Global Transitions最新文献

{"title":"The prospects for ‘green steel’ making in a net-zero economy: A UK perspective","authors":"Paul W. Griffin ,&nbsp;Geoffrey P. Hammond","doi":"10.1016/j.glt.2021.03.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.glt.2021.03.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Steel products are widely used in the construction industry and for the development of infrastructure projects, because they are versatile, durable, and affordable. Energy demand and ‘greenhouse gas’ (GHG) emissions associated with the <em>United Kingdom</em> (UK) <em>Iron &amp; Steel</em> sector principally result from the large consumption of coal/coke used in conjunction with the blast furnace. Like other sectors of industry, efforts are being made to ensure that processing becomes ever more environmentally benign, or ‘green’. Thus, the notion of ‘<em>green steel</em>’ has entered into the industrial vocabulary over the last decade or so. It is a steel-making process designed principally to lower GHG emissions, as well as potentially cutting costs and improving the quality of steel, in comparison to conventional methods. The aim of this study was therefore to (i) elicit the various ways in which the term ‘<em>green steel</em>’ has recently been used in the literature; and (ii) compare and contrast different options for making UK steel production more environmentally benign, particularly in regard to its decarbonisation. Some key ‘deep decarbonisation’, or ‘disruptive’, options for producing <em>green steel</em> in the UK are evaluated drawing on the experience from other nation-states and regions. These include the prospects for <em>carbon capture and storage</em> (CCS), the use of <em>bioenergy resources</em>, <em>hydrogen-based production</em>, <em>electrification</em>, and the least desirable option of <em>deindustrialisation</em> (i.e., reducing or out-sourcing of UK steel production ‘offshore’). ‘Circular economy’ interventions or resource efficiency improvements (‘reduce, reuse, recycle’) are also discussed. The potential reductions in GHG emissions from the UK <em>Iron &amp; Steel</em> sector overall out to 2050 are then illustrated by comparison with previous technology roadmaps or transition pathways. The lessons learned are applicable across much of the industrialised world.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":33615,"journal":{"name":"Global Transitions","volume":"3 ","pages":"Pages 72-86"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1016/j.glt.2021.03.001","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"95719985","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Policy review for biomass value chains in the European bioeconomy","authors":"Asha Singh,&nbsp;Thomas Christensen,&nbsp;Calliope Panoutsou","doi":"10.1016/j.glt.2020.11.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.glt.2020.11.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The main aim of this paper is to review existing European policies relevant to the biomass value chains and examine how their main objectives support or align with the five core objectives (pillars) identified under the 2018 Bioeconomy Strategy. The paper also discusses key challenges that restrict the compliance of the policies to the Strategy, identifies policy gaps and provides recommendations for future policy formation.</p><p>A structured review was conducted of over ninety policies relevant to the biomass, bioprocessing and biobased products. The value chain approach was used as a tool to harmonise these sectors under a common bioeconomy framework and provides an understanding of how key activities and challenges are being addressed. Several gaps were identified in relation to these challenges in each stage, at land use stage a lack of European-wide harmonised characterisation of marginal land and integration among sectoral policies targeting soil quality and financial measures incentivising the uptake of sustainable soil improvers. At the biomass production stage, inadequate policy support was found for waste mobilisation and valorisation. Furthermore, there is a lack of policy provisions and financial support improving collaborations among value chain actors to overcome the complexity associated with harmonising biomass logistics and conversion processes. Finally, regarding the end use stage, policy interventions targeting the distribution and standardisation of the wide, available range of biobased products and services remain limited. Based on this gap analysis, a set of recommendations was produced outlining ways in which policy measures can be updated through introducing either financial, regulatory or information provisions, or formulating novel policies altogether. These recommendations were made following the value chain analysis approach, which addresses specific challenges in relation to the five core objectives of the Bioeconomy Strategy, with the aim of further increasing the level of coherence among sectoral policies.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":33615,"journal":{"name":"Global Transitions","volume":"3 ","pages":"Pages 13-42"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1016/j.glt.2020.11.003","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"99452958","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Transportation in the Mediterranean during the COVID-19 pandemic era","authors":"Dimitra Tarasi,&nbsp;Tryfon Daras,&nbsp;Stavroula Tournaki,&nbsp;Theocharis Tsoutsos","doi":"10.1016/j.glt.2020.12.