More than 50 years ago, the global community started talking about the need to build and develop a green economy. Since then, much has changed: the internet appeared, various gadgets came into people’s lives, the transport system continues to actively expand and develop, the production of consumer products grows, and all... on “dirty” fuel. Are there new approaches and solutions for green development? Let’s see.
There is the basis
The serious concern of the world’s leading countries about the global environmental situation led to the Paris Agreement to control climate change in 2015, primarily to reduce the rate of global warming. The Paris Agreement set as its main practical objective the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. This involved finding solutions to a number of problems: capturing and recycling black carbon emissions, replacing “dirty” fuels with “green” ones, converting production facilities to “green rails”, cleaning up water resources, recycling waste and so on. Many companies around the world have adopted their own sustainable development programmes and are actively promoting the Paris Agreement concept.
Achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement involves a range of measures aimed at stimulating green business, production and living conditions. These measures are taken partly by governments, partly by producers themselves. The development of real actions is possible through dialogue, which is why environmental forums and conferences have become more frequent in recent years, not only on a global scale (such as UN conferences), but also within a single country (such as the Russian Environmental Forum — REF) or region.
These days a number of countries have adopted ambitious plans to stimulate green development. Governmental instruments of development include taxation programmes for businesses and manufacturers, subsidies, grants, introduction of environmental standards at the legislative level, etc. Scientists offer new options for solving environmental problems that concern both the most problematic issues, i.e. fuel and industrial waste, and everyday everyday life — rubbish disposal, public awareness of environmental issues and others.
Photo by: Valery Yurasov / iStock
Taxes
Environmental taxes began to be levied in Scandinavian and European countries in the 1980s, and now exist in all developed countries and many developing countries. The principles of these taxes have become deeper and more progressive over the years: initially they only affected environmentally hazardous activities, but now they also cover rubbish disposal, compensation for CO2 emissions (for example, if you want to ride a bus in Europe, you should pay a tax when you buy a ticket). The usual environmental taxes are thought to be only co-financing, with the main money for the environment coming from the state budget.
Recently, a new approach has emerged to stimulate green development measures from the tax area. Two important innovations: the introduction of tax credits for developers to build green apartment buildings, and the possibility to significantly reduce tax payments by manufacturers through the installation of new carbon capture and storage systems at production facilities.
New Green Building State Standard
The national standard for ‘green’ construction of apartment buildings (State Standart GOST R) was set by Rosstandart on 9 September 2022. The document was developed by the Ministry of Construction of Russia together with DOM.RF and will take effect on 1 November. The new Russian standard was created taking into account international experience in the design, construction and operation of green buildings, such as the British BREEAM standard, the US LEED and the German DGNB.
The new green standard contains a list of 81 criteria for assessing apartment buildings in Russia. For a house to be recognised as “green”, developers only need to provide evidence of 16 criteria from the list.
The system of criteria provides a comprehensive account of the environmental performance of construction and operation of a residential building: organization and management of construction, energy efficiency, resource efficiency, waste management, consumables, pollution, transport accessibility.
Application of the new standard will be voluntary for developers. However, the Ministry of Construction plans to stimulate the spread of “green” construction in Russia through tax incentives, flexible bank guarantees and preferential mortgage lending, as well as simplification of project approval procedures. It is worth noting that tax incentives are expected to be introduced for both developers and owners of green real estate.
Photo by: Brusnika Company
CCUS technology...
Reducing the rate of global warming is only possible if the earth’s atmosphere is completely free of black carbon. Until recently, it seemed like a fantasy to actually reduce СО2 emissions, but already today this measure is becoming a reality.
CCUS (Carbon capture, utilisation and storage) is a new step towards removing the carbon footprint from the atmosphere. This technology allows СО2 to be captured from the air and stored in reservoirs. CCUS is now proposed to be installed at the dirtiest production facilities — power plants and iron and steel plants, the chemical industry, oil and gas processing and cement production.
The question remains as to what to do with the captured СО2. Storing it “until better times” is energy and resource intensive. The possibility of tank breakdowns and carbon leaks poses the risk of an environmental disaster in the region where the storage sites are located.
