A seleção do tipo de pavimento é baseada atualmente no país considerando-se os custos de implantação e manutenção e o atendimento às normas técnicas, ou seja, a escolha é feita por meio de análise técnico-econômica. Órgãos federais, estaduais e municipais não preveem avaliação quantitativa do consumo de energia e da emissão de poluentes atmosféricos, utilizando somente o fator econômico como parâmetro decisivo sobre duas ou mais alternativas de estruturas de pavimento. Construções e reconstruções de pavimentos consomem um grande volume de energia tanto para obtenção e processamentos dos materiais quanto na aplicação e execução propriamente dita dos serviços. Tendo em vista a necessidade de considerar aspectos de sustentabilidade na escolha entre diferentes tipos de solução de pavimento, buscou-se avaliar a emissão de poluentes e consumo de energia e água para a fase de implantação do pavimento. Para tal foi avaliada a utilização de diferentes programas computacionais capazes de avaliar a questão ambiental qualitativamente, como o GreenroadsTM e o GreenPave, e quantitativamente, o GaBi, DuboCalc, VTTI/UC, ECORCE-M e PaLATE. Este último foi o escolhido para elaboração deste estudo sendo utilizado em análise unitária o que permitiu a elaboração de gráfico de impressão digital ambiental. São apresentados estudos de caso em três metodologias diferentes sendo que a última delas sugere a análise de três matrizes de solução totalizando mais de 230 mil casos que levam a obtenção de três equações de previsão das emissões de CO2 em função do tráfego, condição de suporte do subleito e número estrutural. Ao final, é sugerida a inserção da parcela ambiental na análise para escolha dos pavimentos com a utilização das ferramentas propostas, ou seja, as equações de previsão de emissões de CO2 e o gráfico de impressão digital ambiental. / The pavement structure selection in Brazil nowadays is based considering the costs of construction and maintenance and the check against design standards, in other words, the choice is made by a technical-economic analysis. Brazilian Federal agencies do not provide standards for a quantitative assessment of energy consumption and atmospheric pollutants emission, using only the economic factor as a decision parameter on two or more pavement structures. Pavement construction and reconstruction of pavement structures consume a large volume of energy while obtaining, processing and applying materials during paving services. Considering the need to account aspects of sustainability in the choice between different types of pavement solution, it was sought to evaluate the emission of pollutants and energy and water consumption for the pavement construction phase. In order to do so, it was evaluated the use of different softwares capable of account the environmental question qualitatively, such as the GreenroadsTM and GreenPave, and quantitatively, such as GaBi, DuboCalc, VTTI / UC, ECORCE-M and PaLATE. PaLATE was chosen to be software used in this study being used in unitary analysis that allowed the elaboration of environmental fingerprint graph. Case studies are presented in three different methodologies. The last suggests the analysis of three solution matrices totaling more than 230 thousand cases that leads to obtaining three prediction equations of CO2 emissions as a function of traffic, subgrade support condition and structural number. At the end, it is suggested the insertion of the environmental part in the pavement choose analysis with the use of the proposed tools, the CO2 forecasting emission equations and the environmental fingerprint graph.

Road traffic dominates in domestic Swedish transportation and is highly dependent on fossil fuels, petrol and diesel. Currently, the use of renewable fuels in transportation accounts for less than 6% of the total energy use in transport. The demand for bioethanol to fuel transportation is growing and cannot be met through current domestic production alone. Lignocellulosic ethanol derived from agricultural crop residues may be a feasible alternative source of ethanol for securing a consistent regional fuel supply in Swedish climatic conditions.  This licentiate thesis focuses on regional transport fuel supply by considering local small-scale ethanol production from straw. It presents the results of investigations of regional transport fuel supply with respect to minimising regional CO2 emissions, cost estimates for transport fuel supply, and the availability of lignocellulosic resources for small-scale ethanol production. Regional transport fuel demand between the present and 2020 is also estimated. The results presented here show that significant bioethanol can be produced from the straw and Salix available in the studied regions and that this is sufficient to meet the regions’ current ethanol fuel demand.  A cost optimisation model for regional transport fuel supply is developed and applied for two cases in one study region, one when the ethanol production plant is integrated with an existing CHP plant (polygeneration), and one with a standalone ethanol production plant. The results of the optimisation model show that in both cases the changes in ethanol production costs have the biggest influence on the cost of supplying the regional passenger car fleet with transport fuel, followed by the petrol price and straw production costs.  By integrating the ethanol production process with a CHP plant, the costs of supplying regional passenger car fleet with transport fuel can be reduced by up to a third. Moreover, replacing petrol fuel with ethanol can cut regional CO2 emissions from transportation by half.

