ADVENT (ADdressing Valuation of Energy and Nature Together)

英国政府致力于减少温室气体排放和保护环境。然而，实现这些并行的目标涉及许多紧张关系。例如，未来的低碳能源途径依赖于通过水力压裂法获取原料，这对清洁水的供应产生了影响，因此也影响到这些资源向其他工业、家庭或农业用户提供的生态系统服务。同样，设想更多风力发电场的途径对自然景观的质量和人们从这些景观的视觉享受中获得的文化生态系统服务产生影响。该项目的中心目标是探索英国未来的低碳能源途径，并量化其对自然资本（如地下水和自然栖息地）和生态系统服务（如灌溉，视觉舒适，娱乐）的不同影响。此外，该项目将应用经济估值方法，以货币形式估计与不同未来能源途径相关的生态系统服务变化的价值。最后，该项目力求为决策者提供工具，使他们能够以一种将能源和环境考虑纳入单一框架的方式，从全系统的角度看待能源未来。研究方案开始将举办讲习班，将自然价值评估和能源未来研究界的成员聚集在一起。其目的是鼓励参与者之间进行讨论，并就作为研究基础的概念框架达成共同理解，以及建立现有知识的基线，该知识库的一部分将是对该项目中将探索的特定未来能源途径的描述。研究小组的下一个任务将是开发每个途径的详细生命周期特征。根据以往的研究，该项目将确定路径中每个特定要素的预期生态系统服务影响。并且，在可用的情况下，整理关于这些不同影响的估计值的证据。然而，对于许多元素，这些影响和/或值可能是未知的。事实上，该项目将通过一系列案例研究，设法填补这些知识空白。这些研究将探讨生物能源、碳捕获和储存、视觉不适、对海洋休闲生物多样性后果的影响以及基础设施对减少能源需求的影响等方面，然后根据研究结果，研究将寻求整合现有证据，以全面评估每种能源途径对环境的影响。为此，该项目将在以往工作的基础上，扩展两个互补的建模平台。第一种是微观经济模式，可以对每一途径的影响进行按空间分列的探索。第二种方法采用宏观经济建模，以了解自然资本在不同途径中的使用如何影响经济的广泛运作，以及随之而来的对增长、就业和贸易的影响。为了对每种途径进行全面评估，进一步的工作流程将量化英国关于未来能源系统的决策对自然资本和生态系统服务的国际影响。研究结果将通过广泛的传播和知识交流计划提供给学者和政策制定者。此外，通过培训一批博士研究生，该项目力求留下一份侧重于能源与环境之间相互关系的学术能力遗产。该项目提供的新知识和专门知识将共同为确保能源和自然资本政策能够以协调一致的方式制定，以实现整个社会的最大利益作出重大贡献。

The UK Government is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and protecting the environment. Delivering on these parallel objectives, however, involves numerous tensions. Future low-carbon energy pathways that, for example, depend on the sourcing of feedstocks through hydraulic fracking have implications for the availability of clean water and hence for the ecosystem services such resources provide to other industrial, domestic or agricultural users. Likewise, pathways that envisage more wind farms have implications for the quality of the natural landscape and the cultural ecosystem services people derive from the visual enjoyment of those landscapes. The central objective of this project is to explore future UK low-carbon energy pathways and quantify their differing implications for stocks of natural capital (e.g. groundwater and natural habitats) and for the provision of ecosystem services (e.g. irrigation, visual amenity, recreation). In addition, the project will apply methods of economic valuation to estimate in money terms the value of the ecosystem service changes associated with different future energy pathway. Ultimately, the project seeks to provide policy makers with tools that allow them to take a whole-systems perspective on energy futures in a way that integrates energy and environmental considerations into a single framework. The research programme will begin with workshops bringing together members of the valuing nature and energy futures research communities. The aim will be to encourage discussion between the participants and to arrive at a shared understanding of the conceptual framework that should underpin the research as well as to establish the baseline of existing knowledge.Part of that knowledge base will be a description of the particular future energy pathways to be explored in the project. The next task for the research team will be to develop a detailed life cycle characterisation of each pathway. Drawing on previous research, the project will then identify the anticipated ecosystem service impacts of each particular element of a pathway. And, where available, collate evidence regarding the estimated value of those various impacts.For numerous elements, however, those impacts and/or values may be unknown. Indeed, the project will seek to fill those knowledge gaps through a set of case studies. These will explore aspects of bioenergy, carbon capture and storage, visual disamenity, impacts on marine recreation biodiversity consequences and the impacts of infrastructure to reduce energy demand.Drawing on the results, the research will then seek to integrate the available evidence so as to assess the environmental impacts of each energy pathway in its entirety. To that end, the project will build on previous work by extending two complementary modelling platforms. The first is a micro-economic model that allows for a spatially-disaggregated exploration of the impacts of each pathway. The second employs macro-economic modelling to understand how natural capital use in different pathways impacts on the broad functioning of the economy and concomitant implications for growth, jobs and trade. To provide a holistic assessment of each pathway, a further work stream will quantify the international implications for natural capital and ecosystems services of UK decisions on future energy systems.The findings will be made available to academics and policy makers through an extensive programme of dissemination and knowledge exchange. In addition, through training a cohort of PhD studentships, the project seeks to leave a legacy of academic capacity focused on the interface between energy and the environment. Together, the new knowledge and expertise delivered by the project will provide a major contribution to ensuring that energy and natural capital policies can be developed in a coherent manner for the maximal benefit of society as a whole.