Environmental and resource burdens associated with low carbon, more electric transition pathways to 2050: Footprint components from carbon emissions and land use to waste arisings and water consumption

Q1 Social Sciences
Geoffrey P. Hammond , Hayley R. Howard , Hanumant Singh Rana
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引用次数: 10

Abstract

Environmental or ‘ecological’ footprints have been widely used in recent years as indicators of resource consumption and waste absorption transformed on the basis of biologically productive land area [in global hectares (gha)] required per capita with prevailing technology. It has been employed here to estimate the footprints associated with three low carbon, more electric transition pathways for the United Kingdom (UK): described as ‘Market Rules’ (MR), ‘Central Co-ordination’ (CC) and ‘Thousand Flowers’ (TF) respectively. These pathways focus on the power sector, including the potential for increasing use of low-carbon electricity for heating and transport, within the context of critical European Union developments and policies. Their overall environmental footprint has been disaggregated into various components: bioproductive and built land, carbon emissions, embodied energy, materials and waste, transport, and water consumption. This component-based approach provides, for example, a means for evaluating the implications for the so-called ‘energy-land-water nexus’. Electricity demand was projected to decrease significantly under the TF pathway by 2050, but its total environmental footprint (EF) was greater than either that under the MR or CC pathways. This is mainly due to the increase in the use of bioproductive land associated with solid biofuel production and that of the carbon footprint, which are both seen to be larger than under either the MR or CC cases. Water and waste footprint components made almost negligibly small contributions under all three transition pathways. Lessons can clearly be drawn for other industrialised nations attempting to decarbonise their electricity generation systems, although local circumstances will determine the country-specific findings.

与2050年低碳、更电气化的转型途径相关的环境和资源负担:从碳排放和土地利用到废物产生和水消耗的足迹组成部分
近年来,环境或“生态”足迹作为资源消耗和废物吸收的指标被广泛使用,该指标是根据现行技术下人均所需的生物生产性土地面积[以全球公顷(gha)为单位]进行转换的。在这里,它被用来估计与英国(UK)的三种低碳、更电气化的过渡途径相关的足迹:分别被称为“市场规则”(MR)、“中央协调”(CC)和“千花”(TF)。这些途径的重点是电力部门,包括在欧盟关键发展和政策的背景下增加低碳电力用于供暖和运输的潜力。他们的总体环境足迹被分解为各种组成部分:生物生产和建设用地、碳排放、隐含能源、材料和废物、运输和水消耗。例如,这种以组成部分为基础的方法提供了一种评估对所谓“能源-陆地-水关系”的影响的方法。预计到2050年,在TF路径下,电力需求将显著下降,但其总环境足迹(EF)大于MR或CC路径下的总环境足迹(EF)。这主要是由于与固体生物燃料生产相关的生物生产性土地的使用增加以及碳足迹的使用增加,这两者都被认为比MR或CC情况下更大。在所有三个过渡路径下,水和废物足迹组成部分的贡献几乎可以忽略不计。其他试图使发电系统脱碳的工业化国家显然可以从中吸取教训,尽管具体结果将由当地情况决定。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Global Transitions
Global Transitions Social Sciences-Development
CiteScore
18.90
自引率
0.00%
发文量
1
审稿时长
20 weeks
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