Suzana Kahn Ribeiro

Comments on the Brazilian Proposal and contributions to global temperature increase with different climate responses—CO2 emissions due to fossil fuels, CO2 emissions due to land use change

Abstract This paper addresses the question of how to take into account the anthropogenic contribution to the increase of global temperature, instead of being restricted to the Carbon emissions adopted in the Kyoto Protocol on responsibility sharing. It is shown the sensibility of the results to the variation of the parameters from different authors used for simulating the climate response based in the so-called Brazilian Proposal (BP). It is also discussed the methodological and scientific aspects of the BP being discussed by an expert group coordinated by SBSTA/UNFCCC and results of energy sector and land use change contributions by groups of countries.

The Present, Past, and Future Contributions to Global Warming of CO2 Emissions from Fuels

The objective of this paper is to emphasize theresponsibility of developed countries to implement the Climate Convention, as well as the role ofdeveloping countries in CO2 emissions controlwhile sustaining their rights to increase energyconsumption per capita during the development process. Itis shown that the growth in CO2

Brazilian transport initiatives with GHG reductions as a co-benefit

emissions fromfossil fuel consumption in North America, excludingMexico, from 1990 to 1996 was 3.7 times higherthan that of Latin America in absolute terms. Thecumulative contribution to global warming, expressedas the mass of the gas multiplied by time (GtCy), can becalculated as the integration of the atmosphericconcentration of the emitted gas along time, witha weight function in the integrand to simulate theclimate response. To simulate climate response,we used the superposition of exponential decay functions with different decay constants. Thehistorical contributions of the OECD countries,the Eastern European countries and theex-Soviet Union, and from all developingcountries are considered. The future contributionsare computed in three scenarios. All of them showthat emissions from Non-Annex I countrieswill become higher than those of Annex I countriessoon after 2010, while the curves of atmosphericconcentration will cross one another later, not muchbefore 2050, and the respective contributions toglobal temperature increase will cross about 2090.

Performance Evaluation of Hybrid-Drive Buses and Potential Fuel Savings in Brazilian Urban Transit

High oil prices and poor air quality in the urban areas are important factors that motivate efforts to cut consumption of petroleum products. Four public policy initiatives for the Brazilian transport sector are analysed: the adoption of flexfuel technology; the National Biodiesel Programme; the National Vehicle Efficiency Programme; and the Rio de Janeiro State Light Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance Programme. Economic impacts (petrol and diesel avoided) are shown. Significant co-benefits are shown in terms of reduced CO2 emissions that are often not considered or accounted for by Brazilian policy makers. Lessons from these initiatives for domestic and international policy are presented.

CO2 emissions from passenger transport in Rio de Janeiro

Transporting more than 55 million passengers per day, buses are the main transit mode in Brazil. Most of these vehicles use diesel oil and this situation causes dependence on oil, extensive greenhouse gas emissions and increasing air pollution in urban areas. In order to improve this situation the options for Brazilian cities include the use of alternative fuels and new propulsion technologies, such as hybrid vehicles. This article proposes a procedure for evaluating the performance of a recently developed Brazilian hybrid-drive technology. A simple procedure is presented to compare hybrid-drive buses with conventional diesel buses in urban operation focusing on fuel economy and the potential for reducing diesel oil consumption through the use of hybrid-drive buses. Field tests carried out by the authors indicate that fuel consumption improvement through the use of hybrid-drive buses would certainly exceed 20%, resulting in lower fuel costs and reduced carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Activities implemented jointly and the use of fuel alcohol in Brazil for abating CO2 emissions

Transport externalities have generally been discussed at the local level perspective. Aspects related to local atmospheric and noise pollution from vehicles, for instance, have been analysed in great depth and their impact in urban centres has been studied and discussed. On the other hand, some aspects related to the wider contribution of transport to environmental impacts have been neglected or considered of less importance. The main objective of this paper is to evaluate how urban passenger transport contributes to CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions and to the greenhouse effect. The study takes into account road transport emissions in the Metropolitan Region of the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, focusing on the comparison between urban bus emissions and private car emissions. The conclusions reached highlight some viable transport policies to be adopted in the city and the importance of increasing public transport use if CO2 emissions from traffic are to be reduced.

ASSESSMENT OF HYBRID-DRIVE BUS FUEL SAVINGS FOR BRAZILIAN URBAN TRANSIT

Abstract A sustained economic growth with low environmental hazards is a major challenge for modern society. Abating CO2 gas emissions together with the rational uses of energy from clean sources is recognized as a priority worldwide. In this connection, this paper focuses on the possibilities for stimulating and expanding the production of fuel alcohol from sugarcane and the generation of thermoelectricity from bagasse, in the context of Activities Implemented Jointly. A methodology for calculating the CO2 abatement costs in different scenarios for the use of fuel alcohol and bagasse is presented. The base scenario is constructed starting from an estimate of the motor vehicle fleet run on gasoline and on fuel alcohol. It is assumed the decreasing of alcohol vehicle fleet, as it happens now, and a blend of gasoline with only 10% of anhydrous alcohol. So, it is calculated the consumption of gasoline and alcohol up to the time horizon at the year 2010, as well as the total fuel costs using different hypothesis for the oil price. The alcohol cost is taken as constant in dollars of 1994 and equal to its value just before the overvalorization of the exchange rate between the Brazilian currency (Real-R

Financing the Transition for a Sustainable Campus: Experiences from Brazil

) and the US

Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation: Bioenergy

. It is assumed that this exchange rate will probably be changed in the next years. It is considered in the base scenario alternatives of electricity expansion using coal, fuel oil and natural gas. The carbon emissions and thermoelectricity generation are obtained in two scenarios for abating CO2 emissions by alcohol vehicle fleet besides the use of a blend of gasoline and 22% alcohol, as well as by implementing electricity generation with sugar cane bagasse. It is calculated the planted area with sugar cane to meet the alcohol and bagasse demand in each scenario. The abatement costs in the different scenarios, taking as reference the base scenario, is calculated. The main conclusion is that the abatement cost decreases along the time and with the increase of CO2 abatement, reaching a value lower than US

Energy efficiency technologies for road vehicles

10 t−1 CO2 in the year 2010.