Strategic Niche Management in an unstable regime: Biomass gasification in India

This paper analyses the development and implementation of biomass gasifiers in India. Based on literature reviews and fieldwork, an historical narrative is presented starting with laboratory experiments in the 1980s up to commercial applications after 2000. This narrative is analysed using the Strategic Niche Management framework. We conclude with the benefit of hindsight that technological expectations where generally too high. The biomass gasification technology is not easy to design and operate and needs to be embedded in a stable institutional set up to allow learning, knowledge transfer, regulation and funding. We also conclude that, in contrast with theoretical predictions, up-scaling the niche suffers from regime instability rather than regime stability, as there is a need to give more security to investors and end-users. For instance through setting clear and long-term condition for grid-connected biomass gasification systems and feed-in schemes. Up-scaling through local off-grid applications where enough technical competence is available is the most likely trend in the near future.     

新能源发展所面临的气候挑战：来自英国的教训

2021年9月,由于大西洋北海地区风速突然下降,英国的海上风力发电量骤减,导致欧洲能源市场陷入混乱。风速的年际变化和长期逐渐减弱的趋势可能是造成这次事件的主要原因。此外,北海上一种持续3—4 d的阻塞高压也促成了低风速事件的发生。一个移动缓慢的暖脊显著地阻挡了西风气流,并割裂了北极极涡,导致北极和东欧地区的冷空气积聚。这种天气形势有可能引发寒潮,进一步增加电网的负担。然而,扩大风力发电机安装规模并不能有效应对此类事件。值得注意的是,中国的可再生能源发展也面临着与英国相似的挑战。因此,激进的可再生能源政策并不可取。为了更好地应对这些来自气候的挑战,可再生能源的发展需要从提高装备技术、发展混合能源系统以及开展更加精细的资源评估三个方面入手。以上结论对中国能源系统的转型具有重要的参考意义。     

Using participatory geographic approaches for urban flood risk in Santiago de Chile: Insights from a governance analysis

Studies based on information acquired by participative geographic approaches have sought to cope with emergency situations and disasters such as floods. However, the impact of these approaches to flood risk governance systems in order to understand these types of events as a complete risk cycle is still not clear. This paper focuses on analysing the governance possibilities of using participative geographic information like volunteered and public participatory geographic information for flood risk reduction in the case of Santiago de Chile, a city which regularly experiences urban floods during rainy seasons. Based on in-depth interviews and document analysis, our study indicates that a relevant part of the current information used for flood risk reduction efforts is provided to local and regional authorities by the affected population. Though, local actors are not recognized by central agencies as valid agents for the production of official information. Moreover, there are neither instances of communication or deliberation with the community, which reduces the capacity of local actors to discuss possible solutions. Participative geographic instruments are seen as potential mechanisms to strengthen work relations among local actors and authorities, by enhancing new logics for producing and sharing information. The impacts for the current risk governance system though can be diverse depending on the participants' level of commitment of participants and the political relations between actors and agencies. Considered as merely data acquisition and analysis mechanisms, participative instruments reproduce the existing hierarchical top-down structures. Furthermore, local-based approaches can enhance local work, support local diagnostics and increase the decision capacity of citizens.     

可持续发展视角下的中国和印度能源发展对比研究

能源转型是全球落实联合国2030可持续发展目标过程中的重要议题,在发展中国家尤为突出。中国和印度作为世界上最大的两个发展中国家,面临着相似的能源转型挑战。本文利用能源发展指数(Energy Development Index,EDI)方法,从能源可获得性与可负担性两个维度衡量比较了中印能源发展利用情况。研究结果表明,印度能源发展在总体上落后于中国,其主要差距表现在能源价格与能源结构两方面。其中,印度能源价格呈增长态势,2010—2014年年均增速达9.6%;而中国能源平均价格整体呈下降趋稳态势(除煤气价格外)。同时,印度能源消费结构中的传统生物质能源占比较高,是中国传统生物质能源占比的6.6倍(2017年)。研究指出,从传统能源向可再生能源的转变是中印两国提升能源可持续供给能力和现代能源服务体系的重要途径,两国可以通过绿色技术合作共同解决能源可持续转型问题,携手实现全球低碳可持续发展目标。     