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.glt.2020.12.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The recent pandemic has considerably changed urban transportation while highlighting the weaknesses of the current transport modes. The crisis provided a unique opportunity to redesign the urban mobility plans in a more sustainable and resilient way. This study captured the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent restrictive measures on citizens’ commuting habits and travel mode choice in two Cretan cities with academic communities and intense seasonality of tourism, in two phases (four periods) before, during, and after the quarantine. The sample consisted of 308 (1st phase) and 193 (2nd phase) citizens, 60% and 30% permanent residents of Chania and Rethymno, respectively.</p><p>During the weeks before the pandemic, 4/10 participants opted for travelling by car daily, either as a driver or as a passenger; almost the same ratio chose walking; 1/10 used public transport (bus). During the first week of the quarantine, one-quarter had decreased car usage and opted for sustainable transport modes (walking, cycling, public transport). The population who chose walking 1–2 times weekly almost doubled.</p><p>Nevertheless, most factors were found to affect men and women differently; personal safety and road safety are significantly more important for women; ecological footprint is a less essential parameter for men’s travel mode choice.</p><p>Private vehicle use still holds a considerable role in urban transportation, and noteworthy is due to the sharp decline in public transit in January–February and April and the meager percentage of public transport ridership (1%).</p><p>The analysis and modelling could be useful in the future design of more sustainable and resilient mobility strategies.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":33615,"journal":{"name":"Global Transitions","volume":"3 ","pages":"Pages 55-71"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1016/j.glt.2020.12.003","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39740501","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Competitive priorities to address optimisation in biomass value chains: The case of biomass CHP","authors":"Calliope Panoutsou,&nbsp;Asha Singh,&nbsp;Thomas Christensen,&nbsp;Luc Pelkmans","doi":"10.1016/j.glt.2020.04.001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.glt.2020.04.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Policy and industry decision makers place high priority on the contribution of biomass to the emerging low carbon, circular economy. Optimisation of performance, from the perspectives of environmental, social and economic sustainability and resource efficiency, is essential to successful development and operation of biomass value chains. The complexity of value chains, which comprise interrelated stages from land use to conversion and multiple end products, presents challenges.</p><p>To date, decision makers have approached from the viewpoints of single market sectors or issues, such as market shares of bioeconomy and reduction of carbon emissions to mitigate climate change. This approach does not achieve a full understanding of value chains and their competitive priorities, limits consumer awareness, and poses risks of sub-optimal performance and under-development of potential local capacity.</p><p>This paper presents a conceptual framework that combines value chain analysis and competitive priority theory with indicators suitable to measure, monitor and interpret sustainability and resource efficiency at value chain level. The case of biomass Combined Heat and Power (CHP) is used to illustrate how optimisation strategies can be focused to address challenges in value chain stages which will lead to better performance and uptake of sustainably sourced, widely accepted biomass options.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":33615,"journal":{"name":"Global Transitions","volume":"2 ","pages":"Pages 60-75"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1016/j.glt.2020.04.001","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91665804","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Legitimacy and accountability in the governance of sustainable energy transitions","authors":"Siddharth Sareen,&nbsp;Håvard Haarstad","doi":"10.1016/j.glt.2020.02.001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.glt.2020.02.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>How can we enable equitable decarbonisation? There is a wide gap between power to make transformative decisions, on the one hand, and agency on the part of those affected by climate change, on the other. We converge scholarly strands to understand and address the causes for insufficient action towards equitable decarbonisation – the crisis of accountability – despite global recognition of the urgent need for such action. Just as we study the socio-materiality of energy systems to understand the ephemeral flows of energy, we must also unpick the making of socio-political arrangements to comprehend what practices determine the elusive governance of energy transitions. To unite the twin concerns of energy and accountability, we probe the relationship between accountability and legitimacy on the one hand, and the governance of sustainable energy transitions on the other. This synthesis offers three key insights. First, accountability and legitimacy are deeply conflictual issues where various actors negotiate and struggle for control in energy transitions. Second, the negotiations around accountability and legitimacy have outcomes that are often inequitable. Third, it is crucial that reforms and policies that aim to stimulate sustainable energy transitions address power imbalances as well as carbon emissions. Overall, building equity into processes of systemic change requires instituting <em>strong mechanisms that generate public benefits</em> while legitimating new socio-material infrastructure and practices.