SD Features Sustainability Concepts. Definition Eco-efficiency generates more value through technology and process changes whilst reducing resource use and environmental impact throughout the product or service's life.
Eco-efficiency applies to all business aspects, from purchasing and production to marketing and distribution. Main features Linking environmental and economic performance, eco-efficiency is primarily a management concept. Simply put, it is the Cradle to Cradle design. Let's take an example from the IT equipment mentioned above.
IT equipment produces heat as a waste product. That heat is then either ducted out of the server room via a fan or cooled with an AC unit.
Both solutions require additional energy. Air-cooled IT rooms allow that heat to dissipate outside, especially in cooler climes. This is an energy efficient solution. Ducting that waste heat into nearby offices to heat employees would also be an energy efficient win, but now we have a sustainable solution.
We have zero waste. Supplying the electricity for the IT room from a renewable energy source would give us a nearly perfect sustainable system. By not taking this extra step from efficiency to sustainability, we as sustainability practitioners are actually failing the movement and the planet. And we're wasting precious time. Consider the following two familiar statistics: 1. You are wasting our time.
While many green products are environmentally friendly, looking at them from the sustainability aspect involves digging deeper. How are they sourced, where did they come from, what resources went into the production? Taking it a step further, sustainability would mean that the company adheres to highly selective processes where a new tree is planted for every one that is cut down. If a company uses only mature timbers, it minimizes the impact on the environment.
How does knowing the difference between green vs. Many complex and interacting factors determine the consumption rate of fossil fuels. Demand is a result of population growth rate, availability of fossil fuel, energy efficiency, conservation measures and use of non-fossil energy sources, general industrial productivity, energy policy, and future climate [ 9 ].
All these factors will affect the fossil fuel utilization rates and the future climate. Nigeria is one of the highest emitters of greenhouse gases in Africa [ 10 ]. The practice of flaring gas by the oil companies operating in Nigeria has been a major means through which greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere.
Carbon dioxide emissions in this area are among the highest in the world [ 11 ]. Some Gas flaring has raised temperatures and rendered large areas uninhabitable. Between and , a total of about The use of renewable energy sources will reduce the over dependence on the burning of fossil fuel. Moreover, instead of flaring gas in Nigeria, the gases can be converted to methanol and used as a fuel for both domestic and industrial use.
With good energy efficiency practices and products, the burning of fossil fuel for energy will be greatly minimized. Though some researches on the use of renewable energy to mitigate climate change have been carried out, such researches failed to empirically identify the best combination of energy needed to mitigate or ensure an eco-friendly environment in Nigeria.
Against this backdrop, the study intends to close this gap by identifying the combination of energy consumption that reduces the emission of GHGs capable of ensuring an eco-friendly environment for sustainable development in Nigeria. The two questions underpinning this study are as follows:. Does renewable energy consumption mitigate climate change and promote an eco-friendly environment in Nigeria?
To investigate the potentials of renewable energy consumption to mitigate climate change and promote an eco-friendly environment in Nigeria and. An auto-regression distributed lag ARDL model analysis is used to estimate the environmental impact of both fossil fuel and non-fossil fuel consumption with the aim of examining the contribution of renewable and green energy in ensuring an eco-friendly environment in Nigeria.
Although carbon dioxide is the most abundant of the greenhouse gases, methane and nitrous oxide have more global warming potential than carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide emission should be strictly under control in Nigeria. Even though the emission level in Nigeria is not so significant, the impact of such GHGs emitted in one location may be felt in a completely different location.
Major areas of greenhouse gas emissions include the burning of fossil fuels in cars as well as in industrial processes and deforestation leading to a high concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In Nigeria, the most important sources of greenhouse gases include electricity generators, motor vehicles, waste dumps, burning of fuel wood and coal, agricultural activities, land use changes and deforestations, gas flaring, and bush burning in general [ 10 ].
In addition to the CO 2 emission, these processes emit methane, sulfur dioxide, and nitrous gases. The energy consumption mix in Nigeria is dominated by fuelwood The energy utilization sector in Nigeria can be grouped into industry, transport, commercial, household, and agricultural sectors.
Nigeria consumes over 50 million metric tons of fuel wood annually, which is a major cause of desertification and erosion in the country. Meanwhile, electricity is required for basic developmental services as well as economic growth. The absence of reliable energy supply has left the rural populace socially backward and their economic potentials untapped [ 14 ]. Despite the vast oil and gas reserves, a small amount is used in Nigeria.
Nigeria has the ninth largest natural gas reserve in the world and exports large quantities of liquefied natural gas LNG to other countries, but her gas-dominated electricity grid still experiences frequent collapses due to inadequate gas supply and obsolete infrastructures. For Nigeria to meet up with its energy needs, it must look for alternative energy sources especially for the rural populace. If renewable energy is properly harnessed, it could meet a significant proportion of energy demand with less deteriorating effects on the environment.
The country is reasonably endowed with large rivers and some few natural falls. Small rivers and streams also exist within the present split of the country into 11 River Basin Authorities, some of which maintain minimum discharges all year round.
In a study carried out in in 12 states and 4 river basins, over unexploited small hydropower SHP sites with total potentials of They indicate that Nigeria possesses the potential renewable source of energy along her numerous river systems, a total of 70 micro-dams, mini dams, and 86 small sites have been identified.
Most of these stations are found around Jos at Kwall and Kurra Falls. These rivers, waterfalls, and streams with high potentials for hydropower, if properly harnessed, will lead to decentralized use and provide the most affordable and accessible option to off-grid electricity services, especially to the rural communities.
