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In this poster, the authors present how biomass can broaden our conception of nature to ensure a sustainable future. It is a collaborative and inter-disciplinary work that criticises the modern concept of resource and recognises the interdependence within ecosystems and their limits. Biomass reanchors our needs in their materiality and reminds us that interactions on ecosystems cannot be seen solely through the prism of services and production. Non-humans are not just a decoration to be used for human consumption but are an ally for sustainable prosperity thus they should be treated as such – and biomass is a good place to start. The authors argue that there is an urgent need to redefine our sensibility to the non-humans, the ethics of our interactions and of our own needs which goes hand in hand with a necessary arbitration and debate on the useful and the superfluous final services for humans.

Sustainable agriculture leads today to important questions about the diversification of agricultural production and sources of income for farmers, the use of rural and arable land for food and non-food crops, the contribution of agriculture to climate change fighting and the supply of renewable energy. Bioenergy from agriculture is at the heart of these concerns, integrating sustainable development key components: environment and climate change, energy economics and energy supply, agriculture, rural and social development. The lack of primary and reliable data on bioenergy externalities from agriculture and the lack of decision-making tools are important non-technological barriers to the development of bioenergy from agriculture on a large scale, and, consequently, to the achievement of the national and regional objectives of sustainable development with respect to greenhouse gas mitigation, secure and diversified energy supply, rural development and employment and the future of agriculture. Furthermore, the recent worldwide controversies about transport biofuels, food shortages and increasing prices have demonstrated the urgent need for sustainability criteria applied to biofuels and bioenergy. Within this current sustainable development framework, a project entitled TEXBIAG integrating experts from 4 research institutions is financed by the Belgian Science Policy. The final objective of this project is to lead to an actual and significant contribution of bioenergy from agriculture to the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, to a secure and diversified energy supply and to farmers' incomes and rural development. To reach this final objective, the project develops three specific tools: (1) a database of primary quantitative data related to environmental and socio-economic impacts of bioenergy from agriculture integrating biomass logistics; (2) a mathematical model monetizing bioenergy externalities from agriculture; and (3) a prediction tool assessing the impacts of political decisions made in the framework ofthe development of bioenergy from agriculture on different economic sectors (energy, agriculture, industry, and environment). An integrated interface tool will be programmed where access to and update of the three tools will be prepared. The project methodology will be conducted for a given number of scenarios with sensitivity analysis wherever possible. The three main target groups that will benefit from the project are: the government officials and policy makers in the field of agriculture, energy and environment in Belgium and its two main regions, the small, medium and large energy companies and the agricultural sector

Office buildings in Chile show higher cooling than heating energy demand. The climate of the country show important differences between cities by the ocean and those of interior regions, located between the coastal and the Andes range. Main cities of Central Chile, where more than 40% of buildings are constructed every year are Santiago and Valparaíso, both located at around 33° S. Santiago presents a Mediterranean climate, with a high temperature oscillation between day and night during cooling period. Valparaíso, by the coast, shows lower temperature fluctuation compared with Santiago during identical period. In order to define design strategies for energy efficiency of office buildings in mentioned cities, a sensitivity study has been made, considering variables like size of windows (window to wall ratio), type of windows (clear and selective glazing, including low e, single and double glazing), use and type of solar protection and use of nocturnal or diurnal ventilation. In opaque facades (walls and roofs), thermal insulation is considered. In case of walls, in order to increase thermal inertia external insulation is assumed. The sensitivity analysis is developed considering a square building containing office rooms on all four orientations. This10 story building has been specially proposed and designed for this analysis. Methodology considers an evaluation of heating and cooling demand of the building in both cities. For this purpose, a simulation software under dynamic conditions has been used (TAS of Environmental Design Solutions Limited). The lowest cooling energy demand is reached when using the lowest window to wall ratio (20%), with solar protection in east, west and north oriented glazed areas. In fact, fully glazed facades in both cities are not recommended. Nocturnal ventilation was highly effective for decreasing cooling demand in both cities. In the case of Valparaíso, due to relatively low temperature during cooling period (maximum lower than 26°C), diurnal ventilation for cooling purposes is also effective.

Weather and climate extremes such its droughts and floods have far reaching impacts in Kenya. They have had implications on a variety of sectors including, agriculture, water resources, health, energy and disaster management among others. Lake Victoria and its catchment support millions of people and any impact onl its ability to support the livelihood of the communities in this region is of major concern. Thus, the main objective of this study was to assess the potential future climatic changes in the Nzoia catchment in the Lake Victoria basin and how they might affect streamflow The Soil and Water Assessment Tool was used to investigate the impact of climatic change on streamflow of the study area. The model was set up using readily available spatial and temporal data and calibrated against measured daily streamflow. Climate change. scenarios were obtained from general circulation models Results obtained showed increased amounts of annual rainfall for all the scenarios but with variations on a monthly basis. All - but 1 - global circulation models (GCMS) showed consistency in the monthly rainfall amounts. The analysis revealed important rainfall-runoff linear relationships for certain months that could be extrapolated to estimate amounts of streamflow under various scenarios of change in rainfall. Streamflow response was not sensitive to changes in temperature. If all other variables e.g. land cover, population growth etc, were held constant. a significant increase in streamflow may be expected in the coming decades as a consequence of increased rainfall amounts.

