International Course on Environmental Accounting and Management

Transcription

1 International Course on Environmental Accounting and Management June 9-18, Beijing, China Hosted by School of Environment, Beijing Normal University State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control China Chapter of International Society of Advanced Emergy Research Credits: 1 Instructors: Sergio Ulgiati, Mark T. Brown Dr. Sergio Ulgiati is the founder, in the year 1998, of the series of Biennial Workshops Advances in Energy Studies. He is Professor of Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Certification at the Parthenope University of Napoli, Italy. His research interests are in the fields of Environmental Accounting and Emergy Synthesis, Life Cycle Assessment, Energy Analysis. His main research goal is to provide evaluation tools for better understanding of the interplay of human societies and nature across space and time scales, focusing on the role of resources and environment in societies, proper resource management and the environmental integrity. Dr. Ulgiati is member of the Editorial Board of the International Journals of Energy, Ecological Modelling, and Environment, Development and Sustainability. He is co-editor of the Journal of Environmental Accounting and Management. He has been President of ISAER - The International Society for the Advancement of Emergy Research. Dr. Mark T. Brown is professor of Environmental Engineering Sciences and director of the Center for Environmental Policy at the University of Florida. His interests in research and education are centered on several areas that deal with the interface of humanity and environment including, systems ecology, ecological engineering, ecological economics, environmental planning, environmental policy, restoration ecology and wetlands ecology. He has served as consultant on development issues to the USEPA, USAID, Governments of Mexico, Brazil, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Venezuela, and numerous private consulting firms worldwide. For six years Dr. Brown has been consulting ecologist to The Cousteau Society, working with their research teams to develop appropriate solutions to a wide array of resource management problems that affect marine resources throughout the world.

2 Catalog Description Energy and environmental assessment methods for evaluating the combined system of humanity and nature are studied as a means for recommending public policy. Other approaches and references on energy and resource use will be described and compared. Course Description The day-by-day increasing interest on appropriate resource management and environmental integrity calls for a unified measure of resource quality, in order to provide a rational, science-based method for evaluation of commodities, energy, societal and environmental services. This course describes the Emergy approach and the role of emergy in environmental management and policy making. Specifically the course: Describes the theoretical basis, calculation procedures and applications of emergy Introduces the concept of Unit Emergy Value (transformity, specific emergy, emergy intensities), a characterization factor expressing the energy of one type required to produce a good or a service. Provides formulas and procedures for emergy calculations Deals with the use of emergy to evaluate natural capital, environmental services, economies and international trade, economic sectors and production processes, land use and land use change. Compares the emergy approach to other, complementing environmental and economic evaluations. The course is organized into five sections: Section 1: Systems and Systems Thinking General concepts and principles of systems thinking: System Emergent properties Reductionism vs. Holism (Systems Approach) Geobiosphere Laws of Thermodynamics Maximum Power Principle Hierarchy theory Identify and use the energy systems language to diagram systems Sources Storages Interactions Producers Consumers Transaction Discuss the use of diagrams to communicate ideas and to elucidate hypotheses about system organization Explain how to draw system diagrams from word models

3 The world in which we live is far too complex for our minds to comprehend all at once, so we make mental simplifications. These simplified views of the world, which we use to think about and understand what is going on around us, are often called models. The most common models are verbal models with which humans share views of themselves and their environment. These verbal models represent generalizations about reality and are qualitative and approximate. Many of the decisions about society, environment, and economy, are made as a result of consensus reached that is based on a shared viewpoint of a simple verbal model. Public decision-making and environmental policies are usually made with simple verbal models. However, since verbal models are generalizations and tend not to be precise and are often misunderstood, we need more concrete ways of thinking and representing systems. We need systems thinking and more quantitative ways of describing the complexity that surrounds us. Section 2: Emergy Accounting Emergy evaluation is both analysis and synthesis. A brief overview of the development of Odum s concept of energy quality, a precursor to emergy is provided. Definitions of emergy, available energy, exergy. Introduction to emergy algebra and emergy evaluation methodology including definitions of performance indicators. Section 3: Environmental Accounting Environment matters What is Environmental Accounting and why it is important? The term Environmental Accounting is most often referred to as the practice of including the indirect costs and benefits of a product or activity - for example its environmental effects on health and the economy - along with its direct costs, when making business decisions. Processes use resources and affect natural capital (i.e. ecosystems and their products). The latter is the basic life support system and its health and integrity is crucial for present and future life on Earth. As a consequence, Environmental Accounting must be considered a fundamental tool to understand the role of the environment in a process or an economy, and there is growing interest in using environmental accounting techniques in Systems of National Accounts (SNA). SNAs, also known as national income accounts, calculate macroeconomic indicators such as gross domestic product, gross national product, per capita income, among others, as measures of economic performance. Recently, in response to a perceived lack of comprehensiveness of income accounts, especially as they relate to exploitation of the environment, an increased emphasis has been placed on trying to capture economic use of the environment. Many scientists and economists have suggested including some measure of environmental losses or impacts within national accounts as a way of accounting for environmental support of economic production and a country s economic performance. Section 4: EMERGY AND GLOBAL SYSTEMS Donor and receiver based values are compared. Donor-based value expresses the value of a product or service based on the convergence and interaction of the inputs, in others words on how and how much input flows converge to the product, while receiver-based value expresses the value of a product based on its utility or what can be obtained from it. Energy quality is related to complexity and intensity and is system dependent. All the resources of the geobiosphere have qualities that differ and are not equivalent in their ability to do work. In evaluations of the combined system of humans and environment that span several hierarchical levels of the geobiosphere, it is necessary to account for resource quality and the different work potentials of the energies and materials that drive productive processes

