• Energy Research
• Embargo close
• GB close
• DE close
• ES close

The global restoration agenda can help solve the biodiversity extinction crisis by regenerating biodiversity-rich ecosystems, maximising conservation benefits using natural regeneration. Yet, conservation is rarely the core objective of restoration, and biodiversity is often neglected in restoration projects targeted towards carbon sequestration or enhancing ecosystem services for improved local livelihoods. Here, we synthesise evidence to show that promoting biodiversity in restoration planning and delivery is integral to delivering other long-term restoration aims, such as carbon sequestration, timber production, enhanced local farm yields, reduced soil erosion, recovered hydrological services and improved human health. For each of these restoration goals, biodiversity must be a keystone objective to the entire process. Biodiversity integration requires improved evidence and action, delivered via a socio-ecological process operating at landscape scales and backed by supportive regulations and finance. Conceiving restoration and biodiversity conservation as synergistic, mutually reinforcing partners is critical for humanity's bids to tackle the global crises of climate change, land degradation and biodiversity extinction.

These 285 documents have been used for the three sections that are part of the results of this article (documents statistics, bibliometric analysis, and literature review statistics). For this purpose, it was necessary to carry out an exhaustive review of the 285 selected documents and to complement this information with the data provided by Scopus. The data-charting process was as follows: the four researchers agreed on the types of data to be extracted, two of them carried out the review while the other two supervised. If any type of data worthy of investigation emerged during the reading, it was discussed, and if appropriate, included, making it an iterative process. For each of the documents, the following variables were collected in a table: author/s, title of the document, year of publication, journal in which it was published, type of document (article or review), number of citations and citations per year, relevance (weighting given by Scopus), DOI, geographical location of researchers, abstract, author keywords and keywords suggested by Scopus, JIF, JCI and H-index information of the journal in which the document is published (with quartiles and percentiles), subject area categories provided by Scopus, territory studied, renewable energy source studied, research technique or methodology used, primary data source used and years collected. In addition, for articles using quantitative techniques, all variables included in each model have been collected.

From the British debate on the depletion of coal in 1865 to the First World Power Conference held in London in 1924, scientists, engineers, industrialists, and politicians produced new interpretations of the past, present, and future in terms of the mobilisation of energy resources. This thesis identifies an emerging ‘energy developmentalism’, which called for maximising energy use to maintain or improve a nation’s place in international competition. Energy developmentalism was not a marginal worldview confined to ‘energeticists’, but a coherent set of claims, measurements, and arguments that informed energy governance on an international scale. Rather than focusing on a single resource, energy developmentalism applied a unified schema to all energy sources, including those like solar and tidal energy that were still mostly theoretical. Drawing on sources from across Europe, while staying grounded in political changes in Britain and France, makes it possible to understand how a general formula for transforming raw materials with maximum efficiency was applied differently depending on specific political contexts. This period saw the articulation of problems like the depletion of resources, the difference between renewable and nonrenewable energy, the intermittency of renewables, the overreliance on a single source of energy, and the centrality of energy to modern economies – problems that are often associated with later periods. Scientific measurements of efficiency, horsepower, and kilowatts became operators in political debates centred on questions of national standing and progress. Even as oil became increasingly important in the world economy, the delegates at the First World Power Conference transformed a vision of a renewable energy future into one of a general expansion of energy consumption as the basis of progress. In so doing, they downplayed the continued importance of fossil fuels and equated ‘conservation’ with the fullest possible use of all energy sources, renewable or not.

Climate change has been widely recognised as one of the most urgent and growing threats to natural and cultural heritage in the twenty-first century, and the indelible impact of humanity has led to the definition of a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. Indigenous peoples are disproportionately affected by natural and human-induced changes to the environment. Their vulnerability is exacerbated by centuries of cultural and territorial disenfranchisement within settler-colonial nations. This dissertation aims at understanding Indigenous perceptions of heritage in the face of climate change and its intersection with the impacts of settler- colonialism. It analyses how these on-the-ground perceptions can, in turn, inform heritage organisations and contribute to safeguarding the many facets of tangible and intangible Indigenous heritage for future generations in the Anthropocene. This is accomplished through a comparative, transnational case study of two communities each from the Dehcho First Nations in the Northwest Territories, Canada, and the Aymara and Quechua peoples in northern Chile. I use a multi-method approach consisting of semi-structured interviews, oral histories and participant observation. The data is complemented by environmental and heritage legislation and grey literature at multiple organisational scales for both case studies. Three lines of enquiry are explored through an applied comparative thematic analysis: i) the perceptions of climate change and associated land loss/change among Indigenous groups and how this impacts each group’s notions of challenges to its cultural identity; ii) the intersection of the effects of post- colonialism, ongoing industrial activities and climate change on the intergenerational transmission of ancestral knowledge and notions of place attachment; and iii) how international, national and regional political and sociocultural rhetoric on environmental and heritage conservation affect local, grassroots considerations for safeguarding heritage. The similarities and contrasts of the Dehcho First Nations, Aymara and Quechua experiences of climate change across the North-South divide are related from the grassroots to arrive at redefining heritage practices in the Anthropocene. The results demonstrate that decolonising heritage is not only necessary, but that this decolonisation depends on building and actively engaging in intercultural empathy through the global threat of climate change. In order to understand how Indigenous practices, places, and items are valorised—attributed value—as heritage in the face of climate change, one must empathise with the cultural loss that exists in the temporal and cognitive spaces between Indigenous individuals’ moments of nostalgic reference and today.

