• Energy Research

This study undertakes a decomposition analysis to identify the drivers of carbon dioxide emissions change in the Swedish business and industry sectors 1993–2006. On aggregate, energy intensity decreased, but this does not seem to have been very important for reducing emissions. Rather, fuel substitution seems to have been more important, which is in line with findings from the decomposition literature on Sweden. However, at the sectoral level, we find no clear pattern of the effect of fuel substitution and energy intensity on emissions. We also draw some methodological conclusions: decomposition analysis should be undertaken at the most disaggregate level possible; assessing decomposition results by summing results over several time periods leads to biased results; and decomposition analysis should not be based only on some initial and final years of a long time period. Furthermore, we address the problem of double counting energy flows in decomposition analysis of aggregate effects when the energy sector is included, and point out potential problems related to output measured in monetary terms.

Abstract Biomass is a growing renewable energy source in Europe and is envisioned to play a role for realising carbon neutrality, predominantly using dedicated energy crops. However, dedicated biomass is controversial for reasons including its competition with food production or its land-use and emissions impacts. Here we examine the potential role of a land-free alternative: ancillary bioenergy (AB) from biomass sources not primarily grown for energy and without land/food/feed competition. We provide the first dataset of 2050 ancillary biomass potential using the agricultural system model SOLm, which encompasses untapped by-/co-products and detailed agricultural residues. Results show that there is a limited future potential for AB in Europe (2394–10 342 PJ, which is 3–6 times lower than other estimates including dedicated biomass). We design and investigate alternative scenarios where this bioenergy resource can be fully utilised, not utilised at all, or utilised optimally by the sector-coupled energy system model Euro-Calliope. We find that fully utilising ancillary biomass can help phase out controversial nuclear or land-intensive dedicated biomass, so might achieve higher societal acceptability. Using all ancillary biomass as a negative-emissions source at stationary bioenergy carbon capture and storage plants in a nuclear-free system provides additional climate benefits. It is also possible to leave the AB potential completely unused, which barely increases total system cost, but would preserve agricultural nutrients. We conclude that there are synergies and trade-offs among possible strategic uses of AB, which can provide guidelines for a more coherent European bioenergy strategy. Although the 2050 potential of AB is limited, our findings suggest that it could fill critical strategic niches for realising carbon-neutrality.

La innovación agrícola es un componente esencial en la transición hacia sistemas agrícolas más sostenibles y resilientes en todo el mundo. Las innovaciones generalmente surgen de la inteligencia y la acción colectivas, pero los sistemas de innovación a menudo son poco conocidos. Este estudio explora las propiedades de los sistemas de innovación y su contribución al aumento de la ecoeficiencia en la agricultura. Utilizando datos agregados y métodos econométricos, se calculó la ecoeficiencia de 79 países y se examinó una serie de factores relacionados con la investigación, la extensión, los negocios y la política. A pesar de las limitaciones de los datos, el análisis produjo algunas ideas interesantes. Por ejemplo, el gasto público en investigación tiene un efecto positivo significativo para las economías emergentes, mientras que no se encontró ningún efecto estadísticamente significativo para la ayuda extranjera para la investigación. Sin embargo, la ayuda externa para la extensión es importante en las economías menos desarrolladas. Estos y otros resultados sugieren la importancia de las intervenciones específicas del contexto en lugar de un enfoque de "talla única". En general, el análisis ilustró el potencial de un enfoque de diagnóstico a nivel macro para evaluar el papel de los sistemas de innovación para la sostenibilidad en la agricultura. L'innovation agricole est un élément essentiel de la transition vers des systèmes agricoles plus durables et résilients à travers le monde. Les innovations émergent généralement de l'intelligence et de l'action collectives, mais les systèmes d'innovation sont souvent mal compris. Cette étude explore les propriétés des systèmes d'innovation et leur contribution à l'augmentation de l'éco-efficacité dans l'agriculture. À l'aide de données agrégées et de méthodes économétriques, l'éco-efficacité de 79 pays a été calculée et une série de facteurs liés à la recherche, à la vulgarisation, aux entreprises et aux politiques a été examinée. Malgré les limites des données, l'analyse a produit des informations intéressantes. Par exemple, les dépenses publiques de recherche ont un effet positif significatif sur les économies émergentes, alors qu'aucun effet statistiquement significatif n'a été constaté pour l'aide étrangère à la recherche. Cependant, l'aide étrangère à la vulgarisation est importante dans les économies moins développées. Ces résultats et d'autres suggèrent l'importance d'interventions spécifiques au contexte plutôt que d'une approche « unique ». Dans l'ensemble, l'analyse a illustré le potentiel d'une approche diagnostique au niveau macro pour évaluer le rôle des systèmes d'innovation pour la durabilité dans l'agriculture. Agricultural innovation is an essential component in the transition to more sustainable and resilient farming systems across the world. Innovations generally emerge from collective intelligence and action, but innovation systems are often poorly understood. This study explores the properties of innovation systems and their contribution to increased eco-efficiency in agriculture. Using aggregate data and econometric methods, the eco-efficiency of 79 countries was computed and a range of factors relating to research, extension, business and policy was examined. Despite data limitations, the analysis produced some interesting insights. For instance public research spending has a positive significant effect for emerging economies, while no statistically significant effect was found for foreign aid for research. However, foreign aid for extension is important in less developed economies. These and other results suggest the importance of context-specific interventions rather than a "one size fits all" approach. Overall, the analysis illustrated the potential of a macro-level diagnostic approach for assessing the role of innovation systems for sustainability in agriculture. يعد الابتكار الزراعي مكونًا أساسيًا في الانتقال إلى أنظمة زراعية أكثر استدامة ومرونة في جميع أنحاء العالم. تنشأ الابتكارات عمومًا من الذكاء والعمل الجماعي، ولكن غالبًا ما تكون أنظمة الابتكار غير مفهومة جيدًا. تستكشف هذه الدراسة خصائص أنظمة الابتكار ومساهمتها في زيادة الكفاءة البيئية في الزراعة. باستخدام البيانات المجمعة وأساليب الاقتصاد القياسي، تم حساب الكفاءة البيئية لـ 79 دولة وفحص مجموعة من العوامل المتعلقة بالبحث والإرشاد والأعمال والسياسة. على الرغم من محدودية البيانات، أنتج التحليل بعض الأفكار المثيرة للاهتمام. على سبيل المثال، يؤثر الإنفاق العام على الأبحاث تأثيرًا إيجابيًا كبيرًا على الاقتصادات الناشئة، في حين لم يتم العثور على أي تأثير ذي دلالة إحصائية للمساعدات الخارجية للأبحاث. ومع ذلك، فإن المساعدات الخارجية للإرشاد مهمة في الاقتصادات الأقل نمواً. تشير هذه النتائج وغيرها إلى أهمية التدخلات الخاصة بالسياق بدلاً من نهج "مقاس واحد يناسب الجميع". بشكل عام، أوضح التحليل إمكانات النهج التشخيصي على المستوى الكلي لتقييم دور أنظمة الابتكار للاستدامة في الزراعة.

