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Ambitious international targets are being developed to protect and restore biodiversity under the Convention on Biological Diversity's post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and the European Union's Green Deal. Yet, the land system consequences of meeting such targets are unclear, as multiple pathways may be able to deliver on the set targets. This paper introduces a novel scenario approach assessing the plural implementations of these targets. The Nature Futures Framework (NFF) developed by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services aims to illustrate the different, positive ways in which society can value nature. It therefore offers a lens through which the spatial implementation of sustainability targets may be envisioned. We used CLUMondo, a spatially explicit model, to simulate plural land system scenarios for Europe for 2050. The model builds on current land system representations of Europe and explores how and where sustainability targets can be implemented under projected population trends and commodity demands. We created three different scenarios in which the sustainability targets are met, each representing an alternative, normative view on nature as represented by the NFF, favoring land systems providing strong climate regulation (Nature for Society), species conservation (Nature for Nature), or agricultural heritage features (Nature as Culture). Our results show that, irrespective of the NFF view, meeting sustainability targets will require European land systems to drastically change, as natural grasslands and forests are forecast to expand while productive areas are projected to undergo a dual intensification and diversification trajectory. Despite each NFF perspective showcasing a similar direction of change, 20% of Europe's land area will differ based on the adopted NFF perspective, with hotspots of disagreement identified in eastern and western Europe. These simulations go beyond existing scenario approaches by not only depicting broad societal developments for Europe, but also by quantifying the land system synergies and trade-offs associated with alternative, archetypal, interpretations and values of how nature may be managed for sustainability. This quantification exemplifies a means towards constructive dialogue, on the one hand by acknowledging areas of contention, and bringing such issues to the fore, and on the other by highlighting points of convergence in a vision for a sustainable Europe.

Abstract In recent years, distributed energy systems (DESs) have been recognized as a promising option for sustainable development of future energy systems, and their application has increased rapidly with supportive policies and financial incentives. With growing concerns on global warming and depletion of fossil fuels, design optimization of DESs through economic assessments for short-run benefits only is not sufficient, while application of exergy principles can improve the efficiency in energy resource use for long-run sustainability of energy supply. The innovation of this paper is to investigate exergy in DES design to attain rational use of energy resources including renewables by considering energy qualities of supply and demand. By using low-temperature sources for low-quality thermal demand, the waste of high-quality energy can be reduced, and the overall exergy efficiency can be increased. The goal of the design optimization problem is to determine types, numbers and sizes of energy devices in DESs to reduce the total annual cost and increase the overall exergy efficiency. Based on a pre-established DES superstructure with multiple energy devices such as combined heat and power and PV, a multi-objective linear problem is formulated. In modeling of energy devices, the novelty is that the entire available size ranges and the variation of their efficiencies, capital and operation and maintenance costs with sizes are considered. The operation of energy devices is modeled based on previous work on DES operation optimization. By minimizing a weighted sum of the total annual cost and primary exergy input, the problem is solved by branch-and-cut. Numerical results show that the Pareto frontier provides good balancing solutions for planners based on economic and sustainability priorities. The total annual cost and primary exergy input of DESs with optimized configurations are reduced by 21–36% as compared with conventional energy supply systems, where grid power is used for the electricity demand, and gas-fired boilers and electric chillers fed by grid power for thermal demand. A sensitivity analysis is also carried out to analyze the influence of energy prices and energy demand variation on the optimized DES configurations.

Thermal energy storage systems (TES) based on shape-stabilized phase change materials (SSPCM) designed from recycled Tetra Pak (TP) waste, paraffin wax (PW), and expanded graphite (EG) were investigated in this study. This work represents the first study to explore TP waste composed of low-density polyethylene (LDPE)/aluminum (Al) components for energy storage applications. The LDPE part serves as a matrix conserving a material in a compact, solid shape after PW melting; PW acts as an active phase change component contributing to heat absorption/release through a phase change (from a solid to a liquid state, and vice versa) of its crystalline phase. EG serves as a filler that enhances the thermal conductivity and mechanical properties of materials. The focus was put on the optimization of the composition of SSPCM including PW, and EG, to check thermal, mechanical, and rheological properties which influence the future processability of such systems through extrusion, as well as to investigate the synergic effect of graphite and residual Al component on thermal conductivity and leakage of PW. There are two main demands on polymer/PW blends, namely well-separated melting peaks for both components at significantly different temperatures, and good compatibility between polymer and PW. The best performance of SSPCM investigated in this study was found for a mixture having the composition TP/PW/EG = 50/40/10 w/w/w. This mixture shows well-balanced properties, including appropriate heat storage and release parameters, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, toughness and strength, and low leakage of PW from the material. This system can store 116.2 J/g of heat energy and release 93.8 J/g of heat energy. The determination of the heat energy storage and release was performed by the transient guarded hot plate technique. Tensile testing revealed that Young's modulus of the TP/PW/EG = 50/40/10 w/w/w composition was 924 ± 71 MPa and the stress at break was 8.2 ± 1.2 MPa, which are sufficient values from the applicability ...

