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La 4e table ronde des parties prenantes du projet EU BON visait à présenter les réalisations et les produits actuels du projet EU BON, qui peuvent être classés en trois catégories : premièrement, les outils et les infrastructures, deuxièmement, le consortium et son réseau de collaborateurs et, troisièmement, le suivi (de la biodiversité) et les prévisions scientifiques. La dernière table ronde des parties prenantes - contrairement aux anciennes tables rondes qui ont abordé la politique européenne (Wetzel et al. 2016), la science citoyenne et le portail scientifique citoyen BON de l'UE (Vohland et al. 2016, Runnel et al. 2016) et des réseaux de recherche locaux (Vohland et al. 2016b) – axés sur les questions de durabilité des différentes composantes du réseau européen d'observation de la biodiversité. La question directrice de la table ronde était de savoir comment atteindre la durabilité pour les produits de l'EU BON après la fin du projet. Il a également été discuté de ce qui - parmi les nombreux produits différents tels que les outils, les logiciels, les connaissances scientifiques, les modèles et les infrastructures - sont les composantes les plus essentielles du projet pour les parties prenantes spécifiques (par exemple, les agences, la science citoyenne, les chercheurs) et ce qui est nécessaire pour l'avenir (ajustements, durabilité pour le développement, financement). L'une des questions centrales était de savoir comment les composantes essentielles pourraient être soutenues, par quelles institutions ou réseaux et comment elles pourraient être utilisées de la meilleure manière pour les besoins politiques et de recherche européens et nationaux (par exemple, surveillance, rapports) ainsi que pour le niveau mondial (par exemple, pour le Groupe sur l'observation de la Terre, GEO). Enfin, et il ne faut pas l'oublier, un autre aspect essentiel était de savoir comment un réseau européen de la biodiversité dans son ensemble, avec ses différentes composantes, peut être davantage maintenu pour atteindre ses objectifs en tant qu'infrastructure centrale de génération de données et d'informations sur la biodiversité à l'échelle européenne. Ici, nous rapportons les résultats et les discussions de la réunion et mettons également en évidence les principaux messages. La 4ª Mesa Redonda de Partes Interesadas de BON de la UE tuvo como objetivo presentar los logros y productos actuales del proyecto BON de la UE, que se pueden asignar a tres categorías: en primer lugar, a las herramientas y la infraestructura, en segundo lugar, al consorcio y su red de colaboradores y, en tercer lugar, al monitoreo (de la biodiversidad) y la previsión científica. La última Mesa Redonda de Partes Interesadas, en contraste con las anteriores Mesas Redondas que abordaron la política europea (Wetzel et al. 2016), la ciencia ciudadana y el portal de ciencia ciudadana BON de la UE (Vohland et al. 2016, Runnel et al. 2016) y redes de investigación locales (Vohland et al. 2016b) – centradas en cuestiones de sostenibilidad de los diferentes componentes de la red europea de observación de la biodiversidad. La pregunta guía de la Mesa Redonda fue cómo lograr la sostenibilidad de los productos de EU BON después de que finalice el proyecto. También se discutió lo que, entre los muchos productos diferentes, como herramientas, software, conocimiento científico, modelos e infraestructura, son los componentes más esenciales del proyecto para las partes interesadas específicas (por ejemplo, agencias, ciencia ciudadana, investigadores) y lo que se necesita para el futuro (ajustes, sostenibilidad para el desarrollo, financiación). Una de las preguntas centrales fue cómo se podrían sostener los componentes esenciales, por qué instituciones o redes y cómo se pueden utilizar de la mejor manera para las necesidades políticas y de investigación europeas y nacionales (por ejemplo, monitoreo, informes), así como a nivel