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Abstract. Reliable quantification of the sources and sinks of greenhouse gases, together with trends and uncertainties, is essential to monitoring the progress in mitigating anthropogenic emissions under the Paris Agreement. This study provides a consolidated synthesis of CH4 and N2O emissions with consistently derived state-of-the-art bottom-up (BU) and top-down (TD) data sources for the European Union and UK (EU27+UK). We integrate recent emission inventory data, ecosystem process-based model results, and inverse modelling estimates over the period 1990–2018. BU and TD products are compared with European National GHG Inventories (NGHGI) reported to the UN climate convention secretariat UNFCCC in 2019. For uncertainties, we used for NGHGI the standard deviation obtained by varying parameters of inventory calculations, reported by the Member States following the IPCC guidelines recommendations. For atmospheric inversion models (TD) or other inventory datasets (BU), we defined uncertainties from the spread between different model estimates or model specific uncertainties when reported. In comparing NGHGI with other approaches, a key source of bias is the activities included, e.g. anthropogenic versus anthropogenic plus natural fluxes. In inversions, the separation between anthropogenic and natural emissions is sensitive to the geospatial prior distribution of emissions. Over the 2011–2015 period, which is the common denominator of data availability between all sources, the anthropogenic BU approaches are directly comparable, reporting mean emissions of 20.8 Tg CH4 yr−1 (EDGAR v5.0) and 19.0 Tg CH4 yr−1 (GAINS), consistent with the NGHGI estimates of 18.9 ± 1.7 Tg CH4 yr−1. TD total inversions estimates give higher emission estimates, as they also include natural emissions. Over the same period regional TD inversions with higher resolution atmospheric transport models give a mean emission of 28.8 Tg CH4 yr−1. Coarser resolution global TD inversions are consistent with regional TD inversions, for global inversions with GOSAT satellite data (23.3 Tg CH4yr−1) and surface network (24.4 Tg CH4 yr−1). The magnitude of natural peatland emissions from the JSBACH-HIMMELI model, natural rivers and lakes emissions and geological sources together account for the gap between NGHGI and inversions and account for 5.2 Tg CH4 yr−1. For N2O emissions, over the 2011–2015 period, both BU approaches (EDGAR v5.0 and GAINS) give a mean value of anthropogenic emissions of 0.8 and 0.9 Tg N2O yr−1 respectively, agreeing with the NGHGI data (0.9 ± 0.6 Tg N2O yr−1). Over the same period, the average of the three total TD global and regional inversions was 1.3 ± 0.4 and 1.3 ± 0.1 Tg N2O yr−1 respectively, compared to 0.9 Tg N2O yr−1 from the BU data. The TU and BU comparison method defined in this study can be operationalized for future yearly updates for the calculation of CH4 and N2O budgets both at EU+UK scale and at national scale. The referenced datasets related to figures are visualized at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4288969 (Petrescu et al., 2020).

This reference data set representing the status quo of the German electricity, heat, and natural gas sectors was compiled within the research project ‘LKD-EU’ (Long-term planning and short-term optimization of the German electricity system within the European framework: Further development of methods and models to analyze the electricity system including the heat and gas sector). While the focus is on the electricity sector, the heat and natural gas sectors are covered as well. With this reference data set, we aim to increase the transparency of energy infrastructure data in Germany. Where not otherwise stated, the data included in this report is given with reference to the year 2015 for Germany. The data set is documented in DIW Data Documentation 92 (see references). The project is a joined effort by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), the Workgroup for Infrastructure Policy (WIP) at Technische Universität Berlin (TUB), the Chair of Energy Economics (EE2) at Technische Universität Dresden (TUD), and the House of Energy Markets & Finance at University of Duisburg-Essen. The project was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy through the grant ‘LKD-EU’, FKZ 03ET4028A-D. {"references": ["Kunz, Friedrich et. al. (2017). Electricity, Heat and Gas Sector Data for Modeling the German System. DIW Data Documentation 92."]}

Light sources are being competitive in the current market. Several types of these products have been widely used in the last two decades. They play a major role on the low voltage network as they produce and inject undesired noise onto the transmission lines of the PLC channel. This noise can be of a serious and negative effect when using the power line communications system to control the automatic switching of lamps in residential areas and public places. The main colour low energy indoor light sources that exist in the market, such as, LEDs and CFLs have been tested for the noise generation on the PLC channel and the results are analyzed and shown in this study. A mathematical analysis of LED bridge rectifier is introduced in this study.

