reduction targets. We studied the target setting process of firms participating in the CO2 Performance Ladder. The CO2 Performance Ladder is a new certifiable scheme for energy management and carbon accounting that is used as a tool for green public procurement in the Netherlands. This study aimed at answering the question ‘to what extent does the current target setting process in the CO2 Performance Ladder lead to ambitious CO2 emission reduction goals?’. The research methods were interviews with relevant stakeholders (auditors, companies and consultants), document reviews of the certification scheme, and an analysis of corporate target levels for the reduction of CO2 emissions. The research findings showed that several certification requirements for target setting for the reduction of CO2 emissions were interpreted differently by the various actors and that the conformity checks by the auditors did not include a full assessment of all certification requirements. The research results also indicated that corporate CO2 emission reduction targets were not very ambitious. The analysis of the target setting process revealed that there was a semi-structured bottom-up auditing practice for evaluating the corporate CO2 emission reduction targets, but the final assessment whether target levels were sufficiently ambitious were rather loose. The main conclusion is that the current target setting process in the CO2 Performance Ladder did not necessarily lead to establishing the most ambitious goals for CO2 emission reduction. This process and the tools to assess the ambition level of the CO2 emission reduction targets need further improvement in order to maintain the CO2 Performance Ladder as a valid tool for green public procurement.
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Greenhouse gas emissions from air transport, and methods to calculate them, are notwell defined in the current literature. While calculating the direct emissions of CO2 is already causefor some debate, the contribution of other emissions and impacts – like nitrogen oxides (NOx),contrails, water vapour – to climate change still lacks a reliable metric. As aviation is the largestemitter of greenhouse gases within tourism, accurate estimates of carbon and non-carbon emissions are important. This paper presents some standardisation as well as general insights to assistresearchers assessing the impact of aviation on climate change in scenario studies or evaluatingmitigation policies. The IPCC introduced a radiative forcing index (RFI) to measure the role of aviation in climate change, which is in scenario studies or evaluations of policies often used as a kind ofconstant ‘equivalence factor’. The paper shows this to be inaccurate and proposes ways to accountfor both carbon and non-carbon climate impacts of air transport
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In Europe, green hydrogen and biogas/green gas are considered important renewable energy carriers, besides renewable electricity and heat. Still, incentives proceed slowly, and the feasibility of local green gas is questioned. A supply chain of decentralised green hydrogen production from locally generated electricity (PV or wind) and decentralised green gas production from locally collected biomass and biological power-to-methane technology was analysed and compared to a green hydrogen scenario. We developed a novel method for assessing local options. Meeting the heating demand of households was constrained by the current EU law (RED II) to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 80% relative to fossil (natural) gas. Levelised cost of energy (LCOE) analyses at 80% GHG emission savings indicate that locally produced green gas (LCOE = 24.0 €ct kWh−1) is more attractive for individual citizens than locally produced green hydrogen (LCOE = 43.5 €ct kWh−1). In case higher GHG emission savings are desired, both LCOEs go up. Data indicate an apparent mismatch between heat demand in winter and PV electricity generation in summer. Besides, at the current state of technology, local onshore wind turbines have less GHG emissions than PV panels. Wind turbines may therefore have advantages over PV fields despite the various concerns in society. Our study confirms that biomass availability in a dedicated region is a challenge.
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Decentralised renewable energy production in the form of fuels or electricity can have large scale deployment in future energy systems, but the feasibility needs to be assessed. The novelty of this paper is in the design and implementation of a mixed integer linear programming optimisation model to minimise the net present cost of decentralised hydrogen production for different energy demands on neighbourhood urban scale, while simultaneously adhering to European Union targets on greenhouse gas emission reductions. The energy system configurations optimised were assumed to possibly consist of a variable number or size of wind turbines, solar photovoltaics, grey grid electricity usage, battery storage, electrolyser, and hydrogen storage. The demands served are hydrogen for heating and mobility, and electricity for the households. A hydrogen residential heating project currently being developed in Hoogeveen, The Netherlands, served as a case study. Six scenarios were compared, each taking one or multiple energy demand services into question. For each scenario the levelised cost of hydrogen was calculated. The lowest levelised cost of hydrogen was found for the combined heating and mobility scenario: 8.36 €/kg for heating and 9.83 €/kg for mobility. The results support potential cost reductions of combined demand patterns of different energy services. A sensitivity analysis showed a strong influence of electrolyser efficiency, wind turbine parameters, and emission reduction factor on levelised cost. Wind energy was strongly preferred because of the lower cost and the low greenhouse gas emissions, compared to solar photovoltaics and grid electricity. Increasing electrolyser efficiency and greenhouse gas emission reduction of the used technologies deserve further research.
