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Introduction to Renewable Energy Financing
Published in Gene Beck, Grid Parity, 2020
The transition from a fossil based energy sector to a renewable based energy sector will be as significant in history as was the industrial revolution or the computer revolution. And, in the world of global climate change, it is one of the best strategies we have. Renewable energy technologies are by their very nature, secure, affordable (with the proper financing structures), easily accessible, and clean. The ability to create large job growth at all levels of our economy and contributing greatly to our nation’s economic growth are just additional value-added benefits. Few industries have the ability—or the opportunity—to meet and change the world energy production needs as do the cleantech renewable energy technologies. Clean technology includes recycling, renewable energy (wind power, solar power, biomass, hydropower, biofuels), information technology, green transportation, electric motors, green chemistry, lighting, and many appliances that are now more energy efficient. It is a means to create electricity and fuels, with a smaller environmental footprint and to minimize pollution. Environmental finance, as part of energy project financing, is a contributing component by which new clean technology projects that have proven they are “additional” or “beyond business as usual” can obtain financing through the generation of carbon credits.
Country Reports
Published in Pierre Langlois, Shirley J. Hansen, World ESCO Outlook, 2020
Pierre Langlois, Shirley J. Hansen
Multilateral development banks, such as the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, provide additional finance for countries and their respective government agencies to address climate change mitigation and adaptation. The Climate Investment Fund (CIF) is an example of a financing resource that was approved in July 2008 with over USD 6 billion in pledges. The Clean Technology Fund seeks to scale up financing to contribute to demonstration, deployment and transfer of low-carbon technologies with a significant potential for long-term GHG emissions savings. The Strategic Climate Fund provides financing through several pilot programs for new development approaches or to scale up activities aimed at a specific climate change challenge or sector response through targeted programs. The Carbon Partnership Facility (CPF) is designed to target investment programs that have the potential to contribute significantly to a transformation of emission-intensive sectors in client countries including the Philippines. The Global Environment Facility has been the main source of grants and concessional funding for adaptation projects and is of relevance for the Philippines. The Special Climate Change Fund under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was established to support activities in adaptation, technology transfer, energy, transport, industry, agriculture, forestry as well as waste management and economic diversification.
The story does not remain the same
Published in Federico Caprotti, Li Yu, Sustainable Cities in Asia, 2017
The use of technology in sustainable urban projects is multiple and problematic. Officially, clean technology is used to produce clean energy and decrease the environmental impact of urban settlements, especially in terms of carbon emissions. More often, however, the production of clean technology is primarily a vehicle for capital investment, as technologies, in the shape of commodities, can be (a) commercialized and (b) connected to investable assets such as patents and industrial design rights (Caprotti 2012). Defined as urban eco-modernisation, the vision and application of urban technology as the solution to environmental problems, creates several issues (Cugurullo 2016). As an urban re-run of strategies of ecological modernisation, based on a theoretical, but rarely practical, balance between economic growth and environmental preservation via technological innovation (see Harvey 1996; Pepper 1998; Andersen and Massa 2000; Foster 2002), urban eco-modernisation replicates in the built environment the same problems that are commonly associated with the practice of ecological modernisation.
Production of dehairing protease by Bacillus cereus VITSN04: a model cradle-to-cradle approach for sustainable greener production of leathers
Published in Environmental Technology, 2022
S Shakilanishi, P Mrudula, C Shanthi
Since beginning of 1960s, industries have been concentrating on redesigning processes to avoid pollution at source rather than treating generated pollutants [1]. The idea of ‘clean technology’ has therefore arisen, emphasizing the conservation of raw materials/energy, management/recycling of waste, reduction in generation of harmful wastes and cost-competitive improved processes/products [2]. In this context, biotechnology has gained attention in developing cleaner solutions amid emerging technologies that have arisen since 1970s [3]. Among various biotechnological tools, hydrolytic enzymes particularly proteases have become the key contributors in implementing the cleaner methods at various industrial sectors [4-6]. One such protease isolated from Bacillus cereus VITSN04 was found to be effective in replacing pollution causing lime-sulphide dehairing process during leather making [7]. It is a well-known fact that all living cells synthesize proteases, but under industrial terms only micro-organism are recognized as their inexhaustible source [8]. Typically, microbes produce a large number of enzymes but the amount of individual enzymes produced tends to differ, depending on growth conditions and availability of nutrients [9]. It is often important to selectively produce protease specific for dehairing leather in higher yield [10-12]. A specific protease producing strain [13] and scaling up the production conditions would lead to inductrial use of the protease [14].