The EU has long pursued relatively ambitious climate and energy policies, often against the backdrop of what has been termed the EU ‘polycrisis’. This paper introduces a special issue which seeks t...

Abstract Coal energy landscapes have changed dramatically over the last decades, including geographic shifts in production and consumption, technological changes that have reduced labour demand and led to relatively new mining practices (e.g. invasive mountain-top approaches), changed economic footprints, a shutdown of capacities or a complete end of mining in many regions with massive impacts on regional and local economies, community well-being, social capital, et cetera. Then the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia´s invasion of Ukraine have fundamentally affected the global economy, disrupted energy markets, and shattered existing estimates about development trends, challenging the progress and speed of the low-carbon energy transition and coal phase-out. This article provides a brief reflection on the changing landscapes of coal and their possible futures, and serves as an introduction to the Special Issue of Moravian Geographical Reports on “The death of coal in the energy transition? Regional perspectives”.

The increasing demand for energy and commodities has led to escalating greenhouse gas emissions, the chief of which is represented by carbon dioxide (CO2). Blue hydrogen (H2), a low-carbon hydrogen produced from natural gas with carbon capture technologies applied, has been suggested as a possible alternative to fossil fuels in processes with hard-to-abate emission sources, including refining, chemical, petrochemical and transport sectors. Due to the recent international directives aimed to combat climate change, even existing hydrogen plants should be retrofitted with carbon capture units. To optimize the process economics of such retrofit, it has been proposed to remove CO2 from the pressure swing adsorption (PSA) tail gas to exploit the relatively high CO2 concentration. This study aimed to design and numerically investigate a vacuum pressure swing adsorption (VPSA) process capable of capturing CO2 from the PSA tail gas of an industrial steam methane reforming (SMR)-based hydrogen plant using NaX zeolite adsorbent. The effect of operating conditions, such as purge-to-feed ratio and desorption pressure, were evaluated in relation to CO2 purity, CO2 recovery, bed productivity and specific energy consumption. We found that conventional cycle configurations, namely a 2-bed, 4-step Skarstrom cycle and a 2-bed, 6-step modified Skarstrom cycle with pressure equalization, were able to concentrate CO2 to a purity greater than 95% with a CO2 recovery of around 77% and 90%, respectively. Therefore, the latter configuration could serve as an efficient process to decarbonize existing hydrogen plants and produce blue H2.

China is confronted with an unprecedented water crisis regarding its quantity and quality. In this study, we quantified the dynamics of China?s embodied water use and chemical oxygen demand (COD) discharge from 2010 to 2015. The analysis was conducted with the latest available water use data across sectors in primary, secondary and tertiary industries and input?output models. The results showed that (1) China?s water crisis was alleviated under urbanisation. Urban consumption occupied the largest percentages (over 30%) of embodied water use and COD discharge, but embodied water intensities in urban consumption were far lower than those in rural consumption. (2) The ?new normal? phase witnessed the optimisation of China?s water use structures. Embodied water use in light-manufacturing and tertiary sectors increased while those in heavy-manufacturing sectors (except chemicals and transport equipment) dropped. (3) Transformation of China?s international market brought positive effects on its domestic water use. China?s water use (116?80 billion tonnes (Bts))(9) and COD discharge (3.95?2.22 million tonnes (Mts)) embodied in export tremendously decreased while its total export values (11?25 trillion CNY) soared. Furthermore, embodied water use and COD discharge in relatively low-end sectors, such as textile, started to transfer from international to domestic markets when a part of China?s production activities had been relocated to other developing countries.

A focus on land-use and forests as a means to reduce carbon dioxide levels in the global atmosphere has been at the heart of the international climate change debate since the United Nations Kyoto Protocol was agreed in 1997. This environmental management practice is a process technically referred to as mitigation. These largely technical projects have aimed to provide sustainable development benefits to forest-dependent people, as well as to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, these projects have had limited success in achieving these local development objectives. This article argues that this is due in part to the patriarchal underpinnings of the sustainable development and climate-change policy agendas. The author explores this theory by considering how a climate mitigation project in Bolivia has resulted in different outcomes for women and men, and makes links between the global decision-making process and local effects.