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Ship-source greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions could increase by up to 250% from 2012 levels by 2050 owing to increasing global freight volumes. Binding international legal agreements to regulate GHGs, however, are lacking as technical solutions remain expensive and crucial industrial support is absent. In 2003, IMO adopted Resolution A.963 (23) to regulate shipping CO2 emissions via technical, operational, and market-based routes. However, progress has been slow and uncertain; there is no concrete emission reduction target or definitive action plan. Yet, a full-fledged roadmap may not even emerge until 2023. In this policy analysis, we revisit the progress of technical, operational, and market-based routes and the associated controversies. We argue that 1) a performance-based index, though good-intentioned, has loopholes affecting meaningful CO2 emission reductions driven by technical advancements; 2) using slow steaming to cut energy consumption stands out among operational solutions thanks to its immediate and obvious results, but with the already slow speed in practice, this single source has limited emission reduction potential; 3) without a technology-savvy shipping industry, a market-based approach is essentially needed to address the environmental impact. To give shipping a 50:50 chance for contributing fairly and proportionately to keep global warming below 2°C, deep emission reductions should occur soon.
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This paper examines a paradoxical issue in tourism's adaptation to climate change and emissions reduction demands. Operators increasingly take tourists to destinations threatened by climate change, with Antarctica and other polar regions as favourites and cruise ship and aircraft as main transport modes. The selling point is to see a destination before it disappears, a form of last chance tourism. This has been claimed to increase the environmental awareness of tourists and make them "ambassadors" for conservation and the visited destination. Antarctic cruise ship passengers tripled from 2000 to 2007. The paper finds that high levels of greenhouse gas emissions are created by cruise ship tourists in general, and especially high levels for those visiting the Antarctic, up to approximately eight times higher per capita and per day than average international tourism trips. A survey found no evidence for the hypothesis that the trips develop greater environmental awareness, change attitudes or encourage more sustainable future travel choices. Of the Antarctic cruise passengers surveyed, 59% felt that their travel did not impact on climate change; fewer than 7% had or might offset their emissions. Alternative opportunities for visitation to glacial/polar destinations that comply with the desire to reduce future emissions are discussed.
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The aim of this research is to assess the potential impact of the CO2 Performance Ladder on CO2 emission reduction. The CO2 Performance Ladder is a new green procurement scheme that has been adopted by several public authorities in the Netherlands; it is a staged certification scheme for energy and CO2 management. The achieved certification level gives companies a certain competitive advantage in contract awarding procedures. While the scheme has been widely adopted by companies in the construction industry, other types of companies in the supply chain of the commissioning parties also participate. Currently, more than 190 companies participate in the scheme. The aggregate CO2 emissions covered by the scheme are around 1.7 Mtonnes, which corresponds to almost 1 % of national greenhouse gas emissions in the Netherlands. Since the introduction of the scheme the total CO2 emissions have decreased substantially. Nevertheless, these emission reductions should be interpreted with caution since emission reductions are dominated by a few companies and are affected to a large extent by economic activity. Companies participating in the scheme have set different types of CO2 emission reduction targets with varying ambition levels. The projected impact of these targets on CO2 emissions is in the range of a 0.5 %-1.3 % absolute emission reduction per year, with a most likely value of 1.1 %. The CO2 Performance Ladder can therefore make a substantial contribution to achieving the CO2 emission reductions for non-ETS sectors in the Netherlands up to 2020.
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Agricultural by-products, that is primary residue, industrial by-products and animal manure, are an important source of nutrients and carbon for maintaining soil quality and crop production but can also be valorised through treatment pathways such as fermentation, incineration or a combination of these called bio-refinery. Here, we provide an overview of opportunity to reduce environmental impact of valorising agricultural by-products. We estimate the available by-products in Northwestern Europe as a case study and the maximum and realistic greenhouse gas reduction potentials. Availability, collectability, the original use and environmental impact including land use changes, soil carbon sequestration and pollution swapping are discussed as critical factors when valorising agricultural by-products.
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