Three ways to deliver a net positive impact with biodiversity offsets

Biodiversity offsetting is the practice of using conservation actions, such as habitat restoration, management, or protection, to compensate for ecological losses caused by development activity, including construction projects. The typical goal of offsetting is no net loss (NNL), which means that all ecological losses are compensated for by commensurate offset gains. We focused on a conceptual and methodological exploration of net positive impact (NPI), an ambitious goal that implies commitment beyond NNL and that has recently received increasing attention from big business and environmental nongovernmental organizations. We identified 3 main ways NPI could be delivered: use of an additional NPI multiplier; use of slowly developing permanent offsets to deliver additional gains after NNL has first been reached during a shorter offset evaluation time interval; and the combination of permanent offsets with partially temporary losses. An important and novel variant of the last mechanism is the use of an alternate mitigation hierarchy so that gains from the traditional third step of the mitigation hierarchy (i.e., onsite rehabilitation) are no longer be counted toward reduced offset requirements. The outcome from these 3 factors is that for the same ecological damage, larger offsets will be required than previously, thereby improving offset success. As a corollary, we show that offsets are NNL only at 1 ephemeral point in time, before which they are net negative and after which they become either NPI or net negative impact, depending on whether permanent offsets are combined with partially temporary losses or if temporary offset gains are combined with partially permanent losses. To achieve NPI, offsets must be made permanent, and they must achieve NNL during an agreed-upon offset evaluation period. An additional NPI-multiplier and use of the modified mitigation hierarchy will deliver additional NPI gains. Achieving NPI is fully conditional on prior achievement of NNL, and NNL offsets have been frequently observed to fail due to inadequate policy requirements, poor planning, or incomplete implementation. Nevertheless, achieving NPI becomes straightforward if NNL can be credibly reached first.     

The least‐cost biodiversity impact mitigation hierarchy with a focus on marine fisheries and bycatch issues

Least‐cost implementation of the mitigation hierarchy of impacts on biodiversity minimizes the cost of a given level of biodiversity conservation, at project or ecosystem levels, and requires minimizing costs across and within hierarchy steps. Incentive‐based policy instruments that price biodiversity to alter producer and consumer behavior and decision making are generally the most effective way to achieve least‐cost implementation across and within the different hierarchy steps and across all producers and conservation channels. Nonetheless, there are circumstances that favor direct regulation or intrinsic motivation. Conservatory offsets, introduced within the conservatory first three steps of the mitigation hierarchy, rather than the fourth step to compensate the residual, provide an additional incentive‐based policy instrument. The least‐cost mitigation hierarchy framework, induced through incentive‐based policy instruments, including conservatory offsets, mitigates fisheries bycatch consistent with given targets, the Law of the Sea, and the Convention on Biological Diversity.     

Cost-effective mitigation strategies to reduce bycatch threats to cetaceans identified using return-on-investment analysis

Globally, fisheries bycatch threatens the survival of many whale and dolphin species. Strategies for reducing bycatch can be expensive. Management is inclined to prioritize investment in actions that are inexpensive, but these may not be the most effective. We used an economic tool, return-on-investment, to identify cost-effective measures to reduce cetacean bycatch in the trawl, net, and line fisheries of Australia. We examined 3 management actions: spatial closures, acoustic deterrents, and gear modifications. We compared an approach for which the primary goal was to reduce the cost of bycatch reduction to fisheries with an approach that aims solely to protect whale and dolphin species. Based on cost-effectiveness and at a fine spatial resolution, we identified the management strategies across Australia that most effectively abated dolphin and whale bycatch. Although trawl-net modifications were the cheapest strategy overall, there were many locations where spatial closures were the most cost-effective solution, despite their high costs to fisheries, due to their effectiveness in reducing all fisheries interactions. Our method can be used to delineate strategies to reduce bycatch threats to mobile marine species across diverse fisheries at relevant spatial scales to improve conservation outcomes.     