Global climate change is becoming increasingly evident. There has been increased attention paid to the impact of human activity on climate. As a rising power, China’s energy needs to fuel its rapid economic growth with the resulting potential impacts of climate change presents an enormous climate policy dilemma not only for China but also for the entire world. The role of China is an issue of perennial concerns at the international climate change negotiation: its energy saving, emission reduction and clean production reflect China’s dual objectives about sustainable development and efforts on international legal obligations.Education abroad is an integral part of China’s development strategy. The abroad Chinese students who possess the knowledge, technologies skills and ideas, as well as information are playing an important role to assist China retain or increase its competitive advantage. The aim of this paper is to analyze the abroad Chinese students’ opinion on China’s role under the circumstance of global climate change, with main focus on three aspects: Energy consumption and environment situation in China; Several current domestic policies regarding problems of climate change and energy consumption in China; Issues facing the country on its road map to future mitigation action regarding climate change.Alongside the interviews carried out within ten overseas Chinese students, using the social science of Science, Technology and Society (STS) especially its public understanding of Science and Technology as the theoretical perspective, this thesis is exploring the interviewees’ attitudes toward current China’s climate change related issues from a deeper sense of human, culture and public perspective.

Fossil fuels has preserved their importance in gradually increasing production and consumption of both energy and electricity of the world. Asia, especially China and India, has arisen new actors of the sector. Energy and electricity consumption of Turkey has also increased in parallel with her economic development, but due to her limited resources, she has become more and more energy dependent in order to meet her growing demand. Although hard coal is only found around Zonguldak region, with its abundant and widely spread reserves, Turkey ranked world&rsquo / s third place in lignite production in 2008. Having low calorific value together with high ash and moisture content, most of lignites extracted is being consumed in thermic power plants located near those reserves. In the first two chapters of this study, energy in the world and Turkey will be considered seperately, then coal resources in Turkey will be analysed in the next coming chapter. Indirect and direct greenhouse emissions presented to the UNFCCC will be handled in the fifth chapter In the last chapter, first past and present performances of all indigenous coal fired power plants will be analysed, then after projecting their generation and fuel needs, they are evaluated considering with the reserves they are located. Finally, at the end of decomissioning of those power plants, remaining reserves will be re-evaluated and additional new units will be proposed accordingly.

This thesis presents a detailed study of life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions intensity during the uranium mining-milling phase of the nuclear fuel cycle for three paired uranium mine-mill operations in northern Saskatchewan (SK). The study period runs from 2006 – 2013 for two of the three pairs, and from 1995-2010 for the third. The life cycle analysis has been conducted based on the ISO 14040:2006 standard using a Process Chain Analysis methodology. This study differs from previous studies of GHG emissions intensity during the uranium mining-milling phase of the nuclear fuel cycle in two key respects. First, it has a very large system boundary which includes the uranium exploration and mine-mill decommissioning phases. Second, it utilizes a life cycle inventory database to include many processes which would normally fall outside of the system boundary due to their small individual contributions. These differences contribute to a more accurate result. The production-weighted average life cycle GHG emissions intensity is estimated as 45 kg CO2e/kg U3O8 at an average ore grade of 9.12% U3O8 based on relative U3O8 production volumes at Mine-Mill A, B, and C from 2006 to 2010. The 95% confidence interval for the production-weighted average result ranges from 42 to 49 kg CO2e/kg U3O8, indicating that overall uncertainty in the result is low. Life cycle GHG emission intensity for the three uranium mine-mill pairs are 84, 66, and 35 kg CO2e/kg U3O8 at average ore grades of 0.71%, 1.54%, and 11.5% U3O8 respectively. Nearly 90% of life cycle GHG emissions are associated with operation of the uranium mine-mills, primarily from energy consumption during operation (69% of total) transport of materials and personnel (7.0%), and use of reagents (5.6%). Remaining processes each individually account for less than 5% of the total. In calculating emissions from electricity consumption, the base-case emission intensities reported above use a province-wide electricity emission factor because the utility does not differentiate its emissions by region. However, the facilities included in this study are all located in Northern Saskatchewan, which is powered exclusively by hydropower. Application of a regional emission factor reduces the production-weighted average life cycle GHG emission intensity to 26 kg CO2e/kg U3O8 with a 95% confidence interval of 25 to 29 kg CO2e/kg U3O8. This represents a 42% reduction in life cycle GHG emission intensity from the base case. Due to the high uranium ore grades found in SK uranium deposits, life cycle GHG emissions intensity for uranium from SK is among the lowest in the world. Further, the life cycle GHG emission intensity estimate from uranium mining-milling in SK is a small (approximately 10%) contributor to the life cycle GHG emissions intensity from the nuclear fuel cycle for light water reactors overall, amounting to approximately 1.2 g CO2e/kWh electricity (0.6 g CO2e/kWh electricity calculated using the regional hydroelectric power source).