While scientists are searching for options to further recycle the СО2, the new technology has already begun to be applied to some of the production facilities. The Acorn Project plant in Scotland separates the СО2 from the natural gas used to produce hydrogen. In northern England, the Drax C-Capture facility extracts carbon dioxide from the emissions of a biomass power station. So far there are few such projects, but in Europe governments have found measures to encourage their expansion — introducing carbon tax credits. Also, the availability of CCUS plants in carbon-intensive industries, especially in metal manufacturing, will significantly reduce payments of the cross-border carbon tax (CTC). The introduction of the CCT on EU imports of carbon-intensive products (steel, pipes, cement, aluminium, fertiliser and electricity) is another incentive for green development.
...and other technologies
Now the development and implementation of many new technologies for the expansion of green development in production and at home are aimed at solving such problems as finding alternative fuel options, creating environmentally friendly transport, gadgets and other things. The most recent developments are in nano-, bio- and information technology.
Many advances in nanotechnology are already firmly integrated into people’s daily lives: drugs, smartphones, car paint, certain types of cosmetics (e.g. sunscreen), contraceptives, and others. Nanotechnology is also used in agriculture and energy production: in the manufacture of LEDs, nanocoatings for energy storage and production, and so on.
Due to the large-scale reduction of biodiversity due to air pollution, deforestation and water pollution, various biotechnologies are being developed, especially in the field of environmental remediation, including purification of the environment from heavy metals and chemicals. Water and air pollution control technologies are being actively developed in the BRICS countries (Russia, Brazil, India, Indonesia, China, South Africa), Europe and Australia. Significant achievements have been made in water pollution control in Australia, in wind energy in Denmark, in air pollution control in Germany and in solar energy in Spain.
The latest information technology is literally reshaping society. Developments in data storage systems are at least reducing deforestation by reducing paper consumption. More and more data is being digitised, which is already allowing people to reduce the time they spend searching for information, making it easier to contact government offices in their everyday lives, and so on. However, the use and development of information technology is energy-intensive and therefore opens up new opportunities for the development of electronic devices and biofuels.
Photo by: NovaVind JSC
Energy saving and biofuels
Currently, the cleanest fuel option is electricity generated from solar energy. This technology offers enormous opportunities for green development, reducing CO2 emissions and pollution. Solar energy is captured and recycled through solar panels (batteries). In many countries around the world there are entire power plants powered by solar panels. Public transport is being converted to advanced solar energy technology. In Moscow, more than a thousand electric buses have already replaced the old outdated gasoline-powered buses. Solar-powered batteries for charging gadgets are appearing, and technology for installing windows with solar panels already embedded to recycle solar energy for room operation has begun to be implemented in Europe.
The development of new biofuels offers other opportunities in the field of green energy. In general, biofuels are both “clean” natural resources (firewood, straw, coal, dried dung) and products of organic industrial waste processing (dimethyl alcohol, biodiesel). In recent years, concepts of second- and third-generation biofuels have appeared. The second generation refers to biofuels created from processed biomass — leftovers from food or food waste not suitable for consumption (stubs, peels, etc.), wood waste, and so on. Second-generation biofuels are also produced from algae and some plant species (ginger and jatropha). Such biofuels are used in mechanical engineering, construction.
Third generation biofuels are produced from algae with high oil content. This biofuel option was developed back in the 1990s, but has not become widespread due to the high cost of production.
Fashion for “green”
In addition to the prospect of ‘greening’ large industries, green development in everyday society is also important. The promotion of waste reduction at household level plays a significant role in people’s understanding of environmental issues and their place in this sphere.
In recent years, the Zero waste movement has been gaining popularity. Activists in the movement seek to reduce their own household waste to a minimum and promote the idea of “waste-free” living on social networks, at various forums and conferences (speeches by Irina Kozlovskikh and Lauren Singer at the TED conference). As part of the “zero waste” movement, eco-shops (e.g. Kotomka) are being opened where products without packaging, clothes or household items produced without the use of harmful resources are on sale.
The idea of reducing waste at the household level is consonant with sustainable fashion trends. “Slow” fashion emphasises the creation of one’s own unique style of clothing, which does not depend on fast-moving fashion trends and allows one to wear the same clothes for many years, thereby reducing consumption. Sustainable fashion involves the use of ecological materials to create clothes, recycling old clothes into new garments and so on. Prospects for both trends are broad, as it is likely that in the future under the influence of propaganda of these trends will change public consciousness about fashion and consumption, will come to understanding that ecology and saving the health of the planet are more important than seasonal changes and chasing fashion.
Author: Ekaterina Lidskaya
Cover photo: danefromspain / iStock
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