The phenomenon of global change is prompting the implementation of measures aimed at mitigating various effects, with humans being primarily impacted. The objective of this investigation is to analyse the potential self-sufficiency in the built environment through the utilisation of energy generated by photovoltaic systems. These systems have the capacity to reduce or even eliminate the reliance on grid electricity and non-renewable energy sources. The study commences with the delineation of eight neighbourhoods within the city of Madrid, Spain, each characterised by a distinct building typology. In order to ascertain the degree of self-sufficiency, this study calculates the energy production from solar photovoltaic systems installed on rooftops, and then proceeds to assess the energy consumption of each building. The results of the analysis demonstrate the capacity of photovoltaic installations to meet the electricity demands of buildings, such as single-family houses, almost completely, and partially in others, such as multi-family dwellings with multiple units per floor. Furthermore, the impact of differences in building height and urban context on self-sufficiency potential is explored.

The hydration of CO2 suffers from kinetic inefficiencies that make its natural trapping impractically sluggish. However, CO2-fixing carbonic anhydrases (CAs) remarkably accelerate its equilibration by 6 orders of magnitude and are, therefore, "ideal" catalysts. Notably, CA has been detected in ureolytic bacteria, suggesting its potential involvement in microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP), yet the dynamics of the urease (Ur) and CA genes remain poorly understood. Here, through the use of the ureolytic bacteriumSporosarcina pasteurii, we investigate the differing role of Ur and CA in ureolysis, CO2 hydration, and CaCO3 precipitation with increasing CO2(g) concentrations. We show that Ur gene up-regulation coincides with an increase in [HCO3-] following the hydration of CO2 to HCO3- by CA. Hence, CA physiologically promotes buffering, which enhances solubility trapping and affects the phase of the CaCO3 mineral formed. Understanding the role of CO2 hydration on the performance of ureolysis and CaCO3 precipitation provides essential new insights, required for the development of next-generation biocatalyzed CO2 trapping technologies.

The use of bioethanol as a biofuel make it possible to reduce the dependence on fossil fuel and the greenhouse emissions. The advantage of bioethanol is that is obtained by fermentation of renewable resources that capture carbon dioxide during its growing providing a null net balance of carbon dioxide emissions. Applying the concept of green engineering led to total or partial substitution of fossil fuel. The main drawback is that fermentation is produced in diluted aqueous media and the recovery of ethanol is an energy intensive operation and in Europe, the maximum ethanol content in fuel allowed by legislation is 10% wt (Directive 2009/10/EC). The objective of this project is to provide a process scheme that led to dehydrate bioethanol and blend directly with gasoline and gasoline additive, tert-amyl-methyl ether (TAME). This process must to be viable in terms of energy, economics and environmental aspects. A bibliographic search is presented to determine how much energy is necessary to produce one kilogram of bioethanol. The results of the bibliographic search shown that for a diluted feed stream of ethanol, the best process scheme consist on two distillation columns and one decanter. Hence, five process schemes are presented: (1-3) with the conventional configuration (two distillation column and one decanter) and (4-5) with a novel configuration (one distillation column, with a lateral extraction, and one decanter). The residue curve maps and liquid-liquid equilibrium (RCM-LLE) with their topologies are presented. The RCM-LLE allows to illustrate the thermodynamic behavior of the entrainers used and verify the feasibility. The software used to carry out the rigorous simulations is ASPEN Plus ® v10 using the thermodynamically model NRTL. The annual production established is 18kt/year of a mixture ethanol-gasoline-TAME. The converged results of the simulations allow to compare all the process schemes in terms of energy, sizing and economic aspects, such as raw materials cost, utilities cost, equipment cost and income statement. Beyond this, WAR® is used to compare the environmental impact of each process scheme using coal, oil and natural gas as an energy source Treballs Finals de Màster d'Enginyeria Química, Facultat de Química, Universitat de Barcelona, Curs: 2018-2019, Tutors: Alexandra Bonet Ruiz, Manuel Vicente Buil

An amorphous WO3 induced lattice distortion strategy leads to only 2 wt% Ir for efficient overall water splitting in acid.

Achievement of sustainable development in light of ongoing climate change and biodiversity pressures benefits from the deployment of innovations that foster engagement and uptake across all levels, mobilises finance flows commencement to the scale of the challenge, and enables the dissemination of transition solutions that support the low carbon economy. This research investigates the relationship between the legal architecture of market mechanisms under international law and the role of private actors, and how this contributes to sustainable development. Through an exploration of how market mechanisms under the climate change and biodiversity regimes have achieved environmentally sound outcomes, been advanced in sectoral approaches, and facilitated via bilateral and multilateral trade and investment relationships, important insights are identified regarding the composition of effective law and governance architectural approaches. Leveraging experiences derived from treaty practice viewed through an interactional account of international law, this assessment elucidates the important role played by alignment of legal regimes, robust transparency measures, and complementary schemes such as stakeholder-endorsed certifications in buttressing the established measures to ensure sustainable development outcomes and contributes to understanding the role of private actors in the operationalisation of environmental agreements. Research findings suggest it is the interaction of norms across the international legal architecture, informed by relationships within and across relevant treaty systems and the general corpus of international law, and actualised through engagement with private actors as a component of market mechanisms that provides the opportunity for congruence of practice, forging of shared understandings, and normative internalisation and ownership among communities of practice that stimulates both innovative solutions and ambitious action.