Search Results (494)

The transition of South Africa’s mining sector from a linear take–make–waste model to a circular economy is critical for environmental sustainability and resource security. While the existing literature heavily favors generic, theoretical solutions, this review paper bridges the gap by mapping validated circular technologies directly onto named local operations and specific regional waste profiles. By pairing engineering innovations such as automated sorting and geopolymer synthesis with site-level mineralogical realities and techno-economic limits, this work provides a realistic blueprint for sustainable resource management and holistic landscape restoration. However, widespread implementation is currently constrained by a lack of commercial-scale data, low data transparency regarding corporate waste inventories, static economic modeling, and ambiguous regulatory definitions that separate waste from by-products. To overcome these limitations, a phased, internationally benchmarked policy roadmap aligned with South Africa’s critical minerals strategies is proposed. Future research should focus on industrial field trials, blockchain-secured geospatial waste databases, dynamic life-cycle assessments, and cross-sector synergy mapping. Ultimately, aligning technological innovations with updated waste classification standards, specialized tax incentives, and carbon-credit structures will allow South Africa to mitigate its legacy environmental liabilities while safeguarding its position in the shifting global critical minerals market. Full article

The cement industry accounts for approximately 8–9% of global greenhouse gas emissions, mainly due to clinker production. Replacing Portland cement with supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) is a promising strategy to reduce these environmental impacts. This study evaluates the mechanical performance and environmental profile of sugarcane ash (SCA) and energy cane ash (ECA) as SCMs in Portland cement mortars. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to integrate the mechanical performance and life cycle environmental assessment of energy cane ash as a supplementary cementitious material in Portland cement mortars. Mortars incorporating 5–20% ash were tested for compressive strength and accelerated carbonation. An attributional life cycle assessment (LCA), following ISO 14040/44 and using the ReCiPe 2016 method, was conducted with a cradle-to-gate approach. At 28 days under wet curing, 10% ECA replacement achieved slightly higher compressive strength than the reference mortar (102%), while 10% SCA replacement also achieved compressive strength similar to the reference mortar, although slightly lower than that of ECA. Both ashes significantly reduced carbonation depth, indicating improved durability. From a life cycle assessment perspective, replacing cement with 10–20% ECA reduced environmental impacts in nine of the ten impact categories evaluated, including climate change (up to 18.6%), fossil depletion, and metal depletion. SCA also improved most categories, although to a lesser extent. The superior performance of ECA is associated with its higher biomass yield and environmental credits from potassium recovery during ash washing. These results demonstrate that agro-industrial ashes, particularly energy cane ash, can enhance mortar performance while reducing environmental burdens, mitigating industrial waste accumulation, and supporting circular economy strategies and climate change mitigation, thereby offering a viable pathway toward more sustainable cement production. Full article

To achieve dual-carbon goals and advance the sustainable development of the automotive industry, China’s Dual-Credit Policy serves as the core long-term mechanism for the low-carbon transition of the automotive industry. Given the coexistence of fuel vehicles (FVs) and new energy vehicles (NEVs) in China, existing research often overemphasizes production output while neglecting energy consumption control, and focuses predominantly on NEVs at the expense of FV optimization. To address these gaps, this paper treats FV fuel consumption and NEV energy efficiency as core endogenous decision variables. We construct profit-maximizing optimal production decision models for both types of manufacturers under the Dual-Credit Policy. Through mathematical derivation, numerical simulations, and empirical tests using actual industrial parameters, this study verifies the existence and uniqueness of optimal solutions. It clarifies the influence mechanisms of policy and market factors on corporate energy decisions and identifies the rules of strategy dominance. The findings reveal that the optimal fuel consumption decisions of FV manufacturers exhibit distinct piecewise patterns and critical threshold effects. Specifically, credit prices, NEV quotas, and fuel consumption standards determine the dominance of compliant (low-consumption) versus non-compliant (high-consumption) strategies. Furthermore, the policy exerts a significant market-oriented positive incentive on the energy efficiency upgrading of NEV manufacturers, with credit prices, market demand, and R&D costs acting as core constraints. Notably, the transition-guiding effect of the policy has clear effective boundaries, and its efficacy highly depends on the alignment between parameter design and market conditions. This research provides theoretical support for manufacturers to formulate energy-optimized production decisions and offers actionable references for the continuous optimization of the Dual-Credit Policy system and the sustainable low-carbon transformation of China’s automotive sector. Full article