mundial (por ejemplo, para el Grupo de Observaciones de la Tierra, GEO). Por último, y no hay que olvidar, otro aspecto esencial fue cómo se puede sostener aún más una Red Europea de Biodiversidad en su conjunto, con sus diferentes componentes, para cumplir sus objetivos como infraestructura central para generar datos e información sobre biodiversidad a escala europea. Aquí informamos los resultados y las discusiones de la reunión y también destacamos los mensajes principales. The 4th EU BON Stakeholder Roundtable aimed to present current achievements and products of the project EU BON, which can be assigned to three categories: firstly to tools and infrastructure, secondly to the consortium and its network of collaborators and thirdly to (biodiversity) monitoring and scientific forecasting. The last Stakeholder Roundtable - in contrast to the former Roundtables which addressed European policy (Wetzel et al. 2016), citizen science and the EU BON citizen science gateway (Vohland et al. 2016, Runnel et al. 2016) and local research networks (Vohland et al. 2016b) – focused on sustainability issues of the different components of the European biodiversity observation network. The guiding question of the Roundtable was how to achieve sustainability for the products of EU BON after the project will end. It was also discussed what - among the many different products such as tools, software, scientific knowledge, models and infrastructure - are the most essential components of the project for the specific stakeholders (e.g. agencies, citizen science, researchers) and what is needed for the future (adjustments, sustainability for development, funding). One of the central questions was how the essential components could be sustained, by which institutions or networks and how they can be used in the best way for the European and national policy and research needs (e.g. monitoring, reporting) as well as for the global level (e.g. for the Group on Earth Observations, GEO). Finally, and not to forget, another essential aspect was how a European Biodiversity Network as a whole, with its different components, can be further sustained for fulfilling its goals as a central infrastructure for generating biodiversity data and information on a European scale. Here we report the outcomes and discussions of the meeting and also highlight the main messages. تهدف المائدة المستديرة الرابعة لأصحاب المصلحة في الاتحاد الأوروبي إلى تقديم الإنجازات والمنتجات الحالية لمشروع الاتحاد الأوروبي، والتي يمكن تصنيفها إلى ثلاث فئات: أولاً إلى الأدوات والبنية التحتية، وثانياً إلى الاتحاد وشبكة المتعاونين معه، وثالثاً إلى رصد (التنوع البيولوجي) والتنبؤ العلمي. المائدة المستديرة الأخيرة لأصحاب المصلحة - على النقيض من الموائد المستديرة السابقة التي تناولت السياسة الأوروبية (Wetzel et al. 2016)، وعلم المواطن وبوابة علم المواطن في الاتحاد الأوروبي (Vohland et al. 2016، Runnel et al. 2016) وشبكات البحث المحلية (Vohland et al. 2016b) – ركزت على قضايا الاستدامة للمكونات المختلفة للشبكة الأوروبية لمراقبة التنوع البيولوجي. كان السؤال التوجيهي للمائدة المستديرة هو كيفية تحقيق الاستدامة لمنتجات بون الاتحاد الأوروبي بعد انتهاء المشروع. كما تمت مناقشة ما هو - من بين العديد من المنتجات المختلفة مثل الأدوات والبرمجيات والمعرفة العلمية والنماذج والبنية التحتية - أهم مكونات المشروع لأصحاب المصلحة المحددين (مثل الوكالات وعلوم المواطن والباحثين) وما هو مطلوب للمستقبل (التعديلات والاستدامة من أجل التنمية والتمويل). كان أحد الأسئلة الرئيسية هو كيف يمكن الحفاظ على المكونات الأساسية، ومن قبل المؤسسات أو الشبكات وكيف يمكن استخدامها بأفضل طريقة لاحتياجات السياسة والبحث الأوروبية والوطنية (مثل الرصد والإبلاغ) وكذلك على المستوى العالمي (على سبيل المثال بالنسبة للفريق المختص برصد الأرض، GEO). أخيرًا، ودون أن ننسى، كان هناك جانب أساسي آخر وهو كيف يمكن لشبكة التنوع البيولوجي الأوروبية ككل، بمكوناتها المختلفة، أن تستمر لتحقيق أهدافها كبنية تحتية مركزية لتوليد بيانات ومعلومات التنوع البيولوجي على المستوى الأوروبي. هنا نبلغ عن نتائج ومناقشات الاجتماع ونسلط الضوء أيضًا على الرسائل الرئيسية.

