Development of new indicators for improved climate characterization of bioplastics: going beyond tipping the Arctic summer sea-ice
Bioplastics are often considered as environmentally sustainable solutions to mitigate climate change. Climate performance of bioplastics is traditionally assessed using Global Warming Potential (GWP) as indicator. Although credits can be given for temporary carbon storage in biomaterial, GWP does no...
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ftdtupubl:oai:pure.atira.dk:publications/06d1c285-29d7-46fa-bb56-63c882c77a29 2023-05-15T13:11:27+02:00 Development of new indicators for improved climate characterization of bioplastics: going beyond tipping the Arctic summer sea-ice Fabbri, Serena Owsianiak, Mikolaj 2018 https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/06d1c285-29d7-46fa-bb56-63c882c77a29 eng eng info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess Fabbri , S & Owsianiak , M 2018 , ' Development of new indicators for improved climate characterization of bioplastics: going beyond tipping the Arctic summer sea-ice ' , SETAC Europe 24th LCA Symposium , Vienna , Austria , 24/09/2018 - 26/09/2018 . /dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/climate_action SDG 13 - Climate Action conferenceObject 2018 ftdtupubl 2022-08-14T08:33:12Z Bioplastics are often considered as environmentally sustainable solutions to mitigate climate change. Climate performance of bioplastics is traditionally assessed using Global Warming Potential (GWP) as indicator. Although credits can be given for temporary carbon storage in biomaterial, GWP does not consider the contribution of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to crossing of climatic tipping points, that is, levels of pressure on the climate system beyond which adverse and potentially irreversible changes may occur. Accounting for timing of GHG emissions is particularly relevant for some biodegradable materials made from biopolymers, which can degrade relatively quickly in the environment. Here, building on recently developed Climate Tipping Potential (CTP) indicator, which quantifies impacts in relation to tipping the Arctic summer sea ice, a new indicator is proposed, which: (i) includes melting of Greenland icesheet as tipping element, and (ii) includes the contribution of tipping the Arctic summer sea ice to melting of the Greenland ice-sheet due to albedo changes. The new indicator was applied in practice to temporarily disaggregated CO2 emission inventories representing a wide range of bioplastics mineralization rate constants. For biodegradable bioplastics, it was found that total climate tipping impact caused by temporal evolution of CO2 from mineralization of bioplastic is dominated by contribution of CO 2 emissions to tipping the Arctic summer sea ice rather than tipping the Greenland ice-sheet. The latter may become important, however, for those bioplastics that degrade relatively slowly in the environment. These findings highlight the need for considering timing of emissions as determined by biodegradability of the biopolymer in the environment, when characterizing climate-tipping performance of bioplastics. Conference Object albedo Arctic Arctic Climate change Global warming Greenland Ice Sheet Sea ice Technical University of Denmark: DTU Orbit Arctic Greenland |
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Open Polar |
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Technical University of Denmark: DTU Orbit |
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ftdtupubl |
language |
English |
topic |
/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/climate_action SDG 13 - Climate Action |
spellingShingle |
/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/climate_action SDG 13 - Climate Action Fabbri, Serena Owsianiak, Mikolaj Development of new indicators for improved climate characterization of bioplastics: going beyond tipping the Arctic summer sea-ice |
topic_facet |
/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/climate_action SDG 13 - Climate Action |
description |
Bioplastics are often considered as environmentally sustainable solutions to mitigate climate change. Climate performance of bioplastics is traditionally assessed using Global Warming Potential (GWP) as indicator. Although credits can be given for temporary carbon storage in biomaterial, GWP does not consider the contribution of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to crossing of climatic tipping points, that is, levels of pressure on the climate system beyond which adverse and potentially irreversible changes may occur. Accounting for timing of GHG emissions is particularly relevant for some biodegradable materials made from biopolymers, which can degrade relatively quickly in the environment. Here, building on recently developed Climate Tipping Potential (CTP) indicator, which quantifies impacts in relation to tipping the Arctic summer sea ice, a new indicator is proposed, which: (i) includes melting of Greenland icesheet as tipping element, and (ii) includes the contribution of tipping the Arctic summer sea ice to melting of the Greenland ice-sheet due to albedo changes. The new indicator was applied in practice to temporarily disaggregated CO2 emission inventories representing a wide range of bioplastics mineralization rate constants. For biodegradable bioplastics, it was found that total climate tipping impact caused by temporal evolution of CO2 from mineralization of bioplastic is dominated by contribution of CO 2 emissions to tipping the Arctic summer sea ice rather than tipping the Greenland ice-sheet. The latter may become important, however, for those bioplastics that degrade relatively slowly in the environment. These findings highlight the need for considering timing of emissions as determined by biodegradability of the biopolymer in the environment, when characterizing climate-tipping performance of bioplastics. |
format |
Conference Object |
author |
Fabbri, Serena Owsianiak, Mikolaj |
author_facet |
Fabbri, Serena Owsianiak, Mikolaj |
author_sort |
Fabbri, Serena |
title |
Development of new indicators for improved climate characterization of bioplastics: going beyond tipping the Arctic summer sea-ice |
title_short |
Development of new indicators for improved climate characterization of bioplastics: going beyond tipping the Arctic summer sea-ice |
title_full |
Development of new indicators for improved climate characterization of bioplastics: going beyond tipping the Arctic summer sea-ice |
title_fullStr |
Development of new indicators for improved climate characterization of bioplastics: going beyond tipping the Arctic summer sea-ice |
title_full_unstemmed |
Development of new indicators for improved climate characterization of bioplastics: going beyond tipping the Arctic summer sea-ice |
title_sort |
development of new indicators for improved climate characterization of bioplastics: going beyond tipping the arctic summer sea-ice |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/06d1c285-29d7-46fa-bb56-63c882c77a29 |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
genre |
albedo Arctic Arctic Climate change Global warming Greenland Ice Sheet Sea ice |
genre_facet |
albedo Arctic Arctic Climate change Global warming Greenland Ice Sheet Sea ice |
op_source |
Fabbri , S & Owsianiak , M 2018 , ' Development of new indicators for improved climate characterization of bioplastics: going beyond tipping the Arctic summer sea-ice ' , SETAC Europe 24th LCA Symposium , Vienna , Austria , 24/09/2018 - 26/09/2018 . |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess |
_version_ |
1766247494484754432 |