This study provides a structured operational-to-financial roadmap for soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration in mineral soils as a specific carbon-farming pathway. It integrates SOC management; Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) execution; financial recognition; and farmer adoption barriers. A comparison of carbon farming pathways is first presented to investigate their strengths and limitations, highlighting the specific importance of SOC management in mineral soils. For high-integrity carbon accounting, SOC gains should be assessed not only for quantity, but also for additionality, permanence, uncertainty, leakage, lifecycle emissions, and transparent verification. Credible MRV frameworks operationalize this logic: monitoring quantifies SOC changes, reporting ensures transparency, and verification provides independent assurance for carbon credit issuance and financial recognition. However, MRV execution faces several challenges, including high spatial variability of SOC, slow accumulation rates, methodological uncertainty, and high costs that limit scalability and reduce trust among stakeholders. Financial incentives are available from both public and private sources, supporting long-term soil carbon stabilization, verified carbon removals, and corporate insetting projects. Yet, adoption remains constrained by uncertain payments, poor transparency, contract and permanence concerns, as well as learning and operational costs for farmers. Addressing these bottlenecks is essential for transforming mineral-soil SOC sequestration into a scalable, high-integrity climate and economic opportunity. Full article

Sustainable EV charging infrastructure is fragmented by proprietary applications, vendor lock-in, and weakly time-differentiated pricing, blunting its contribution to urban-mobility decarbonisation. This paper asks whether an open-protocol, super-app-mediated photovoltaic–storage charging architecture can jointly resolve these three fragmentations under deployed field conditions and what its sustainability profile then looks like. We report a campus photovoltaic–storage microgrid integrating heterogeneous EV chargers under an open, vendor-neutral charging-control protocol with super-app authentication and payment replacing dedicated charging applications and a time-differentiated tariff aligned at the meter-interval level with the underlying utility wholesale rate; the deployment is exercised through a researcher-scheduled commissioning campaign of 13 sessions designed to establish functional correctness across the operating envelope rather than to measure user behaviour. Three results emerge across cross-vendor compatibility, onboarding friction, and grid alignment. First, basic message-level OCPP compatibility is sustained across two charger vendors under a single cloud management system—in sequential single-vendor sessions—including the full charging profile up to near-rated DC peak power. Second, the super-app-mediated workflow, which requires no charging-specific application installation and no new charger-operator account, structurally eliminates the dedicated application installation and the email/SMS/credit-card verification round-trips of conventional onboarding, compressing measured first-use end-to-end interaction to 31 s; relative to reconstructed commercial-operator baselines, this is, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, an order-of-magnitude reduction rather than a controlled benchmark. Third, mid-day energy delivery aligns incidentally with the utility off-peak window, not user-driven demand shifting, while PV-displacement and BESS-discharge contributions to charging are bracketed by scenario rather than being separately metered. The paper’s contribution is therefore a replicable, policy-embedded sustainable charging architecture validated at field scale within the New Taipei Net-Zero Carbon Demonstration Site Programme, with no claim of global novelty; the same architecture is structurally positioned to convert the observed incidental grid-friendliness into a deliberate, user-facing benefit via a hardware-free mid-day-discount redesign. Full article

