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Cooling demand in buildings is globally increasing, therefore developing more efficient cooling systems is important for the sustainability of European cities. Directive 2012/27/EU of the European Parliament and of the council on energy efficiency states: “Member States should carry out a comprehensive assessment of the potential for high-efficiency cogeneration and district heating and cooling”. The EU project INDIGO is investigating this issue considering also the economic efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources. In a district cooling system different kinds of cooling production can be combined. E.g., the use of absorption chillers with waste heat or through the solar cooling or the use of free cooling (generally the heat is rejected to seas, lakes, rivers or waterways) offer the possibility of a more sustainable way of cooling. Controlling those systems in an efficient way is a complex problem (consider that the cooling demand is much more difficult to predict than the heat demand, particularly the peaks, and sources such as the solar energy and the waste heat are not predetermined by the designers). The main results of INDIGO will be the development of: - predictive controllers (responsible for obtaining the HVAC systems set-points and based on component dynamic thermos-fluid models, some of them also including embedded self-learning algorithms); - system management algorithms (focused on energy efficiency maximization or energy cost minimization); - an open-source planning tool (based on design and performance parameters as well as simulation and optimisation results; LCA framework will be used as a method for both economic feasibility and climate impact assessment). To validate the results, the consortium is analysing case studies, both through energy modelling and through on-site observations and measurements. The present paper focuses mainly on the development of dynamic energy models and on their use in the context of the project.

Energy Performance Contracting (EPC), as a tool to enhance energy efficiency of buildings, can accelerate investment in cost-effective energy conservation measures (ECMs) for existing buildings. However, there are many risks and barriers that can slow down the uptake of EPC, such as the complexity of the process or uncertainty of building performance post-retrofit. The International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP®), which was originally developed to help increase investment in energy and water efficiency, demand management and renewable energy projects, has the potential to reduce some of the EPC barriers. However, due to limited and uncertain information about existing buildings, the application of this Measurement and Verification (M&V) protocol in retrofitting projects is often complex and requires novel use of building simulation tools. In order to address the challenges of utilising M&V IPMVP® in building retrofitting projects, and to enhance the uptake of EPC, the research presented here developed a novel Reduced Order Model (ROM) technology framework that can be used for (i) systematic quantification of energy savings (avoided energy consumption) achieved through ECMs, and (ii) direct estimation of energy savings through the investigation of different envelope retrofit scenarios. The framework was demonstrated on pilot buildings in Sant Cugat, Spain.

Recent scientific reports highlight the urgent need for transformations to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and long-term sustainability. This paper presents a new approach to partnerships that focuses on their role in transformations, the types of partnerships that may be needed and their enabling environment. It introduces transformation effectiveness as a criterion to evaluate a portfolio of partnerships and pathways as a tool to frame discussion of required partnerships. Guided by energy decarbonization and using a simple model of partnership formation, I highlight a (potential) mismatch between the types of partnerships required for transformation and the partnership types arising under the currently dominant voluntary approach. The model suggests the bottom-up approach can deliver some, but not all, of the partnerships needed. Five specific problems are identified—compensation for losers, partnering capacity, short-time horizons, inadequate coordination mechanisms and misaligned incentives. The paper then outlines some policy tools—transfers, regulation, public investment—governments could use to strengthen the bottom-up framework and orchestrate missing partnerships. The conclusion addresses two problems specific to the transformation approach: how to identify more systematically the partnerships needed (identification problem) and how to implement them (implementation problem); and outlines some ways to deal with these—science, deliberation, international leadership coalitions and frameworks/monitoring systems for transition partnerships.

This article addresses policy coherence for sustainable development demonstrating the important role that dashboards of interlinked indicators can play as tools to coordinate interrelated government ministries for integrated policymaking at national level. Specifically, a monitoring and coordination tool is proposed based on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicators and mappings of SDG responsibilities across ministries. Drawing on studies in sustainability science of SDG interlinkages, the article presents a five-step procedure that government departments can use to construct indicator sets from official SDG indicators to support integrated policymaking for a specific sector. I apply the method to Ireland’s marine sector. Ireland is an interesting case because although many countries report mapping SDG responsibilities across ministries, Ireland’s Voluntary National Review explicitly maps these responsibilities for all 17 SDGs and 169 targets. Using performance gap analysis, concrete recommendations are developed for the lead department of the marine along three dimensions: which departments to cooperate with, on what policy areas discussions should focus, and how Ireland performs in each area compared to a selection of peer countries. In particular, the article recommends cooperation with nine other departments on fifteen policy issues. Relative to peers, Ireland is ranked amongst sustainability “leaders” on three of these issues and amongst “laggards” on nine issues. The proposed procedure, which has wide application (to other countries and sectors) as a starting point for integrated policymaking, can help to raise awareness among policymakers of outcomes in linked policy areas and enable dialogue between ministries on coherent policies to address interrelated gaps in sustainability.

