America has officially entered the “coal cost crossover” – where existing coal is increasingly more expensive than cleaner alternatives. Today, local wind and solar could replace approximately 74 percent of the U.S. coal fleet at an immediate savings to customers. By 2025, this number grows to 86 percent of the coal fleet. This analysis complements existing research into the costs of clean energy undercutting coal costs, by focusing on which coal plants could be replaced locally (within 35 miles of the existing coal plant) at a saving. It suggests local decision-makers should consider plans for a smooth shut-down of these old plants—assessing their options for reliable replacement of that electricity, as well as financial options for communities dependent on those plants. This report should begin a longer conversation about the most cost-effective replacement for coal, which may include combinations of local or remote wind, solar, transmission, storage, and demand response.
A “smart, honest, and down-to-earth” (Elizabeth Kolbert) citizen’s guide to the seven urgent changes that will really make a difference for our climate. If you think the only thing you can do to combat climate change is to install a smart thermostat or cook plant-based meat, you’re thinking too small. In The Big Fix, energy policy advisor Hal Harvey and longtime New York Times reporter Justin Gillis offer a new, hopeful way to engage with one of the greatest problems of our age. Writing in a lively, accessible style, the pair illuminate how the really big decisions that affect our climate get made—whether by the most obscure public utilities commissions or in the lofty halls of state capitols—and reveal how each of us can influence these decisions to deliver change. The pair focus on the seven areas of our political economy where ambitious but practical changes will have the greatest effect: from what kind of power plants to build to how much insulation new houses require to how efficient cars must be before they’re allowed on the road. Equal parts pragmatic and inspiring—and “full of illustrative stories and compelling evidence” (Al Gore)—The Big Fix provides an action plan for anyone serious about holding our governments accountable and saving our threatened planet.
Environmental issues are of fundamental importance, and a broad approach to understanding the relationship between the human economy and the natural world is essential. In a rapidly changing policy and scientific context, this new edition of Environmental and Natural Resource Economics reflects an updated perspective on modern environmental topics. Now in its fifth edition, this textbook includes enhanced and updated material on energy, climate change, greening the economy, population, agriculture, forests and water—reflecting the greater urgency required to solve the big environmental problems in these areas. It introduces students to both standard environmental economics and the broader perspective of ecological economics, balancing analytical techniques of environmental economics topics with a global perspective on current ecological issues such as population growth, global climate change and "green" national income accounting. Harris and Roach’s premise is that a pluralistic approach is essential to understand the complex nexus between the economy and the environment. This perspective, combined with its emphasis on real-world policies, is particularly appealing to both instructors and students. This is the ideal text for undergraduate classes on environmental, natural resource and ecological economics, and postgraduate courses on environmental and economic policy. To access Student and Instructor resources, please visit: sites.tufts.edu/gdae/environmental-and-natural-resource-economics/.
This book provides a comprehensive treatment of the role of the private sector in accelerating the transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient, and inclusive world. In the lead up to and since the historic Paris Agreement on climate change, more than 6,000 companies from 120 countries representing more than $36.5 trillion in revenue have made climate commitments. Examining this trend, The New Corporate Climate Leadership provides a clear synthesis of the relationship between the real economy and climate change and offers a state-of-the-art assessment of corporate initiatives that focus on greenhouse gas emissions reductions and the management of climate risk through enhanced resilience. It debates the relative merits of incremental and sequenced ambition versus radical systems change – including a critique of the prevailing capitalist approach to climate change – and provides an actionable guide to skills development for change-makers in the shift toward a low-carbon world. Drawing on perspectives from leading thinkers inside the private sector, across government, and within civil society to truly interrogate the scale, scope, and speed of progress, this book provides a clear vision for what the next generation of corporate climate leadership should look like. Optimistic in tone, this book will be of great interest to students, scholars, and practitioners of climate change and sustainable business.
Dispatches from the regenerative landscape, where pioneering entrepreneurs use their businesses as catalysts of change to go beyond sustainability and solve social and environmental problems Political upheaval and social turmoil have peeled back the glitzy layers of capitalism to reveal an uncomfortable truth: historically, businesses have sourced materials from remote corners of the globe and moved millions of people and tons of cargo around the clock—all in the name of profit. Yet many of today’s startups are rewriting the rules of business: how it’s done, by whom, and, most importantly, for what purpose. Journalist Esha Chhabra draws on her decades of reporting to explore not only the “feel good, do good” factors of these restorative enterprises but also the nuanced realities and promise of regenerative business operations. Working to Restore examines revolutionary approaches in nine areas: agriculture, waste, supply chain, inclusivity for the collective good, women in the workforce, travel, health, energy, and finance. The companies profiled are solving global issues: promoting responsible production and consumption, creating equitable opportunities for all, encouraging climate action, and more. Chhabra highlights how their work moves beyond the greenwashed idea of “sustainability” into a new era of regeneration and restoration. We meet and learn from people like: Marius Smit, founder of Plastic Whale, the first company to build boats entirely out of plastic waste removed from our oceans and waterways Sébastien Kopp and François-Ghislain Morillion, cofounders of Veja, a shoe brand whose mission it is to make the most ecologically sensitive shoes possible Konrad Brits at Falcon Coffees, a trading company leading the way with a “collaborative supply chain” by investing in the local farmers who grow and harvest coffee beans “Chief Toaster” Rob Wilson and Tristram Stuart at Toast Ale, who partner with Wold Top Yorkshire Brewery to repurpose surplus bread and produce an award-winning IPA Scott Fry and Martha Butler of Loving Earth, a supply chain company that sources cacao from indigenous communities and brings their people and practices to the forefront Working to Restore highlights our most innovative entrepreneurs yet, those who understand that we cannot expect to create radical change if we try to “sustain” a system that has long been broken. Instead, their efforts of restoration and regeneration should be used as a model for other forward-thinking enterprises. Inspiring and engaging, this book shows it is possible for a business to thrive while living its mission and how the rules can be rewritten to put both the planet and its global citizens at the center.
