• Energy Research
• 12. Responsible consumption close
• 1. No poverty close
• EU close
• CH close
• AU close
• English close

Comprehensive and reliable information on anthropogenic sources of greenhouse gas emissions is required to track progress towards keeping warming well below 2°C as agreed upon in the Paris Agreement. Here we provide a dataset on anthropogenic GHG emissions 1970-2019 with a broad country and sector coverage. We build the dataset from recent releases from the “Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research” (EDGAR) for CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion and industry (FFI), CH4 emissions, N2O emissions, and fluorinated gases and use a well-established fast-track method to extend this dataset from 2018 to 2019. We complement this with information on net CO2 emissions from land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) from three available bookkeeping models.

Supplementary material for the publication " Agricultural biogas plants as a hub to foster circular economy and bioenergy: An assessment using material substance and energy flow analysis" Burg, V., b, Rolli, C., Schnorf, V., Scharfy, D., Anspach, V., Bowman, G. Today's agro-food system is typically based on linear fluxes (e.g. mineral fertilizers importation), when a circular approach should be privileged. The production of biogas as a renewable energy source and digestate, used as an organic fertilizer, is essential for the circular economy in the agricultural sector. This study investigates the current utilization of wet biomass in agricultural anaerobic digestion plants in Switzerland in terms of mass, nutrients, and energy flows, to see how biomass use contributes to circular economy and climate change mitigation through the substitution effect of mineral fertilizers and fossil fuels. We quantify the system and its benefits in details and examine future developments of agricultural biogas plants using different scenarios. Our results demonstrate that agricultural anaerobic digestion could be largely increased, as it could provide ten times more biogas by 2050, while saving significant amounts of mineral fertilizer and GHG emissions.

This dataset contains the underlying data for the following publication: Li, R., Perdana, S., Vielle, M. (2021), Potential integration of Chinese and European emissions trading market: welfare distribution analysis, Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 26:22 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-021-09960-7.

This is a repository of global and regional human population data collected from: the databases of scenarios assessed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Sixth Assessment Report, Special Report on 1.5 C; Fifth Assessment Report), multi-national databases of population projections (World Bank, International Database, United Nation population projections), and other very long-term population projections (Resources for the Future). More specifically, it contains: - in `other_pop_data` folder files from World Bank, the International Database from the US Census, and from IHME - in the `SSP` folder, the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways, as in the version 2.0 downloaded from IIASA and as in the version 3.0 downloaded from IIASA workspace - in the `UN` folder, the demographic projections from UN - `IAMstat.xlsx`, an overview file of the metadata accompanying the scenarios present in the IPCC databases - `RFF.csv`, an overview file containing the population projections obtained by Resources For the Future '- the remaining `.csv` files with names `AR6#`, `AR5#`, `IAMC15#` contain the IPCC scenarios assessed by the IPCC for preparing the IPCC assessment reports. They can be downloaded from AR5, SR 1.5, and AR6 This data in intended to be downloaded for use together with the package downloadable here. The dataset was used as a supporting material for the paper "Underestimating demographic uncertainties in the synthesis process of the IPCC" accepted on npj Climate Action (DOI : 10.1038/s44168-024-00152-y).

Dynamics of societal material stocks such as buildings and infrastructures and their spatial patterns drive surging resource use and emissions. Building up and maintaining stocks requires large amounts of resources; currently stock-building materials amount to almost 60% of all materials used by humanity. Buildings, infrastructures and machinery shape social practices of production and consumption, thereby creating path dependencies for future resource use. They constitute the physical basis of the spatial organization of most socio-economic activities, for example as mobility networks, urbanization and settlement patterns and various other infrastructures. This dataset features a detailed map of material stocks for the whole of Germany on a 10m grid based on high resolution Earth Observation data (Sentinel-1 + Sentinel-2), crowd-sourced geodata (OSM) and material intensity factors. Temporal extent The map is representative for ca. 2018. Data format Per federal state, the data come in tiles of 30x30km (see shapefile). The projection is EPSG:3035. The images are compressed GeoTiff files (*.tif). There is a mosaic in GDAL Virtual format (*.vrt), which can readily be opened in most Geographic Information Systems. The dataset features area and mass for different street types area and mass for different rail types area and mass for other infrastructure area, volume and mass for different building types Masses are reported as total values, and per material category. Units area in m² height in m volume in m³ mass in t for infrastructure and buildings Further information For further information, please see the publication or contact Helmut Haberl (helmut.haberl@boku.ac.at). A web-visualization of this dataset is available here. Visit our website to learn more about our project MAT_STOCKS - Understanding the Role of Material Stock Patterns for the Transformation to a Sustainable Society. Publication Haberl, H., Wiedenhofer, D., Schug, F., Frantz, D., Virág, D., Plutzar, C., Gruhler, K., Lederer, J., Schiller, G. , Fishman, T., Lanau, M., Gattringer, A., Kemper, T., Liu, G., Tanikawa, H., van der Linden, S., Hostert, P. (accepted): High-resolution maps of material stocks in buildings and infrastructures in Austria and Germany. Environmental Science & Technology Funding This research was primarly funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (MAT_STOCKS, grant agreement No 741950). ML and GL acknowledge funding by the Independent Research Fund Denmark (CityWeight, 6111-00555B), ML thanks the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC; project Multi-Scale, Circular Economic Potential of Non-Residential Building Scale, EP/S029273/1), JL acknowledges funding by the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF), project ESR17-067, TF acknowledges the Israel Science Foundation grant no. 2706/19.