能源供应安全视角下中印生物质能源利用的比较

中国和印度是世界上两个人口最多的国家,中印两国作为世界上两个能源消费大国,如何满足众多人口和经济快速增长对能源的需求,以及提供安全的能源供应是中国和印度都在考虑并试图解决的紧迫问题,分析印度的生物能源利用政策对我国有重要的现实意义和参考价值。我国在1993年成为石油净进口国,1994年我国进口的原油仅为290×104t,进口依赖度为1.9%。到2009年我国石油净进口量为21 888.5×104t,进口原油的依赖度上升到了52.5%。我国日益增加的对国际石油市场的依赖对我国能源安全供应构成了极大的风险和挑战。我国在"十一五"期间,在生物质能源的利用上取得了很大的成绩。但还存在一些问题,主要问题是原料来源和成本不稳定、缺乏统筹规划、发电上网制度不完善、相关政策配套措施和实施细则不完善等因素在一定程度上影响了生物质能产业的发展。印度政府积极支持的生物质利用技术,包括利用清洁发展机制大量开发的生物质能CDM项目,这类项目大约占印度全部注册CDM项目的三分之一左右。印度从能源多元化供应的角度和扶持乡村可持续发展的角度上开发利用生物质能项目的实践是值得我国借鉴的。     

Reforming the CDM for sustainable development: lessons learned and policy futures

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has successfully demonstrated that market-based mechanisms can achieve some cost effective emissions reductions in developing countries. However the distribution of CDM projects has been extremely uneven across countries and regions, and a few technologies and sectors have dominated the early stages of CDM experience. This has caused some to question whether the CDM has fallen short of its potential in contributing to sustainable development. We review the broad patterns of CDM project approvals and evaluate 10 CDM projects according to their sustainability benefits. The difficulty of defining “sustainable development” and the process of defining criteria by individual non-Annex 1 governments has meant that sustainable development concerns have been marginalized in some countries. Given these observed limitations, we present possible CDM policy futures, focusing on the main proposals for a post-2012 climate regime. Five options for enhancing the sustainable development benefits in the CDM are discussed, including proactive approaches to favour eligibility of emission reduction projects which ensure such co-benefits.     

Getting REDD to work locally: lessons learned from integrated conservation and development projects

Integrated conservation and development projects (ICDPs) have been a pervasive, although widely criticized, approach to tropical conservation for more than 20 years. More recently, international conservation discourse has shifted away from project-based approaches and towards reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). While REDD is based upon experience with payment for environmental services (PES) initiatives and forest-related discussions in the United Nations (UN), REDD implementation will still require sub-national projects. Issues of equity will likely pit these sub-national projects against some of the same challenges that have dogged ICDPs. This suggests that REDD project developers stand to learn a great deal from the lessons generated by experience with ICDPs. This paper provides a list of best practices for ICDPs and applies their lessons as principles to guide the development and implementation of sub-national REDD projects. The intent of this approach is to encourage the design and implementation of sub-national REDD projects in a way that avoids the past pitfalls and mistakes, while building upon some successes, of the ICDP conservation approach. By doing so, REDD will be more likely to be implemented in a way that is effective, efficient and equitable.     

Drought adaptation in rural eastern Oklahoma in the 1930s: lessons for climate change adaptation research

In the mid-1930s, eastern Oklahoma, USA, suffered an unusually harsh mixture of droughts and extreme rainfall events that led to widespread crop failure over several years. These climatic conditions coincided with low commodity prices, agricultural restructuring and general economic collapse, creating tremendous hardship in rural and agriculturally dependent areas. Using a previously developed typology of agricultural adaptation, this paper reports empirical research conducted to identify the ways by which the rural population of Sequoyah County adapted to such conditions. Particular attention is given to categorizing the scale at which adaptation occurred, the actors involved and the constraints to implementation. The findings identify successes and opportunities missed by public policy makers, and suggest possible entry points for developing adaptation strategies for current and future, analogous situations that may arise as a result of climate change.     

美国国家公园矿业管理对我国生态保护红线区矿业活动管控的启示

随着我国生态保护红线逐步落地,生态保护红线与矿产资源开发活动间的冲突日益凸显。美国经过40多年的探索,已经建立起较为完善的国家公园矿业退出与管控体系,但同时也面临着新的挑战。本文系统梳理了美国国家公园内矿业管理的发展历程、制度设计,特别是通过提高已有矿业活动的环境管理成本,充分利用经济规律,推动矿业权有序退出的经验,为我国现阶段生态保护红线区矿业退出及活动管控提供有益参考。建议明确主责部门,建立部门协同配合机制;摸清矿业活动底数,精准识别管控对象;制定多元退出机制;基于生态环境目标,加强矿业活动管理;建立灵活的保证金和风险金制度。     

Biomass gasification,catalytic technologies and energy integration for production of circular methanol:New horizons for industry decarbonisation

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) recognises the pivotal role of renewable energies in the future energy system and the achievement of the zero-emission target. The implementation of renewables should provide major opportunities and enable a more secure and decentralised energy supply system. Renewable fuels provide long-term solutions for the transport sector, particularly for applications where fuels with high energy density are required. In addition, it helps reducing the ca...     

