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This paper presents roadmaps for each of the 50 United States to convert their energy infrastructures to 100% wind, water, and sunlight (WWS) for all purposes by 2050.

Abstract Bioenergy systems are expected to expand over the coming decades due to their potential to address energy security and environmental pollution challenges. Nevertheless, any renewable energy project can only survive if approved environmentally superior to its conventional counterparts. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an internationally standardized and validated methodology to evaluate and quantify the environmental impacts of bioenergy systems. However, due to its methodological scope, the LCA method measures only the environmental consequences of the target products of energy systems. The LCA approach can neither allocate the environmental impacts at the component level nor measure the environmental impacts of intermediate products. These challenges can be substantially resolved by systematically integrating the LCA approach with the thermodynamically-rooted exergy, offering a powerful environmental sustainability assessment tool known as “exergoenvironmental analysis“. Due to the unique methodological and conceptual characteristics of exergoenvironmental analysis in revealing the possibilities and trends for improvement, it has recently received increasing attention to mitigate the environmental impacts of bioenergy systems. Therefore, this review is aimed to thoroughly summarize and critically discuss the evaluation of sustainability aspects of bioenergy systems based on exergoenvironmental analysis. The pros and cons of using exergoenvironmental analysis in bioenergy research are also outlined to identify possible future directions for the field. Overall, exergoenvironmental analysis can offer more detailed information on the environmental consequences of each flow and component of bioenergy production plants, thereby diagnosing the breakthrough points for additional environmental improvements.

Anaerobic digestion of Iberian pig slaughterhouse and tomato industry wastes, as well as codigestion operations from such residues, are reported to achieve 54-80% reduction in Chemical Oxygen Demand and 6-19 N m(3)/m(3) substrate methane production. Furthermore, 0.79-0.88 m(3)water/m(3) substrate is seen to be recovered after the above mentioned operations, which might be used as irrigation water, and 0.12-0.21 m(3)agricultural amendment/m(3) substrate with 91-98% moisture content. The present paper also reports on the economic feasibility of both an anaerobic codigestion plant operating with 60% slaughterhouse wastes/40% tomato industry wastes (optimal ratio obtained in previous laboratory-scaled experiments), and an anaerobic digestion plant for Iberian pig slaughterhouse waste. Payback times are reported as 14.86 and 3.73 years, respectively.

Adaptation and mitigation are two key responses to climate change. In the global South they prompt many questions: what is the direction and degree of change needed? How can new climate change policies be aligned with existing development initiatives? How are core social relations such as gender understood and prioritized in relation to technical and other solutions? In search of synergies between adaptation, development and mitigation, this article asks a pertinent question for sub-Saharan small-scale agriculture in particular: what can adaptation and mitigation learn from development debates on social goal setting, institutional change and gender equality? From the perspective of sustainability science and feminist literature, three main findings emerge. First, as regards social goal setting, adaptation and mitigation should, like development, support the escape out of poverty, ill-health and food-insecurity. Second, as regards institutions, adaptation and mitigation should address how gender regulates access to, use of and control over resources in terms of labor, land and strategic decision-making power. Third, as regards gender equality, adaptation and mitigation should learn from how development in theory and practice has addressed gender, women, nature and the environment. At its core, the analysis contributes twelve salient themes that can significantly inform adaptation and mitigation in research, policy and practice, thus serving as inspiration for a critical debate on much needed synergetic trajectories.

The Chinese electric power industry, including its coal industry and other energy industries that are not efficient, contributes to China’s serious energy shortages and environmental contamination. The governing authority considers energy conservation to be one of the most prominent national targets, and has formulated various plans for decarbonizing the power system. Applying the trans-log cost function, this paper examined the trans-log cost function to analyze the potential inter-factor substitution among energy, capital and labor. We also investigated what role human capital played in energy substitution for the electric power sector during the period from 1981 to 2017. Three key results were derived: (1) energy is price-insensitive, (2) there exists large substitution sustainability between both capital and labor with energy, and (3) human capital input not only enhances the extent of energy substitutability with capital and labor but also is a substitute to energy itself. These findings imply that the liberalization of the electric price mechanism is conducive to lessening energy use and augmenting non-energy intensiveness, and that energy conservation technology could become more sustainable by investing more capital in the electricity sector, thereby achieving a capital–energy substitution and a decrease of CO2 emissions. We further suggest that the priority for the Chinese electric power industry should be to attach more importance to increasing human capital input.