Renewable and local energy communities are viewed as a key component to the success of the energy transition. In this paper, we estimate wind power potential for such communities. Acquiring the most accurate weather data is important to support decision-making. We identify the most reliable publicly available wind speed data and demonstrate a case study for typical energy community scenarios such as a single commercial turbine at coastal and inland locations in Ireland. We describe our assessment methodology to evaluate the quality of the wind source data by comparing it with meteorological observations. We make recommendations on which publicly available wind data sources, such as reanalysis data sources (MERRA-2, ERA-5), PVGIS, and NEWA are best suited to support Renewable Energy Communities interested in exploring the possibilities of renewable wind energy. ERA5 is deemed to be the most suitable wind data source for these locations, while an anomaly is noted in the NEWA data.

Climate change represents the greatest challenge of the 21st Century and will affect human societies in multiple ways. Our knowledge about the nature and physics of climate change, its causes and its consequences, is far greater than our understanding of the societal changes it poses. Climate change is a social production, a complex process of societal transformations, which we all need to understand to better cope with the challenge it presents. Climatic conditions play a significant role in people's lives and can interfere with lives in multiple ways. The causes are known, and they put human action at the center of the debate. The consequences of climate change to ways of life are complex, diversified, inevitable, and will likely become worse over time. The nations that contributed most to the problem are often those that least suffer the consequences while those who contributed the least are often the most affected, vulnerable and unprepared. In addition to the expected impacts in the most diverse economic and environmental sectors, human health has emerged as an important area associated with climate change. Although not frequently mentioned or targeted as a key political concern, it is expected that the impact of climate change on human health will be severe, both in the distribution and incidence of diseases. Moreover, climate change will have extensive implications to human well-being, which will reflect on social structures and ways of life. The aim of this E-Book is to highlight and share knowledge on the social, economic, political and cultural implications of climate change, as well as reflect upon the required transformations in policy, governance and social-cultural strategies to mitigation, adaptation and prevention. To understand the multiple dimensions of climate change and their interdependencies, we need to bring together various sciences, knowledges and powers. The social sciences, and sociology, play a central role in analyzing the effects of human activities on natural systems. Social Sciences can scrutinize those phenomena and relations that, within human societies, produce social structures that ultimately have negative impacts on the environment. This E-Book also aims to provide an overview of social sciences literature and research on climate change, identifying key areas for further research and development. This work was carried out at the R&D Unit Center for Functional Ecology - Science for People and the Planet (CFE), with reference UIDB/04004/2020, financed by FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) Portugal, and also at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon (ICS-ULisboa), Portugal. This Research Topic was developed with the support of the European project-PHOENIX: The rise of citizen’s voices for a Greener Europe - (contract ID: 101037328) funded by the European Commission under the EGD-European research priority Green Deal of the H2020 Program (H2020-EU.3.6). info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

This paper investigates key innovative paradigms that seek enhanced consensus building on the sustainable mining agenda of the mineral resource development industry and realities on the ground. It reviews the 55 most relevant academic articles from 2000 to 2019, retrieved from the Web of Science, PubMed and International Conference on Sustainable Development Indicators in the Metals Industry databases. A systematic scoping review method was used to sieve the multitudes of entries obtained from the databases to generate appropriate publications that match the search terms used. Our survey finds a dearth of literature on the subject. Only one article directly confers the need for consensus building on sustainable mining. The existing literature does not suggest the modalities that would enhance indigenous groups’ understanding and appreciation of sustainable mining. This creates a gap between stakeholders with regard to what flags sustainable mining. This study also finds a lack of efforts to incorporate sustainable mining concepts into academic courses focusing on either mining or sustainable development. Thus, this paper suggests that the existing delusions on sustainable mining can be addressed if the science of assessing and communicating the principles of sustainable development in mining is suitably developed and applied in higher educational curricula, environmental literacy feats, community-initiated research and outreach activities. Incorporating indigenous knowledge can address the existing gaps between stakeholder groups and in science.