Background: Sodium oxybate (SMO) has been shown to be effective in the maintenance of abstinence (MoA) in alcohol-dependent patients in a series of small randomized controlled trials (RCTs). These results needed to be confirmed by a large trial investigating the treatment effect and its sustainability after medication discontinuation. Aims: To confirm the SMO effect on (sustained) MoA in detoxified alcohol-dependent patients. Methods: Large double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial in detoxified adult alcohol-dependent outpatients (80% men) from 11 sites in four European countries. Patients were randomized to 6 months SMO (3.3–3.9 g/day) or placebo followed by a 6-month medication-free period. Primary outcome was the cumulative abstinence duration (CAD) during the 6-month treatment period defined as the number of days with no alcohol use. Secondary outcomes included CAD during the 12-month study period. Results: Of the 314 alcohol-dependent patients randomized, 154 received SMO and 160 received placebo. Based on the pre-specified fixed-effect two-way analysis of variance including the treatment-by-site interaction, SMO showed efficacy in CAD during the 6-month treatment period: mean difference +43.1 days, 95% confidence interval (17.6–68.5; p = 0.001). Since significant heterogeneity of effect across sites and unequal sample sizes among sites ( n = 3–66) were identified, a site-level random meta-analysis was performed with results supporting the pre-specified analysis: mean difference +32.4 days, p = 0.014. The SMO effect was sustained during the medication-free follow-up period. SMO was well-tolerated. Conclusions: Results of this large RCT in alcohol-dependent patients demonstrated a significant and clinically relevant sustained effect of SMO on CAD. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04648423

A continuous growth of international trade, especially between developing countries, has greatly increased carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions associated with energy consumption over the past two decades. Given the more intensified intraregional cooperation and trade within the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), this study aims to trace the imbalance of CO2 embodied in trade between nations in BRI and the rest of the world, providing new insights into the drivers of emissions growth by contrasting consumption, production and technological differences-based perspectives. Results indicate that the BRI contributed to over 50% of global carbon footprint and 92% of its increase in 1995–2015. The BRI was a net exporter of trade-embodied emissions, whose technological-adjusted carbon footprint remained remarkably large due to comparatively high carbon intensity. Geographically, carbon leakage has gradually moved from China and India to other BRI countries, especially to Southeast Asia, West Asia and Africa. Technological change was the key driver of emissions reduction, followed by the change in industrial structure. The growth in final demand per capita was the most important driver for the growth of CO2 emissions in BRI. Improving carbon efficiency remains a critical step for BRI nations to slow down not only emissions growth but also carbon leakage. The paper managed to provide novel insights into the carbon leakage in BRI by contrasting the consumption, production and technological differences-based perspectives, thus being able to better inform policymakers on region-specific low-carbon transition and global climate governance.

The development of renewable energy sources has been primarily justified on the ground of environmental policies and energy security, but new jobs opportunities and establishment of new economy sectors may be equally important co-benefits from investments in this sector. The main goal of this paper is to assess the employment benefits of investments in renewable energy in the Czech Republic. We examine the level and rate of the development of the renewable energy sector in the Czech Republic in terms of ('green‘) job creation for the period 2008–2013, in comparison to data from other EU countries, including Germany as a leading early investor in renewables. Whilst the deployment of renewable energy in the Czech Republic has succeeded to create a significant number of jobs (more than 20 000 employees in 2010), our analysis illustrates a strong dependency of job creation on the continuation of financial incentives. We also find that biomass and waste energy processing offer the highest employment per MWh, which benefits employment in (economically fragile) rural areas. We discuss the question of competitiveness of a country that was not amongst the early adopters of renewables, arguing that the technical skills of the labour force in the Czech Republic provide a potential for more sustained investments in the sector.

Climate change mitigation is an important goal for cities globally. Energy production contributes more than half of the global greenhouse gas emissions, and thus the mitigation potential of local municipal energy systems is important for cities to recognize. The purpose of the study is to analyze the role of local municipal energy systems in the consumption-based carbon footprint of a city resident. The research supplements the previous carbon footprint assessments of city residents with an energy system implication analysis. The study includes 20 of the largest cities in Finland. The main findings of the study are as follows: first, the municipal combined heat and power energy system contributes surprisingly little (on average 18%) to the direct carbon footprint of city residents, supporting some previous findings about a high degree of outsourcing of emissions in cities in developed countries. Second, when indirect emissions (i.e., the implication of a municipal energy system on the national energy system) are allocated to city residents, the significance of the local energy system increases substantially to 32%. Finally, without the benefits of local combined heat and power technology based electricity consumption, the carbon footprints would have increased by an additional 13% to 47% due to the emissions from compensatory electricity production. The results also show that the direct application of consumption-based carbon assessment would imply a relatively low significance for municipal energy solutions. However, with a broader understanding of energy system dynamics, the significance of municipal energy increases substantially. The results emphasize the importance of the consequential energy system implications, which is typically left out of the evaluations of consumption-based carbon footprints.