Linking academic and local knowledge: community-based research and service learning for sustainable rural development in Hungary

Discussions about the potential role of academic and research institutions in regional sustainability initiatives (RSIs) inevitably raise the issue of the role of science in society in general. In democratic societies, it can be argued that science–society relationships should be based on establishing and institutionalizing mutual dialogues, making public concerns not only visible but the public as equal partner. In order to fulfil the social responsibilities of academic institutions involved in RSIs through establishing dialogues with diverse stakeholders, a possible methodology is conducting participatory action research (PAR) combined with the educational model of service learning. The PAR project reported here aims at facilitating a bottom-up, micro-region level sustainability planning and development process in one of the most socio-economically disadvantaged rural areas of north-east Hungary. Some of the main results of this university–community partnership were its contribution to sustainability, including the activation of local capabilities and networking across various local stakeholder groups through various small-scale projects and the co-production of a socially grounded and landscape-based rural development plan for the micro-region.     

社会生态回复与社会冲突:瑞典水管理制度和战略适应

处理社会生态系统的不确定性和复杂性,深深地有赖于自然资源用户从使人惊讶的生态事件和危机中学习并适应的能力.本文分析了为什幺学习过程受自然资源用户中间的战略行为的影响,怎样影响,并且社会冲突是怎样受到社会和生态不确定性影响的.本文的主张是自然资源用户中的社会冲突严重抑止了从社会生态系统中学习并适应的可能性.这是结合了政治学、实验经济学、社会心理学并研究了一个分析案例后得出的,该案例研究了瑞典水管理制度中复杂的社会冲突和制度变化.本文还探讨了在瑞典水管理制度中,制度背景在确定学习过程的结果中扮演的关键性角色,并因此突出了以前在社会生态系统中学习过程和制度变化的较不详尽的政治方面.     

Science,policy and place in volcanic disasters: Insights from Montserrat

This paper presents the results of empirical research on Montserrat, in the British West Indies, undertaken in 2008–2010. It highlights the challenges of managing a crisis that evolved from acute to chronic over a period of fifteen years. In particular, the paper considers the evolution of science and policy over a period of fifteen years in its social and cultural context. It discusses the relationship between different types of evolving knowledges, and the interaction between them. Finally, a reflexive model is introduced to draw attention to some of the challenges of managing the science–policy interface under high uncertainty and high stakes.     

Uncertainty in water quality data and its implications for trend detection: lessons from Swedish environmental data

The demands on monitoring systems have gradually increased, and interpretation of the data is often a matter of controversy. As an example of this, we investigated water quality monitoring and the eutrophication issue in Sweden. Our results demonstrate that powerful statistical tools for trend analysis can reveal flaws in the data and lead to new and revised interpretations of environmental data. In particular, we found strong evidence that long-term trends in measured nutrient concentrations can be more extensively influenced by changes in sampling and laboratory practices than by actual changes in the state of the environment. On a more general level, our findings raise important questions regarding the need for new paradigms for environmental monitoring and assessment. Introduction of a system in which conventional quality assurance is complemented with thorough statistical follow-up of reported values would represent a first step towards recognizing that environmental monitoring and assessment should be transformed from being a system for sampling and laboratory analyses into a system for interpreting information to support policy development.     

北方农村煤改清洁能源不同技术的经济性和排放性能对比

近几年北方农村煤改清洁能源工作取得了显著进展,但不同地区所采用的技术种类繁多,效果也有很大不同。及时总结并合理评估不同技术方案的实施效果对各地区科学合理地选择后续清洁取暖技术路径,确保清洁取暖工作的顺利开展并取得长期实效都至关重要。本文采用调研、实测和模拟相结合的方式,深入分析了燃气热水锅炉、生物质颗粒取暖炉、蓄热式电暖气、低温空气源热泵热水机、低温空气源热泵热风机、太阳能集热器+低温空气源热泵热水机耦合系统共计6种典型方案的经济性和排放性能,同时结合当地资源禀赋和用户使用特性等总结出不同技术方案的适用性。综合来看,生物质颗粒取暖炉及低温空气源热泵热风机在经济性上具有显著优势,且更加适用于农村的生活方式。农村清洁取暖技术路径的制定、节能技术的开发及室内热环境的改善还需要在充分考虑地区发展水平、空气质量要求、群众取暖需求、能源供应条件和潜力等基础上走出一条符合我国农村实际的可持续发展之路。     

