Browsing by Subject "kasvihuonekaasupäästö"

Substrate producers are interested in new climate-friendly alternatives due to the problematic nature of the peat life cycle and the uncertain status. The Sphagnum moss has good properties for substrate production and, due to its productivity, is a potential alternative to peat harvesting. Indeed, the Sphagnum moss has been harvested for this purpose for several years. Exploitation of the new natural resource involves many issues to take care of in order to consider sustainable use. One of these is the impact on climate. Of the greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and me-thane play a role in the climate emissions of ombrotrophic mires. Nitrous oxide is not considered here. In the case of carbon dioxide, it is important to study the carbon stocks of the decaying material and, in the case of methane, vege-tation restoration and plant species relationships are considered carefully. The aim of this Master's thesis was to study observations on the climatic effects of Sphagnum harvesting for possi-ble further research. Climate effects were compared with untreated reference areas and, in addition, the differences in emissions between peatland types were provisionally investigated. The climatic effects of Sphagnum harvesting were also compared with the corresponding figures of horticultural peat. Carbon dioxide was studied by the carbon content of drilled peat samples. The climate impact of the peat that wasn’t formed as a result of the harvesting was also taken into account in the calculations. Methane emissions were examined on the basis of restoration of cover from vegetation analysis and plant species relationship data. The Sphagnum harvesting areas were also examined about general information of the harvesting area for example harvesting marks in the ground, tree stand and ditch conditions. Field work was carried out in summer 2019 in Kihniö area on 12 bogs. In general, the vegetation of the harvesting areas was characterized by a strong pioneer effect on Eriophorum vagi-natum. The most recent harvesting areas were still nearly plant-free, but at the time of the study, the harvesting areas that had recovered three growing seasons had already begun to clearly recover in terms of vegetation. Within 10 years, the vegetation had completely recovered. In relative terms, the proportion of Eriophorum vaginatum in the oldest areas was clearly higher than in the reference areas and the regenerated vegetation in the harvesting areas was poorer than in the reference areas. However, the presence of Eriophorum vaginatum also seems to contribute to the spread of Sphagnum sp. In addition, the harvesting marks of the harvesting seems to be important above all for the recovery of Sphagnum sp. The flat surface facilitates recovery, but also the unharvested spots within the harvesting areas. Based on the greenhouse gas calculations, the emission of the Sphagnum harvesting area was 10.26 kg/m2 CO2 in 13 years. Comparing the differences between the different bog types, it was found that the harvesting is more climate friendly in Sphagnum-bogs than in cottongrass-bogs. The Sphagnum harvesting is clearly a better alternative to harvesting peat from a climate point of view, when emissions are distributed on the dry masses of the growing media produced. When reducing climate emissions, the major part of total emissions is generated by the specific decontaminated substrate. The importance of the vegetation is less significant in the overall result. In this study, the climate effects of the Sphagnum harvesting were tentatively mapped, as the topic has not been studied previously in Finnish conditions. More research is needed with wider sampling and long-term follow-up.

