Citation
(2008), "Editorial", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 9 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijshe.2008.24909aaa.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2008, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Editorial
Welcome to another issue of IJSHE. In this issue, readers will be able to find a very exciting set of papers handling aspects of sustainability in universities from various parts of the world.
In this editorial, I would like to comment on a recent study performed by WWF which has identified the fact that German and British power plants dominate a list of the 30 biggest carbon dioxide emitters in the European energy sector. The list is based on data submitted by installations under the EU emission trading scheme (ETS) and was published by WWF.
The group has taken the 30 biggest emitters by emission volume and then ranked them in order of energy efficiency. As in its first such listing 18 months ago, Germany dominates the top ten, with six plants, four owned by energy giant RWE. The number of British plants has more than doubled, to ten plants in the top 30. Sanjeev Kumar of WWF blamed the increase on a shift from gas to coal due to high-gas prices. He said, Germany and the UK must reduce domestic emissions further to retain credibility as leaders on climate change.
There have been changes further down the list, with Italian and Spanish plants now noticeably absent. WWF said it was too early to take this as evidence of reduced emissions in those countries. Several Italian plants underwent upgrades in 2006 and did not operate for as long as during the previous year.
The 30 plants represented about 10 per cent of EU CO2 emissions in 2006 and all were coal-fired. This highlights the importance of introducing carbon capture and storage equipment for them. Most of the eight power plants from the list that had a surplus of ETS emission allowances in 2006 were also among the least efficient.
Energy issues are a major part of the academic debate on sustainability. Therefore, these developments are not only interesting from a technical perspective, but also offer a good basis upon which the case for using renewables in universities may be made. Enjoy your reading!
Walter Leal Filho