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Energy efficiency programs as an energy source with multiple advantages (low cost, more reliability, and highly clean) are considered as one of the most effective solutions to meet future energy needs. In this paper, Energy Efficiency Programs (EEPs) are modeled as virtual sources of power generation to investigate their impacts on expanding transmission network and Reactive Power Planning (RPP). A multi-stage model based on AC power ow is used to indicate the possibility of postponing the investment actions as the investment deferral in Transmission Expansion Planning (TEP). Two groups of regulatory support schemes are considered as investor income to promote participation in EEPs, namely purchasing Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) and shared saving model. In addition, two standard case studies (Garver and 46-bus Brazilian) are evaluated to demonstrate the promising potential of the proposed model in handling the planning problems of practical power systems. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model to solve such planning problems in the presence of EEPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Impacts of Clean Air Action on PM 2.5 and O 3 are comprehensively evaluated from 2013 to 2020. • NCP experiences O 3 increase (4%) while other regions show O 3 decreases. • Emissions dominate the PM 2.5 reduction and contribute 54% to O 3 reduction. Since 2013, the Chinese Government implemented "Clean Air Action" Phase I (2013–2017) and Phase II (2018–2020) consecutively to improve air quality. However, it remains unclear how these policies have impacted air quality since most studies merely focus on Phase I. In this study, we applied the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model to investigate variations of air quality in China during "Clean Air Action" Phases I and Phase II (2013–2020). Results show that PM 2.5 is significantly reduced (-40%) across China except in summer. O 3 concentration also decreases, but a 3% increase is found in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region. Emission changes play a dominant role in the reduction of PM 2.5 (over 95%). The contributions from meteorology and emissions to O 3 reduction are 46% and 54%, respectively. Our results suggest that a more effective emission abatement strategy should be formulated, aiming to control O 3 and PM 2.5 synergistically. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In most populated countries like India, the need for public and private transportation is much more essential as it one of the crucial sectors that helps in the economic growth. On the other hand, it is responsible for emitting greenhouse gases and causes serious air and noise pollutions. This is due to the lack of sustainable principles and activities in the transportation sector. Hence there is a need for sustainability in the transportation sector, and it is very much essential, and the strive for achieving it should be a continuous activity. In this paper, various green transportation projects (GTP) undertaken for reducing the emissions in India’s transport sector were studied. A total of 9 projects were initiated under the clean development mechanism (CDM), contributing to the 760504.69 t CO 2 baseline emission reduction, and causing around 275799.2 t CO 2 project emissions. However, from these 9 GTP’s 501952.7 t CO 2 emissions were reduced. Average values of baseline emission, project emission, and emission reduction from 9 GTP’s were estimated to be around 84500.52 t CO 2 , 30644.36 t CO 2 , and 55772.52 t CO 2 respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the popularity of single family homes, which have higher energy intensity than multi-family homes, has increased steadily in Turkey. This trend can be contributed to the interest of middle and high-income families towards living in larger homes, which also offer more privacy. Since multi-family homes are prevalent in Turkey, various studies are conducted to investigate the application of energy efficiency measures to these type of homes. Due to the increase in the number of single family homes and lack of research conducted to reduce the energy consumption for these type of dwellings, determining the feasibility of energy efficiency measures for the Turkish single family housing stock is an important concern. In this study, the techno-economic feasibility of applying a wide range of energy efficiency measures and renewable energy technologies to existing single family homes is investigated using monitored energy consumption data and building energy simulation program. The findings are extrapolated to the existing single family housing stock in three major cities of Turkey, namely Ankara, Istanbul, and Izmir, to estimate the potential for energy and emission reductions in Turkey. The results indicate that applying window glazing, roof, and a combination of window, wall, and roof improvements reduce heating energy demand by 21%, 34%, and 50%, respectively, with favorable payback periods. Among the renewable energy technologies analyzed, solar domestic hot water system results in the highest energy savings with the shortest payback period. Applying the combination of wall, window, and roof improvements and the retrofit of solar domestic water heating systems to existing single family homes in Ankara, Istanbul, and Izmir result in reductions of about 14 million, 8 million, and 15 million m 3 /year natural gas consumption in Ankara, Istanbul, and Izmir, respectively. These results can be used to develop policies for building insulation and equipment standards towards achieving low energy and emission national housing stock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The program of activities (PoA) proposed in this study aims to disseminate household Biogas Micro-digesters (BMDs) in rural areas surrounding Chongqing city, China, using well-established technical approaches and an innovative business model utilizing carbon benefits from a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The PoA would reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in two ways: by replacing fossil fuels, and by avoiding the release of methane to the atmosphere from decomposed swine and human manure. The PoA would generate emission reductions of about 5,475 t CO2 per annum over a 10-year fixed crediting period from 2013 to 2022. A large part of the carbon revenues would be used to financially support the households participating in the PoA, and to improve network services for installation, maintenance and technical assistance as well as CDM project management. The PoA aims to expand the scope of financial assistance to poor farmers and to help rural households take an active part in building biogas pools by offering economic and technical support, thereby greatly improving the rural ecological environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Due to scarcity of firewood, farmers in rural Ethiopia are forced to use cattle dung as a complementary energy source. By looking at patterns of firewood and cattle dung use for energy generation and their implications for food crop production, forest regeneration and community level emission reduction potentials, this study explores system interactions using a community living next to the Menagesha Suba state forest in Ethiopia as a case study. Mixed methods were used including household surveys, nutrient content analyses of firewood and cattle dung, and calculations of fuel and emission reductions for four cooking energy efficiency scenarios. It was found that the community and surrounding environment is stuck in a negative feedback cycle. Therefore shifts in current practices and systems are needed to break this cycle, for example by enhancing firewood supply, improving soil fertility, improving energy efficiency and enabling access to carbon financing for emissions reduced. