Baseline options and greenhouse gas emission reduction of clean development mechanism project in urban solid waste management

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was adopted in the Kyoto Protocol as a flexibility mechanism to reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs) and has been started with such projects as improving efficiency of individual technology. Although applying various countermeasures to urban areas has significant potentials for reducing GHGs, these countermeasures have not been proposed as CDM projects in the practical stage. A CDM project needs to be validated that it will reduce GHGs additionally compared with a baseline, that is, a predictive value of GHG emissions in the absence of the project. This study examined the introduction of solid waste incineration with electricity generation into three different cities, A, B and C. The combination of main solid waste treatment and fuel source are landfill and coal, respectively, in City A, incineration and natural gas in City B, and landfill and hydro in City C. GHG emission reductions of each city under several baseline options assumed here were evaluated. Even if the same technology is introduced, the emission reduction greatly varies according to the current condition and the future plan of the city: 1043–1406 kg CO₂/t of waste in City A, 198–580 kg CO₂/t in City B, and wide range of zero to over 1000 kg CO₂/tin City C. Baseline options also cause significant difference in the emission reduction even in the same city (City C). Incinerating solid waste after removing plastics by source separation in City B increased GHG emission reduction potential up to 730–900 kg CO₂/t, which enhances the effectiveness as a CDM project. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Co-production of heat and power: an anchor tenant of a regional industrial ecosystem

The resource basis of industrial energy production is still, to a large extent, in non-renewable fossil fuels, the use of which creates emissions that the ecosystem has difficulty in tolerating. The goal of industrial ecology is to substitute the non-renewable stocks with renewable flows. In this paper, a regional industrial ecosystem that relies on a power plant as its key organisation, as an anchor tenant, is considered in the context of energy production and consumption. The co-production method of heat and electricity (CHP, co-production of heat and power) is implemented in the local power plant. This method uses the waste energy from electricity production for district heat and industrial heat/steam. The fuel basis in a CHP plant can include heterogeneous waste fuels. The method has been applied, to a large extent, in only three countries in the world; Denmark, The Netherlands and Finland. Examples of CHP-based industrial ecosystems from Finland are considered. CHP is reflected upon from the viewpoint of industrial ecosystem principles.     

Cleaner production: profit for future generations

The fate of the environment, currently endangered by human arrogance and oversight, is one of the most pressing problems of our times. This problem cannot be tackled unless cleaner production, cleaner products and cleaner values evolve into a more expansive concept and become part and parcel of the dominant social paradigm. Since its inception in 1985, the Biopolitics International Organisation (B.I.O.) has been raising awareness of the urgent need to develop and adopt biocentric values and ethics in society, and has been promoting a series of initiatives to increase bio-environmental appreciation. This paper presents the conceptual framework of these initiatives, as well as a general overview of the fundamental principles of the Biopolitics International Organisation.     

The role of social, political, and economic interests in promoting state green electricity policies

State governments in the United States have adopted a number of policies to encourage the production of electricity from “green” energy sources. While these state-level policies have been shown to stimulate green electricity development, the rate at which such policies have been adopted by the states differs significantly. This paper examines the potential influence of a state's particular social, political, and economic interests on its propensity to adopt green electricity policies. We use an empirical model that combines various social, political and economic indicators as explanatory variables of a state's likelihood to adopt four specific green electricity policies: renewable portfolio standards, net metering rules, public benefits funds, and generation disclosure rules. Using binary logistics regressions, the results suggest that social interests, measured by the level of income, the level of education, and the degree of participation in environmental lobbying groups, are positively linked to the adoption of green electricity policies. Similarly, political interests as measured by the pro-environment voting by states’ representatives in the U.S. Congress, also play a positive role in the adoption of such policies.     

Baseline Standardisation with Optimising Energy-System Models

Determining adequate baselinesis a major methodological problem whenquantifying emissions reductions achievedwith the project-based flexibilitymechanisms. Possible methodologies forbaseline setting may be classified intomulti-project and project-specificapproaches. While multi-project approachesprovide baselines for a series of typicalprojects within a certain geographicregion, a sector, or a load range,project-specific (orproject-by-project/single-project)approaches only cover one specific project.Project-by-project baseline approaches havebeen tested extensively within theActivities Implemented Jointly (AIJ) pilotphase; multi-project methodologies, on theother hand, have only rarely been applieddue to the (perceived) political andeconomic complexity of the issue, whichmakes the process of introducingstandardised baselines a very sensitivetask. In particular, there is a lack ofmulti-project baseline approaches takingadvantage of optimising computer modelswithin the electricity sector, even thoughother fields of research have made use ofsuch models quite successfully in the past.Experiences made in the PROBASE projectwith the calculation of standardised,aggregated multi-project baselines forJI/CDM projects using optimising energysystem models are illustrated in this paperfor South Africa, Russia, and Indonesia.Increased transparency and credibility ofstandardised approaches along withpotentially lower transaction costs areidentified as the main arguments for theiruse and further development. In addition,the text gives recommendations wheremodel-based baseline standardisation canpreferentially be applied.     

望花地区生态环境现状分析及绿化生态工程

通过刘辽宁省重点污染控制区——望花区进行区域件生态现状调查,查明了区域内植被分布特征和生长状况,确定了大气特异污染物氟、氯对植物的影响程度及其相关性分析,并为改善该区生态环境提出了绿化生态工程措施。     

持续发展战略——绿色经济模型

从ＧＮＰ角度分析传统模型在持续性上的弊病。在持续发展理论的指导下提出特续发展的经济模型－－绿色经济模型及其运行机制和相应的政策措施。     

利用垃圾填埋沼气发电走垃圾资源化道路

针对我国垃圾产生量大,以填埋处理方式为主的状况,介绍了垃圾填埋沼气发电的原理、技术和国内外现状等,提出要利用垃圾填埋产生的沼气进行发电使城市垃圾化害为利,变废为宝,实现垃圾资源化。     

绿色化学—21世纪的化学

绿色化学是从节约资源和防止污染的角度来重新和改革传统化学。文中评述了近年来对原料、化学反应、产品、催化剂和溶剂的绿色化开展的一些主要研究及目前取得的进展。     

UNFCCC Kyoto Protocol Clean Development Mechanism Baseline Construction for Vietnam National Electricity Grid

For projects under the UNFCCC Kyoto Protocol Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a baseline has to be set to allow calculation of the greenhouse gas emissions reductions achieved. An important obstacle to CDM project development is the lack of data for baseline definition; often project developers do not have access to data and therefore incur high transaction costs to collect them. The government of Vietnam has set up all necessary institutions for CDM, wants to promote CDM projects and thus is interested to reduce transaction costs. We calculate emission factors of the Vietnam electricity grid according to the rules defined by the CDM Executive Board for small scale projects and for large renewable electricity generation projects. The emission factors lie between 365 and 899 g CO₂/kWh depending on the specification. The weighted operating and build margin reaches 600 g for 2003, while grid average reaches 399 g. Using three-year averages, a combined build and operating margin of 705 g is calculated. We hope that these data facilitate CDM project development in the electricity supply and energy efficiency improvement in Vietnam.