Global Environmental Politics has provided an accurate, up-to-date, and unbiased understanding of the world’s most pressing environmental issues for thirty years. The eighth edition continues this practice by covering critical new developments in global environmental politics and policymaking. Updated case studies on key issues such as on climate change, endangered species, ozone depletion, desertification, whaling, hazardous wastes, toxic chemicals, and biodiversity detail the ongoing development of major environmental treaty regimes, and new case studies on mercury and marine biodiversity showcase the challenges of creating new treaties during a period of significant global change. There is also new material on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, trade and environment, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on environmental diplomacy. Updated information about global environmental trends, paradigms, and actors completes this comprehensive introduction to contemporary international environmental politics. Global Environmental Politics is vital reading for students of environmental politics and anyone wishing to understand the current state of the field and to make informed decisions about which policies will best safeguard our environment for the future.
This book analyses the impact of two vital and contemporary developments on shipping law and practice: disruptive technologies and climate change. It considers the impact of these new technologies, honing in on likely emerging issues and unresolved questions, especially about existing and potential private law liabilities and concentrates, from the point of view of English, EU and international law, on the legal implications of climate change and associated environmental risks in the shipping sector. Written by a contributor team drawn from the most experienced and knowledgeable academics and practitioners in shipping law, this treatment of these growing areas of practice will be of great use to lawyers and administrators across the world.
The six-volume set LNCS 12742, 12743, 12744, 12745, 12746, and 12747 constitutes the proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Computational Science, ICCS 2021, held in Krakow, Poland, in June 2021.* The total of 260 full papers and 57 short papers presented in this book set were carefully reviewed and selected from 635 submissions. 48 full and 14 short papers were accepted to the main track from 156 submissions; 212 full and 43 short papers were accepted to the workshops/ thematic tracks from 479 submissions. The papers were organized in topical sections named: Part I: ICCS Main Track Part II: Advances in High-Performance Computational Earth Sciences: Applications and Frameworks; Applications of Computational Methods in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning; Artificial Intelligence and High-Performance Computing for Advanced Simulations; Biomedical and Bioinformatics Challenges for Computer Science Part III: Classifier Learning from Difficult Data; Computational Analysis of Complex Social Systems; Computational Collective Intelligence; Computational Health Part IV: Computational Methods for Emerging Problems in (dis-)Information Analysis; Computational Methods in Smart Agriculture; Computational Optimization, Modelling and Simulation; Computational Science in IoT and Smart Systems Part V: Computer Graphics, Image Processing and Artificial Intelligence; Data-Driven Computational Sciences; Machine Learning and Data Assimilation for Dynamical Systems; MeshFree Methods and Radial Basis Functions in Computational Sciences; Multiscale Modelling and Simulation Part VI: Quantum Computing Workshop; Simulations of Flow and Transport: Modeling, Algorithms and Computation; Smart Systems: Bringing Together Computer Vision, Sensor Networks and Machine Learning; Software Engineering for Computational Science; Solving Problems with Uncertainty; Teaching Computational Science; Uncertainty Quantification for Computational Models *The conference was held virtually.
This book addresses the current challenges of sustainable development, including its social, economic and environmental components. The author argues that we need to develop a new concept of time based on inter-generational solidarity, which focuses both on the long- and the short term. The evolution of man's notions of time are analyzed from prehistory to modern times, showing how these concepts shape our worldviews, our ecological paradigms and our equilibrium with our planet. Practical approaches to dealing with the major medium- and long term sustainability challenges of the 21st century are presented and discussed. This is a thought provoking and timely book that addresses the main global socioeconomic and environmental challenges facing the current and future generations, using science-based analysis and perspectives. It presents an historical narrative of the advent of progress, economic growth and technology, and discusses the structural changes needed to co-create sustainable pathways. It provides hope for our future on Earth, mankind’s common home. António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations This is an amazing, almost mind-boggling book. The author takes a look at the true whole, i.e., the development of the human enterprise since its very beginning. This enterprise is evidently a possibility under the boundary conditions of cosmological dynamics and natural evolution, but evidently also a highly improbable one. It is all but a miracle that the Earth system in its present form exists and happens to support a technical civilization. Will this civilization last long, will it transform itself into something even more exceptional, or will it perish in disgrace? Santos dares to address these grandest of all questions, equipped with a unique transdisciplinary wisdom drawing on physics, cybernetics, geology, biology, economics, anthropology, history, and philosophy. And he dares to dive into the deepest abysses of thinking, where categorial monsters like time and progress lurk. Thereby, he takes us on fascinating journey, during which we perceive and grasp things we have never seen and understood before. One of the best essays I have ever read. John Schellnhuber, founding director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and former chair of the German Advisory Council on Global Change
This book compiles the best selected research papers presented during the 2nd International Conference on Intelligent Computing Techniques for Smart Energy Systems (ICTSES 2021), held at Manipal University, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. It presents the diligent work of the research community where intelligent computing techniques are applied in allied fields of engineering ranging from engineering materials to electrical engineering to electronics and communication engineering- to computer-related fields. The theoretical research concepts are supported with extensive reviews highlighting the trends in the possible and real-life applications of computational intelligence. The high-quality content with broad range of the topics is thoroughly peer-reviewed and published on suitable recommendations.
