PHYS5032 Techniques for Sustainability Analysis Homework Sheet 5: Structural Decomposition Analysis

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PHYS5032 Techniques for Sustainability Analysis

Total points: 10

Homework Sheet 5: Structural Decomposition Analysis

The burning of fossil fuels generates greenhouse gases (GHGs) that cause global warming. You want to find out what are the contributors to the underlying GHGs emissions.

You designed a simplified model firstly estimate global CO2 emissions:

CO2 emissions = population * per capita income * energy intensity * fossil fuel share * emission intensity

You went through multiple data sources (e.g., IEA, worldbank, etc), and came up with values for these contributors for the years 2010 and 2021. The data are as follows

1. (A) (2 points) Using the two polar structural decomposition formulas from the lecture, calculate the contributions of each of the five factors to the difference in CO2 emissions (use the formula above). What is the gap between the calculated contributions and the observed difference (i.e., left side of the formula above) in CO2 emissions?

2. (A) (2 points) Calculate the average of for each contributor from the two calculations (called 0.5(A+A’) in the lecture). Is the difference between these averaged contributions and the observed difference in CO2 emissions smaller?

3. In your own words (A). (4 points) What are your observations and reflections from the SDA analysis you just did (i.e., calculations in 1-2) (Please make sure your answers are within 800 words).

4. In your own words (A). (2 points) What is the general nature of a problem where SDA can be of assistance? Present an application of SDA in the field of sustainability (apart from the exercise you just did) (Please make sure your answers are within 800 words).