This study employs an electricity system capacity panning model with detailed economic dispatch and unit commitment decisions/constraints to quantitatively answer two key questions: How does the enactment of the federal Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 impact the cost of electricity, greenhouse gas emissions, and investment in electricity capacity in the PJM Interconnection over the 2023-2035 period? Given new and expanded federal subsidies for clean electricity resources in the Inflation Reduction Act, what additional capacity investments and resource deployment would be required and at what cost for the PJM region to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80-90% by 2035 while maintaining an affordable and reliable electricity supply? Executive summary: In August 2022, Congress passed and President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which enacts a comprehensive set of financial incentives (tax credits, grants, rebates, loans) that support all sources of carbon-free electricity, promote vehicle and building electrification and efficiency, and subsidize carbon capture and storage (CCS). The implementation of IRA means that the full financial weight of the federal government is now behind the clean energy transition. This will have transformative effects on the economics of decarbonization in the PJM Interconnection (and across the United States). IRA will spark a new, sustained period of growth in PJM electricity consumption, which could rise ~19% from 2021 to 2030. The law also subsidizes the cost of deploying new renewable energy capacity and maintaining the region’s existing nuclear fleet. As a result, this study finds that clean electricity could supply 60% [58-66% across sensitivities] of PJM demand in 2030, up from 48% [43-61%] without enactment of IRA. However, realizing this potential will require a dramatic acceleration in the pace of wind and solar interconnection and transmission expansion in the PJM Interconnection. The growth of lower-cost, carbon-free electricity under IRA will significantly reduce CO2 emissions from PJM power generation, which could fall 37% [3-66%] from 2019/2021 levels. In contrast, PJM emissions would increase 12% [0-15%] from 2021 levels without IRA. However, PJM emissions may rebound after 2032 when a production tax credit for existing nuclear reactors established by IRA is set to expire. Unless equivalent policy support is extended beyond 2032, our modeling finds 12 GW [0-33 GW] of the PJM nuclear fleet is likely to retire by 2035, with new natural gas capacity and generation increasing to fill the resulting gap and meet growing demand, reversing some of the emissions progress achieved through 2030. In addition to driving down greenhouse gas emissions, IRA also lowers the cost of electricity supply in the PJM region. We find the average cost of bulk electricity supply for PJM load serving entities (LSEs), including transmission expansion and state policy requirements, will be about $42/MWh [~$40-45/MWh] in 2030, about 5-10% lower than without IRA, and well below costs paid in 2019 ($50.2/MWh) and 2021 (~$61/MWh). The primary sources of cost savings are reduced wholesale energy prices, lower costs to meet state clean energy policy goals (due to federal subsidies), and growing demand (which spreads fixed costs over more MWh). While IRA puts the PJM region on a path to lower-cost electricity and lower greenhouse gas emissions, the new federal policy is not sufficient to drive deep decarbonization of the PJM interconnection on its own. Fortunately, by subsidizing the cost of all new carbon-free electricity resources, IRA also makes it cheaper and easier for PJM states to reduce emissions further while preserving affordability. Part 2 of this study presents a cost-optimized blueprint of the additional capacity investments and resource deployment required for the PJM region to deeply decarbonize over the 2023-2035 period. Specifically, we apply two stylized policy constraints and model the evolution of the PJM capacity mix and operations to meet those constraints: A clean electricity standard (CES) requiring increased shares of carbon-free electricity generation in the region (55% clean share by 2025, 70% by 2030, 85% by 2035), and; A CO2 emissions cap and trading scheme (cap & trade) requiring decreasing region-wide emissions (58% below 2005 emissions by 2025, 80% by 2030, 95% by 2035) This study finds that, due to passage of IRA, the PJM region could cut CO2 emissions from power generation by 80-90% by 2035 while keeping average bulk electricity supply costs for LSE’s comparable to or lower than levels experienced in recent years (2019 & 2021). However, deep decarbonization in the PJM region will require much more rapid expansion of low-carbon electricity resources and supportive transmission expansion above and beyond the rates of deployment made economical by IRA. By 2035, the region will also likely deploy more advanced ‘clean firm’ resources like gas power plants with carbon capture and storage (CCS) or long-duration electricity storage technologies (LDS), to replace coal- and gas-fired power capacity. We also identify and map several affordable resource portfolios and spatial patterns for clean electricity resource siting across the PJM region, demonstrating that the region has some flexibility to address local priorities and concerns.