Nigeria lies within a high sunshine belt and thus has enormous solar energy potentials. Solar radiation is fairly well distributed with an average solar radiation of about Several PV-water pumping, electrification, and solar-thermal installations have been put in place.
Such solar thermal applications include solar cooking, solar crop drying, solar incubators, and solar chick brooding. Other areas of application of solar electricity include low- and medium-power applications such as water pumping, village electrification, rural clinic and power supply for schools, vaccine refrigeration, traffic lighting, and lighting of road signs. Wind energy is available at annual average speeds of about 2.
With an air density of 1. At present, the share of wind energy in the national energy consumption has remained on the lower end with no commercial wind power plants connected to the national grid. Only a few number of stand-alone wind power plants were installed in the early s in five northern states mainly to power water pumps and a 5-kW wind electricity conversion system for village electrification installed at Sayyan Gidan Gada, in Sokoto State [ 17 ]. In recent times, numerous studies have been carried out to assess the wind speed characteristics and the associated wind energy potentials in different locations in Nigeria.
The biomass resources of Nigeria can be identified as crops, forage grasses and shrubs, animal wastes, and wastes arising from forestry, agriculture, municipal, and industrial activities, as well as aquatic biomass. Crops such as sweet sorghum, maize, and sugarcane were the most promising feedstocks for biofuel production [ 19 ]. Plant biomass can be utilized as a fuel for small-scale industries.
It could also be fermented by anaerobic bacteria to produce a cheap fuel gas biogases. Biogas production from agricultural residues, industrial, and municipal waste does not compete for land, water, and fertilizers with food crops as is the case with bio-ethanol and biodiesel production and will thus reduce the menaces posed by these wastes.
In Nigeria, the feedstock substrates suitable for an economically feasible biogas production include water lettuce, water hyacinth, dung, cassava leaves, and processing waste, urban refuse, solid including industrial waste, agricultural residues, and sewage [ 20 ].
It has been estimated that Nigeria produces about , tons of fresh animal waste daily. Since 1 kg of fresh animal waste allows to produce about 0. Although the biogas technology is not common in Nigeria, various research works on the technology and policy aspects of biogas production have been carried out by various scientists in the country.
Some significant researches have been done on a reactor design that would lead to process optimization in the development of anaerobic digesters [ 20 ]. Sawdust and wood wastes are other important biomass resources associated with the lumber industry.
Small particle biomass stoves already exist for burning sawdust and wood shaving. Biomass utilization as an energy resource is currently limited to the thermal application as fuels for cooking and crop drying.
Renewable energy is clean, inexhaustible, unlimited, and rapidly replenished naturally. Renewable energy sources have brought about the need for technology innovation as a means of addressing climate change challenges, i. The use of renewable energy sources will also significantly reduce the over-dependency on the burning of fossil fuel. Moreover, instead of flaring gas in Nigeria, the gases can be converted to methanol and used as a fuel for both domestic and industrial applications.
When using the best practices and products with regards to energy efficiency, the burning of fossil fuels for energy generation will be greatly minimized. Nigeria has an abundance of renewable energy resources to be harnessed. Given the abundant availability of sun for solar energy generation in Nigeria and if the needed political will to tap these resources into place, the country will definitely surmount the challenges of climate change and global warming.
The sun, with an estimated diameter of 1. About 2. The ECN has significantly done well in this regard. Between and , several installations of solar PV systems have been executed in the country. In and alone, the Commission installed over kWp and 1. The installations were mainly for water pumping, streetlight applications, and powering of offices.
The current estimate of solar PV installations in the country is put at 6 MW of power [ 21 ]. Wind energy is also important in mitigating climate change. The development of wind power plants is being undertaken by many countries including Nigeria, for the generation of electricity in their quest to exploit renewable energy sources.
With wind energy available at an annual average speed of 4. The coastal regions of the south and the northern part of the country are possible suitable sites for wind energy exploitation. Energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies are prominent in most sustainable development programs, for example, the Agenda 21 [ 22 ]. In one IPCC scenario, in which greenhouse gases are stabilized by the year , the share of renewable energy in the global energy balance must increase tenfold from the current level.
In developing countries, the required increase is, even more, dramatic and was estimated to be a fold between and In this section, an appropriate econometric model, which theoretically established the relationship between variables of interest, are specified and used to practically demonstrate energy use and environmental quality in Nigeria.
According to the World Bank, four drivers that constitute the basis for emission scenarios are as follows:. Energy choices. The choice of energy we consume determines the emission of CO 2.
Whether we will be building more coal or more solar, wind, and renewable energy. The third factor is the economic growth. The faster economies grow, the more energy they will need, and the more fossil fuels they are likely to consume. And the fourth factor is technological innovation; some people think that technological innovation will save us by, for example, allowing us to pull CO 2 from the air or, in a less dramatic way, removing through scrubbers, from power plants and pumping it under the Earth.
In any case, it is these four drivers that together constitute the basis for emission scenarios [ 24 ]. In a more explicit form, the model can be written in a log-linear form to transform the variables into the same unit and base. The bound test approach to co-integration which is based on the ARDL procedure proposed by Pesaran et al. The variables used are renewable energy consumption REN t and fossil fuel consumption FUE t as components of disaggregated energy use.
The fossil fuel is made of coal, oil, petroleum, and natural gas. Others are real gross domestic product [ GDP t proxy for economic growth] and total carbon dioxide emissions [ CO 2 t ] measured in million metric tons.
All data are converted into natural logarithm. E-views 8.
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