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The 2022 World Cup organised by the International Association Football Federation (International Olympic Committee, 2021) and hosted by Qatar was billed to be the tournament that would completely revolutionise football, both on and off the field. It garnered acclaim in being the first World Cup held outside its customary months of June-July as well as in pioneering net zero carbon emissions in the sport - an assertion that ultimately proved largely unfounded(Ralston, 2022) with high reputational consequences for the country and the game. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs), like the Carbon Market Watch that works with the European Union amongst others, claimed that “carbon emissions created by the new stadiums could be as much as eight times higher than the figures contained in Qatar’s analysis” (MacInnes, 2022). Against the backdrop of mounting sustainability concerns expressed by policymakers and enthusiasts alike, this essay examines the environmental hazards associated with major sporting events, like the 2022 FIFA World Cup whilst delving into adaptations that organisers could make for future sporting bonanzas that would give their green aspirations wings that could fly without getting burned like the fabled Icarus whose own pride and arrogance led him to ignore the rising temperatures and ultimately cause his demise. Essex Student Journal Volume 14 Issue S1 2023

Wave energy is an important renewable energy source. Previous studies of wave energy conversion (WEC) have focused on the maximum power take-off (PTO) techniques of a single machine. However, there is a lack of research on the energy and power quality of wave farm systems. Owing to the pulsating nature of ocean waves and popular PTO devices, the generated electrical power suffers from severe fluctuations. Existing solutions require extra energy storage and overrated power converters for wave power integration. In this study, we developed a master-slave wave farm system with rotor inertia energy storage; this system delivers self-smoothed power output to the grid and reduces the number of converters. Two control methods based on the moving average filter (MAF) and energy filter (EF) are proposed to smooth the output power of wave farms. RTDS simulations show that the proposed systems and control methods facilitate simple and smooth grid integration of wave energy. Keywords: Wave farm, Energy storage, Power smoothing, Power quality, Energy quality

A fundamental change in societal values and economic structures is required to address increasing pressures on ecosystems and natural resources. Transition research has developed in the last decades to analyze the co-dynamics of technological, institutional, social and economic elements in the provision of key functions such as energy, water and food supply. This doctoral dissertation provides conceptual and methodological contributions to the pro-active governance of sustainability transitions. Three research gaps are identified that are addressed in this dissertation. First, a comprehensive conceptualization of learning in sustainability transitions is currently missing that comprises learning at multiple societal levels (ranging from individuals to policy-actors). Learning concepts are often not explicitly discussed in transition research even though learning is considered as fundamental for innovation processes, niche formation and development as well as breakthrough and diffusion of innovations. Second, methods for the analysis and design of transition governance processes are lacking that specify case-specific intervention points and roles of actors in the implementation of innovations. Third, participatory modeling approaches are only applied to a limited extent in transition research despite a high potential for supporting communication and learning. The conceptualization of multi-level learning developed in this doctoral research conceptualizes learning at different societal levels as specific learning contexts ranging from individual and group contexts to organizational and policy contexts. The conceptual framework further differentiates between learning processes, intensity, objects, outcomes, subjects and factors, allowing for a more detailed analysis of learning within and across learning contexts. Thus, learning contexts can be linked by processes that involve actors from different learning contexts (e.g., community groups and policy-makers), as well as exchanges of physical aspects, institutions ...

Solar power appears to be one of the most promising resources to meet the medium and long term renewable energy targets. The integration of large amounts of photovoltaic (PV) generation into distribution networks faces some limitations due to the network constraints. The PV community became well aware of these limitations in the last years. While first solutions have been pointed out mainly for large installations connected to the medium voltage network, the specificities of low voltage networks are still not fully understood. This paper aims at explaining the challenges associated to the planning and operation of low voltage network with high PV penetration. The actual impact of PV infeed is quantified on the basis of real and accurate network, load and generation data. Results from unsymmetrical load-flow computations are presented and the implementation of reactive power-based voltage control is shortly discussed. 26th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 4469-4478