In this study we evaluate the skill of a new, merged soil moisture product (ECV_SM) that has been developed in the framework of the European Space Agency's Water Cycle Multi-mission Observation Strategy and Climate Change Initiative projects. The product combines in a synergistic way the soil moisture retrievals from four passive (SMMR, SSM/I, TMI, and AMSR-E) and two active (ERS AMI and ASCAT) coarse resolution microwave sensors into a global data set spanning the period 1979-2010. The evaluation uses ground-based soil moisture observations of 596 sites from 28 historical and active monitoring networks worldwide. Besides providing conventional measures of agreement, we use the triple collocation technique to assess random errors in the data set. The average Spearman correlation coefficient between ECV_SM and all in-situ observations is 0.46 for the absolute values and 0.36 for the soil moisture anomalies, but differences between networks and time periods are very large. Unbiased root-mean-square differences and triple collocation errors show less variation between networks, with average values around 0.05 and 0.04m3m-3, respectively. The ECV_SM quality shows an upward trend over time, but a consistent decrease of all performance metrics is observed for the period 2007-2010. Comparing the skill of the merged product with the skill of the individual input products shows that the merged product has a similar or better performance than the individual input products, except with regard to the ASCAT product, compared to which the performance of ECV_SM is inferior. The cause of the latter is most likely a combination of the mismatch in sampling time between the satellite observations and in-situ measurements, and the resampling and scaling strategy used to integrate the ASCAT product into ECV_SM on the other. The results of this study will be used to further improve the scaling and merging algorithms for future product updates.

The environmental impact of a novel solar thermal technology called Sundial that uses rotary Fresnel collectors is investigated. Two different designs were developed; one to be used for the metal processing industry located in a high latitude country and the other one for the dairy industry located in a low latitude country. In the metal processing industry, the Sundial replaces only the electricity while in the dairy industry, it replaces the use of fuel for heating and electricity for cooling. Environmental impact assessment of the Sundial units was conducted using SimaPro Software 9.2 and the results showed that the unit developed for the dairy industry had a higher environmental life cycle impact, which was related to the design of the unit containing more components and materials. A key advantage of the newly developed units is its ability to provide high temperatures for the requirements of the industrial processes like a metal processing industry. The carbon-dioxide emissions reductions for the potential application of the unit to the industrial process were also calculated for the both industries. It was projected that for the future capacity of the high latitude Sundial (HLS) of 1,828MWh, the GHG emissions reduction is 559.4 tonnes of CO2 emissions while the future capacity of the low latitude Sundial (LLS) of 2,158 MWh, the GHG emissions reduction is 909.6 tonnes of CO2 emissions. This demonstrates the great potential of the Sundial units to contribute to the decarbonization of industrial processes and meet the EU’s 2050 environmental targets.

The role of different technologies in a future low carbon energy system is determined by numerous factors, many of which are highly uncertain. Their deployment may be a function of dependency on other technologies, or competition, or wider system effects. In this paper, using a UK example, we explore patterns of interdependency between technologies using a hierarchical clustering approach across multiple scenarios. We find that technologies compete in some instances, often on costs, cluster because they co-depend on each other, or emerge under all conditions, as robust options. Crucially, the broader scenario framing around carbon capture and storage (CCS) availability and climate policy stringency strongly influences these interdependencies. Keywords: Energy system models, Scenario clustering, Technology interdependency, Low carbon pathways

Summary Tackling climate change requires a rapid transition to net-zero energy systems. A variety of different technologies could contribute to this transition, and uncertainty remains over their relative role and value. A growing school of thought argues that rapid cost reductions in renewables reduce the need for carbon capture and storage (CCS) in mitigation pathways. Here we use an integrated assessment model to explore how the value of CCS is affected by cost reductions in solar photovoltaics, onshore, and offshore wind. Low-cost renewables could erode the value of CCS by 15%–96% across different energy sectors. Renewables directly compete with CCS, accelerate power sector decarbonization, and enable greater electrification of end-use sectors. CCS has greatest value and resilience to low-cost renewables in sustainable bioenergy/industrial applications, with limited value in hydrogen/electricity generation. This suggests that targeted, rather than blanket, CCS deployment represents the best strategy for achieving the Paris Agreement goals.

This report explores material and energy efficiency in industry in Lao PDR. The current state of play is identified, highlighting actions that industries can take to increase their resource efficiency. This report is a collaboration between the Climate Compatible Growth (CCG) Programme and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI).