Carbon Neutral China by 2060: The Role of Clean Heating Systems

Chang Su,Frauke Urban

doi:10.3390/en14227461

Abstract

Smog pollution is a severe social and environmental concern for the space-heating regions in China due to fossil-intensive space heating. To reduce polluting emissions and improve social and environmental performance, local government agencies should choose adequate cleaner space-heating technologies based on diverse local conditions. This implies that all cleaner heating solutions should be considered, including low-emissions fossil fuel district heating and low-emissions fossil fuel decentralized heating as transitional technologies, as well as biomass and electricity-driven heat pumps as long-term solutions. However, stakeholders such as policy makers, equipment manufacturers, and house owners, often lack necessary information to assess the feasibility for installing adequate heating solutions at the local level. It is therefore necessary to establish a systematic method to evaluate each heating solution in various geolocations of China. This paper reviews the current heating situation in China and proposes a spatial system analysis method as a tool for heating-solution feasibility evaluation. By applying the spatial system analysis method, a qualitative investigation on the choice of heating solution in different regions of China is provided.

Highlights

Anthropogenic activities have led to the rapid increase of CO2 emissions [1]
For China to become carbon neutral by 2060, the contributions from the building sector are strongly affected by clean heating transitions since the sectorial direct emissions and indirect emissions are related to building energy activities
The space heating in China should be analysed from four dimensions: north China, south China, urban areas, and rural areas

Summary

Introduction

Anthropogenic activities have led to the rapid increase of CO2 emissions [1]. A great amount of energy input is required in the building sector of China since the country is undergoing medium to high economic growth with increased living standards. The total CO2 emissions related to the building sector mainly come from three aspects: direct emissions, indirect emissions and associated emissions. Indirect emissions come from the use of electricity and district heating. Often, such emissions are allocated to the energy sector. The associated emissions are the emissions for manufacturing the construction materials, such as steel and cement, as well as emissions during construction activities (e.g., limestone) [2]

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Results

Conclusion