In this master thesis an economic model is constructed to describe an optimal use of mires from a land-use perspective. Climate effect of a peat is explored from a life-cycle perspective and economic factors like discount rate and costs are taken into account. Peat supply chains differ from each other depending on initial land-use and after-use alternative. First a model is constructed to describe the private optimum. Then a model is constructed to describe the social optimum in which externalities are internalized. Finally environmental management instruments are examined. Special attention is drawn to an effective emission factor. Examination is divided to analytical and numerical part. Derived efficient emission factor consists of two parts: the emission factor of peat combustion and amendment factor, which takes into account the emissions/sinks of initial peatland, peat extraction field and after-use alternative as well as time horizon, discount rate and peat extraction rate. The efficient emission factor is a declining function of emissions per hectare of mire and an increasing function of emissions of after-use, peat extraction field and combustion. The discount factor used in the efficient emission factor is a declining function of discount rate and production period. The efficient emission factor increased as a function of discount rate when emissions per hectare of mire were higher than emissions of after-use alternative. Increase of extraction period increased the efficient emission factor in the case of every peat extraction chain apart from those chains in which the initial peatland was especially great source of emissions. According to the results the efficient emission factor was larger than the emission factor of coal when peatland was initially natural mire or forestry-drained mire, which was insignificant source of emissions. Instead the efficient emission factor was lower than the emission factor of coal when peatland was initially forestry-drained mire, which was significant source of emissions or cultivated peat soil.!According to the results, when peatland was initially natural mire the efficient emission factor was on an average approximately 6 % higher than peat emission factor and 20 % lower than coal emission factor. Respectively the efficient emission factor was on an average approximately 4 % lower than peat emission factor and 8 % higher than coal emission factor when peatland was initially forestry-drained mire and 23 % lower than peat emission factor and 13 % lower than coal emission factor when peatland was initially cultivated peat soil. Application of the efficient emission factor involves many challenges. Biggest challenges may link to inadequate and uncertain emission data. A lot of additional resource is needed related to climate effects of different land-use and mire types in order to use the efficient emission factor in practice. It could also be quite problematic that the after use alternative should be fixed when the extraction in the area begins so that the efficient emission factor could be defined. It is also difficult to choose which discount rate to use. Additionally, it was explored how different kind of shocks affects socially optimal use of fuel. The results of an analytical examination were hard to interpret in most cases. Instead with the help of numerical examination it was possible to draw clearer conclusions of how the shocks affected the optimal use of fuel. Based on the results of the examination the use of peat increased and the use of coal decreased as the function of social cost of carbon when the efficient emission factor was lower than the emission factor of coal. According to the analytical examination, increase of discount rate decreased the use of peat and increased the use of coal when the net benefit of after-use was larger than the net benefit of alternative use of peatland. This is the case because the greater the discount rate is the less significant is the importance of after-use. According to the numerical analysis the increase of discount rate decreased the use of peat and increased the use of coal in all production chains. Also according to the numerical analysis, the use of peat decreased and the use of coal increased as a function of production period in all production chains. Instead opposite happened when the peat extraction rate increased. Thus it can be said that faster the peat can be extracted, more peat is used. At the same time the use of coal is decreased.

Meat is an important source of protein, but the negative environmental impact of meat production is significant. Discussion around meat consumption is often heated, and plant-based protein products are primarily seen as an option to lower the environmental impact of a diet. The production processes for different kinds of meats vary notable. The differences in environmental impacts of diverse production animal species can be explained by three factors: feed conversion ratio, the differences in monogastric and ruminant digestive systems and differences in reproduction traits. Choosing broiler instead of red meat can mitigate the environmental impact of a diet. Environmental impacts of the different meat production processes have been analysed using Life Cycle Assessment. Life Cycle Assessment investigates the use of resources and the green house gas emissions of a livestock production process to evaluate its climate-friendliness. Corporate Social Responsibility is also used as a pivotal theory in this research. The results of Life Cycle Assessment can be used to include sustainability in a company’s strategy, or in communication about Corporate Social Responsibility. The goal of the thesis was to investigate how aware and interested Nordic 24-30-year-old young adults are about the environmental impacts of meat production. Nordic young adults were chosen as the target group, because the Nordic countries are generally seen as the forerunners of sustainability. Young adults were selected because they represent the future way of consuming. The goal of the thesis was to answer following questions: 1. Do the Nordic young consumers feel the need to reduce meat consumption for climate reasons? 2. Do the Nordic young consumers find broiler an appealing source of protein? Four young consumers were interviewed from three different countries: Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. Although the participants of the study showed awareness and knowledge of the negative environmental impacts of meat production, only three of them had made changes to their diet for environmental reasons. Nine of the 12 interviewees supposed that broiler is more environmentally friendly than red meat. Animal welfare issues in broiler production processes lowered the interest towards broiler as a protein source. All four Danish interviewees avoided conventional broiler because of the welfare issues. The upsides of broiler as a source of protein are low fat content, affordable price, and good taste. The living conditions and slaughter process of broilers have great deficiencies, which decreased its appeal amongst the young consumers.