Fire in the woods or fire in the boiler: Implementing rural district heating to reduce wildfire risks in the forest–urban interface

Many rural communities in British Columbia (western Canada) are at risk from wildfire. This risk will increase over time as a result of climate change because of higher average temperatures, longer growing seasons, and more intense droughts. On the other hand, these communities are also faced with rising fuel costs and a growing demand for heat as suburban population increases. The fact these communities are surrounded by forests presents an opportunity to combine community wildfire risk abatement with bioenergy development. Additional co-benefits include: (1) reduced community energy expenditures; (2) the creation of local jobs; (3) climate change mitigation; and (4) increased community energy security. Here, we present results from three pilot rural communities (Burns Lake, Invermere, and Sicamous, all of them in British Columbia) designed to evaluate the feasibility of wildfire risk abatement in conjunction with bioenergy production. Maps were created showing each community's forest–urban interface area with quantified estimates of its sustainable woody biomass resource potential under different management scenarios while monitoring ecosystem and soil health. The results and experience gained through this work has been synthesized in a calculator tool to help other communities make their own screening-level assessments. This calculator is a freely available on-line tool: FIRST Heat.     

CCUS对中国粗钢生产的碳减排潜力评估

在评估2019年277个涉及粗钢生产的钢铁企业和17.6亿tCO₂排放量的基础上,采用针对钢铁行业的全流程CCUS系统评价模型（ITEAM-CCUS模型）研究了粗钢生产结合碳捕集利用与封存技术（CCUS）的CO₂减排潜力.评估设置了8种情景,初步回答了钢铁行业的粗钢生产通过规模化CCUS的减排规模、成本范围、封存场地、优先企业分布等关键问题.结果显示：粗钢企业开展全流程CCUS项目可以实现大规模的CO₂减排.在早期示范机会情景,企业全流程CO₂强化深部咸水开采（CO₂-EWR）和CO₂提高石油采收率技术（CO₂-EOR）结合项目增加67~467元/t粗钢的单位成本（60%捕集率的平准化成本低于300元/t）可以年累计减排8.7亿t规模CO₂,约占总捕集量的88%;单独EWR项目年累计驱替深部咸水10.5亿t.具有CCUS改造潜力的粗钢企业主要分布于渤海湾盆地、准噶尔盆地、江汉盆地与鄂尔多斯盆地.     

The Climate Value of Cycling

The reduction of CO₂ emissions constitutes one of the largest challenges of the current era. Sustainable transportation, and especially cycling, can contribute to the mitigation of CO₂ emissions since cycling possesses an intrinsic zero‐emission value. Few studies have been conducted that appraise the CO₂ reduction potential of cycling. Opportunity costs enable the estimation of avoided CO₂ emissions resulting from bicycle trips. The methodology developed in this research allows the attribution of a climate value to cycling by substituting bicycle trips with their most likely alternative transportation modes and calculating the resulting additional CO₂ emissions. The methodology uses data on the current modal shares of cycling mobility, the competition of cycling with other transportation modes, and CO₂ emission factors to calculate the climate value of cycling. When it is assumed that the avoided CO₂ emissions of cycling mobility could be traded on financial carbon markets, the climate value of cycling represents a monetary value. Application of the methodology to the case of Bogotá, Colombia — a city with a current bicycle modal share of 3.3% on a total of 10 million daily trips — results in a climate value of cycling of 55,115 tons of CO₂ per year, corresponding to an economic value of between 1 and 7 million US dollars when traded on the carbon market.     

Mitigating the consequences of extreme events on strategic facilities: evaluation of volcanic and seismic risk affecting the Caspian oil and gas pipelines in the Republic of Georgia

