. The remote and high elevation regions of central Asia are influenced by black carbon (BC) emissions from a variety of locations. BC deposition contributes to melting of glaciers and questions exist, of both scientific and policy interest, as to the origin of the BC reaching the glaciers. We use the adjoint of the GEOS-Chem model to identify the location from which BC arriving at a variety of locations in the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau originates. We then calculate its direct and snow-albedo radiative forcing. We analyze the seasonal variation in the origin of BC using an adjoint sensitivity analysis, which provides a detailed map of the location of emissions that directly contribute to black carbon concentrations at receptor locations. We find that emissions from northern India and central China contribute the majority of BC to the Himalayas, although the precise location varies with season. The Tibetan Plateau receives most BC from western and central China, as well as from India, Nepal, the Middle East, Pakistan and other countries. The magnitude of contribution from each region varies with season and receptor location. We find that sources as varied as African biomass burning and Middle Eastern fossil fuel combustion can significantly contribute to the BC reaching the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau. We compute radiative forcing in the snow-covered regions and find the forcing due to the BC induced snow-albedo effect to vary from 5–15 W m−2 within the region, an order of magnitude larger than radiative forcing due to the direct effect, and with significant seasonal variation in the northern Tibetan Plateau. Radiative forcing from reduced snow albedo likely accelerates glacier melting. Our analysis may help inform mitigation efforts to slow the rate of glacial melt by identifying regions that make the largest contributions to BC deposition in the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau.

Origin and radiative forcing of black carbon transported to the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau

Ceramics are considered one of the greatest and earliest most useful successes of humankind. However, ceramics can be highly damaging to natural and social systems during their lifecycle, from material extraction to waste handling. For example, each year in the EU, the manufacture of ceramics (e.g., refractories, wall and floor tiles and bricks and roof tile) emit 19 Mt CO2, while globally, bricks manufacturing is responsible for 2.7% of carbon emissions annually. This critical and systematic review seeks to identify alternatives to mitigate the climate effects of ceramics products and processes to make their lifecycle more sustainable. This article reviews 324 studies to answer the following questions: what are the main determinants of energy and carbon emissions emerging from the ceramics industry? What benefits will this industry amass from adopting more low-carbon processes in manufacturing their products, and what barriers will need to be tackled? We employ a sociotechnical approach to answer these questions, identify barriers to decarbonise the ceramics industry, and present promising avenues for future research. In doing so, we show that environmental and energy challenges associated with the ceramics industry are not just limited to the manufacturing stage but also relate to the extraction of raw materials, waste disposal, and landfilling. 

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2022.112081

Decarbonizing the ceramics industry: A systematic and critical review of policy options, developments and sociotechnical systems

Gaseous and particulate chlorine species play an important role in modulating tropospheric oxidation capacity, aerosol water uptake, visibility degradation, and human health. The lack of recent global continental chlorine emissions has hindered modeling studies of the role of chlorine in the atmosphere. Here, we develop a comprehensive global emission inventory of gaseous HCl and particulate Cl- (pCl), including 35 sources categorized in six source sectors based on published up-to-date activity data and emission factors. These emissions are gridded at a spatial resolution of 0.1° × 0.1° for the years 1960 to 2014. The estimated emissions of HCl and pCl in 2014 are 2354 (1661-3201) and 2321 (930-3264) Gg Cl a-1, respectively. Emissions of HCl are mostly from open waste burning (38%), open biomass burning (19%), energy (19%), and residential (13%) sectors, and the major sources classified by fuel type are combustion of waste (43%), biomass (32%), and coal (25%). Emissions of pCl are mostly from biofuel (29%) and open biomass burning processes (44%). The sectoral and spatial distributions of HCl and pCl emissions are very heterogeneous along the study period, and the temporal trends are mainly driven by the changes in emission factors, energy intensity, economy, and population.

/pdf/global-emissions-of-hydrogen-chloride-and-particulate-3r5rmz17.pdf

Global Emissions of Hydrogen Chloride and Particulate Chloride from Continental Sources.

Global material stocks of infrastructure, buildings, machinery and consumer products are growing rapidly, driving emissions and other environmental impacts during materials extraction, processing, construction and waste. However, international data on economy-wide material flows (ew-MFA) currently is limited to national extraction, trade and consumption and does not integrate material processing. Further developments for ew-MFA are required, ranging from more transparent data compilation and uncertainty assessments and improved representation of socio-economic material cycles to large spatio-temporal coverage. We herein present a novel ew-MFA database covering 14 major stock-building materials in 177 countries for the period 1900-2016. Included materials are, i.a., concrete, asphalt, bricks, timber, steel, aluminum, copper, other metals, plastics and glass. We developed a high-quality dataset by combining material flow accounting and analysis principles into a consistent 10-step compilation procedure, including the differentiation of processing stages from extraction to construction, as well as systematic uncertainty assessments. We find that global primary gross-additions-to-stock (GASprim) grew exponentially over almost the entire time period, largely in unison with GDP. In the year 2016, 39.7 ±6.1 Gt/year of raw materials were extracted, of which 23% turned into waste during processing, resulting in 30.7 ±5.7 Gt/year of GASprim. From the 1990s onwards, China outpaced all other countries in terms of annual per-capita GASprim and has dominated global dynamics since then. Across all countries, we find that per-capita GASprim and GDP decoupled over time. However, we find no indications for novel economic development pathways which are substantially less material-intensive in terms of stock-building than in the past. 

From resource extraction to manufacturing and construction: flows of stock-building materials in 177 countries from 1900 to 2016

Prospects towards sustainability: A comparative study to evaluate the environmental performance of brick making kilns in Pakistan

Dirty Stacks, High Stakes

ABSTRACT There is growing awareness that traditional valuation methods based on discounted cash flows using constant risk-adjusted discount rates struggle to account for climate-related risks when assessing long-term investments in physical assets and infrastructure. Worst yet, such methods fail to consider numerous financial benefits accruing from investment in resilience and adaptation, categorizing such expenditures as sunk costs that reduce investors’ returns. Such traditional valuation methods encourage investors to postpone or forgo entirely investing in resilience and adaptation. The decoupled net present value (DNPV) method incorporates risk and risk-reduction measures into project valuations in clear and compelling financial terms. By quantifying both (i) risk exposures of assets to hazards and (ii) the reduction of such exposure through up-front investments, DNPV recasts the financial impact of risk-reduction measures. Thus, the benefits of risk-reducing investments such as adaptation and resilience can be fully valorized in project-level accounting, removing a significant barrier facing such investments today.

Decoupled net present value: protecting assets against climate change risk by consistently capturing the value of resilient and adaptable investments

This is a regional report approved through Bank Decision Review in early 2019 under the Regional SLCP study for SAR. It is now reviewed and cleared by Indian Government, and with that submitted for publication.

Dirty Stacks, High Stakes : An Overview of Brick Sector in South Asia

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Dirty Stacks, High Stakes

Decoupled net present value: protecting assets against climate change risk by consistently capturing the value of resilient and adaptable investments

Dirty Stacks, High Stakes : An Overview of Brick Sector in South Asia