From the beginning, energy has been the driving force of mankind. Without it, the evolution of mankind would have been impossible. Despite the need for access to energy to achieve higher levels of development, in many contexts around the world, situations of energy vulnerability and energy poverty exist. In many international legal instruments, the recognition of the right to energy as a human right has been strengthened. In several national frameworks, there are many trends in the protection of this fundamental right, while in others the right to energy is a forgotten issue. Given the level of development achieved by humankind, it is becoming increasingly necessary to grant greater legal protection to this right, especially with its recognition as a constitutional right. The Constitution as a fundamental norm provides the framework for the development of complementary norms that guarantee effective protection of the right to energy. The object of study of this research is Latin America and the Caribbean legal frameworks. Cuba, as part of the region, does not expressly recognise the right to energy in the Constitution of 2019. This research aims to systematise the good practices associated with the recognition of the right to energy as a constitutional right in Latin America and the Caribbean for its future recognition in Cuba. To accomplish this objective, the following research methods will be used: historical-legal, exegetical-analytical, and legal comparison. As a result, this research presents a systematisation of good practices associated with the recognition of the right to energy as a constitutional right in Latin America.

The present document corresponds to the deliverable D3.2 of the ALTERNATE project, Alternative Fuel Pathway Selection. It provides an overview of available fuel conversion technologies for the production of sustainable aviation fuels, and the selected pathways by the European and the Chinese partners for further examination under ALTERNATE WP3.

Public engagement has been considered key to sustainable energy transitions and action to tackle climate change, as effective policy strategies require public support and acceptance. However, public perspectives on the challenges of climate change and energy transition still need to be better explored, and effective public engagement should not be taken for granted. Specific socio-political contexts, infrastructures, and practices, among other factors, may condition the acceptance and adoption of changes. In this presentation, we highlight climate justice and energy justice as well as gender differences as relevant frameworks to understand issues that may arise as forms of resistance to energy transitions and climate policies, as well as to point out that such changes may aggravate forms of inequity, and lack of trust. We do this by analysing data from the latest edition of the European Social Survey. We focus on two countries: Belgium and Portugal, to investigate how high levels of concern about climate change and support for renewable energy relate to the divide between people with low income, and the more educated and well off.

Biofuels can offer an alternative to fossil fuels in the context climate change and fossil reserves depletion. Plant biomass consists mainly of structural (cell wall) polysaccharides, but contains also reserve polysaccharides (starch, polyfructans) and soluble carbohydrates, that can be converted by micro-organisms. So agricultural residues and herbaceous biomasses offer the opportunity to be converted to second-generation bio-ethanol. In this study, we examined the composition of Lolium perenne, Lolium hybridum, Lolium multiforum, to check their suitability for a dedicated ethanol conversion process. We investigated different varieties (early, intermediate, and late precocity degree; diploid and tetraploïd), different development stages (elongation, heading, flowering), harvest time in the day, and tedding on carbohydrate availability. All harvested samples were either dried at 70°C for biomass composition analysis or frozen for fermentation assays. Soluble carbohydrates were extracted from the dried biomass samples by water at 70°C. Fructose, Glucose, Sucrose and oligofructans to a degree of polymerisation DP11 were analysed by HPLC-ELSD with a Carbohydrate Prevail column. Biomass main components were determined by NIR spectroscopy with special focus on structural polysaccharides cellulose and hemicelluloses. Frozen biomass samples were used to examine the feasibility of a simple ethanol fermentation process directly from crude, not sterilized grasses with the commonly used yeast Saccharomyces cerevisae. Grass was fermented with S. cerevisiae for 40 h at 40°C. Ethanol and volatile fatty acids were analysed by GC-FID. Results show that S. cerevisae can produce ethanol directly from the green biomass but the endogenous microbial flora is responsible for the production of lactic acid and other volatile fatty acids (mainly acetate and butyrate).The soluble carbohydrate conversion yields to ethanol will be presented.

A. Context Biofuels are today one of the only direct substitutes for oil in road transport, available on a significant scale. They can be used today, in existing vehicle engines, unmodified for low blends, or with cheap modifications to accept high blends. Biofuels are expected to represent a substantial part of the 10% target for renewable energy in transport by 2020, set by the European Commission in its Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC. With biofuels reaching a visible scale at the European level, discussions have emerged about the sustainability of biofuels compared to fossil fuels. It is clear that policy should make sure that the use of biofuels in the transport sector should happen in a sustainable way that balances the main transport related challenges of greenhouse gas reduction, reducing oil dependency and improving air quality. Specifically for the Belgian situation, BIOSES is a research project assisting the Belgian government in setting a roadmap for biofuels and analysing the potential impact that biofuel introduction may have on greenhouse gas emissions, energy use and air quality. B. Objectives The project develops different scenarios for the introduction of biofuels, based on the technological evolution in vehicle models, the likely biofuel blends on the European markets, and the possible interest of certain end user groups. Based on up-to-date data (complemented with own measurements) of energy use, emissions and cost projections, the practical feasibility and the ecological and economic impact (on micro and macro level) of the introduction of biofuels in Belgium are analysed. Results are used to create a roadmap for the introduction of biofuels in Belgium. C. Conclusions The main biofuel options for Belgium on the short term are biodiesel (methyl ester) from vegetable oil, to be blended with diesel fuel (up to B7), potentially supplemented with hydro-treated vegetable oil (HVO) in the future, and bio-ethanol from sugar or starch crops, to be blended with gasoline fuel (up to E10). Next to general blending, also options of high blends or pure biofuels could be envisaged (such as E85, ED95, B30, B100, PPO, bio-methane).

Scientific report of the first year of the ABC Impacts project