UNEP/GRID-Geneva established the Global Sand Observatory initiative as a direct response to requests to identify knowledge gaps under the UNEA-4 Mineral Resource Resolution (UNEP/EA.4/Res.19). Sand resource governance is complex, spanning policy domains, stakeholders and sectors. Establishing consensus on key terms on the sand and sustainability topic is therefore key, and requires reviewing language, definitions and terminology. This will be important to initiate cross-sectoral and multi-actor discussions to define problems and update goals and key results in implementing policies and laws governing sand resources. This document is version 1 of what will be a living repository of terms and definitions being adopted as we explore themes in sand and sustainability at UNEP/GRID-Geneva following the UNEA-5 Minerals and Metals Management Resolution (UNEP/EA.5/Res.12). UNEP/GRID-Geneva shares this working research product openly in the spirit of open science, giving free access for all and seeking feedback and corrections.

Abstract: Waste heat energy discharged into the atmosphere is one of the largest sources of clean, fuel-free and inexpensive energy available. Although technologies such as thermoelectric and thermo-electrochemical cells have been around for a long time, there is still no environmentally sustainable and efficient technology platform available for viable harvesting of low-grade waste heat. The central aim of our project (TRANSLATE) is to develop a nanofluidic platform technology based on large ion flux in nanochannels under a thermal gradient. This technology utilises Earth-abundant materials such as anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) and cellulose membranes for the development of a versatile and sustainable energy harvesting and storage platform. This presentation will provide an overview of the project on low-grade waste heat harvesting in ionic nanofluidic membranes. A key enabler for achieving greater waste heat to electrical energy conversion efficiencies is the overlap of electric double layers (EDLs) in very narrow channels. These overlapping EDLs cause a surge of ions (ion flux) into the ‘hot entrances’ of the nanochannels resulting in an enhanced thermovoltage, i.e. high waste heat conversion. The nanochannels with a diameter of ~10 nm and a length ranging from a few micrometers to several millimeters are created by two-stage aluminum anodization (for AAO), chemical treatment of natural wood (for cellulose). To increase the charge density, the surface of the nanochannels is functionalized, which leads to the appearance of overlapping EDL. We will present initial experimental results with aqueous electrolytes (KCl, NaCl etc.) that are capable of converting low-grade heat with thermopowers up to 1–3 mV/K, which is higher than that of conventional solid-state thermoelectric converters. Variation of the geometric parameters of the nanochannels, the type and concentration of the electrolyte, as well as the surface charge density of the nanochannels can result in a much higher ionic thermovoltage. With such a high thermopower, ionic nanofluidic membranes can be a game changer in the field of thermoelectric power conversion. Additional Information: Dr Subhajit Biswas presented at the HZDR NanoNet+ workshop on 4-6 October 2022 in Görlitz, Germany. TRANSLATE is a €3.4 million EU-funded research project that aims to develop a new nanofluidic platform technology to effectively convert waste heat to electricity. This technology has the potential to improve the energy efficiency of many devices and systems, and provide a radically new zero-emission power source. The TRANSLATE project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 964251, for the action of 'The Recycling of waste heat through the Application of Nanofluidic ChannelS: Advances in the Conversion of Thermal to Electrical energy’. More information can be be found on the TRANSLATE project website: https://translate-energy.eu/

Climate change is worsening the number, frequency and duration of natural hazards across the globe, making disaster risk reduction and resilience building among the most pressing challenges ahead. According to UN-Habitat, informal settlements are where the impacts of climate change are the most acute in urban areas and strengthening resilience in these neighbourhoods represents a very complex yet urgent challenge. Today, urban areas are home to 56 per cent of the world’s population and this figure is projected to increase to 60 per cent by 2030 and 68 per cent by 2050, with 90 per cent of the growth by 2050 expected to occur in less developed economies. In these countries, population growth and displacement (including climate-driven migrations) will lead to rapid and unplanned urbanisation forcing a growing number of people into informal settlements. Currently, one billion people live in informal settlements, mostly in Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and this figure is expected to grow to 3 billion in 2050. Horizon 2020 MSCA-RISE, Grant Agreement #873119