Uncontrolled open dumping and burning of municipality solid waste (MSW) has resulted in soil, water, and air pollution in many urban cities in India. Landfills are the most common cost-effective solution for MSW management in many developing countries like India. However, the identification of suitable landfill sites always remains a challenging task as it involves selection of several environmental criteria set by the local authorities. The objective of this study is to identify the most potential landfill sites proposed by the Government in Bengaluru Metropolitan Region, Karnataka state, India using Geographic Information System enabled Analytical Hierarchy Process based multi-criteria evaluation technique. Several criteria and constraints as recommended by the local authorities along with the proximity to the solid waste processing plants are used to identify the potential landfill sites in the study region. The study identified three highly suitable sites (Neraluru, Gudhatti, Madivala) for landfills which are not only environmentally sustainable but also economically attractive as they are closer to the solid waste processing plants minimizing the transportation cost involved in the disposal of solid waste from the source to the final disposal sites in the study region.

Electricity access remains a challenge for the majority of the West African countries, wherein 5 out of 16 have an electrification rate of less than 25%, with Burkina Faso having only 9% of the rural population with electricity access in 2017. This study presents a techno-economic feasibility analysis of solar PV system integration with conceptualized Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS) and electric batteries for Burkina Faso. The study explores two cases (a) an off-grid PV with a storage system for rural areas and (b) a grid-connected PV system for an urban location. The least-cost configuration of PV with feasible storage is investigated using HOMER. The results show that Solar PV with PHS remains the optimal system configuration for both rural and urban cases even when the construction costs of lower and upper reservoirs are considered. Battery energy storage systems remain an economically expensive solution even when the added costs of pumped hydro storage are included, owing to the low lifetime and high capital costs of battery storage. The capital cost of PV remains to be the most dominating factor for both cases, signifying the importance of policy interventions for cost reduction of PV for increased green electrification in West African countries.

With the increased electrification of transportation, there is a growth in the number of electric vehicles (EV) in use, and hence also discarded EV batteries. It is critical to trace the batteries so that the policy of electrification does not lead to a negative impact on sustainability. To achieve the goals of circular economy, it is necessary to consider the sustainable extended life cycle strategies of reduce, reuse and recycle. Information gathering and sharing through the supply chain is the key driver for enabling the tracking and tracing of materials and services needed. Traceability indicators across the value chain may enable the creation of a comprehensive database that aids the circular economy goals. In this study, we discuss three different circular economy business models and identify the key traceability indicators for enabling circularity in the lithium-ion battery application in the automotive sector. Insights are used to develop a framework for viable EV battery circularity, capturing three key circular economy elements and four traceability characteristics for different circularity types.

Current digitalized manufacturing systems do not yet achieve the goal of smart manufacturing: precise con-trol and agility under unexpected disruptions. Push-Pull Digital Thread is a solution concept to enable contex-tual data and knowledge exchange across operational and functional units in a manufacturing enterprise. The extraction of decision reasoning and functional information can be facilitated by Large Language Models proc-essing information obtained from a decision maker at the point of decision. This concept shows a potential to address critical limitations in previous endeavours for smart manufacturing systems by building a semanti-cally searchable and sharable knowledge base in manufacturing systems and beyond.

Energy system modeling can be used to develop internally consistent quantified scenarios. These provide key insights needed to mobilise finance, understand market development, infrastructure deployment and the associated role of institutions, and generally support improved policymaking. However, access to data is often a barrier to starting energy system modeling, especially in developing countries, thereby causing delays to decision making. Therefore, this article provides data that can be used to create a simple zero-order energy system model for a range of developing countries in Africa, East Asia, and South America, which can act as a starting point for further model development and scenario analysis. The data are collected entirely from publicly available and accessible sources, including the websites and databases of international organisations, journal articles, and existing modeling studies. This means that the datasets can be easily updated based on the latest available information or more detailed and accurate local data. As an example, these data were also used to calibrate a simple energy system model for Kenya using the Open Source Energy Modeling System (OSeMOSYS) and three stylized scenarios (Fossil Future, Least Cost and Net Zero by 2050) for 2020-2050. The assumptions used and the results of these scenarios are presented in the appendix as an illustrative example of what can be done with these data. This simple model can be adapted and further developed by in-country analysts and academics, providing a platform for future work.

Throughout history, major rivers and shared water bodies have allowed civilizations to flourish, and the effective management of shared water bodies has always been a priority for societies and nations. Today, about 40% of the world’s population lives in proximity to the 286 transboundary river and lake basins that supply 60% of the world’s freshwater flows and make up about half of the Earth’s land area. Moreover, around 2 billion people in the world depend on groundwater sources, which include over 460 transboundary aquifer systems.

The mismanagement of water resources can result in catastrophic disasters that are often exacerbated by a domino effect so that the impacts of poor water management often extend beyond the water system. The interdependency of the water system with other systems such as energy and food, or with land-use, highlights the importance of ”systems thinking and planning” in resource management. Such a concept is not easily encapsulated into policy-making processes in many parts of the world because consideration of the resource systems in isolation as individual entities and ‘silo” thinking still dominate. Climate change adds another layer of complexity and exacerbates the issue of water management. Another important factor is geographical location because precipitation varies among and within continents. This results in some regions suffering from water shortages and some regions facing the risks of water redundancy and floods. 

The concept of the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus was introduced in 2011 as a response to help address some of the issues mentioned above. Over the last decade, research on the WEF nexus has gained momentum in both the policy and academic areas and several methods have been introduced to operationalize the nexus in different contexts. One of the flagship methodologies is the Transboundary Basins Nexus Approach (TBNA) introduced by the United Nations Economic Commission of Europe (UNECE) in 2015 and designed to assess the nexus in shared (transboundary) water basins.

The aim of this thesis is to support shared water management by using the WEF-nexus approach to quantify the benefits of coordinated management, motivate cooperation, and identify trade-offs in the optimal use of resources. To achieve this aim, four research questions are explored over the course of four academic publications.  

The first question explores the role of the energy sector in motivating shared water cooperation. The second question studies the risks and opportunities emerging from the interplay between climate and renewable energy in shared basins. The third question focuses on groundwater management and explores what benefits the consideration of the energy-water-agriculture nexus could bring to shared groundwater management in water-scarce areas. The fourth question examines how consideration of the energy-water-agriculture nexus could accelerate the low-carbon transition in the agricultural sector. 

These research questions are examined in two different, yet complementing, geographic locations. One is the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, which faces water redundancy and flood issues and the other is the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region which suffers from water scarcity. In the first region, the Drina and the Drin River Basins represent the characteristics of Southeastern Europe while the North Western Sahara Aquifer System (NWSAS) and the Souss-Massa basin represent the characteristics of the MENA region. Three of the case applications are transboundary (Drina, Drin and NWSAS) while the last application (Souss-Massa Basin) is a subnational basin.  