The variety of spring triticale adapted to the conditions of the Non-Chernozem zone of the European part of Russia was developed in cooperation with Belorussian scientists using the method of intraspecific hybridization of ecologically distant forms. The results of this variety study in the varietal tests of 2015-2020 on gray forest medium loamy and sod-podzolic sandy soils of the Vladimir region and in the Republic of Belarus are presented. The new variety had high yield of 6.06 t/ha, on average, over 7 years of variety testing on gray forest soils. Yield increase to the standard variety Normann was 0.81 t/ha or 13.3 %. An intensive type variety. In a favorable year the yield in the variety testing reached 8.71 t/ha, the increase to the standard variety was 17.1 %. A medium-ripened, medium-sized variety Slovo matured 1-3 days earlier than the standard Normann variety and the new Dobroye variety. The Slovo variety was characterized by group resistance to diseases (powdery mildew, types of rust and smut), weak susceptibility to leaf and ear septoria, stress resistance to abiotic stressors (drought resistance 8.2 points, lodging resistance 5 points). The new variety like the standard Normann variety, is intended for cultivation using technologies of various intensity levels. It can be grown on different soils according to its granulometric texture and availability of mineral nutrition elements. On sandy sod-podzolic soils, the average yield was 4.20 t/ha, that of the standard variety was 4.15 t/ha. In addition to high productivity, the new variety was characterized by high quality of feed grain, the increase in protein per hectare to the standard Norman variety was 114 kg/ha. Since 2022, the Slovo variety has been included in the State Register of Breeding Achievements Approved for Use in the Central (3) and Volga-Vyatka (4) regions of the Russian Federation. It is recommended in feed production for grain cultivation, as well as for monofodder.

We examine the relationship between board flexibility in diversity, experienced CEOs and corporate sustainability disclosure (CSD) in the developing economy context. We utilised the annual reports of all the listed commercial banks in Bangladesh between 2016 and 2020. Our study found a positive and significant association between board flexibility in diversity, which includes independent directors, foreign directors, directors with a business background, accounting professional directors, experienced CEOs and CSD. Importantly, the strategic leadership role of experienced CEOs constructs a good boardroom environment for the diversified board to place more emphasis on stakeholders’ interests and business legitimacy in a developing economy. However, we found a negative relationship between directors with a law background and CSD in the developing economy context, perhaps their role might be positive where a regulative environment exists for corporate sustainability disclosure. Our study was controlled by the audit committee and sustainability committee, and we found that the sustainability committee had a positive and significant association with CSD. Our findings have implications for developing economies specifically and around the globe in general.

Abstract The concept of sustainable development is gaining ever more interest in the political discussion. However it is often overlooked that this concept has important repercussions for technological development. This is especially true for process industry as this sector is responsible for most material flows within human society as well as the exchange of material and energy with the environment. Based on an operationalised set of criteria for sustainability and on conventional mass and energy balances, the concept of the sustainable process index (SPI) measures the potential impact (pressure) of processes (or more generally ‘activities') on the ecosphere. The SPI compares mass and energy flows induced by human activities with natural flows [Krotschak C, Narodoslawsky M. The sustainable process index—a new dimension in ecological evaluation. Ecological Engineering 1996;6(4):241]. As natural flows are always linked to area (examples are the growth of biomass, precipitation and, most importantly, solar radiation) the basic unit of the SPI is area. It is the total surface area that is required by any activity that exchanges material with the environment to be “sustainably embedded into the ecosphere (=environment)”. Integrated assessment of processes with the SPI aggregates resources as well as emissions to the three different ecological compartments air, water and soil [Krozer J. Operational indicators for progress towards sustainability (no. EV-5V (T94-0374). EU project final report. Den Haag (The Netherlands), TME, 1996]. The lower the requirement of area for a given activity is, the lesser is the impact of this activity on the environment. The SPI concept allows a quick and reliable evaluation of very diverse processes according to their environmental impact from a sustainable development point of view [Krotscheck C. How to measure sustainability? Comparison of flow based (mass and/or energy) highly aggregated indicators for eco-compatibility. EnvironMetrics, 1997; 8: 661]. It uses data available to a process engineer even at a very early stage in process development and may therefore be used as a tool for optimising processes in the course of their development.

ePLANET project is a Coordination and Support Action cofounded by the European Commission through Horizon 2020 program. ePLANET aims to deploy a new clustering governance for energy transition based on a digital framework to share harmonised information, facilitating the adoption of coordinated energy transition actions by the European public sector. The development of ePLANET is justified to deploy Energy Transition (ET) in the public sector, for which the following challenges are targeted: Improving coordination between local authorities and regional governments, Enhancing the decision-making process in the deployment of ET projects, Providing coherence and consistency to the energy transition measures (ETM) to be implemented, Encouraging the digitalisation of measures and plans, Enabling an interoperable ecosystem of data and tools, Building capacity of local authorities. All these targeted objectives will give the needed support for the energy transition decision-making process and its practical implementation. The present report is part of WP4, User empowerment. WP4 aims to empower policymakers, public officers, new ePLANET governance figures and key stakeholders with the necessary tools to implement Energy Transition Measures (ETM) with enough information and the proper tools.In Task 4.1, we investigated the main barriers and capacity building needs that ePLANET local authorities face when developing energy transition planning and implementation. In Task 4.2, we co-designed the capacity-building strategy and program for each ePLANET pilot territory. The present deliverable offers a comprehensive report on the capacity-building activities implemented in each pilot territory, outlining the engagement strategy and providing a detailed description of each activity. Finally, the last section summarises the key takeaways from the capacity-building program and outlines the next steps.