Mongolian rangelands face interacting ecological and livelihood pressures, including livestock pressure, vegetation change, soil-carbon dynamics, household income variability, and inefficiencies in livestock by-product recovery. This paper examines whether observed administrative and household data, field-observed pilot-area audit evidence, satellite-derived/backcast vegetation indicators, model-reconstructed ecological trajectories, econometric associations, machine-learning diagnostics, Monte Carlo uncertainty outputs, and scenario-based carbon-finance calculations are consistent with a study-specific ecological–economic feedback framework in Mongolian pastoral rangelands. The analysis combines observed livestock and household data, satellite-derived vegetation indicators, field-anchored soil organic carbon (SOC) information, climate controls, and pilot-area by-product audit evidence in a dual-scale framework comprising nine pasture-user groups in Öndörshireet Soum, Töv Aimag, and a national soum-level panel for 2002–2024. SOC, above-ground biomass (AGB), and below-ground biomass (BGB) trajectories are treated as model-reconstructed series rather than independently observed annual field measurements. Fixed-effects panel models are used to estimate conditional associations, while machine-learning models assess predictive consistency within reconstructed data structures. Under the fitted full specification, the best-performing national-panel model reports an out-of-sample R² of 0.942 for model-reconstructed SOC; this value is interpreted as high internal predictive consistency within the reconstructed SOC panel, not as independent validation of observed annual SOC change. Because the SU/SOC ratio mechanically contains SOC, the full-specification predictive results are subject to leakage risk, and leakage-free validation is needed for a more conservative assessment of predictive performance. Panel estimates suggest that vegetation condition is positively associated with ln(household income), while the by-product waste ratio is negatively associated with ln(income), conditional on fixed effects and model specification. Scenario-based carbon-finance outputs, framed with reference to Verra’s VM0042 Improved Agricultural Land Management methodology, vary materially with compliance, carbon price, weighted average cost of capital, and revenue-sharing assumptions; these outputs are illustrative sensitivity calculations and do not demonstrate VM0042 compliance, project eligibility, project-registration readiness, verified emission reductions, or credit-issuance readiness. The findings are associational, reconstruction-dependent, and scenario-based. They support an analytical framework rather than establish a closed causal loop. Full article

This study constructs a Stackelberg game model for a supply chain comprising a capital-constrained manufacturer and a retailer with private demand information to analyze the interplay between the manufacturer’s carbon abatement financing strategy (bank credit vs. trade credit) and the retailer’s information sharing decision. The results show that the impact of information sharing is contingent on market sentiment. Sharing is beneficial, promoting abatement investment and supply chain performance under optimistic market forecasts, but it can suppress investment and increase emissions under pessimistic ones. Furthermore, the manufacturer’s financing choice is driven by the investment cost and carbon price; trade credit becomes more attractive for emission reduction as investment costs decrease and carbon prices rise. Counter-intuitively, higher forecast accuracy does not always incentivize information sharing, with its effects on disclosure and environmental performance exhibiting distinct threshold characteristics. Full article

The global agricultural sector faces the dual challenge of increasing productivity while mitigating environmental impacts caused by synthetic agrochemicals and massive agro-industrial waste. This review examines the transition to “Biostimulants 4.0,” a circular economy paradigm driven by the valorization of biomass residues into high-value biological inputs through nanotechnology and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Our analysis highlights that green extraction methods, specifically enzymatic hydrolysis, preserve bioactive integrity and reduce carbon emissions by up to 23.2 times compared to synthetic nitrogen production. Furthermore, waste-derived formulations and nanoscale smart-delivery systems dramatically enhance crop performance; for instance, chitosan nanoparticles can achieve up to a 471% increase in specific growth metrics through sustained-release pathways. To move the industry beyond empirical trial-and-error, the integration of AI-driven predictive models now achieves up to 87% accuracy in forecasting biostimulant efficacy. Finally, we contrast global regulatory frameworks and evaluate the monetization of biostimulant-driven carbon sequestration, capable of generating high-integrity credits priced up to $35 per tonne, as a critical economic pathway to accelerate commercial adoption and incentivize a resilient, decarbonized agricultural system. Full article

