Paris Agreement requires substantial, broad, and sustained policy efforts beyond COVID-19 public stimulus packages

Eco-Friendly and COVID-19 Friendly? Decreasing the Carbon Footprint of the Operating Room in the COVID-19 Era

Surgery is one of the most energy-intensive branches of healthcare. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has reduced surgical volumes, infection control protocols have increased the ecological footprint of surgery owing to the extensive use of personal protective equipment, sanitation, testing and isolation resources. The burden of environmental diseases requiring surgical care, the international commitment towards environmental sustainability and the global efforts to return to the pre-pandemic surgical workflow call for action towards climate-friendly surgery. The authors have searched the peer-reviewed and gray literature for clinical studies, reports and guidelines related to the ecological footprint of surgical care and the available solutions and frameworks to reduce it. Numerous studies concede that surgery is associated with a high rate of energy utilization and waste generation that is comparable to major non-medical sources of pollution. Recommendations and research questions outlining environmentally sustainable models of surgical practices span from sanitation and air quality improvement systems to the allocation of non-recyclable consumables and energy-efficient surgical planning. The latter are particularly relevant to infection control protocols for COVID-19. Paving the way towards climate-friendly surgery is a worthy endeavor with a major potential to improve surgical practice and outcomes in the long term.

Accelerating the energy transition towards photovoltaic and wind in China

China's goal to achieve carbon (C) neutrality by 2060 requires scaling up photovoltaic (PV) and wind power from 1 to 10-15 PWh year^-1 (refs. ^1-5). Following the historical rates of renewable installation¹, a recent high-resolution energy-system model⁶ and forecasts based on China's 14th Five-year Energy Development (CFED)⁷, however, only indicate that the capacity will reach 5-9.5 PWh year^-1 by 2060. Here we show that, by individually optimizing the deployment of 3,844 new utility-scale PV and wind power plants coordinated with ultra-high-voltage (UHV) transmission and energy storage and accounting for power-load flexibility and learning dynamics, the capacity of PV and wind power can be increased from 9 PWh year^-1 (corresponding to the CFED path) to 15 PWh year^-1, accompanied by a reduction in the average abatement cost from US$97 to US$6 per tonne of carbon dioxide (tCO₂). To achieve this, annualized investment in PV and wind power should ramp up from US$77 billion in 2020 (current level) to US$127 billion in the 2020s and further to US$426 billion year^-1 in the 2050s. The large-scale deployment of PV and wind power increases income for residents in the poorest regions as co-benefits. Our results highlight the importance of upgrading power systems by building energy storage, expanding transmission capacity and adjusting power load at the demand side to reduce the economic cost of deploying PV and wind power to achieve carbon neutrality in China.

The effect of social network sites usage in climate change awareness in Latin America

Using data from the Latinobarómetro (Latin Barometer) survey of 2017 to analyze the effect of social network site usage on climate change awareness in 18 Latin American countries, this article makes three contributions. First, it offers results on the socioeconomic determinants of climate awareness in a region of the world where there is scant published evidence in this regard. Second, it shows the effect of social media consumption on climate change awareness by assessing the role of each of the most popular sites: YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Tumblr. Third, it assesses the effects of multi-platform consumption. The results show that YouTube has the strongest and most robust positive and statistically significant effect on climate change awareness, followed by Instagram, Twitter, and WhatsApp, while being a multi-platform user also has a positive and statistically significant effect on climate change awareness. The implications of these findings for understanding the role of social media in the development of environmental awareness are discussed.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11111-023-00417-4.

COVID-19 recovery packages can benefit climate targets and clean energy jobs, but scale of impacts and optimal investment portfolios differ among major economies

To meet the Paris temperature targets and recover from the effects of the pandemic, many countries have launched economic recovery plans, including specific elements to promote clean energy technologies and green jobs. However, how to successfully manage investment portfolios of green recovery packages to optimize both climate mitigation and employment benefits remains unclear. Here, we use three energy-economic models, combined with a portfolio analysis approach, to find optimal low-carbon technology subsidy combinations in six major emitting regions: Canada, China, the European Union (EU), India, Japan, and the United States (US). We find that, although numerical estimates differ given different model structures, results consistently show that a >50% investment in solar photovoltaics is more likely to enable CO₂ emissions reduction and green jobs, particularly in the EU and China. Our study illustrates the importance of strategically managing investment portfolios in recovery packages to enable optimal outcomes and foster a post-pandemic green economy.

A low-carbon transition is urgently needed to meet the 1.5C Paris climate targets. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, however, has imposed widespread economic burdens, including declines in investments and employment, which have hindered the development of many sectors, including clean energy. There is an opportunity to combine post-pandemic recovery packages with green growth aspirations, but the extent to which investments can be managed in a way that achieves both employment growth and greenhouse gas emissions reductions, given varying socioeconomic conditions, remains unclear. We attempt to resolve this issue by evaluating different investment strategies across six major emitters (Canada, China, the European Union (EU), India, Japan, and the US) using three energy-economic computational models. Our estimates suggest that green recovery plans should allocate at least 50% of funds to solar power production to obtain both CO₂ emissions reductions and employment gains. This is particularly the case in the EU and China.