Nature Sustainability最新文献_第5页

Energy recovery and saving in municipal wastewater treatment engineering practices

IF 25.7 1区环境科学与生态学

Nature Sustainability Pub Date : 2024-11-22 DOI: 10.1038/s41893-024-01478-5

Ao Gong, Guangteng Wang, Xiang Qi, Yunfei He, Xufei Yang, Xia Huang, Peng Liang

{"title":"Energy recovery and saving in municipal wastewater treatment engineering practices","authors":"Ao Gong, Guangteng Wang, Xiang Qi, Yunfei He, Xufei Yang, Xia Huang, Peng Liang","doi":"10.1038/s41893-024-01478-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-024-01478-5","url":null,"abstract":"Municipal wastewater treatment (MWT) plays a critical role in safeguarding aquatic ecosystems but is highly energy intensive. Assessing the energy recovery and saving potential of MWT technologies is essential to propel the sustainable transformation of this sector. Prioritizing practical viability, this study compiled data from 50 real-world cases, including both full-scale engineering projects and pilot studies, to systematically evaluate the energy recovery and saving potential of different technologies. The effectiveness of these technologies was systematically assessed by comparing their theoretical and practical energy densities. The results indicate that anaerobic digestion for methane production is so far the most efficient method for chemical energy recovery. Among various energy-saving strategies, water source heat pumps were identified as an effective approach for substantial energy savings. However, it is important to recognize that the heat energy, calculated solely on the basis of the temperature difference in wastewater, cannot be directly compared with the electrical energy recovered from other conversion processes. The role of heat energy in energy saving needs to be carefully reassessed and repositioned. This study provides valuable guidance for future energy optimization and the sustainable transformation of MWT practices. Reshaping the currently energy-intensive municipal wastewater treatment (MWT) practices is urgently needed. This study systematically assessed the energy recovery and saving potential of different technologies, providing valuable guidance for future optimizations of MWT practices.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"8 1","pages":"112-119"},"PeriodicalIF":25.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143121631","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

A better fate for PVC PVC的命运更美好

IF 25.7 1区环境科学与生态学

Nature Sustainability Pub Date : 2024-11-22 DOI: 10.1038/s41893-024-01479-4

Pedro Moura, Dionisios G. Vlachos

引用次数: 0

Room-temperature co-upcycling of polyvinyl chloride and polypropylene 聚氯乙烯和聚丙烯的室温共升级回收

IF 25.7 1区环境科学与生态学

Nature Sustainability Pub Date : 2024-11-22 DOI: 10.1038/s41893-024-01468-7

Zhiwen Gao, Yu Wang, Lei Yuan, Xinrui Shi, Yihao Shang, Jingang Jiang, Min Zhang, Shuhui Fang, Wei Zhang, Yue Liu

{"title":"Room-temperature co-upcycling of polyvinyl chloride and polypropylene","authors":"Zhiwen Gao, Yu Wang, Lei Yuan, Xinrui Shi, Yihao Shang, Jingang Jiang, Min Zhang, Shuhui Fang, Wei Zhang, Yue Liu","doi":"10.1038/s41893-024-01468-7","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-024-01468-7","url":null,"abstract":"Co-upcycling of mixed plastics offers a viable approach to reusing carbon resources in plastic wastes and realizing circular economy. However, the presence of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) often complicates the co-upcycling processes, because chlorine (Cl) released from PVC can deactivate catalysts and enter final products. Moreover, existing plastic upcycling processes usually require harsh reaction conditions. Here we present a strategy enabling efficient co-upcycling of PVC and polypropylene (PP) at mild conditions. We use chlorine-resistant ionic liquids butylpyridinium chloride-aluminium chloride to dechlorinate PVC and simultaneously depolymerize the PP–PVC mixture into Cl-free liquid hydrocarbons, with the co-production of hydrogen chloride (HCl) as byproduct. This conversion approach operates at room temperature without the use of external hydrogen or noble metal catalysts. The Cl-free liquid hydrocarbon yield is up to 97.4 wt% of C and H in the feed PP–PVC mixture. This work can incentivize further technical development in plastic upcycling and improve the sustainability of plastic waste management. Upcycling of mixed plastics containing polyvinyl chloride is challenging. This study reports a strategy to co-upcycle polyvinyl chloride with polypropylene to obtain dechlorinated liquid hydrocarbons at high yields at room temperature without the use of external hydrogen or noble metal catalysts.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"7 12","pages":"1691-1698"},"PeriodicalIF":25.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142845087","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Recasting China’s urban wastewater management standards

IF 25.7 1区环境科学与生态学

Nature Sustainability Pub Date : 2024-11-22 DOI: 10.1038/s41893-024-01487-4

Wen-Wei Li, Han-Qing Yu

引用次数: 0

How to increase public support for carbon pricing with revenue recycling 如何通过收入回收来增加公众对碳定价的支持