Given the highly climate-sensitive character of agricultural production, climate change has obvious and important ramifications for agricultural commercialisation, which in turn has a bearing on poverty, gender empowerment, and food and nutrition security. The nature and extent of climate change implications for agricultural commercialisation will depend on: the magnitude of the climate impacts that farmers have to deal with; and, the extent to which sustainable intensification processes can be pursued in ways which strengthen, rather than weaken, adaptive capacity and resilience in the face of climate change. This brief provides a summary of a longer working paper, which offers a review of recent literature on the implications of climate change for agricultural commercialisation and APRA’s research in this area.

The importance of wind energy has progressed rapidly in the last years. Although Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWT) are most well-spread, there is an increasing interest in Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWT), especially in the H-Darrieus concept, as these rotors are omni-directional and affordable. However, the physics of these rotors is more complex; they can only be analyzed using transient CFD simulations. Due to the finite aspect ratio of the rotors, a wingtip vortex is created, which generates losses. Optimizing the wingtip geometry could be advantageous for increasing the efficiency of the rotors: this can only be achieved with three-dimensional turbulent transient simulations. For the optimization of winglets, the whole process (mesh generation, CFD computation, post-processing) has to be automated. This is achieved using the OPtimization Algorithm Library++ (OPAL++), a custom C++ code for the description of blended and canted winglets, coupled with a CD-Adapco StarCCM+ JAVA script for the automatization of the mesh generation and CFD computations. To check the viability of the present concept, two parameters have been varied in the simulations. As shown in what follows, an efficient automatic optimization of wind turbine wingtips can be implemented in this manner.

Increasing agricultural productivity is one of the most important aims of modern biotechnology. One way to enhance the productivity of crop species is to enhance the efficiency of photosynthesis. In C3 plants the oxygenase activity of Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCo) limits the photosynthetic efficiency. The green microalgae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii has evolved a CO2 concentration mechanism (CCM) by increasing the CO2 concentration in the chloroplast stroma where RuBisCO is located. Four independent transgenic tobacco genotypes (LA, LB, C1 and C3) were generated producing the low CO2-inducible protein A and B (LCIA and LCIB) or the carbonic anhydrases I and III (CAH1 and CAH3) from C. reinhardtii CCM in the envelope, stroma, intermembrane space or thylakoid lumen of tobacco chloroplasts, respectively. All four recombinant proteins were active in planta, which had a substantial impact on carbon and nitrogen metabolism. Increasing the CO2 concentration near RuBisCO resulted in an enhanced rate of photosynthesis (by up to 15%), efficiency of photosystem II (by up to 18%) and chlorophyll content (by up to 19%). Although to differing extents, all four transgenic genotypes grew faster than wild-type plants, produced more shoot biomass (up to 45% more fresh weight or 38% more dry weight in the LA lines) and accumulated more photosynthetic end products, reflecting the higher rate of photosynthetic CO2 fixation. The proteome analysis revealed that the proteins changed in the transgenic genotypes compared to the wild-type plants were primarily associated with the regulation of the Calvin cycle and the amino acid biosynthesis. Metabolic analysis of the transgenic LA, LB and C3 plants revealed an increase in the levels of carbohydrates and also of most amino acids. Furthermore, transgenic LA and LB plants could maintain the enhanced biomass under low nitrogen conditions, where similarly-treated wild-type plants grew more slowly. The data generated in the present study confirmed that even single Chlamydomonas CCM components can be integrated into C3 plants to increase biomass, suggesting that transgenic lines combining multiple components or even a complete CCM could further increase the productivity and yield of C3 crops. RWTH Aachen University, Diss., 2017; Aachen, 1 Online-Ressource (151 Seiten) : Illustrationen, Diagramme(2017). = RWTH Aachen University, Diss., 2017 Published by Aachen

