Beyond opportunity costs: who bears the implementation costs of reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation?

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) in developing countries is based on the premise that conserving tropical forests is a cost-effective way to reduce carbon emissions and therefore can be fully funded by international actors with obligations or interests in reducing emissions. However, concerns have repeatedly been raised about whether stakeholders in REDD+ host countries will actually end up bearing the costs of REDD+. Most prior analyses of the costs of REDD+ have focused on the opportunity costs of foregone alternative uses of forest land. We draw on a pan-tropical study of 22 subnational REDD+ initiatives in five countries to explore patterns in implementation costs, including which types of organizations are involved and which are sharing the costs of implementing REDD+. We find that many organizations involved in the implementation of REDD+, particularly at the subnational level and in the public sector, are bearing implementation costs not covered by the budgets of the REDD+ initiatives. To sustain this level of cost-sharing, REDD+ must be designed to deliver local as well as global forest benefits.     

Tannic acid as a novel and green leaching reagent for cobalt and lithium recycling from spent lithium-ion batteries

Tannic acid–acetic acid is proposed as novel and green chemicals for cobalt and lithium recycling from spent lithium-ion batteries through a leaching process. The synergism of both acids was documented through batch and continuous studies. Tannic acid promotes cobalt dissolution by reducing insoluble Co³⁺ into soluble Co²⁺, while acetic acid is critical to improve the dissolution and stabilize the metals in the pregnant leach solution. Based on batch studies, the optimum conditions for metal recovery at room temperature are acetic acid 1 M, tannic acid 20 g/L, pulp density 20 g/L, and stirring speed 250 rpm (94% cobalt and 99% lithium recovery). The kinetic study shows that increasing temperature to 80 °C improves cobalt and lithium recovery from 65 to 90% (cobalt) and from 80 to 99% (lithium) within 4 h at sub-optimum condition (tannic acid 10 g/L). Kinetic modeling suggests the leaching process was endothermic, and high activation energy indicates a surface chemical process. For other metals, the pattern of manganese and nickel recovery trend follows the cobalt recovery trend. Copper recovery was negatively affected by tannic acid. Iron recovery was limited due to the weak acidic condition of pregnant leach solution, which is beneficial to improve leaching selectivity.