In this work we identify and quantify new seismic and volcanic risks threatening the strategic Caspian oil and gas pipelines through the Republic of Georgia, in the vicinity of the recent Abuli Samsari Volcanic Ridge, and evaluate risk reduction measures, mitigation measures, and monitoring. As regards seismic risk, we identified a major, NW-SE trending strike-slip fault; based on the analysis of fault planes along this major transcurrent structure, an about N-S trend of the maximum, horizontal compressive stress (σ1) was determined, which is in good agreement with data instrumentally derived after the 1986, M 5.6 Paravani earthquake and its aftershock. Particularly notable is the strong alignment of volcanic vents along an about N-S trend that suggests a magma rising controlled by the about N-S-directed σ1. The original pipeline design included mitigation measures for seismic risk and other geohazards, including burial of the pipeline for its entire length, increased wall thickness, block valve spacing near recognized hazards, and monitoring of known landslide hazards. However, the design did not consider volcanic risk or the specific seismic hazards revealed by this study. The result of our analysis is that the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, as well as the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum South Caucasian natural gas pipeline (SCP) were designed in such a way that they significantly reduce the risk posed by the newly-identified geohazards in the vicinity of the Abuli-Samsari Ridge. No new measures are recommended for the pipeline itself as a result of this study. However, since the consequences of long-term shut-down would be very damaging to the economies of Western Europe, we conclude that the regionally significant BTC and SCP warrant greater protections, described in the final section of or work. The overall objective of our effort is to present the results in a matrix framework that allows the technical information to be used further in the decision-making process, with the goal of reducing the uncertainty in the final decision. This approach is applicable to the study of risks in other pipeline systems.     

差异化碳减排目标对区域产业部门经济与碳减排的影响

碳减排目标是实现减排任务的重要保障.为探讨差异化减排目标对区域产业部门经济与碳减排的影响,以在我国具有特定区位条件（“21世纪海上丝绸之路”的重要节点）和经济发展现状（相对较为落后）的广西壮族自治区为主要研究区域,构建包括广西壮族自治区和我国其他地区〔除广西壮族自治区以外的其他省（自治区、直辖市）,但不含港澳台地区,下同〕在内的可计算的一般均衡模型,设定P55C65、P75C65、P65C55、P65C65、P65C75（“P”表示广西壮族自治区,“C”表示我国其他地区,“55”“65”“75”分别表示碳减排目标依次为55%、65%、75%）和基准情景（无减排目标）,研究区域间宏观经济和微观产业部门指标之间的相互影响.结果表明:①无差异情景（P65C65）下,广西壮族自治区农林牧渔业2030年的产值为741.17×108元,比基准情景下降0.19%;我国其他地区电子设备制造业的产值为33 457.49×108元,比基准情景下降2.00%.对广西壮族自治区碳排放贡献较大的产业部门主要为食品制造业、金属冶炼及压延业和服务业,而我国其他地区碳排放主要受电力热力生产的影响.②差异化情景下,这两个区域的金属冶炼及压延部门受减排约束影响均较明显.相比无差异情景,P75C65情景下,广西壮族自治区2030年金属冶炼及压延部门的出口总值和省际输出分别降至17.55×108和186.32×108元,分别下降了6.80%和1.65%;本地供应和产出分别降至358.72×108和562.59×108元,分别下降了1.85%和1.95%;金属冶炼及压延部门碳排放降至4 997×104 t,下降了12.79%.而我国其他地区2030年P75C65情景下,金属冶炼及压延部门的出口总值、省际输出、本地供应和产出则分别上升了0.05%、2.06%、0.06%和0.06%,分别增至1 283.24×108、28.25×108、26 598.95×108和27 910.43×108元,该部门的碳排放上升了0.05%,增至82 927×104 t.尽管碳减排目标能有效降低广西壮族自治区的碳排放,但也会给其产业部门带来一定的经济损失,该区域的出口、省际输出、本地供应和产出不仅受自身减排目标的影响,也受到我国其他地区减排目标的约束.建议在落实各省（自治区、直辖市）减排任务时,也要实施差异化减排目标,发展当地的优势产业.      

Least cost electricity generation options based on environmental impact abatement

The power sector in Thailand is the largest contributor to CO₂ emissions. There is high potential to mitigate CO₂ emission via alternative power generating plants. Alternative plants considered in this study include nuclear plants, integrated gasification combined cycle plants, biomass-based plants and supercritical thermal power plants. The biomass-based plants considered here are fueled with four types of biomass; paddy husk, municipal solid waste (MSW), fuel wood and corncob. The methodology for the optimal expansion plan of the power generating system over the planning horizon is based on the least-cost approach. The results from the least-cost planning analyses show that the nuclear alternative has the highest potential to mitigate not only CO₂ but also other airborne emissions. Moreover, the nuclear option is the most effective abatement strategy for CO₂ reduction due to its negative incremental cost of CO₂ reduction.