IF 25.7 1区环境科学与生态学

Nature Sustainability Pub Date : 2024-11-21 DOI: 10.1038/s41893-024-01466-9

Andrej Woerner, Taisuke Imai, Davide D. Pace, Klaus M. Schmidt

{"title":"How to increase public support for carbon pricing with revenue recycling","authors":"Andrej Woerner, Taisuke Imai, Davide D. Pace, Klaus M. Schmidt","doi":"10.1038/s41893-024-01466-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-024-01466-9","url":null,"abstract":"Carbon pricing is a powerful but politically contentious tool for tackling climate change. Governments can, however, try to increase public support for it by adjusting how the revenues raised by the carbon price are used. In a fully incentivized experiment with a large representative sample of the German population, we compare voter support for five different carbon pricing schemes. We show that uniform carbon dividends (equal per capita transfers to all citizens) receive substantially more support than a carbon dividend that favours poorer people, than earmarking revenues for climate projects and especially than using revenues for the general government budget. Among the uniform carbon dividend schemes, a climate premium that pays a fixed upfront transfer equal to the expected carbon revenues receives more support than a carbon dividend scheme where the size of the transfer is determined ex post based on the actual revenues. Furthermore, we show that participants and experts underestimate public support for carbon pricing. These findings suggest that policies for sustainable development gain more support when affected voters are uniformly compensated for the costs imposed on them. In addition, the paper highlights the importance of incentivized experiments in studying public support for such policies. How revenues from a carbon price are returned to society may affect public support for the adoption of such a policy. In an experiment with a large sample of the German population, public support for a carbon price is assessed for five different revenue recycling schemes.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"7 12","pages":"1633-1641"},"PeriodicalIF":25.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-024-01466-9.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142845135","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Balancing rights 平衡权利

IF 25.7 1区环境科学与生态学

Nature Sustainability Pub Date : 2024-11-19 DOI: 10.1038/s41893-024-01484-7

引用次数: 0

Outcomes and policy focus of environmental litigation in the United States 美国环境诉讼的结果和政策重点

IF 25.7 1区环境科学与生态学

Nature Sustainability Pub Date : 2024-11-19 DOI: 10.1038/s41893-024-01456-x

Christopher M. Rea, Nikolas E. Merten, Casey J. Rife

{"title":"Outcomes and policy focus of environmental litigation in the United States","authors":"Christopher M. Rea, Nikolas E. Merten, Casey J. Rife","doi":"10.1038/s41893-024-01456-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-024-01456-x","url":null,"abstract":"Environmental policy in the United States is heavily influenced by civil litigation, which is used by government, environmental groups and industry to shape environmental protections. These disputes impact national and global environmental policy, but there is limited knowledge about outcomes for pro- and anti-regulatory plaintiffs or which areas of environmental policy are focused on by different plaintiffs. Drawing on 25,775 environmental civil suits and 4,142 judicial decisions filed in federal district courts between 1988 and 2022, we show that pro-regulatory plaintiffs tend to have a higher win rate than anti-regulatory ones, that federal enforcement litigation focuses overwhelmingly on pollution and waste-related conflicts, that environmental advocacy groups focus heavily on conservation-related conflicts and that climate and environmental justice-related themes are rarely discussed in environmental legal decisions. The inequality in legal advocacy that we document may help to explain areas of strength and weakness in US environmental policy, with implications for environmental justice and global sustainability. Environmental law is shaped by litigation outcomes as much as by legislation. This study examines nearly 30,000 civil suits and court decisions over 34 years to help reveal their influence on the legal and environmental landscapes of the United States.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"7 11","pages":"1469-1480"},"PeriodicalIF":25.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-024-01456-x.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142672797","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Landscape of litigation in the United States 美国的诉讼格局

IF 25.7 1区环境科学与生态学

Nature Sustainability Pub Date : 2024-11-19 DOI: 10.1038/s41893-024-01461-0

Sabrina McCormick

引用次数: 0

Impacts of climate litigation on firm value 气候诉讼对公司价值的影响

IF 25.7 1区环境科学与生态学

Nature Sustainability Pub Date : 2024-11-19 DOI: 10.1038/s41893-024-01455-y

Misato Sato, Glen Gostlow, Catherine Higham, Joana Setzer, Frank Venmans

{"title":"Impacts of climate litigation on firm value","authors":"Misato Sato, Glen Gostlow, Catherine Higham, Joana Setzer, Frank Venmans","doi":"10.1038/s41893-024-01455-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-024-01455-y","url":null,"abstract":"Communities and individuals are turning to courts to hold governments and high-emitting firms to account for the adverse consequences of climate change. Such litigation is part of a broader trend in which stakeholders are increasingly scrutinizing firms for their sustainability practices. For firms, rising climate litigation risk may exacerbate wider sustainability risks. Here we construct a comprehensive database of filings and decisions relating to 108 climate lawsuits against US- and European-listed firms between 2005 and 2021. We show that firms experience, on average, a 0.41% fall in stock returns following a climate-related filing or an unfavourable court decision. Cases filed against Carbon Majors, primarily the world’s largest fossil fuel producers, saw the largest stock market responses, with returns reducing by 0.57% and 1.50% following filings and unfavourable decisions, respectively. Markets respond more to ‘novel’ climate litigation involving new legal arguments or jurisdictions. Our findings suggest that climate litigation provides a way for stakeholders to challenge actual and perceived weaknesses in the sustainability practices of firms. We conclude that financial markets consider such litigation to be a relevant financial risk. Climate lawsuits can cause direct changes in corporate behaviour, but market impacts are less understood. This study examines 15 years of litigation to find how much stock values fall when lawsuits are filed or resolved.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"7 11","pages":"1461-1468"},"PeriodicalIF":25.7,"publicationDate":"2024-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-024-01455-y.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142672804","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Pick the low-hanging fruit first 先摘低垂的果实

IF 25.7 1区环境科学与生态学

Nature Sustainability Pub Date : 2024-11-19 DOI: 10.1038/s41893-024-01463-y

John Ruple

引用次数: 0