20253 research outputs found
Sort by
Co-deploying biochar and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage improves cost-effectiveness and sustainability of China’s carbon neutrality
No full textCarbon neutrality requires effective carbon dioxide removal (CDR) methods such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) and biochar to mitigate residual emissions. BECCS, however, may encounter CO2 injection capacity limitations and can introduce sustainability trade-offs such as soil quality degradation. Deploying BECCS together with biochar, a biomass derived carbon-rich material that can advance soil quality, emerges as an exciting route to maximize CDR potential while minimizing sustainability trade-offs. However, the viability of this strategy in China remains underexplored. Here, by developing an optimization model and conducting the spatially explicit analysis, we show that BECCS-biochar co-deployment could increase overall CDR potential in China to up to 2.62 Gt CO2 year−1, and lower costs by around 20% without compromising broader sustainability. Specifically, in the absence of a CO2 transport network, the CDR potential of BECCS may drop significantly to 0.23 Gt CO2 year−1. In contrast, the co-deployment strategy can still achieve a CDR potential of 0.89 Gt CO2 year−1, facilitating both early and deep decarbonization
Why Sponge Planet? Discussions on Land-Based, Water-Driven Solutions
Get PDFThe recent Nature Water article, “To Solve Climate Change, We Need to Restore Our Sponge Planet,” by Kongjian Yu, Erica Gies, and Warren W. Wood[1], makes a compelling case for recalibrating climate strategies to prioritize the water cycle alongside reducing carbon emissions. The authors highlight how human activities—agriculture, urbanization, and industrialization—have degraded 75% of the earth’s land, severely disrupting natural water systems. This degradation diminishes the planet’s capacity to regulate temperature through water vapor, cloud formation, and the hydrological cycle, further accelerating climate instability. The Sponge Planet concept advocates for restoring and replicating natural systems—wetlands, floodplains, and forests— that slow water down, recharge aquifers, and mitigate flooding and drought. In contrast to traditional grey infrastructure, which often worsens water scarcity and contributes to sea-level rise, “Slow Water” solutions offer holistic and decentralized alternatives. This model is built on three principles: 1) retain water at its source; 2) slow its flow; and 3) embrace water at its natural sink
Realized Resilience After Community Flood Events: A Global Empirical Study
Get PDFFlooding is a major global natural hazard, with resulting disasters disproportionately affecting communities in developing countries. Enhancing community resilience is crucial for reducing flood risk, managing impacts and ultimately protecting sustainable development gains. Yet, there is little validated empirical evidence, particularly at the community scale, of the relationship between resilience characteristics before a natural hazard-event occurs and realized resilience after it. We present real-world testing of how a community’s pre-flood resilience capacities influence post-flood outcomes, using actual flood events from 66 communities in seven developing countries across the world. In doing so, we applied the Flood Resilience Measurement for Communities (FRMC) approach, a validated framework and associated tool that dynamically assesses pre-flood resilience across multiple capitals to support the design of interventions for enhancing community disaster resilience. We specifically address the question how baseline community resilience, measured by 44 indicators called ‘sources of resilience’ influences flood impacts and post-flood outcomes that are measured across six themes (assets, livelihoods, life and health, lifelines, governance, and social norms). We observed that higher levels of natural, physical, and financial capital are associated with better post-event community outcomes and reduced flood impacts, such as the prevention of fatalities and serious injuries, the protection of public and private buildings and land, and livelihood stability. Importantly, in most cases, multiple sources of resilience worked together to influence a single outcome, highlighting the multidimensional nature of disaster resilience. Hence, our results emphasize the need for a multi-faceted and dynamic approach to building community flood resilience
Pathways for India to Reduce Ambient Air Pollution Health Burden and Achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG-3.4)
No full textSustainable Development Goal 3.4 (SDG-3.4) aims to reduce non-communicable disease (NCD) mortality by one-third by 2030, compared to 2015 levels. First, we examined whether the National Clean Air Program (NCAP) is sufficient to allow India to achieve this target. Subsequently, we integrated GAINS-simulated sector-specific PM2.5 concentrations across three pathways─business-as-usual (BAU), advanced control technology (ACT), and sustainable development scenario (SDS)─with the Global Burden of Disease framework to assess potential health benefits for 2030 at a subnational scale and evaluate the feasibility of accomplishing SDG-3.4. In 2015, ambient PM2.5 attributable premature deaths were 0.72 million (95& UIs: 0.53–0.89), and an aggregated 0.12 million (0.08–0.16) deaths could be prevented if the NCAP target is met by 2026. However, states could reduce 3.6–10.8% of targeted NCD mortality by 2030 with a lagged 40% reduction in PM2.5 levels relative to the baseline. PM2.5-attributable deaths would change to 0.79 million (0.57–1.1), 0.76 million (0.6–1.1), and 0.63 million (0.48–0.81) in 2030 under the BAU, ACT, and SDS pathways, respectively. Implementing stringent emission controls through policy and technological interventions, primarily focusing on household and energy sectors, would reduce NCD mortality by 5–13% across subregions. Simultaneously controlling other risk factors would accelerate India’s journey toward achieving SDG-3.4
Habitable Zone and Atmosphere Retention Distance (HaZARD)
Get PDFContext. Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), observations of the secondary atmospheres of rocky planets have become possible. Of particular interest are rocky planets orbiting low-mass stars within the habitable zone (HZ). However, no thick secondary atmospheres have been found around Earth-sized planets to date. This leaves open the question of whether secondary atmospheres are rare around Earth-sized rocky exoplanets.