The Water-Energy-Food (WEF) framework is widely used to address sustainability and resource management questions. However, many WEF methods miss engaging with stakeholders in the process. In this study, we intro-duce a stakeholder-driven and model-supported robust nexus decision-making framework. This methodology is exemplified by a case study in the Souss-Massa basin (SMB) which has significant importance for the agricultural sector in Morocco. However, the water scarcity exacerbated by climate change, overexploitation of groundwater and heavy use of fossil fuels for pumping is threatening the future of this fertile land. An integrated agriculture, water and energy model was developed to explore various potential solutions or scenarios such as desalination, wastewater reuse and improved water productivity. The analysis revealed that engaging with stakeholders and developing common robust nexus decision metrics is essential to establishing a shared and transparent approach to address the complicated nexus challenges. It also showed that no one solution can address all nexus challenges and highlighted the need for an integrated strategy that stimulates the contributions from different sectors. Fi-nally, the transition from fossil fuel groundwater pumping to solar pumping is shown to be economically and en-vironmentally viable.

The understanding of the transboundary impact of Climate Change on hydropower is not well-established in the literature, where few studies take a system perspective to understand the relative roles of different technological solutions for coordinated water and energy management. This study contributes to addressing this gap by introducing an open-source, long-term, technologically-detailed water and energy resources cost-minimisation model for the Drin River Basin, built in OSeMOSYS. 

The analysis shows that climate change results in a 15-52% annual decline in hydro generation from the basin by mid-century. Albania needs to triple its investments in solar and wind to mitigate the risk of climate change. Changing the operational rules of hydropower plants has a minor impact on the electricity supply. However, it can spare significant storage volume for flood control. 

The understanding of the transboundary impact of Climate Change on hydropower is not well-established in the literature, where few studies take a system perspective to understand the relative roles of different technological solutions for coordinated water and energy management. This study contributes to addressing this gap by introducing an open-source, long-term, technologically-detailed water and energy resources cost-minimisation model for the Drin River Basin, built in OSeMOSYS.The analysis shows that climate change results in a 15-52% annual decline in hydro generation from the basin by mid-century. Albania needs to triple its investments in solar and wind to mitigate the risk of climate change. Changing the operational rules of hydropower plants has a minor impact on the electricity supply. However, it can spare significant storage volume for flood control.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, known as Industry 4.0, has ushered in a new era of technological advancement and disruption across Manufacturing Industries. As organizations embrace digital technologies, artificial intelligence, and automation, the workforce faces profound changes in job roles, skill requirements, and training needs. Several challenges are faced by industries during this Industrial transformation. This research begins by focusing on Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0, understanding there evolving concept. Through comprehensive literature review, the challenges and practices faced during this Industrial transformation and SDGs are discussed. Following the literature review, survey and interview questions were drafted trying to dug deeper into aspects that the literature could not fully capture. Furthermore, the relation between this Industrial Transformation and SDGs were established. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the dynamic relationship between technology, the workforce, and sustainable development. This thesis report serves as a valuable resource for policymakers, business leaders, educators, and researchers seeking to navigate the transformative landscape of Industrial Transformation and its implications for a rapidly evolving workforce and sustainabledevelopment.

Ethiopia is a landlocked country located in northeast Africa with a predominantly rural population dependent on rainfed agriculture and traditional biomass. The Ethiopian economy is growing fast and as it continues to grow, so does the demand for water, food, and energy. Ethiopia is already facing food, energy, and water scarcity issues, and climate change's impacts have been increasing the strain on these resources. The country has great renewable energy resource potential, which is largely unexploited. The Ethiopian government aims to improve the water, and energy systems, and make them more resilient to climate change. The water, energy and land resources are not unlimited and sustainable management of these resources is therefore important. This thesis examines Ethiopia's energy, land, and water systems to identify cross-system challenges and their impact on Ethiopian food, water, and energy security. Furthermore, the food, water, and energy systems' vulnerability to climate change is also investigated. This integrated assessment is done by creating a Climate, Land, Energy, and Water systems (CLEWs) model of Ethiopia with the open-source energy modelling tool OSeMOSYS.The study showed that a development and transformation of the agricultural sector, from a predominantly rainfall-dependent agriculture to an agricultural sector with a greater share of irrigation, had both beneficial and negative effects on the resource systems. The development of the agricultural sector increases the yield per hectare and creates a more climate-resilient agriculture, increasing food security. However, irrigated agriculture is more expensive, with a larger water and electricity demand, which in turn could harm water and energy security. The study also showed that climate change could impact electricity generation in Ethiopia; however, the climate resilience of the energy system can be improved by investing in more biomass, wind, and solar PV.

Data handling for energy system optimisation models is a necessary but tedious task. Depending on the workflow, user skill level, and model implementation, the data interfacing requirements can be significantly different. OSeMOSYS Tools for Energy Work, or otoole, is a Python package providing OSeMOSYS energy modellers with options to use different input dataformats, visualize and validate input data, and process result data. otoole exposes three different input data formats to the user, can process result data from four popular solvers, and is designed to be modular and extensible to enable interoperability between OSeMOSYS models developed in different programming languages.

There is growing recognition of the need for openness in the governance and management of long-term energy systems planning, including improving data accessibility to inform the planning process. Open data principles offer a way to manage and govern this process more collaboratively and transparently, but they are challenging to implement particularly in resource-constrained and decentralised planning contexts like low- and middle-income countries. For this reason, this paper assesses the viability of open data practices for enhancing transparency and collaboration in energy planning, using Kenya as a case study. Through qualitative analysis of policy documents and stakeholder interviews, this study evaluates the alignment and divergence between internationally accepted values and principles of open science and open data and Kenya's energy planning needs. What emerges is a contrasting picture. The results show that, while open approaches to energy data are theoretically promising for addressing current energy data challenges in Kenya, stakeholders show limited agreement or understanding of practical implementation pathways. These findings aim to support Kenyan stakeholders and decision-makers involved in the ongoing long-term planning process under the Integrated National Energy Plan.

Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) are important tools to analyse cross-sectoral interdependencies and the use of global resources. Most current tools are highly detailed and require expert knowledge and proprietary software to generate scenarios and analyse their insights. In this paper, the complementary Global Least-cost User-friendly CLEWs Open-Source Exploratory (GLUCOSE) model is presented as a highly-aggregated global IAM, open and accessible from source to solver and using the OSeMOSYS tool and the CLEWs framework. The model enables the exploration of policy measures on the future development of the integrated resource system. Thanks to its relatively simple structure, it requires low computational resources allowing for the generation of a large number of scenarios or to quickly conduct preliminary investigations. GLUCOSE is targeted towards education and training purposes by a range of interested parties, from students to stakeholders and decision-makers, to explore possible future pathways towards the sustainable management of global resources.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the number of people without access to clean and modern cooking solutions is increasing, and a large proportion of the population relies on traditional fuels such as firewood, charcoal and kerosene to cook their food. Burning traditional fuels releases unhealthy indoor air pollution that increases the risk of disease, contributes to deforestation and releases emissions that have a negative impact on the climate. Increasing universal access to clean cooking is a high priority and an important part of the Sustainable Development Goals. The Government of Kenya has set out a strategy aiming to provide clean cooking access for the Kenyan population by 2028. This is an ambitious goal with a short timeframe, subject to many challenges especially in the rural parts of the country where the market is subjected to lower population densities and customers with lower purchasing power. The strategy requires each county to develop a County Energy Plan, and Makueni is one of the few rural counties that has succeeded in doing so. Leveraging Makueni’s County Energy Plan, this study aims to evaluate the clean cooking value chain of Makueni County and identify stakeholder actions that drive the clean cooking adoption in the region, as well as areas of improvement. To get a comprehensive view, focus group discussions with end users in rural Makueni were held, as well as 18 non end-user stakeholder interviews. Additionally, a literature review and analysis of archival data such as policy documents was conducted. According to the focus group discussions, the main challenges the end users face are related to high consumer prices, knowledge and perceptions of technologies, and accessibility of clean fuels and stoves. The results indicate that increasing adoption is a process which requires the involvement of multiple stakeholders, and interventions are especially needed within the areas of financing and resource allocation, end user awareness and last mile distribution. Stakeholder collaboration is identified as crucial to drive the clean cooking matter, and the results indicate that sustained stakeholder engagement and the introduction of platforms are needed to facilitate effective collaboration. Finally, the study provides recommendations on how improved policy formulation and implementation can further create an enabling environment for clean cooking in Makueni County.

As power grids transition from dispatchable fossil-fueled generation to increasing shares of intermittent renewable generation, the need for flexibility grows with the share of renewables. Flexibility resources aim to bridge the gap between supply and demand, addressing both longand short-term needs. In Sweden, both wind and solar generation is expected to increase. This thesis focuses on short-term flexibility limited to daily cycles in the Swedish grid. Several technologies provide short-term flexibility. Load removal is supplied by residential heat pumps, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning in the service sector, and data centers. These technologies supply loads that can be disconnected for short intervals without compromising desired temperatures, allowing them to be disconnected for a few hours. Load shifting is achieved through flexible consumption and energy storage. Flexible consumption can be provided by the flexible charging of vehicles and electrolysis, while energy storage can be supplied by Vehicle-to-Grid systems, pumped hydro, and batteries. As electricity demand in Sweden is expected to increase towards 2050 due to the electrification of demand, high-demand scenarios with different low-carbon generation mix alternatives are explored, including one scenario with both nuclear and renewables and another fully renewable scenario. These scenarios are analyzed with varying levels of flexibility to assess the impact of modeled flexibility resources. Load removal options show significant potential to reduce total demand. The modeled load removal ranges from 2000 to 4000 GWh annually, depending on the amount of flexibility and dispatch rules. The theoretical potential could be even higher. Modeled load shifting can result in shifting up to 16 000 GWh to higher demand hours. Increasing flexibility shows clear potential to improve the utilization of renewables in the fully renewable scenario, by about 4000 GWh in the high flexibility scenario, while the nuclearpowered scenario already shows high utilization of domestic renewables even with low flexibility. The increased utilization of renewables leads to higher net exports and reduced electricity prices, indicating better balancing of supply and demand. However, while the renewable scenario achieves net exports, the nuclear scenario results in net imports, with imports acting as a crucial balancing source. The highest annual average prices are observed in the renewable scenarios, despite price reductions with increased flexibility. The modeled flexibility is insufficient during certain hours, leading to noticeable electricity deficits and unrealistically high prices. Therefore, while short-term flexibility shows clear improvements in balancing supply and demand, it must be complemented by long-term storage and flexibility solutions. Reductions in total demand through load removal and lower electricity costs significantly reduce total expenses for consumers. Additionally, increased revenue can be achieved for renewable generation with reduced curtailment, benefiting producers.

This paper presents an innovative approach to addressing critical global challenges in long-term energy planning for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The paper proposes and tests an international enabling environment, a delivery ecosystem, and a community of practice. These components are integrated into workflows that yield four self-sustaining capacity-development outcomes. Planning long-term energy strategies in LMICs is particularly challenging due to limited national agency and poor international coordination. While outsourcing energy planning to foreign experts may appear to be a viable solution, it can lead to a reduction in government agency (the ability of a government to make its own informed analysis and decisions). Additionally, studies commissioned by external experts may have conflicting terms of reference, and a lack of familiarity with local conditions can result in misrepresentations of on-the-ground realities. It is argued here that enhancing national agency and analytical capacity can improve coordination and lead to more robust planning across line ministries and technical assistance (TA) providers. Moreover, the prevailing consulting model hampers the release and accessibility of underlying analytics, making it difficult to retrieve, reuse, and reconstruct consultant outputs. The absence of interoperability among outputs from various consultants hinders the ability to combine and audit the insights they provide. To overcome these challenges, five strategic principles for energy planning in LMICs have been introduced and developed in collaboration with 21 international and research organizations, including the AfDB, IEA, IRENA, IAEA, UNDP, UNECA, the World Bank, and WRI. These principles prioritize national ownership, coherence and inclusivity, capacity, robustness, transparency and accessibility. In this enabling environment, a unique delivery ecosystem consisting of knowledge products and activities is established. The paper focuses on two key knowledge products as examples of this ecosystem: the open-source energy modeling system (OSeMOSYS) and the power system flexibility tool (IRENA FlexTool). These ecosystem elements are designed to meet user-friendliness, retrievability, reusability, reconstructability, repeatability, interoperability, and audibility (U4RIA) goals. To ensure the sustainability of this ecosystem, OpTIMUS is introduced—a community of practice dedicated to maintaining, supporting, expanding, and nurturing the elements within the ecosystem. Among other ecosystem elements, training and research initiatives are introduced, namely the Energy Modelling Platform for Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia-Pacific as well as the ICTP Joint Summer School on Modelling Tools for Sustainable Development. Once deployed via workflows, the preliminary outcomes of these capacity-development learning pathways show promise. Further investigation is necessary to evaluate their long-term impacts, scalability, replication, and deployment costs.

Here, we propose the first useful energy balance of Ecuadorian transport. Then we model the energy demand up to 2050 through three prospective scenarios developed in LEAP to assess significant sector decarbonization. The aim is to determine the reduction of final energy by replacing fossil fuels with electricity and applying sustainable policies in the whole sector.

The analysis for the base year (2018) indicates that transport consumes 62 587 ± 7441 and 14 001 ± 1744 GWh for final and useful energy, respectively, corresponding to 22.37% of conversion. Therefore, by 2050 Ecuador will require between 21 783 (optimistic scenario) and 28 241 (pessimistic scenario) GWh of useful energy. The conversion in the first scenario was 30.71%, whereas it decreased to 22.02% in the second scenario, showing the beneficial effect of greener policies.

The model presents a significant decarbonization of the total fleet from 0.002% to 40%, corresponding to 28 371 GWh of useful energy by 2050. To validate this finding, we evaluated the renewable electric potential of Ecuador, considering the functioning and feasible future generation projects. As a result, we calculated that this goal could be achieved with 23.9% of the total capacity. Therefore, future studies can focus on the possibility of total decarbonization of the sector employing the global efficiencies presented here.

Reinforcement Learning for EV charging optimization has gained significant academic attention in recent years, due to its ability to handle uncertainty, non-linearity, and real-time problem-solving. While the number of articles published on the matter has surged, the number of open-source environments for EV charging optimization remains small, and a research gap still exists when it comes to customizable frameworks for commercial vehicle fleets. To bridge the gap between research and real-world deployment of RL-based charging optimization, this paper introduces FleetRL as the first customizable RL environment for fleet charging optimization. Researchers and fleet operators can easily adapt the framework to fit their use-cases, and assess the impact of RL-based charging on economic feasibility, battery degradation, and operations.

This thesis presents a comprehensive framework for identifying optimal locations for crop waste-based biodigester installations in rural Ethiopia, with a focus on the Buno Bedele zone. Applying a clustering algorithm and Geospatial Information System (GIS) analysis, the research aims to maximize energy production while minimizing logistical challenges associated with biodigester implementation. Through an iterative process of refining Center of Energy Demand (COD) locations and adjusting parameters such as energy demand radii, the framework demonstrates how to enhance the suitability of biodigester placements. Key findings indicate that a 2 km energy demand radius for 100 CODs oers a balanced solution, providing comprehensive coverage and ecient use of crop waste resources. Moreover, increasing the number of CODs to 200 further improves coverage, presenting opportunities for expanded deployment. Locating biodigesters based on energy demand and crop waste availability, can reduce the communities’ reliance on traditional biomass fuels, leading to improved indoor air quality and reduced deforestation. Additionally, the utilization of bio-slurry fertilizer produced by biodigesters oers added benefits by enhancing soil fertility and agricultural productivity, contributing to food security and sustainable development. By tailoring both the sizes and locations of biodigesters to the specific needs of rural Ethiopian communities, this framework can help to optimize resource utilization and enhance the overall eectiveness of the National Biogas Programme of Ethiopia (NBPE). The findings from this study contribute to the advancement of sustainable energy solutions in rural Ethiopia and provide valuable insights for biodigester deployment strategies in similar contexts worldwide.

The rapid growth of air conditioners (ACs) in developing regions exacerbates some of the issues present in their electricity systems. Direct Load Control strategies can manage peak loads for optimizing energy usage for users and utilities. When applied to air conditioning, these strategies can be used for Demand Side Management which has not been fully explored for developing regions. In this paper a novel Direct Load Control mechanism is proposed, wherein control is based on technical constraints (generation capacity). To determine the effects of the proposed mechanism, a case study of the Indian State of Karnataka is carried out. The results indicate 0.88% energy savings and a reduction of almost 2% in regional peak loads in a state where only around 5% of all households have AC units. The case study shows that an AC Direct Load Control can have significant economic and environmental impacts, and can help improve current energy, water and climate issues. Continuous improvements in both energy access and economic conditions of developing regions are leading to a larger number of AC???s installed, meaning that a mechanism that enables sustainable AC consumption could be of great use for all the stakeholders in the developing countries??? electricity sectors.

This study develops a an optimization model focused on the layout and dispatch of a low-carbon hydrogen supply chain. The objective is to identify the lowest Levelized Cost of Hydrogen for a given demand. The model considers various elements, including electricity supply from the local grid and renewable sources (photovoltaic and wind), alongside hydrogen production, compression, storage, and transportation to end users. Applied to an industrial case study in Sweden, the findings indicate that the major cost components are linked to electricity generation and investment in electrolyzers, with the LCOH reaching 5.2 EUR/kgH2 under typical demand conditions. Under scenarios with higher peak demands and greater demand volatility, the LCOH increases to 6.8 EUR/kgH2 due to the need for additional renewable energy capacity. These results highlight the critical impact of electricity availability and demand fluctuations on the LCOH, emphasizing the complex interdependencies within the hydrogen supply chain. This study provides valuable insights into the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of adopting hydrogen as an energy carrier for renewable electricity in the context of decarbonizing industrial processes in the energy system.

Cities across the world are becoming more engaged in tackling climate change and contributing to the achievement of international agreements. The city of Curitiba in Brazil is no exception. In December 2020, the city published PlanClima (Plano Municipal de Mitigacao e Adaptacao as Mudancas Climaticas), a climate plan developed with local and international organizations. PlanClima aims to guide policies and actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change. This study focuses on selecting and qualitatively evaluating transport policies that contribute to the city's 2030 climate and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With PlanClima's analysis for the transport sector in mind, nine targets for 2030 are identified and connected to different transport policies. To evaluate the possible interactions between the policies and the different dimensions of the SDGs, four types of linkages were designed: essential, uncertain, limited, and opposite. These categories were developed to evaluate the several dimensions in which a policy can have a positive or negative impact. The results show that the implementation of zero emission zones/low emission zones, green public procurement, subsidy schemes for the uptake of clean vehicle technology, and the digitalization of the transport system through smarter public transport and digital platforms that couple bike sharing, taxis, and public transport are some of the measures that can contribute to the achievement of Curitiba's targets and ensure a positive impact on the sustainable development of the city. The study highlights how different policy instruments can contribute to achieve the city's targets, thus providing guidance to policymakers.

Energy models are used to study emissions mitigation pathways, such as those compatible with the Paris Agreement goals. These models vary in structure, objectives, parameterization and level of detail, yielding differences in the computed energy and climate policy scenarios. To study model differences, diagnostic indicators are common practice in many academic fields, for example, in the physical climate sciences. However, they have not yet been applied systematically in mitigation literature, beyond addressing individual model dimensions. Here we address this gap by quantifying energy model typology along five dimensions: responsiveness, mitigation strategies, energy supply, energy demand and mitigation costs and effort, each expressed through several diagnostic indicators. The framework is applied to a diagnostic experiment with eight energy models in which we explore ten scenarios focusing on Europe. Comparing indicators to the ensemble yields comprehensive ‘energy model fingerprints’, which describe systematic model behaviour and contextualize model differences for future multi-model comparison studies.

This thesis introduces a novel valuation methodology for Baseload Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), specifically designed to assess the risks and returns from the seller’s perspective. Baseload PPAs, which guarantee the continuous delivery of electricity to match the buyer’s steady demand, are increasingly crucial in the renewable energy sector for ensuring predictable revenue streams necessary for financing large-scale renewable projects. Focusing on Spain, a leading market in the adoption of renewable energy PPAs, this research uses fundamental price forecasting and historical weather data to explore how hedge ratios and renewable technology mixes affect the valuation of Baseload PPAs. By employing a Pareto efficiency framework, the study identifies optimal combinations of hedge ratios and technology mixes (configurations) that balance risk and return on investment, offering strategic insights for renewable energy sellers. The analysis reveals that multi-technology configurations provide the most effective risk mitigation, with total risks as low as -1.8% for projects equally composed of solar and onshore wind power, compared to 3.9% for the wind-only projects and 7.6% for solar-only projects. The strengths of single-technology configurations lay in their higher profitability, with return on investment reaching between 230% and 240%, compared to multi-technology projects, for which it stands at 50%. Wind-only projects show higher flexibility for the choice of hedge levels to obtain optimal configurations balancing risk/return. For solar-only projects, the unique solution on the Pareto front is the one maximising return. For all technology mixes, only high hedges, above 73%, allow to balance risk and return effectively. Configurations maximising returns are linked to a full hedge and involve a strong dependence on purchasing insufficient generation on the spot market to meet the contracted load. In summary, the thesis examines the specific risks associated with Baseload PPAs - price, volume, and shape risks - determining how these can be optimally managed through strategic hedge ratios and technology choices. This work fills a gap in academic literature by providing a targeted valuation tool for Baseload PPAs, offering a resource for PPA Sellers to optimise their renewable projects in line with market conditions.

The municipal solid waste (MSW) remains a great challenge in most cities of developing countries, as the majority of the generated waste is either not collected or is dumped in open uncontrolled non-engineered landfill sites, creating significant pollution due to the leakage of landfill leachate in the surrounding environment. In developing countries, a complete transition to a zero-landfill scenario is less likely to happen in the near future due to various socio-economic challenges. Therefore, the existing landfills in developing countries need holistic waste management thinking with more efforts on waste to energy conversions. This study highlights the challenges with existing MSW management practices of Curitiba, Brazil, and suggests some holistic and sustainable landfill management techniques. This is accomplished through the (i) identification of the suitable sites for setting up transfer stations (TSs), (ii) route optimization for MSW transportation, and (iii) analysis of the life expectancy of the existing landfill with waste valorization techniques for enhancing circularity of MSW of the city. The study has identified six potential TSs, making use of various geological criteria and constraints as suggested by the United States Environmental Protection Agency using GIS-based spatial analysis, which could save fuel cost of approximately 1.5 million Brazilian Real (BRL) per year for the solid waste transportation (from the source to the landfill site). This research has also made a value addition in this specific field with the preparation of a digitized road network map of the study region. Further, the sensitivity-based scenario analysis highlights that the lifespan of the existing landfill (until 2030) might be extended to 2058 if the city achieves the targeted recycling rate of 85% compared with the current rate of 23%. The results would be useful for policy-makers to adopt the crucial MSW scenario to achieve a circular economy in the waste management of the city of Curitiba.

This study reports a comprehensive techno-economic and environmental assessment of a realistic pathway for decarbonizing the urea industry. The proposed green urea synthesis plant utilizes hydroelectricity-powered electrolysis process and carbon capture from cement flue gas to create sustainable and environmentally friendly production process. Utilizing Aspen Plus and MATLAB, this study first, models the electrolysis, air separation, ammonia synthesis, carbon capture and urea synthesis units, and then evaluates the economic and environmental parameters of the synthesis process. Furthermore, the study highlights the transformative impacts of carbon credit and the renewable energy prices on the profitability metrics of the green urea plant. For the proposed 220 kt/year urea plant, the total energy consumption is 8.18 × 106 GJ/year with the electrolysis unit accounting for half of the energy demand. The estimated total capital investment for the urea plant is 510.79 million USD, with an annual operating expenditure of 156.02 million USD. The urea synthesis unit accounted for half of the total capital expenditure, while electricity contributed to the largest proportion (73%) of the operating expenses. The levelized cost for urea (LCOU) is estimated to be 570.96 USD/t which is approximately 62.2% higher than the urea obtained from conventional process. The electrolyzer unit contributed to 34.4% of the total LCOU. Sensitivity analysis showed that 30% decrease in the electricity price from the base case could lower the LCOU by 27%. The global warming potential of the proposed green urea process is 326.11 kg CO2/t of urea. Lower hydroelectricity prices and carbon credit opportunities significantly improve the economic viability of the green urea production process.

Hydrogen is envisioned to become a fundamental energy vector for the decarbonization of energy systems. Two key factors that will define the success of hydrogen are its sustainability and competitiveness with alternative solutions. One of the many challenges for the proliferation of hydrogen is the creation of a sustainable supply chain. In this study, a methodology aimed at assessing the economic feasibility of holistic hydrogen supply chains is developed. Based on the designed methodology, a tool which calculates the levelized cost of hydrogen for the different stages of its supply chain: production, transmission & distribution, storage and conversion is proposed. Each stage is evaluated individually, combining relevant technical and economic notions such as learning curves and scaling factors. Subsequently, the findings from each stage are combined to assess the entire supply chain as a whole. The tool is then applied to evaluate case studies of various supply chains, including large-scale remote and small-scale distributed green hydrogen supply chains, as well as conventional steam methane reforming coupled with carbon capture and storage technologies. The results show that both green hydrogen supply chains and conventional methods can achieve a competitive LCOH of around €4/kg in 2030. However, the key contribution of this study is the development of the tool, which provides a foundation for a comprehensive evaluation of hydrogen supply chains that can be continuously improved through the inputs of additional users and further research on one or more of the interconnected stages.

Storing energy in the form of hydrogen is a promising green alternative. Thus, there is a high interest to analyze the status quo of the different storage options. This paper focuses on the large-scale compressed hydrogen storage options with respect to three categories: storage vessels, geological storage, and other underground storage alternatives. In this study, we investigated a wide variety of compressed hydrogen storage technologies, discussing in fair detail their theory of operation, potential, and challenges. The analysis confirms that a techno-economic chain analysis is required to evaluate the viability of one storage option over another for a case by case. Some of the discussed technologies are immature; however, this does not rule out these technologies; rather, it portrays the research opportunities in the field and the foreseen potential of these technologies. Furthermore, we see that hydrogen would have a significant role in balancing intermittent renewable electricity production. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Wind power is rapidly growing in the Finnish grid, and Finland's electricity consumption is low in the summer compared to the winter. Hence, there is a need for storage that can absorb a large amount of energy during summer and discharge it during winter. This study examines one such storage technology, geological hydrogen storage, which has the potential to store energy on a GWh scale and also over longer periods of time. Finland's electricity generation system was modelled with and without hydrogen storage using the LEAP-NEMO modeling toolkit. The results showed about 69% decline in carbon dioxide emissions as well as a decline in the fossil fuel-based power accompanied with a higher capability to meet demand with less imports in both scenarios. Finally, a critical analysis of the Finnish electricity mix with and without hydrogen storage is presented.

The intersectoral impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on humanity raises concerns about its implications for sustainable development. Here, we examine a global quantitative impact of COVID-19 pandemic on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across all 17 goals using 65 proxy indicators across 72 countries collected from April 2020 to February 2021. Our data-driven analysis indicated that adverse impacts of the pandemic have been particularly concerned on gender equality (Goal 5), affordable and clean energy (Goal 7), decent work and economic growth (Goal 8), sustainable cities and communities (Goal 11), and responsible consumption and production (Goal 12) with global scores estimated to be-0.38,-0.21,-0.28,-0.22 and-0.16, respectively. Country income level was a variable that strongly differentiates the responses to the pandemic (e.g., lower in-comes had 14 negative goals compared to 11 and 4 negative goals assigned to middle-and high-income coun-tries, respectively). However, Goals 5 and 8 were highly impacted worldwide regardless of income status. Furthermore, countries that had already higher performance in SDGs were less impacted by the pandemic, highlighting the importance of progress on the SDGs in increasing societal resilience to pandemics. The findings provide insights into the reinforcement of recovery policies (e.g., protecting vulnerable groups and transitioning to a green economy) and a basis for a quantitative discussion on the sectors to be prioritized.

In an increasingly urban world, cities' global resource uses grow. Two fundamental resources for making cities liveable are water and energy. These resources are also closely interlinked – systems that convert and deliver energy to cities require water, and urban water systems use energy. In addition, these two resource systems affect and are affected by land use and climate change. This ‘nexus’ between climate, land use, energy and water (CLEW) systems has been extensively studied in the past decade, mainly with a focus on national and transboundary CLEW systems. This doctoral thesis develops the CLEW nexus research from an urban perspective.

Two quantitative analyses examine how different types of sustainability measures in cities affect intended and unintended CLEW systems. First, the CLEW impacts of a set of sustainability measures in New York City are assessed - from water conservation to emission reductions. Results show that every measure affects (to varying degrees) all studied sustainability dimensions - water, energy and climate - and that the impacts can be quantified through a reference-resource-to-service-system (RRSS).

The second quantitative study focuses on how CLEW impacts from a city's sustainability efforts spread beyond local and international borders. It investigates how global water and land use are affected in alternative scenarios to achieve climate neutrality in 2030 in the town of Oskarshamn, Sweden, using an energy systems simulation model. The study finds that both the magnitude and the geographical distribution of land and water requirements vary between scenarios. A strategy to achieve climate neutrality that invests in electrification leads to increased national water use, while a strategy that relies on biofuels has a greater impact on water and land use internationally. When results are translated to interactions between the UN's sustainable development goals (SDGs), they reveal that SDG synergies and trade-offs are 'strategy-dependent': different options for achieving SDGs on energy, sustainable cities and climate action have varying consequences for the advancement of SDGs on sustainable water, food production and biodiversity.

To shed light on how data challenges affect quantitative urban nexus studies, uncertainty assessments of selected thesis’ results are conducted and complemented with a thematic analysis of a set of recently published urban nexus papers. Together, they indicate that analytical choices, uncertainties in results and - as a consequence - research foci are influenced by data limitations in both this thesis and in other urban nexus studies.

Lastly, the finding from the Oskarshamn analysis – that SDG interactions are strategy-dependent – is deliberated with experts within sustainability sciences and SDG interaction research. From this, a research agenda is proposed with measures to make SDG 'spillovers' visible in local level decision-making.

Taken together, the thesis contributes to filling several knowledge gaps on how urban sustainability measures within the CLEW systems interact within and beyond city limits, and proposes analytical approaches to quantify these interactions. It further points out how current data challenges constrain quantitative urban nexus analyses and highlights research needs to improve data management as well as other key efforts to enable consideration of nexus interactions, including SDG 'spillovers', in cities' sustainability work.

Cities are vital for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), but different local strategies to advance on the same SDG may cause different ‘spillovers’ elsewhere. Research efforts that support governance of such spillovers are urgently needed to empower ambitious cities to ‘account globally’ when acting locally on SDG implementation strategies.

Sustainable and inclusive decarbonisation of European cities is a pre-requisite for achieving carbon neutrality at the EU level. As melting pots and demand hubs, cities are responsible for a majority of greenhouse gas emissions. For a transition towards zero-carbon cities, in the EU as elsewhere, a holistic approach and extensive collaboration is needed that can move city action beyond simply increasing the number of localized low-carbon solutions. This DEEDS Policy Brief outlines key features of EU research and innovation needs and proposes policy measures to promote zero-carbon European cities.

The authors regret two instances of misinterpretation of input data and one formatting error in the previously published paper as titled above. First, the numerical estimates for water use in NYC electricity and natural gas supply were found to be incorrect due to a conversion error in a data file. This error has now been corrected and the estimates have been changed to correctly correspond to the references on which they are based on. These changes have led to a recalculation of indirect water use reduction potentials in the interventions studied in the paper. Second, two errors due to primary data misinterpretation related to the studied green roof intervention have been found and corrected. The first led to an overestimation of the green roofs’ energy use reduction potential in the previously published paper. The second led to an underestimation of their installation cost. These errors have also been corrected and all numerical results for the green roof intervention have been recalculated. In the updated sections 3 and 4 of the original publication (below), Table 2, Table 3, Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 are updated with the new results related to both indirect water use reductions and green roof performance and costs. The text in the below sections have been given minor adjustments to clarify this update. These changes make green roofs a less economically favourable intervention in comparison to the previously published results. It also makes indirect water use reductions relatively smaller compared to direct water use reductions. All other results as well as the conclusions of this paper are still valid and unchanged. Lastly, a typo in writing of Eq. (7) in the manuscript text has been corrected. There was no error in the equation used in the analysis; hence, no numerical results have been effected by this correction. The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused. Corrected writing of Eq. (7), section 2.3.1: [Formula presented] Updated sections of the original publication.

Located in Southern Europe, the Drina River Basin is shared between Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia. The power sectors of the three countries have an exceptionally high dependence on coal for power generation. In this paper, we analyse different development pathways for achieving climate neutrality in these countries and explore the potential of variable renewable energy (VRE) and its role in power sector decarbonization. Weinvestigate whether hydro and nonhydro renewables can enable a net-zero transition by 2050 and how VRE might affect the hydropower cascade shared by the three countries. The Open-Source Energy Modelling System (OSeMOSYS) was used to develop a model representation of the countries' power sectors. Findings show that the renewable potential of the countries is a significant 94.4 GW. This potential is 68% higher than previous assessments have shown. Under an Emission Limit scenario assuming net zero by 2050, 17% of this VRE potential is utilized to support the decarbonization of the power sectors. Additional findings show a limited impact of VRE technologies on total power generation output from the hydropower cascade. However, increased solar deployment shifts the operation of the cascade to increased short-term balancing, moving from baseload to more responsive power generation patterns. Prolonged use of thermal power plants is observed under scenarios assuming high wholesale electricity prices, leading to increased emissions. Results from scenarios with low cost of electricity trade suggest power sector developments that lead to decreased energy security.

This work includes modelling of decarbonization scenarios at the scale of an urban area, providing policy insights and a methodology focusing on introducing district heating and maintaining the existing gas distribution network in a case study. With a focus on reducing gas consumption in the residential and tertiary sectors, the research integrates scenario developments giving a methodology to develop district heating, requiring a careful balance in selecting the optimal scale for city-wide analysis. The study assesses the fate of existing gas networks. The development of district heating can affect the use of gas, particularly in residential or tertiary buildings. This thesis assesses potential use cases of existing gas networks by identifying certain criteria. Among them are industrial, tertiary or residential consumption, the presence of a district heating network, or the number of homes using individual gas heating. These criteria make it possible to define areas where the question of removing the gas distribution network can be raised, and other areas where the gas distribution network must be retained even if gas consumption falls sharply between 2019 and 2050. By reviewing the relevant literature, detailing the research questions and presenting a comprehensive methodology of scenario modelling, the thesis provides policy insights and a methodology to develop district heating at the scale of an urban area while addressing the future of existing gas infrastructure.

Scaling up national climate adaptation under the Paris Agreement is critical not only to reduce risk, but also to contribute to a nation's development. Traditional adaptation assessments are aimed at evaluating adaptation to cost-effectively reduce risk and do not capture the far-reaching benefits of adaptation in the context of devel-opment and the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). By grounding adaptation planning in an SDG vision, we propose and demonstrate a methodological process that for the first time allows national decision -makers to: i) quantify the adaptation that is needed to safeguard SDG target progress, and ii) evaluate strate-gies of stakeholder-driven adaptation options to meet those needs whilst delivering additional SDG target co -benefits. This methodological process is spatially applied to a national adaptation assessment in Ghana. In the face of the country's risk from floods and landslides, this analysis identifies which energy and transport assets to prioritise in order to make the greatest contribution to safeguarding development progress. Three strategies ('built', 'nature-based', 'combined SDG strategy') were formulated through a multi-stakeholder partnership involving government, the private sector, and academia as a means to protect Ghana's prioritised assets against climate risk. Evaluating these adaptation strategies in terms of their ability to deliver on SDG targets, we find that the combined SDG strategy maximises SDG co-benefits across 116 targets. The proposed methodological process for integrating SDG targets in adaptation assessments is transferable to other climate-vulnerable nations, and can provide decision-makers with spatially-explicit evidence for implementing sustainable adaptation in alignment with the global agendas.

The international community has committed to achieve 169 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets by 2030 and to enhance climate adaptation under the Paris Agreement. Despite the potential for synergies, aligning SDG and climate adaptation efforts is inhibited by an inadequate understanding of the complex relationship between SDG targets and adaptation to impacts of climate change. Here we propose a framework to conceptualise how ecosystems and socio-economic sectors mediate this relationship, which provides a more nuanced understanding of the impacts of climate change on all 169 SDG targets. Global application of the framework reveals that adaptation of wetlands, rivers, cropland, construction, water, electricity, and housing in the most vulnerable countries is required to safeguard achievement of 68% of SDG targets from near-term climate risk by 2030. We discuss how our framework can help align National Adaptation Plans with SDG targets, thus ensuring that adaptation advances, rather than detracts from, sustainable development. Without targeted climate adaptation, impacts of climate change threaten achievement of all 169 SDG targets. Fuldauer et al. provide an actionable framework to assess these impacts and help systematically align national adaptation plans with the SDGs.

With the publication of the European Green Deal, the European Union has committed to reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. The envisaged reductions of direct greenhouse gases emissions are seen as technically feasible, but if a wrong path is pursued, significant unintended impacts across borders, sectors, societies and ecosystems may follow. Without the insights gained from an impact assessment framework reaching beyond the techno-economic perspective, the pursuit of direct emission reductions may lead to counterproductive outcomes in the long run. We discuss the opportunities and challenges related to the creation and use of an integrated assessment framework built to inform the European Commission on the path to decarbonisation. The framework is peculiar in that it goes beyond existing ones in its scope, depth and cross-scale coverage, by use of numerous specialised models and case studies. We find challenges of consistency that can be overcome by linking modelling tools iteratively in some cases, harmonising modelling assumptions in others, comparing model outputs in others. We find the highest added value of the framework in additional insights it provides on the technical feasibility of decarbonisation pathways, on vulnerability aspects and on unintended environmental and health impacts on national and sub-national scale.

Many EU countries have used financial incentives to promote electric light commercial vehicles and decarbonise urban freight transport. However, the high costs of electric light commercial vehicles still pose a significant adoption barrier. This paper evaluates the impact of financial incentives on the total cost of ownership of electric light commercial vehicles in the European Union and their role in achieving the cost-competitiveness of electric vehicles. A pairwise comparison is performed for three weight categories of electric and diesel vehicles in twelve countries. Our analysis shows that financial incentives have a high impact on the total cost of ownership and have proven necessary to achieve electric vehicles' cost-competitiveness in most cases. However, in specific cases, financial incentives may no longer be needed as the cost of electric vehicles' ownership would have been lower than diesel vehicles even without them. This paper demonstrates the importance of adjusting government incentives to avoid unnecessary funding allocations while promoting the decarbonisation of light commercial vehicles, particularly as the number of incentives does not directly correlate with electric vehicles penetration.

Several CO2 transcritical booster systems in supermarkets use the potential of integrating geothermal storage, enabling subcooling during warm climate conditions as well as being a heat source during cold climate conditions. First of all, field measurements of one of these systems located in Sweden were analysed with particular focus on the heat-recovery performance. The best theoretical operational strategy was compared to the one really implemented and the differences in the annual energy usage were assessed through modelling. The results show that an alternative to the best theoretical operational strategy exists; heat can be extracted from the ground while low-temperature heat is rejected by the gas cooler. Such an alternative strategy has important technical advantages with a negligible increment of the energy usage. In the second part of this work, the benefits of geothermal subcooling were evaluated. Applying the BIN hours method, it was demonstrated that this system is expected to save on average roughly 5% of the total power consumption, in Stockholm’s climate. The models utilized for the winter and summer season were combined to find the relationship between geothermal storage size and annual energy savings. In this way, it was possible to calculate the present value of the operational savings for the study case. Furthermore, a general methodology for assessing the economic feasibility of this system solution is presented. Finally, several scenarios were investigated to produce parametric curves and to perform a sensitivity analysis. Comparing the results with the typical Swedish prices for boreholes, the cases where this system solution is economically justified were identified. These are supermarkets with a Heat Recovery Ratio (HRR) higher than the average. For examples, supermarkets supplying heat to the neighbouring buildings (considering the Stockholm’s climate, systems with an annual average HRR of at least 70%). Relying only on savings from subcooling was found to be not enough to justify a geothermal storage, a not-negligible amount of heat must be extracted in winter. Finally, some interesting concepts and alternatives to a geothermal integration are presented to point out relevant future work.

Compliance with the Paris Agreement requires the transformation of national economies to meet net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by mid-century. To accomplish this, countries need to define long-term decarbonisation strategies with near- and mid-term actions to determine their ideal future scenario while maximizing socioeconomic benefits. This paper describes the process followed to support the creation of the decarbonisation pathway for the transport and energy sectors presented in Costa Rica's National Decarbonisation Plan. We discuss in detail the technological pathway of a deep-decarbonisation future that supports reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. Compared to a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario, our results show that the decarbonisation pathway can lead to emissions' reduction of 87% in the transport and energy sectors by 2050. Energy efficiency, the adoption of electromobility, modal-shift towards public transport and active mobility, as well as reduced demand due to digitalisation and teleworking, are found to be key drivers towards the deep-decarbonisation. These measures combined enable a 25% reduction of primary energy production by 2050. The results highlight that the decarbonisation scenario requires installing 4.4 GW more of renewable power plants by 2050, compared to the BAU scenario (80%). We also show that additional investments for the deep-decarbonisation are compensated with the reduced operating cost. Crucially, we found that the National Decarbonisation Plan results in a lower total discounted cost of about 35% of current Costa Rica's GDP, indicating that a deep decarbonisation is technically feasible and is coupled to socioeconomic benefits.

New concepts and technologies are needed to upgrade conventional energy systems and cope with environmental challenges. However, while emerging new technologies may serve to improve energy efficiency at the local level, they might also have disruptive effects at the system level. This paper investigates the potentially disruptive impacts of upscaling local wastewater heat recovery at the building level on the performance of the wastewater treatment and district heating systems in Stockholm. A hybrid model based on data-driven and process-driven mathematical models was developed to simulate the performance of the wastewater system and interlinkages among different actors. Two types of technologies (heat exchanger and heat pump) and different technology penetration scenarios (10%, 20%, and 40%) are considered for heat recovery in buildings. If 20% of the buildings install heat exchangers, the amount of heat demand in buildings decreases by 3% and total heat losses in the sewerage network decreases by 2%. In the case of local heat recovery using heat pumps in 20% of the buildings, there is a 4% reduction in the heat demand in buildings and 3% decrease in total heat losses in the network. Meanwhile, the heat demand in the wastewater treatment plant increases by 2% (with heat exchangers) or 4% (with heat pumps). Moreover, the district heating company recovers 5% and 9% less heat from the wastewater treatment plant, respectively, as compared to current conditions. These findings indicate that enhanced heat recovery in buildings could have disruptive impacts on currently centralized energy and water service provision over time. This justifies closer consideration of the balance between local and system-level solutions as policymakers define goals for energy efficiency, and evaluate potential societal and economic implications of different alternatives.

Islands all over the world face common challenges connected to energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, islands have been identified as perfect sites for implementing and testing innovative solutions to boost the green energy transition towards a sustainable and clean energy system. The supply of clean water is a major issue that affects small islands, and desalination, particularly Reverse Osmosis, represents a valid solution to this challenge. In this research, an energy system model is used to analyse long-term water and energy supply strategies of the tourist island of Favignana, Italy. The model is built with the Open Source long-term energy modelling tool OSeMOSYS at an hourly resolution. It considers both the potential synergies offered by Reverse Osmosis Desalination and the use of water storage to store the excess electricity when needed. The indirect emissions for the maritime transportation of goods and fuels (i.e., water and diesel) to the island are also accounted for. Different energy policies are compared to understand how a carbon tax, a limit on emissions and no policy would impact the long-term energy strategy of the island. The results show that a carbon tax that covers also the maritime transportation sector would lead to the lowest overall cumulative emissions. They additionally reveal that the contribution of emissions for maritime transportation of goods and fuels is relevant and cannot be neglected if a full decarbonisation has to be achieved. On the technological side, investment in a desalination plant is the most viable option in all cases. Finally, for the first time, OSeMOSYS is applied with hourly resolution and the results are compared with those obtained with lower time resolution showing that inaccuracies are found both for overall values and for the dispatching strategies.

Advanced wastewater treatment options offer a unique opportunity to recover valuable resources such as energy (biogas), nutrients, and minerals embedded in the wastewater streams. However, considerable challenges remain when designing and planning sustainable wastewater treatment systems. This study aims to evaluate the sustainability of waste-to-energy (WtE) recovery in the form of biogas in a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). The study investigates the performance of a biogas recovery system in different scenarios and applications from 2018 to 2040, considering the city of Tbilisi in Georgia. The study results reveal a significant biogas production potential, with an average annual energy (heat and power) generation of 137 GWh when biogas is recovered from the wastewater (WW) and sewage sludge (SS). The WWTP-based WtE systems can avoid up to 38,500 tCO2eq emissions every year. The combined recovery (from WW and SS) scenario is financially feasible with a net present value of 14.88 million EUR and a levelized cost of biogas of 0.08 EUR/m³. Recovered biogas can help avoid the usage of 172.34 million m³ of natural gas worth 42.4 million EUR. Sensitivity analysis shows that the quality of wastewater, price of energy, and capital cost of the anaerobic digestion plant are the key factors in determining the economics of WtE recovery systems. This research also demonstrates the interlinkages between sustainable development goals and various benefits of resource recovery systems. This study could be helpful for decision-makers involved in planning and deploying resource recovery systems in a circular bioeconomy approach in WWTPs globally.

Since the early phase of the artificial-intelligence (AI) era expectations towards AI are high, with experts believing that AI paves the way for managing and handling various global challenges. However, the significant enabling and inhibiting influence of AI for sustainable development needs to be assessed carefully, given that the technology diffuses rapidly and affects millions of people worldwide on a day-to-day basis. To address this challenge, a panel discussion was organized by the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, the AI Sustainability Center and MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology, gathering a wide range of AI experts. This paper summarizes the insights from the panel discussion around the following themes: The role of AI in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); AI for a prosperous 21st century; Transparency, automated decision-making processes, and personal profiling; and Measuring the relevance of Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence (D&AI) at the indicator level of SDGs. The research-backed panel discussion was dedicated to recognize and prioritize the agenda for addressing the pressing research gaps for academic research, funding bodies, professionals, as well as industry with an emphasis on the transportation sector. A common conclusion across these themes was the need to go beyond the development of AI in sectorial silos, so as to understand the impacts AI might have across societal, environmental, and economic outcomes. The recordings of the panel discussion can be found at: https://www.kth.se/en/2.18487/evenemang/the-role-of-ai-in-achieving-the-sdgs-enabler-or-inhibitor-1.1001364?date=2020–08–20&length=1&orglength=185&orgdate=2020–06–30 Short link: https://bit.ly/2Kap1tE

One of the goals in Sweden's climate action plan is to reduce the transport sector's greenhouse gas emissions by at least 70 percent by 2030 compared to 2010. An important measure for this is the electrification of vehicles. The purpose of this report is to investigate how electrification of the vehicle fleet can affect Sweden's electricity network. This is done by studying what Sweden's electricity network looks like today, what challenges Sweden's electricity supply faces, what would happen if the electrification of the vehicle fleet took place immediately, and whether the conditions for electrification differ between northern and southern Sweden. One likely development is that electricity consumption will increase significantly in the coming years because of extensive electrification. Rechargeable vehicles in traffic have increased steadily over the past ten years. This rapid development shows a need for an understanding ofhow a rapid conversion of the vehicle fleet can affect the electricity grid. This is investigated using a model of the power grid created in Excel. The model is used to find out what the powersupply would have been if all fossil-fueled passenger cars in Sweden in 2020 were replaced with electric cars. The results of the study show that the power demand due to electrification of the vehicle fleet would be significantly greater in southern than in northern Sweden. During the simulated electrification, the import demand in southern Sweden increased considerably, even though there was a large import demand even before electrification. Net exports in northern Sweden decreased slightly due to the electrification. However, the change was much smaller in the north than in the south. Both before and after electrification, Sweden net exported electricity, but exports decreased by just over 13 TWh due to the transition. Furthermore, the import demand could be covered in all bidding zones except SE4, where power shortages would occur during 77 hours of the year. If the power reserve is also used, this figure is reduced to 62 hours. This result does not include imports from Germany, Poland, and Lithuania. At maximum utilized transmission capacity from these countries, the power shortage time drops to 18 hours. During many of the hours that power shortages occur in SE4, the transmission capacity in the average between SE2 and SE3 is fully utilized. To reduce the risk of power shortages, one solution would be to increase this capacity in order to be able to import more electricity from northern Sweden where a large part of the electricity production takes place. An additional measure may be increased electricity production in southern Sweden.

The role of electric vehicles (EVs) in more sustainable cities is widely recognized, with their adoption increasing rapidly. Most governments have targets for continued EV adoption rate growth, and some plan to ban fossil-fuelled vehicles altogether. Yet, in most countries, including Brazil, the proportion of EVs among new vehicles sold remains low. EV adoption poses multiple technological, economic and social challenges that require targeted policy mechanisms. This study assesses policy measures to expedite EV adoption for road transport decarbonisation and sheds light on the critical role of EVs in sustainable urban development. We explore electric mobility challenges in urban areas, focusing on the case of Curitiba City in Brazil. We investigate existing challenges and barriers to policy implementation in Curitiba and successful interventions in cities worldwide to identify suitable policies for Curitiba. The study uses in-depth interviews with relevant stakeholders to examine policy tools, including financial, legal, knowledge-based, and societal instruments. The study recommends complementary instruments and measures to accelerate their adoption in Curitiba. Overall, the study's results, which identify criteria for policy design and implementation towards complete transport decarbonisation, should be valuable for decision-making in transport and mobility planning.