Ammonia is an essential high-volume chemical for fertilizer production and other industrial applications, and it is increasingly considered a potential energy carrier; however, its conventional manufacture remains highly energy- and carbon-intensive because it relies predominantly on fossil-based Haber–Bosch (HB) synthesis. This review compares sustainable ammonia-production pathways through the linked dimensions of technology readiness, environmental performance, and economic plausibility across renewable-H₂ HB, biomass- and waste-derived HB routes, electrochemical pathways, photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical systems, plasma-assisted synthesis, biological routes, and chemical looping ammonia synthesis. The analysis reveals a clear divide between pathways that benefit from established industrial infrastructure and those that still depend on unresolved catalytic, materials, or systems-level advances. Renewable-H₂ Haber–Bosch emerges as the most broadly scalable near-term option for large-scale ammonia decarbonization because it combines the highest maturity among low-carbon routes with the strongest techno-economic and life-cycle evidence base. Biomass- and waste-derived Haber–Bosch pathways may become cost-competitive regional complements when low-cost local residues, organic waste, or biomethane is available, feedstock logistics are favorable, and carbon, waste-treatment, or negative-emission credits are included. Overall, sustainable ammonia production is likely to advance through a portfolio of pathways, with near-term progress led by renewable-H₂ HB and longer-term development dependent on improved reactor integration, harmonized assessment methods, and scalable validation. Full article

Developing countries in which infrastructure development is heavily dependent on overseas development aid face significant sustainability challenges, including financing gaps and inadequate maintenance. Increasing private-sector investment is crucial for addressing these challenges. This paper proposes an innovative framework linking environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles with a revised joint credit mechanism (JCM) to attract private investment in infrastructure development, particularly in Pacific Island countries facing the climate crisis. Under the revised JCM, by allocating generated carbon credits to participating Japanese companies, rather than the Japanese government, corporations can monetise credits through market transactions, creating compelling economic incentives for private-sector engagement. In ESG-advanced markets, credits serve as strategic instruments for corporate value enhancement beyond revenue generation, while corporations require continuous credit acquisition to sustain investor confidence. Our revised framework provides a sustainable solution to both financing gaps and infrastructure maintenance challenges. Our analysis demonstrates that integrating market dynamics and corporate incentives into bilateral climate mechanisms holds substantial potential for mobilising private capital for sustainable climate infrastructure finance. This approach represents a promising departure from traditional donor-dependent models, effectively aligning corporate interests with sustainable development objectives while advancing national emission reduction commitments. Full article

Cement clinker production is a thermal- and emissions-intensive process requiring high-temperature heat for drying, calcination, and sintering. This review provides a process-based assessment of refuse-derived fuel (RDF), solid recovered fuel (SRF), tire-derived fuel (TDF), and biomass as partial substitutes for coal and petcoke in modern dry-process cement kilns. The study synthesized the evidence from plant-scale trials, pilot and laboratory experiments, process modeling, computational fluid dynamics, emissions studies, life-cycle assessment (LCA), techno-economic analysis (TEA), and regional case studies to evaluate alternative fuels across fuel properties, kiln-zone suitability, process stability, clinker quality, emissions performance, and environmental outcomes. The review shows that stable co-processing generally requires fuels with net calorific values above 14 MJ kg⁻¹ and moisture contents below 15%, although TDF can provide 26–33 MJ kg⁻¹ and sustain high-energy kiln duty when sulfur, zinc, and steel residues are controlled. RDF, SRF, and biomass require pre-processing, homogenization, calibrated dosing, and continuous fuel-quality monitoring to limit incomplete burnout, deposit formation, volatile circulation, and clinker-quality variation. LCA studies show that 20% RDF thermal substitution can reduce global warming potential by about 3.3–4.2%, increasing to approximately 6.7% when avoided landfill methane credits are included. Modern abatement systems can maintain particulate matter at about 10–30 mg Nm⁻³ and PCDD/F below 0.1 ng TEQ Nm⁻³ under stable operation. The review concludes that alternative fuels are quality-dependent co-processing options whose mitigation role is complementary to clinker-factor reduction, energy-efficiency improvement, low-clinker binders, electrified heating, oxy-fuel calcination, and carbon capture. Full article

The greenhouse effect poses a severe environmental challenge to global sustainable development. Carbon emissions, as a major source of greenhouse gases, make their reduction a crucial goal of urban renewal. This paper provides a systematic literature review of over 100 empirical studies published in the Web of Science over the past decade. The results show that the impact of urban form on carbon emissions exhibits spatial heterogeneity and nonlinearity, while urban compactness reduces emissions in small and medium-sized cities but may increase emissions in some large mega cities. Meanwhile, three-dimensional morphological indicators (e.g., building height, sky view factor) exhibit a U-shaped effect on operational carbon emissions, and are primarily mediated by local microclimate effects. In addition, this study also summarized the differences in carbon emissions throughout the entire life cycle of urban renewal and across different climate zones. Only a few studies adopt a full life-cycle assessment, and most of them focused on operational rather than embodied carbon. This review credits itself as the first one of its kind to examine the relationship between urban form, urban function, and carbon emissions from the perspective of urban renewal, providing both theoretical reference and practical insights for low-carbon strategies. Full article

Steel slag is a major high-temperature by-product of steelmaking. Stockpiling can cause persistent burdens. Cr(VI) leaching, particulate emissions, and land occupation are key concerns. Many treatment and utilization processes exist. Most studies still assess them one by one. This study compares five representative processes in a consistent life-cycle framework: hot slag splashing (HS), heat recovery (HR), molten slag reconstruction (MSR), mineral carbonation (MC), and cement co-processing (CP). This study applies ReCiPe 2016 and USEtox. This study reports midpoint impacts, endpoint damages, normalization, and sensitivity analysis. The endpoint results show that HS has the largest human-health damage (5.2 × 10⁻⁶ DALY·t⁻¹). The endpoint results show that HS also has the largest ecosystem damage (3.4 × 10⁻⁶ species·t⁻¹). The endpoint results show that CP and MC have the lowest human-health damages (0.5–0.7 × 10⁻⁶ DALY·t⁻¹). The endpoint results show that CP and MC provide net resource credits (−0.9 to −1.2 USD2013·t⁻¹). MSR reduces toxicity through high-temperature immobilization. MSR also increases resource damage (4.5 USD2013·t⁻¹) because the process requires high energy input. MC can achieve net-negative greenhouse-gas results when CO₂ fixation exceeds ~80%. CP shows stable benefits through clinker substitution. Sensitivity analysis identifies process-specific parameters as dominant drivers. The results support process selection and process improvement, and the results help limit burden shifting. Full article

Climate risk is increasingly recognized as an important factor in financial modelling, with applications including stress testing where climate risk factors are used to influence market risk and credit risk. However, this “transmission channel” modelling faces several challenges, particularly in terms of data availability and the mismatch between the time horizons of climate risks and financial risks. Recent research, especially from central banks and regulatory bodies, is beginning to address these challenges. The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) has developed methodologies to compute very short-term scenarios. In this paper, we illustrate how outputs from ISDA and other sources can be integrated for climate stress testing of key products listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX). The main contribution of this study is the development of a structured “last-mile modelling” framework that combines country-level climate sensitivity scaling, stressed correlation inference modelling, and direct carbon cost transmission mechanisms to bridge macro-level climate scenarios with product-level financial risk. It provides a practical and extensible approach for climate stress testing across both listed and over the counter (OTC) markets. Full article

In green credit markets, information asymmetry and corporate greenwashing increasingly undermine the efficiency of resource allocation, while traditional assessment models relying on static, self-reported environmental data fail to impose effective constraints. To address this limitation, this paper develops a dynamic corporate carbon credit evaluation framework by integrating multiple sources of physical (hard) signals and embeds it into commercial banks’ credit management systems. Anchored in multi-source power-carbon signals (e.g., carbon intensity and compliance records), the framework integrates verifiable physical metrics with ESG disclosures via a Bayesian AHP–CRITIC weighting scheme to construct a dual-dimensional classification scheme (“Credit Rating–Green Label”). It further embeds carbon credit scores into dynamic adjustments to credit limits and differentiated interest rate pricing, forming an integrated risk management mechanism. Empirically, a stratified validation strategy is adopted. Analysis based on a sample of 3327 firms shows that the proposed framework achieves a classification consistency of 81.3%, significantly outperforming both a financial-only baseline model (46.8%) and models based on voluntary carbon disclosure (61.4%). Ablation studies further confirm that physical (hard) signal indicators contribute substantially to ranking stability. Moreover, panel regression analysis, based on 36,185 firm-year observations from 3327 firms over the period 2000–2023, demonstrates that carbon credit scores have robust predictive power for future financial distress. Overall, the proposed framework offers a sustainable, data-driven approach to green credit risk management. Full article