Embodied energy use of China's megacities: A comparative study of Beijing and Shanghai

Abstract

Previous studies presenting city energy-use profiles generally disregard indirect energy use across global supply chains. Moreover, the distinct energy-use patterns of China's megacities remain unclear due to various urban functions and development strategies associated with urbanization. Therefore, a multi-scale single-region input-output model is devised to depict energy-use patterns in two representative Chinese megacities—Beijing and Shanghai. This model highlights the distinct upstream sources of city energy use, elucidating regional-international connections. The distinct evolutionary features of the two cities' energy-use structures are presented from a consumption-based perspective. The results show that the growth of Beijing and Shanghai depend heavily on embodied energy resources from other domestic or foreign regions. Further, as Beijing is the country's political center, a considerable amount of its energy use is attributed to government activities. In contrast, 6.05% of the energy consumption in Shanghai, China's financial center, depends on foreign energy sources, whereas the corresponding value in Beijing is only 4.2%. In terms of time-series evolutionary features, the growth rate of Beijing's energy use is notably lower than that of Shanghai due to different development modes during 2002–2012. Comparing these two typical cities' energy-use profiles highlights the urgent need for globally-oriented inclusive governance, and energy conservation policies based on distinct city functions and development plans.