4 The empower that is derived from solar energy, tidal momentum and geothermal energy drives the productive processes of the geobiosphere and is responsible for developing gradients of potential energy transformed into secondary energy sources like wind, chemical potentials of water, and waves. All the energy and material flows in the geobiosphere can be placed on a hierarchical scale where emergy intensities (Unit Emergy Values, UEVs) are measures of quality and work potential. Section 5: Emergy and Economy The economic system is traditionally defined as the production, distribution and consumptions of goods and services. In this section, general economic concepts are related to emergy showing the interconnection between money and emergy. The relationship between resource use and money supply is explored and inflation redefined. Global emergy budget and its relative changes through the years is given. Macroeconomic relationships between National economies are redefined using emergy instead of currency providing insight into buying power of currencies, trade and national debt. The emergy value of labor and services is evaluated based on emergy support of labor and wages paid. Text Environmental Accounting: Emergy and Environmental Decision Making. by H.T. Odum, John Wiley & Sons, New York. Contact information Dr. Gengyuan Liu School of Environment Beijing Normal University Tel: liugengyuan@bnu.edu.cn

5 Schedule June 9, 2014 June 10, 2014 June 11, 2014 June 12, 2014 June 13, 2014 (Monday) (Tuesday) (Wednesday) (Thursday) (Friday) 8:55-9:40 Organization, review of concepts 1 Emergy and money Emergy Algebra, Simulation of emergy and transformity Emergy of goods and services Review, catch-up, etc. 9:40-10:00 Coffee Break Coffee Break Coffee Break Coffee Break Coffee Break 10:00-11:00 Organization, review of concepts 2 Emergy evaluation procedure Emergy networks Calculating Transformities1 Analysis of regions, states, & nations1 11:00-11:30 Q&A Q&A Q&A Q&A Q&A Lunch Break Lunch Break Lunch Break Lunch Break Lunch Break 14:30-15:15 Energy, emergy, hierarchy, transformity Analysis of ecological systems Evaluation of environmental resources Calculating Transformities2 Analysis of regions, states, & nations2 15:15-15:30 Coffee Break Coffee Break Coffee Break Coffee Break Coffee Break 15:30-16:15 Global webs, material cycles, & biogeochemistry Analysis of ecological systems Fuel sources, calculations, net emergy Evaluating Alternatives Emergy analysis of foreign exchange 16:15-17:00 Q&A Q&A Practice Q&A Practice

6 June 16, 2014 June 17, 2014 June 18, 2014 (Monday) (Tuesday) (Wednesday) 8:55-9:40 Technology, Information & Control, Indices of utility1 Hall, Cleveland, Costanza - approaches, ratios, value Policy perspectives/sustainability Review1 9:40-10:00 Coffee Break Coffee Break Coffee Break 10:00-11:00 Technology, Information & Control, Indices of utility2 Input-output energy analysis Policy perspectives/sustainability Review2 11:00-11:30 Q&A Q&A Q&A Lunch Break Lunch Break Lunch Break 14:25-15:10 Emergy of labor, information & control1 Calculating transformities using Matrix methods Project Class Presentations1 15:10-15:30 Coffee Break Coffee Break Coffee Break 15:30-16:15 Emergy of labor, information & control3 Carrying capacity, Env. Loading, Investment Ratio Project Class Presentations2 16:15-17:00 Q&A Q&A Practice