Abstract
Global warming caused by carbon emissions has been recognized as a challenge to human sustainable development, and low-carbon city development is widely considered as an effective strategy to address this challenge. Numerous emission reduction measures have been implemented, and considerable efforts have been devoted in promoting low-carbon city. This paper examines whether sufficient efforts have been paid to these typical emission sectors, including Building, Industry, Energy Transformation, and Transportation by referring to the shared responsibility of each sector. The shared responsibility of individual emission sector is calculated by applying energy consumption data in 2014 World Energy Balance. The efforts contributed in emission reduction by each sector are examined by analyzing the low-carbon city work plans of 24 representative sample cities, which are selected globally. The research results demonstrate that sufficient emission reduction efforts have been paid in the Building sector and Transportation sector. But the Industry sector and Energy Transformation sector are less-attended in addressing emission reduction. The reason for the sufficient efforts paid in the Building sector and Transportation sector is considered as that the efforts for emission reduction in these two sectors can bring more co-benefits. However, emission reduction in Industrial sector is generally considered to have the effects of holding back economic growth, and the emission reduction in the sector of Energy Transformation will need enormous investment for advanced technologies. Policy for emission reduction in the Industry sector and Energy Transformation sector is indispensable to promote low-carbon city. This study appeals that (1) low-carbon city can be effectively implemented only if carbon reduction policy is adopted to all industrial activities; (2) multiple channels of financial resources should be established to support cities to mitigate carbon emissions in Industry sector; (3) cooperation on the development of clean energy technology between cities should be promoted; and (4) efforts should be paid to reduce carbon emission from using traditional energy transformation equipment by improving their efficiency.
Highlights
Sustainable development is confronted with a great challenge from global warming
In order to achieve the aim of this study, the following research works are planned: (1) Carbon emission sectors will be classified as a basis to examine the practice of low-carbon city; (1) Carbon emission sectors will be classified as a basis to examine the practice of low‐carbon city; (2) The shared responsibility of individual emission sector is calculated to determine the level of
Only four cities among the 24 sample cities have the program of improving power generation efficiency for reducing emissions. It is appreciated the improvement of Energy Transformation by replacing fossil fuels with clean energy requires more investment, and its effectiveness will be realized in a long time [81]
Summary
Sustainable development is confronted with a great challenge from global warming. It has been widely reported that global warming has become increasingly severe in recent years [1]. Emissions of carbon dioxide are largely from the burning of fossil fuels in cities [13], which is ubiquitous in all sectors including the industry, transportation, and domestic sectors of economies With this recognition, international conferences on carbon emission reduction have been organized continuously since 1979, when the first global climate change conference took place in Geneva. Many cities have defined low-carbon city mission in their cities’ development blueprints, for example, 1050 cities in the United States, 40 cities in India, 100 cities in China, and 83 cities in Japan, as reported by Gomi, Shimada, & Matsuoka [15] These cities have started to implement various low-carbon programs in the sectors of building, industry, and others. It is essential to examine low-carbon city practice from a global emissions requires global efforts. There is little research on whether the major emission sectors are effectively global perspective [24].
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