基于产业投资视角的乡村旅游发展区域差异与形成机制

乡村旅游发展区域差异是乡村旅游投资空间不均衡的外在表现。新时代乡村振兴背景下乡村旅游投资不断增长,正加速影响乡村旅游发展空间格局与区域差异。在对比认识浙晋乡村旅游发展差异基础上,深入剖析了乡村旅游投资系统作用区域乡村旅游发展差异的深层机理。结果发现：（1）以乡村旅游精品线路为表征的浙晋乡村旅游发展水平和市场成熟度差异显著。（2）在乡村旅游投资“自然—产业—社会”环境中,产业基础环境对区域乡村旅游发展差异贡献最突出,是区域差异形成的核心要素,自然生态环境是基础,社会文化环境则发挥积极促进作用。（3）乡村旅游发展区域差异是不同乡村旅游投资环境引起区域乡村旅游投资收益预期和回报水平与乡村旅游发展路径及模式差异的结果。基于此,提出新时代乡村旅游投资IE-maps模式,以期促进区域乡村旅游协调发展和乡村振兴战略实施。     

The institutions-adaptive capacity nexus: Insights from coastal resources co-management in Cambodia and Vietnam

Responding to the unprecedented social-environmental change facing humankind will require responsive and flexible governance institutions (i.e., systems of rules and social norms) that facilitate adaptive capacity of individuals, groups and organisations. This may explain the sustained interest in the institutional dimensions of adaptive capacity. However, a better understanding of how institutions may enable adaptive capacity is still evolving. The literature is yet to clearly articulate how institutions relate to attributes of adaptive capacity. This study contributes to address this knowledge gap; it employs an evaluative approach that underscores the relationship between types of institutions and attributes of adaptive capacity (i.e., variety, learning capacity, autonomy, leadership, resources and fair governance). Such approach is used to examine how institutions enable adaptive capacity in the context of coastal resources co-managemen in the Peam Krasaop Wildlife Sanctuary (Cambodia) and Tam Giang Lagoon (Vietnam). In this study, complexity emerges as a defining feature of adaptive capacity. It results from the relationship between institutions and adaptive capacity and the contextual factors in which such relationship takes place. Exercises aiming to assess adaptive capacity should consider the institutions-adaptive capacity nexus together with the embedding social, cultural and political context.     

Ecological restoration as a strategy for mitigating and adapting to climate change: lessons and challenges from Brazil

Climate change is a global phenomenon that affects biophysical systems and human well-being. The Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change entered into force in 2016 with the objective of strengthening the global response to climate change by keeping global temperature rise this century well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 °C. The agreement requires all Parties to submit their “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs) and to strengthen these efforts in the years ahead. Reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation is an important strategy for mitigating climate change, particularly in developing countries with large forests. Extensive tropical forest loss and degradation have increased awareness at the international level of the need to undertake large-scale ecological restoration, highlighting the need to identify cases in which restoration strategies can contribute to mitigation and adaptation. Here we consider Brazil as a case study to evaluate the benefits and challenges of implementing large-scale restoration programs in developing countries. The Brazilian NDC included the target of restoring and reforesting 12 million hectares of forests for multiple uses by 2030. Restoration of native vegetation is one of the foundations of sustainable rural development in Brazil and should consider multiple purposes, from biodiversity and ecosystem services conservation to social and economic development. However, ecological restoration still presents substantial challenges for tropical and mega-diverse countries, including the need to develop plans that are technically and financially feasible, as well as public policies and monitoring instruments that can assess effectiveness. The planning, execution, and monitoring of restoration efforts strongly depend on the context and the diagnosis of the area with respect to reference ecosystems (e.g., forests, savannas, grasslands, wetlands). In addition, poor integration of climate change policies at the national and subnational levels and with other sectorial policies constrains the large-scale implementation of restoration programs. The case of Brazil shows that slowing deforestation is possible; however, this analysis highlights the need for increased national commitment and international support for actions that require large-scale transformations of the forest sector regarding ecosystem restoration efforts. Scaling up the ambitions and actions of the Paris Agreement implies the need for a global framework that recognizes landscape restoration as a cost-effective nature-based solution and that supports countries in addressing their remaining needs, challenges, and barriers.