This paper introduces an approach for separately quantifying the contributions from renewables in decomposition analysis. So far, decomposition analyses of the drivers of national CO2 emissions have typically considered the combined energy mix as an explanatory factor without an explicit consideration or separation of renewables. As the cost of renewables continues to decrease, it becomes increasingly relevant to track their role in CO2 emission trends. Index decomposition analysis, in particular, provides a simple approach for doing so using publicly available data. We look to the U.S. as a case study, highlighting differences with the more detailed but also more complex structural decomposition analysis. Between 2007 and 2013, U.S. CO2 emissions decreased by around 10%—a decline not seen since the oil crisis of 1979. Prior analyses have identified the shale gas boom and the economic recession as the main explanatory factors. However, by decomposing the fuel mix effect, we conclude that renewables played an equally important role as natural gas in reducing CO2 emissions between 2007 and 2013: renewables decreased total emissions by 2.3–3.3%, roughly matching the 2.5–3.6% contribution from the shift to natural gas, compared with 0.6–1.5% for nuclear energy.

When trying to optimize the sustainability performance of farms and farming systems, a consideration of trade-offs and synergies between different themes and dimensions is required. The aim of this paper is to perform a systematic analysis of trade-offs and synergies across all dimensions and themes. To achieve this aim we used the Sustainability Monitoring and Assessment Routine (SMART)-Farm Tool which operationalizes the Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture Systems (SAFA) Guidelines by defining science-based indicator sets and assessment procedures. It identifies the degree of goal achievement with respect to the 58 themes defined in the SAFA Guidelines using an impact matrix that defines 327 indicators and 1769 relations between sustainability themes and indicators. We illustrate how the SMART-Farm Tool can be successfully applied to assess the sustainability performance of farms of different types and in different geographic regions. Our analysis revealed important synergies between themes within a sustainability dimension and across dimensions. We found major trade-offs within the environmental dimension and between the environmental and economic dimension. The trade-offs within the environmental dimension were even larger than the trade-offs with other dimensions. The study also underlines the importance of the governance dimension with regard to achieving a good level of performance in the other dimensions.

This paper analyses CO2 emissions reduction costs based on project data from the Climate Cent Foundation (CCF), a climate policy instrument in Switzerland. Four conclusions are drawn. First, for the projects investigated, the CCF on average pays €63/ton. Due to the Kyoto Protocol, the CCF buys reductions only until 2012. This cut-off increases reported per ton reduction costs, as the additional lifetime project costs are set in relation to reductions only until 2012, rather than to reductions realised over the whole lifetime. Lifetime reduction costs are €45/t. Second, correlation between CCF's payments and lifetime reduction costs per ton is low. Projects with low per ton reduction costs should thus be identified based on lifetime per ton reduction costs. Third, the wide range of project costs per ton observed casts doubts on the widely used identification of the merit order of reduction measures based on average per ton costs for technology types. Finally, the CCF covers only a fraction of additional re...

Agricultural practices need to change to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. How to achieve the SDGs is heavily contested. Here we propose a policy framework that triggers the required transition. Organic agriculture, although not a silver bullet, is a useful component in such strategy.