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":33615,"journal":{"name":"Global Transitions","volume":"2 ","pages":"Pages 47-50"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1016/j.glt.2020.02.001","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91665806","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Legitimating the governance of embodied emissions as a building block for sustainable energy transitions","authors":"Nino David Jordan,&nbsp;Raimund Bleischwitz","doi":"10.1016/j.glt.2020.01.002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.glt.2020.01.002","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":33615,"journal":{"name":"Global Transitions","volume":"2 ","pages":"Pages 37-46"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1016/j.glt.2020.01.002","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90034614","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Responsible Innovation in the contexts of the European Union and China: Differences, challenges and opportunities","authors":"Liang Mei,&nbsp;Hannot Rodríguez,&nbsp;Jin Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.glt.2019.11.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.glt.2019.11.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The European Union (EU) has increasingly promoted “Responsible Innovation” (RI) policies in order to better harmonize technological progress with societal interest. RI has also triggered the attention of China, where it is included in the 13th Five-Year National Science and Technology Innovation Program (2016). However, each actor approaches RI in a different way. These differences could arguably be explained by three contextual factors: core values, goals of innovation and institutionalization logic. Taking into account the complex and global character of innovation-related challenges such as climate change, socio-cultural heterogeneity needs to be given serious consideration in order to achieve more effective RI dynamics in terms of anticipation, constituting common visions and goals and developing more coordinated international governance.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":33615,"journal":{"name":"Global Transitions","volume":"2 ","pages":"Pages 1-3"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1016/j.glt.2019.11.004","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"97745712","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"European energy poverty metrics: Scales, prospects and limits","authors":"Siddharth Sareen ,&nbsp;Harriet Thomson ,&nbsp;Sergio Tirado Herrero ,&nbsp;João Pedro Gouveia ,&nbsp;Ingmar Lippert ,&nbsp;Aleksandra Lis","doi":"10.1016/j.glt.2020.01.003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.glt.2020.01.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Energy poverty, a condition whereby people cannot secure adequate home energy services, is gaining prominence in public discourse and on political and policy agendas. As its measurement is operationalised, metrical developments are being socially shaped. A European Union mandate for biennial reporting on energy poverty presents an opportunity to institutionalise new metrics and thus privilege certain measurements as standards. While combining indicators at multiple scales is desirable to measure multi-dimensional aspects, it entails challenges such as database availability, coverage and limited disaggregated resolution. This article converges scholarship on metrics – which problematises the act of measurement – and on energy poverty – which apprehends socio-political and techno-economic particulars. Scholarship on metrics suggests that any basket of indicators risks silencing significant but hard to measure aspects, or unwarrantedly privileging others. State-of-the-art energy poverty scholarship calls for indicators that represent contextualised energy use issues, including energy access and quality, expenditure in relation to income, built environment related aspects and thermal comfort levels, while retaining simplicity and comparability for policy traction. We frame energy poverty metrology as the socially shaped measurement of a varied, multi-dimensional phenomenon within historically bureaucratic and publicly distant energy sectors, and assess the risks and opportunities that must be negotiated. To generate actionable knowledge, we propose an analytical framework with five dimensions of energy poverty metrology, and illustrate it using multi-scalar cases from three European countries. Dimensions include historical trajectories, data flattening, contextualised identification, new representation and policy uptake. We argue that the measurement of energy poverty must be informed by the politics of data and scale in order to institutionalise emerging metrics, while safeguarding against their co-optation for purposes other than the deep and rapid alleviation of energy poverty. This ‘dimensioned’ understanding of metrology can provide leverage to push for decisive action to address the structural underpinnings of domestic energy deprivation.