No description available.

One of the largest environmental threats believed to be facing us today is global warming due to the accumulation of green house gases (GHG). The concentrations of GHG in the atmosphere are a result of the net strength of different sinks and sources. Forests, in this context, are of particular interest because of their dual role as both sinks and sources. Most forests are net sinks for CO2 but others, such as drained forests, may be significant sources of both CO2 and N20. Consequently, it is essential to understand the fluxes of GHG between drained forests and the atmosphere in order to obtain accurate estimates of national GHG budgets. The findings reported in this thesis and the accompanying papers are based on dark chamber flux measurements of soil GHG fluxes and modelled annual net primary productions in five drained forest sites and two undrained sites situated on organic soil. Temporal variations in forest floor CO2, release could be explained, to a large extent, by differencies in temperature and groundwater level. The within-site spatial variation in soil GHG fluxes could only be explained to a very small extent by distance to tree stems. Much of the among-site variations in soil CO2 and CH4 release could be caused by differences in the mean annual groundwater table, while N20 emissions were strongly correlated to the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio of soil organic matter. Most poorly drained forested areas are probably net sinks for GHG as the CO2 uptake by trees more than compensates for the soil GHG emissions. However, the total drained forested area in Sweden was estimated to be a net source of GHG. The CO2 release from decomposition of soil organic matter stored before drainage was estimated to be substantial. Corresponding to 15% of the CO2 release from the consumption of fossil fuels. / <p>On the day of the public defence of the doctoral thesis the status of the articles I and II was: Conditionally accepted; article III was: Submitted and articles IV and V was: Manuscript. The title of article III was on the day of the public defence "Can the distribution of trees explain the spatial variation in N2O emissions from boreal forest soils?".</p>

Climate change is a critical sustainable development issue with implications for the environment, economies and society as we know it. The problem of climate change is caused by some countries in parts of the world that has a direct effect on people and natural resources in other parts of the world. Climate change is the effect of increased production of Greenhouse gases (GHGs). Due to the vast complexity of the climate change regime the study does not attempt to be comprehensive or conclusive. The aim of the study is to critically evaluate and determine the purpose, enforceability, legal nature, shortcomings and strengths of the non-binding Copenhagen Accord and how the international climate change regime will evolve after the Copenhagen Accord. The study starts with a brief explanation of the international climate change regime and its development, including international environmental law principles, specifically the common but differentiated responsibility principle. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has the ultimate objective to achieve the stabilisation of GHG concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. The Conference of the Parties (COPs) is the ultimate decision-making and supreme body of the UNFCCC and is authorised to make and implement decisions to promote the implementation of the UNFCCC, it further has the power to adopt new protocols under the UNFCCC and plays a substantial role in the development of new obligations by the parties to the convention. Various COPs, their respective adopted decisions and resolutions which played an important role in the development of the climate change regime are discussed. This includes COP 1 that lead to the Berlin Mandate; COP 3 and the Kyoto Protocol; COP 7 and the Marrakech Accords; COP 11 that marked the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol; COP 13 and the Bali Action Plan. COP 15 in Copenhagen was internationally expected and intended to be the breakthrough in addressing the post 2012 period. As is evident from the content of this study the result of COP 15 at Copenhagen means different challenges for different countries and the “bottom up” architecture of the accord could help encourage and reinforce national actions. An overview of the effect of the Copenhagen Accord on the climate change regime, with specific reference to COP 16 in Cancun, is then done. The “bottom up” architecture of the Copenhagen Accord was brought into the official UNFCCC process by the Cancun Agreements that were reached at COP 16. The study mostly comprised of a literature study, which reviewed the relevant international environmental law dealing with climate change, taking into account customary international law; international treaties and conventions; government documents, policies and reports; textbooks and academic journals as well as electronic material obtained from various internet sources. / Thesis (LLM (Environmental Law and Governance))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