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The aim of this paper is to clarify the magnitude of the sub-optimization cost associated with separate control strategies for compliance with the Swedish environmental quality objectives. The marginal reduction costs are estimated using a separate and an integrated version of a deterministic linear programming model. To investigate whether the accuracy of the data is decisive for the result of this study, an extensive sensitivity analysis that deals with both the disparity in discount rates in data and the different types of measures, is carried out in four steps. It can be concluded that the results are robust for possible and probable faults in data. The main findings are that there are no substantial sub-optimization costs for separate control strategies for CO2, NO X and SO2, but an integrated action strategy could imply enhanced cost-efficiency in reductions of VOC and particles. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Global efforts have been made to manage tropical forests for timber production and climate change mitigation. This study assessed carbon emission reductions through the improved forest management and the substitution of fossil fuels with wood biomasses under the conventional (CVL) and reduced impact logging (RIL) systems in Southeast Asia between 2000 and 2060. During this period, carbon emissions from logging and deforestation in the region were approximately 10% of carbon emissions from tropical deforestation. By adopting the RIL, 96.6 Tg CO 2 of emissions can be reduced, while producing 35.1 million m3 year−1 of wood products. If woody biomasses are used to substitute the combustion of coal, diesel, or natural gas for bioenergy production, total emission reductions could be 229.9, 215.4, or 207.9 Tg CO 2 annually during the Paris Agreement, respectively. Depending on chosen carbon price, management of natural forests in Southeast Asia could generate about US$2.1–2.3 billion annually over 10 years between 2020 and 2030. Although costs for bioenergy production from wood biomass remain the concern, enabling global policies, emerging sustainability markets, and financial incentives through carbon tax, environmental tax, and energy tax could materialize the sound management of tropical forests for long-term timber production and climate change mitigation. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is interesting and important to know what factors cause improvements in regional air quality. This study analyzed the factors that improved the air quality in cities in the Guanzhong region of China–in terms of meteorology and controlling emissions–following the implementation of the "Action Plan for Air Pollution Prevention and Control" in 2013. The average air quality index (AQI) values, PM 2.5 , PM 10 , SO 2 , CO, and NO 2 in these cities in 2020 decreased by 45.1%, 43.8%, 82.9%, 57.3%, and 31.6%, respectively, compared to the values in 2014, while the O 3 concentration increased by 16.7%. During the COVID-19 pandemic of February to May 2020, lockdown measures in cities in Guanzhong resulted in reductions of approximately 18.4%, 24.2%, and 17.9% in the AQI, PM 2.5 , and PM 10 concentrations compared to the same period in 2019. Principal component analysis showed that the yearly reduction in AQI in cities in Guanzhong was attributed mainly to reductions in industrial emissions, followed by reductions in emissions from homes and motor vehicle exhausts. We propose the strengthening of measures to control particulate matter, O 3 and greenhouse gas to see the improvement of air quality among this region in the future. [Display omitted] • The air quality in Guanzhong has improved by 38% from 2014 to 2020. • Air quality index values fell mainly due to decreases in industrial emissions. • The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a reduction of 18.4% Air quality index. • O 3 pollution, greenhouse gas and VOCs emissions should be given attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite substantial mitigation of particulate matter (PM) pollution during the past decade in Beijing, the response of aerosol chemistry to clean air action and meteorology remains less understood. Here we characterized the changes in aerosol composition as responses to emission reductions by using two-year long-term measurements in 2011/2012 and 2017/2018, and WRF-Chem model. Our results showed substantial decreases for all aerosol species except nitrate from 2011/2012 to 2017/2018. Chloride exhibited the largest decrease by 65–89% followed by organics (37–70%), mainly due to reductions in coal combustion emissions in winter and agriculture burning in June. Primary and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) showed comparable decreases by 61–70% in fall and winter, and 34–63% in spring and summer, suggesting that reductions in primary emissions might also suppress SOA formation. The changes in nitrate were negligible and even showed increases due to less reductions in NO x emissions and increased formation potential from N 2 O 5 heterogeneous reactions. As a result, nitrate exceeded sulfate and became the major secondary inorganic aerosol species in PM with the contribution increasing from 14–21% to 22–32%. Further analysis indicated that the reductions in aerosol species from 2011/2012 to 2017/2018 were mainly caused by the decreases of severely polluted events (PM 1 > 100 μg m−3). WRF-Chem simulations suggested that the decreases in OA and sulfate in fall and winter were mainly resulted from emission reductions (27–36% and 25–43%) and favorable meteorology (4–10% and 19–30%), while they were dominantly contributed by emission changes in spring and summer. Comparatively, the changes in nitrate were mainly associated with meteorological variations while the contributions of emissions changes were relatively small. Our results highlight different chemical responses of aerosol species to emission changes and meteorology, suggesting that future mitigation of air pollution in China needs species-targeted control policy. Image 1 • Substantial decreases for organics and chloride from 2011/2012 to 2017/2018. • Small changes and even increases for nitrate in Beijing during the past six years. • Decreases in aerosol species were driven by the reductions of severely haze events. • Different chemical responses of aerosol species to emission change and meteorology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]