This Article examines the genesis and context of SE4All, placing the effort within both itshistorical and international policy contexts. It highlights the voluntary nature of the initiative andargues that its effective implementation and the achievement of its goals require the articulation ofan applicable international legal framework that aids the transformation of SE4All’s policy actionsinto binding international legal commitments. The article contends that such a transformation doesnot depend on the creation of entirely new legal rules or institutions. Instead, an effective frame-work for successful implementation of SE4All can be derived from existing rules of internationalhuman rights law and sustainable development law. Reliance on these twin bodies of interna-tional law will increase the prospects for SE4All to achieve energy access and related goals thatits predecessor initiatives have failed to accomplish

Devon County Council

Marine ecosystems are known to be climatea dependent, and impacts from progressing global climate change are increasingly observed and anticipated to intensify in the course of the 21st century. Under continuously high anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, drivers such as ocean warming, ocean acidification, and deoxygenation will increasingly affect marine ecosystems and the provision of marine ecosystem services to human societies. Environmental drivers affect organismal processes directly, but also have indirect effects through biotic interactions. Human societies are dependent on the ecosystem services provided by the oceans, and have limited adaptive capacities to changes in ecosystem service provision. An integrated evaluation of marinea human systems is thus necessary to understand coming changes, and is increasingly pursued by recent ecosystema based and integrated assessment and management approaches. The uncertainty of future climate change impacts and the interactions with the increasing anthropogenic pressures on marine systems need to be addressed. Ecological models are important tools to provide this integration of data and processes, as they can put experimental and observational data into context, and enable us to move beyond simple extrapolations of future states and experiences, creating an understanding of the changes in marine ecosystems anticipated in the future. While a wide variety of modeling approaches is available to answer specific ecological questions, a quantitative integration over different hierarchical levels, and different types of data and knowledge, is rarely achieved. The presented thesis revolves around a case study from the Barents Sea, which is among the marine regions with the earliest impacts of ocean acidification and warming expected and already observed, providing an integrative view of the impacts of these drivers on marine ecosystems and the provision of ecosystem services in the focus region. The work was built upon a thorough general analysis of available modeling approaches for modeling climate change impacts on marine fish populations (Paper 1). This analysis assessed capacities of the existing modeling approaches and recent applications, and revealed processes which need to be incorporated better in the light of recent experimental and observational results. A modeling framework to address the specific questions in the Barents Sea region was developed based on participation of stakeholders gained during personal interviews and two workshops (Paper 2). This served to incorporate their concerns and knowledge into the model structure and identify potential adaptation options for the stakeholder groups. To address one specific scientific question of high importance and uncertainty, the anticipated impacts on fish stock recruitment, an early life stage model was developed which incorporates the experimentally quantified effects of ocean acidification and warming on Atlantic cod eggs and larvae (Paper 3). This model offers a new approach to integrating empirical data on environmental and food-web drivers into recruitment projections of marine fish. Finally, an integrative fooda web model based on the structure developed in the stakeholder work and on current processa based understanding was parameterized with empirical data and estimates of organismal rates, to simulate the dynamic fluctuations in the Barents Sea food web and explore potential shifts in composition and dynamics under ocean warming and ocean acidification (Paper 4). In the thesis discussion, the papers are summarized and put into context, and the implications for the user groups in the region and possible societal adaptation options to the projected changes are highlighted. Impacts on fisheries, cultural and recreational ecosystem services, associated adaptation options for stakeholder groups, and interactions with other uses of the ocean system and expected changes under climate change are delineated. To advance ecosystema based governance in the area, the limitations in adaptation options of some user groups point to the need to better consider these groups in decisions and regulations concerning fisheries and marine areas. The Barents Sea study thus exemplifies the possibilities to integrate experiments, observations and stakeholder input into integrative assessments of marine ecosystems under climate change. Based on the insights gained from processa based modelling and stakeholder participation, it is described how understanding and projections of climate change impacts on marinea human systems can be advanced, pointing out the importance of improved interdisciplinary cooperation and communication and an integrative perspective to link across scales and subsystems a tasks to which purposefully designed models can contribute substantially.