Climate change is a critical sustainable development issue with implications for the environment, economies and society as we know it. The problem of climate change is caused by some countries in parts of the world that has a direct effect on people and natural resources in other parts of the world. Climate change is the effect of increased production of Greenhouse gases (GHGs). Due to the vast complexity of the climate change regime the study does not attempt to be comprehensive or conclusive. The aim of the study is to critically evaluate and determine the purpose, enforceability, legal nature, shortcomings and strengths of the non-binding Copenhagen Accord and how the international climate change regime will evolve after the Copenhagen Accord. The study starts with a brief explanation of the international climate change regime and its development, including international environmental law principles, specifically the common but differentiated responsibility principle. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has the ultimate objective to achieve the stabilisation of GHG concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. The Conference of the Parties (COPs) is the ultimate decision-making and supreme body of the UNFCCC and is authorised to make and implement decisions to promote the implementation of the UNFCCC, it further has the power to adopt new protocols under the UNFCCC and plays a substantial role in the development of new obligations by the parties to the convention. Various COPs, their respective adopted decisions and resolutions which played an important role in the development of the climate change regime are discussed. This includes COP 1 that lead to the Berlin Mandate; COP 3 and the Kyoto Protocol; COP 7 and the Marrakech Accords; COP 11 that marked the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol; COP 13 and the Bali Action Plan. COP 15 in Copenhagen was internationally expected and intended to be the breakthrough in addressing the post 2012 period. As is evident from the content of this study the result of COP 15 at Copenhagen means different challenges for different countries and the “bottom up” architecture of the accord could help encourage and reinforce national actions. An overview of the effect of the Copenhagen Accord on the climate change regime, with specific reference to COP 16 in Cancun, is then done. The “bottom up” architecture of the Copenhagen Accord was brought into the official UNFCCC process by the Cancun Agreements that were reached at COP 16. The study mostly comprised of a literature study, which reviewed the relevant international environmental law dealing with climate change, taking into account customary international law; international treaties and conventions; government documents, policies and reports; textbooks and academic journals as well as electronic material obtained from various internet sources. / Thesis (LLM (Environmental Law and Governance))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

The negative consequences of rising global energy use have led governments and businesses to pursue methods of reducing reliance on fossil fuels. Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) and wind power represent two practical methods for mitigating some of these negative consequences. PHEVs use large onboard batteries to displace gasoline with electricity obtained from the grid, while wind power generates clean, renewable power that has the potential to displace fossil-fuel power generation. The emissions reductions realized by these technologies will be highly dependent on the energy system into which they are integrated, and also how they are integrated. This research aims to assess to cost of reducing emissions through the integration of PHEVs and wind power in three Canadian jurisdictions, namely British Columbia, Ontario and Alberta. An Optimal Power Flow (OPF) model is used to assess the changes in generation dispatch resulting from the integration of wind power and PHEVs into the local electricity network. This network model captures the geographic distribution of load and generation in each jurisdiction, while simulating local transmission constraints. A linear optimization model is developed in the MATLAB environment and is solved using the ILOG CPLEX Optimization package. The model solves a 168-hour generation scheduling period for both summer and winter conditions. Simulation results provide the costs and emissions from power generation when various levels of PHEVs and/or wind power are added to the electricity system. The costs and emissions from PHEV purchase and gasoline displacement are then added to the OPF results and an overall GHG reduction cost is calculated. Results indicate that wind power is an expensive method of GHG abatement in British Columbia and Ontario. This is due to the limited environmental benefit of wind over the nuclear and hydro baseload mixtures. The large premium paid for displacing hydro or nuclear power with wind power does little to reduce emissions, and thus CO2e costs are high. PHEVs are a cheaper method of GHG abatement in British Columbia and Ontario, since the GHG reductions resulting from the substitution of gasoline for hydro or nuclear power are significant. In Alberta, wind power is the cheaper method of GHG abatement because wind power is closer in price to the coal and natural gas dominated Alberta mixture, while offering significant environmental benefits. PHEVs represent a more expensive method of GHG abatement in Alberta, since substituting gasoline for expensive, GHG-intense electricity in a vehicle does less to reduce overall emissions. Results also indicate that PHEV charging should take place during off-peak hours, to take advantage of surplus baseload generation. PHEV adoption helps wind power in Ontario and British Columbia, as overnight charging reduces the amount of cheap, clean baseload power displaced by wind during these hours. In Alberta, wind power helps PHEVs by cleaning up the generation mixture and providing more environmental benefit from the substitution of gasoline with electricity.