This note highlights how machine learning is being used to decarbonize (reduce GHG emissions) several key sectors including electricity, transportation, building, industrial processes, and agriculture -- and how machine learning is being used to accelerate efforts to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (carbon removal).
Container shipping was responsible for moving more than 80% of globally traded goods, and almost 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. A.P. Moeller-Maersk, one of the top three container lines, conducted an extensive lifecycle assessment (LCA) of alternative fuels, before deciding to bet on methanol. This case reviews the LCA methodology and the fuel choices, as well as the long term implications of their selection.
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a holistic approach to quantifying the environmental impacts-including resources consumed and wastes produced-associated with the entire life cycle of a product, from the production or extraction of the raw materials used in its creation, to its end-of-use disposition. LCAs are often used to better understand how choices made in a product's design (e.g., materials, assembly, energy sources, energy efficiency) would affect its overall environmental impact. This note provides an overview of the different types of LCAs, LCA methodology, and LCA tools and databases.
Companies that are addressing climate change by mitigating their greenhouse gas emissions often set reduction targets. This note describes several types of widely used carbon reduction targets, including carbon neutral, science based, net zero, real zero, and carbon negative.
This background note describes the Amager Bakke waste-to-energy (WtE) plant in Copenhagen, which merges traditional waste incineration with a combined heat and power (CHP) plant and air pollution control (scrubbing) technology, and had plans to add carbon dioxide (CO2) capture technology to become the cleanest incineration plant in the world. The note also provides an overview of integrated waste management, waste incineration, district heating, Amager Bakke's process, and the future of waste management in Denmark.
To reduce greenhouse gas emissions that were contributing to climate change, the world needs to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. Power-to-X (PtX) refers to an array of processes that convert electricity (power) to various gaseous and liquid fuels (X). PtX is widely viewed as essential to accelerating the deployment of renewable energy. This note focuses on five central PtX fuels: hydrogen, ammonia, syngas, methanol, and methane.
This note describes some of the most significant agricultural innovations in the Netherlands, their drivers, environmental performance implications, some challenges facing the sector, and the potential replicability of these innovations to other contexts.