• Energy Research
• Open Access close
• Closed Access close
• Embargo close
• GB close
• DE close

AbstractGreenhouse gas emissions from fertiliser production are set to increase before stabilising due to the increasing demand to secure sustainable food supplies for a growing global population. However, avoiding the impacts of climate change requires all sectors to decarbonise by a very high level within several decades. Economically viable carbon reductions of substituting natural gas reforming with biomass gasification for ammonia production are assessed using techno-economic and life cycle assessment. Greenhouse gas savings of 65% are achieved for the biomass gasification system and the internal rate of return is 9.8% at base-line biomass feedstock and ammonia prices. Uncertainties in the assumptions have been tested by performing sensitivity analysis, which show, for example with a ±50% change in feedstock price, the rate of return ranges between −0.1% and 18%. It would achieve its target rate of return of 20% at a carbon price of £32/t CO2, making it cost competitive compared to using biomass for heat or electricity. However, the ability to remain competitive to investors will depend on the volatility of ammonia prices, whereby a significant decrease would require high carbon prices to compensate. Moreover, since no such project has been constructed previously, there is high technology risk associated with capital investment. With limited incentives for industrial intensive energy users to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, a sensible policy mechanism could target the support of commercial demonstration plants to help ensure this risk barrier is resolved.

For future landscapes to be sustainable, significant changes in land-use and management practices will be needed. This article argues that landscape archaeology can make distinctive contributions t...

AbstractRecognition of the importance of intraspecific variation in ecological processes has been growing, but empirical studies and models of global change have only begun to address this issue in detail. This review discusses sources and patterns of intraspecific trait variation and their consequences for understanding how ecological processes and patterns will respond to global change. We examine how current ecological models and theories incorporate intraspecific variation, review existing data sources that could help parameterize models that account for intraspecific variation in global change predictions, and discuss new data that may be needed. We provide guidelines on when it is most important to consider intraspecific variation, such as when trait variation is heritable or when nonlinear relationships are involved. We also highlight benefits and limitations of different model types and argue that many common modeling approaches such as matrix population models or global dynamic vegetation models can allow a stronger consideration of intraspecific trait variation if the necessary data are available. We recommend that existing data need to be made more accessible, though in some cases, new experiments are needed to disentangle causes of variation.

How do non-human animals (hereafter animals) fit into sustainable food futures? This question prompts ethical reflection. However, especially in times of transformative change, one should not overlook ontological assumptions before engaging in ethics. We follow up on the work of the late Australian philosopher Val Plumwood as she prominently made this move to the ontological level when considering the edibility of animals. As she invites one (1) to listen to animals as well as (2) to embody one's own edibility, salient ontological assumptions about how humans relate to other animals, and the rest of reality, rise to the surface. While Plumwood also developed a modest ethical framework to address animal edibility, her ontological approach is highlighted here, especially as it appears to point toward moral relativism. Plumwood's ontological approach is further developed, notably by unraveling the dualism between self and other. Doing so results in a more non-conceptual way of relating to other animals. As a genuinely interdependent way of engaging with reality, it appears most relevant to considering what role animals might have in sustainable food futures.

Abstract Large scale wind turbines deployed in “behind the meter” applications at medium and large scale industrial consumer sites can offset the purchase of retail electricity from the utility. However, unlike traditional onshore wind farm sites in elevated rural areas, such industrial sites tend to be at lower elevations and located in more urbanised areas with a higher likelihood of being in vicinity of manmade obstacles such as buildings. This research case study presents observed impacts of various site obstacle features, from local buildings to regional topography on the energy performance of an 850 kW rated wind turbine operating in a peri-urban area. The study is based on the analysis of 10-minute SCADA data measured over multiple years. The analysis includes a novel wind turbine electrical energy rose (EER) approach to determine the directional variation of the wind turbine electrical energy output in relation to site features around the turbine location. The paper concludes that low broad buildings with heights of only 20% of the turbine hub height can have a significant energy reducing impact compared to taller narrow buildings and that hills ~ 8 km from the turbine site have an energy reducing impact. The outcomes of the study should be of benefit to those involved in the pre-feasibility stages of deploying single large scale wind turbines at industrial sites in peri-urban areas.

• Premise of the study: Climate‐induced forest retreat has profound ecological and biogeochemical impacts, but the physiological mechanisms underlying past tree mortality are poorly understood, limiting prediction of vegetation shifts with climate variation. Climate, drought, fire, and grazing represent agents of tree mortality during the late Cenozoic, but the interaction between drought and declining atmospheric carbon dioxide ([CO2]a) from high to near‐starvation levels ∼34 million years (Ma) ago has been overlooked. Here, this interaction frames our investigation of sapling mortality through the interdependence of hydraulic function, carbon limitation, and defense metabolism.• Methods: We recreated a changing Cenozoic [CO2]a regime by growing Sequoia sempervirens trees within climate‐controlled growth chambers at 1500, 500, or 200 ppm [CO2]a, capturing the decline toward minimum concentrations from 34 Ma. After 7 months, we imposed drought conditions and measured key physiological components linking carbon utilization, hydraulics, and defense metabolism as hypothesized interdependent mechanisms of tree mortality.• Key results: Catastrophic failure of hydraulic conductivity, carbohydrate starvation, and tree death occurred at 200 ppm, but not 500 or 1500 ppm [CO2]a. Furthermore, declining [CO2]a reduced investment in carbon‐rich foliar defense compounds that would diminish resistance to biotic attack, likely exacerbating mortality.• Conclusions: Low‐[CO2]a‐driven tree mortality under drought is consistent with Pleistocene pollen records charting repeated Californian Sequoia forest contraction during glacial periods (180–200 ppm [CO2]a) and may even have contributed to forest retreat as grasslands expanded on multiple continents under low [CO2]a over the past 10 Ma. In this way, geologic intervals of low [CO2]a coupled with drought could impose a demographic bottleneck in tree recruitment, driving vegetation shifts through forest mortality.

IntroductionTransforming consumption and lifestyles toward sustainability cannot be achieved by individual behavior change alone but requires changes in the structures in which this behavior is embedded. However, “structure” is a blurry concept and scholars use it in a multitude of ways. What often remains implicit in studies on structural phenomena are different types of structures, how they may or may not restrict the agency of individuals in particular ways, and how these restrictions support sustainable consumption patterns at the societal level. To move beyond the current state of research, this article systematizes political, economic, technological, and societal structural factors the literature identifies as impactful regarding the sustainability of consumption and lifestyles compatible with the targets of the Paris Agreement.MethodsWe draw on a systematic review of existing research and use empirical observations to develop conceptual terms that revisit the structure-agency dilemma and offer ways going forward about (un)sustainable consumption.ResultsWe do so based on the material or ideational, as well as shallow or deep nature of these factors. Thereby, the article throws light on the deep and opaque material and ideational structural factors lying underneath and shaping the sustainability impact of the more visible, shallow structural factors typically considered in public debates about sustainability governance.DiscussionThe article, thus, highlights the need to consider and address these deep structural factors for any effective pursuit of transformation.