Aims. In this work, we determine the distance at which an Earth-sized planet orbiting a variety of stellar hosts could retain a CO2- or N2-dominated atmosphere and compare this atmospheric retention distance (ARD) with that of the liquid-water HZ.
Methods. We combined planetary atmosphere models with stellar evolution models. The atmospheric models produced by the thermochemical Kompot code allowed us to calculate the Jeans escape rates for different stellar masses, rotation rates, and ages. These loss rates allowed us to determine the closest distance a planet is likely to retain a CO2- or N2 -dominated atmosphere. Using stellar rotation evolution models, we modelled how these retention distances evolve as the X-ray and ultraviolet activity of the star evolves.
Results. We find that the overlap of the HZ and the ARD occurs earlier around slowly rotating stars. Additionally, we find that HZ planets orbiting stars with masses under 0.4 M⊙ are unlikely to retain any atmosphere, due to the lower spin-down rate of these fully convective stars. We also show that the initial rotation rate of the star can impact the likelihood of a planet retaining an atmosphere, as an initially fast-rotating star maintains high levels of short-wavelength irradiance for much longer.
Conclusions. The orbits of all Earth-like rocky exoplanets observed by JWST in cycles 1 and 2, including HZ planets, fall outside the ARD. Our results will have implications for future target selections of small exoplanet observing programmes with JWST or future instruments such as the Ariel space mission
Nutrient production, water consumption, and stresses of large-scale versus small-scale agriculture: A global comparative analysis based on a gridded crop model
Get PDFAgricultural water consumption is the main contributor to water scarcity worldwide, while small-scale and large-scale agriculture have distinguishing characteristics. Significant gaps remain in the process-based agricultural production and water consumption estimates distinguishing small-scale and large-scale agriculture, which inhibits our deep understanding of where, how, and by whom crops are produced and against what water outcomes. We close this gap by leveraging a gridded crop model, covering 61% of the global harvested area using a 2010 baseline. Results show small-scale agriculture accounts for 43% of the total harvested area, however, contributes to relatively less nutrient production despite cultivating more food crops (relative to their total harvested area) than large-scale agriculture. This result challenges the assumption made by existing global scale studies when allocating national agricultural production to small-scale and large-scale agriculture, which (partly) ignores the differences in climate conditions, soil characteristics, input level, and type of irrigation that small-scale versus large-scale agriculture may have. The lower contribution is due to both water and soil fertility stress. Small-scale agriculture overrepresents in water-scarce regions but consumes much less blue water (38%) compared to its harvested area (54%). In water-scarce regions, soil fertility stress causes small-scale agriculture the unproductive green water utilization and a 70–90% unmet crop production potential. Our findings demonstrate the unequal exposure and contribution to water scarcity between small-scale and large-scale agriculture and between food and non-food crops. Understanding such disparities is one of the first and necessary steps toward enhancing the resilience and sustainability of agricultural systems
Optimal Green Shift, R&D-Generated Growth, and the Risk of Environmental Disaster
Get PDFHeterogeneous monopolists produce goods using either brown technology, which relies on labor and carbon energy, or green technology, which relies solely on labor. R&D firms enhance productivity using labor to outcompete existing monopolists, thereby driving economic growth. The extraction of carbon energy releases pollutants that harm production and increase the risk of environmental disaster. The government can optimally mitigate the distortions caused by pollution by a two-part Pigouvian tax on carbon energy, with one part being precautionary, applied only before any disaster occurs. When this tax is optimally set, R&D should neither be taxed nor subsidized
Towards an open model intercomparison platform for integrated assessment models scenarios
No full textThe majority of scenarios in the IPCC database are generated by integrated assessment models (IAMs) and come from model intercomparison projects. However, the way in which the current model intercomparison projects are organized is not open to all IAM teams worldwide. Here we propose a transparent and inclusive platform that is open to anyone with an IAM regarding protocols development, scenario submissions and results evaluation. We discuss the challenges of this approach, particularly human resources and financial support. We identify diversity in the level of model capability and quality of model output as possibly critical issues. Despite such challenges, the IAM community and its scientific activities can improve and benefit from the proposed platform, ultimately contributing to better climate policymaking