Green technology adoption in textiles and apparel supply chains with environmental taxes
Published in International Journal of Production Research, 2021
Bin Shen, Chen Zhu, Qingying Li, Xiaofeng Wang
Facing the pressure from the government and consumers, investment in clean technology adoption has been by many TA manufacturers (Du and Li 2014; Yi et al. 2015; Shen et al. 2017). Clean technology is critically important for the TA supply chain. For example, the dyeing process of textile and fabrics production involves the high demand for water and chemical usage, and requires the high volume of energy to heat up the water (Chen et al. 2017). In the World Bank's water footprint investigation project in China (IFC 2017), eight industrial cases in terms of how clean technology implementation reduces pollution were investigated. Based on the simple calculation in the report of IFC 2017, we can see that the eight investigated TA manufacturers investing in clean technologies enhance the product's greenness level and reduce the total production cost from 10% to 30% compared with the prior old systems (IFC 2017). For the details, please refer to IFC (2017). Moreover, the global TA manufacturer Schoeller Textil AG developed a new eco-dyeing process to accelerate the dyeing process and they claim that the new eco-dyeing technology could enhance sustainability in fabric production and reduce production cost (Schoeller-textiles 2019). The global fastening manufacturer YKK adopts a new solution in the production process to reduce water usage, which is one of the major costs in zipper production (YKK Annual report 2019). The world-class global apparel manufacturer Flex used a new production system to reduce environmental pollution as well as to improve productivity by decreasing raw material usage (Smith 2015). The China manufacturer Far Eastern New Century Corporation implements a water-free dyeing process to eliminate the chemicals used in production, and use recycled materials for material cost saving (Nike news 2014). The above cases indicate that adopting clean technology is critically important for manufacturers to not only realise corporate social responsibility and sustainability, and but also reduce production cost.
CO2 intensity of GDP, energy productivity and environmental degradation in Iceland: evidence from novel Fourier based estimators
Published in Energy Sources, Part B: Economics, Planning, and Policy, 2023
Kashif Raza Abbasi, Modupe Oluyemisi Oyebanji, Dervis Kirikkaleli
Table 5 displays the results of the Fourier-ARDL long-run parameter estimation. First, the coefficient LCINT has a significant positive connection with consumption-based CO2 emissions. It shows that a 1% rise in LCINT causes a 0.307670% pollution spike. In other instances, it is an approximation of how much CO2 is released when a dollar is created in the economy. Rapid reductions in carbon intensity benefit both the environment and the economy. This may occur for a variety of causes, including the growing use of fossil fuels, inefficient manufacturing processes, and a lack of investment in clean technology. As the economy becomes less efficient in terms of carbon emissions, more emissions per unit of economic production are created, resulting in a rise in consumption-based carbon emissions. For example, if a nation’s economy grows but its CO2 intensity of GDP rises, it signifies that the country emits more carbon dioxide per unit of economic production than it did before. More consumption-based carbon emissions will arise as increasing economic production necessitates more energy and resources to generate. As a result, lowering GDP’s CO2 intensity is an essential technique for lowering consumption-based carbon emissions. This may be accomplished through investing in clean technology, increasing energy efficiency, and supporting renewable energy sources. Countries may achieve economic development while simultaneously decreasing their carbon footprint and contributing to a more sustainable future by lowering the CO2 intensity of GDP. This conclusion is coherent with Abbasi et al. (2022); Adebayo et al. (2023); He (2018), who asserted that countries should aspire to augment per-unit energy usage and CO2 productivity gains in order to reach a win situation of economic success and emissions reduction, which involves markedly lowering GDP’s energy density and CO2 intensity. Making a determined effort to create clean and substitute energy, promote structural energy conversion to low-carbon energy, and lower the CO2 intensity of energy use is one strategy for decreasing GDP’s CO2 intensity.