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":33615,"journal":{"name":"Global Transitions","volume":"2 ","pages":"Pages 26-36"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1016/j.glt.2020.01.003","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"137330682","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A systemic approach to resilience and ecological sustainability during the COVID-19 pandemic: Human, societal, and ecological health as a system-wide emergent property in the Anthropocene","authors":"Anastasia Zabaniotou","doi":"10.1016/j.glt.2020.06.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.glt.2020.06.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a worldwide disruption. Most people have never witnessed such a global threat, and the world’s leaders have not dealt with a crisis of this magnitude; moreover, Research &amp; Innovation (R&amp;I) teams have little time to invent new pharmaceutical therapies. Nations are trying to implement controlling strategies for avoiding significant losses, but this pandemic has already imprinted itself upon their citizens’ psyche, created social anxiety, and disrupted national economies. The complexity of the psychological, social, and economic interrelations of this new source of stress cannot be appropriately understood by scientific reductionism and specialised thinking only. It needs to be considered how the current pandemic links to questions of ecological sustainability and resilience. Further, we must rethink the complex interactions of human-nature health that drove the crisis, as proof of an unsustainable human civilisation. Accordingly, this paper aims to contribute to the transdisciplinary resilience dialogue on the health maintenance and life-supporting processes of the biosphere by focusing on the COVID-19 crisis. It explores various frameworks that are contributing to the transdisciplinary meta-perspective of resilience. Moreover, it proposes a humanistic approach based on not only controlling strategies involving containment and social isolation but also the ecological balance considering the human, societal, and ecological health as a system-wide emergent property. Conceptual frameworks of resilience are discussed—as mapping methodologies to structure the discourse—focusing on the role of leadership and empowerment. Furthermore, some positive insights are discussed, as a transdisciplinary integrator and solidarity facilitator of coping, mitigation, and decision-making in the time of uncertainty and anxiety created by the COVID-19 pandemic.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":33615,"journal":{"name":"Global Transitions","volume":"2 ","pages":"Pages 116-126"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1016/j.glt.2020.06.002","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38301669","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Social innovation in the shadow of policy failure: Energy efficiency in self-build housing","authors":"Matt Lane ,&nbsp;Dan van der Horst ,&nbsp;Margaret Tingey ,&nbsp;Connor Smith ,&nbsp;Janette Webb","doi":"10.1016/j.glt.2020.08.001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.glt.2020.08.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The United Kingdom has been a slow adopter of energy efficiency measures in domestic buildings. Ambitions to ensure that new homes are built to ‘zero carbon’ standards have been expressed by policy makers but subsequent targets have been abandoned. In the UK housing sector, the high costs of land, the stagnating delivery of affordable new-built homes, and market dominance by a handful of high-volume housebuilders limit progress towards lower carbon newbuild homes. Against this backdrop, the paper seeks to examine the emergence of a supposedly ‘alternative’ sub-sector. Inspired by pioneering initiatives in countries like Germany and the Netherlands, a handful of self-build projects have emerged in the UK. Through the analysis of two in depth case studies, Bath street in Edinburgh and Graven Hill in Oxfordshire, we find that self-build projects can not only deliver more diverse and bespoke homes, but also more energy efficiency. Our analysis therefore unpicks their success stories vis-à-vis the inefficiencies of speculative house building where the adoption of national policies on zero carbon homes has been resisted. Framing the emergence of these self-build projects in the UK as social innovation, we identify the physical, conceptual and affective spaces for system change that are opened up by our case studies. We subsequently reflect on the key roles played by intermediaries, including local authorities, in the potential facilitation and mainstreaming of self-build approaches to delivering more energy efficient homes.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":33615,"journal":{"name":"Global Transitions","volume":"2 ","pages":"Pages 180-189"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1016/j.glt.2020.08.001","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91665957","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}