Factors affecting CO2 emissions in the global power sector: a spatial-temporal analysis

Driving forces of provincial-level CO2 emissions in China’s power sector based on LMDI method

CO2 emission trends for the US and electric power sector

Polarization of CO2 emissions in China's electricity sector: Production versus consumption perspectives

Long-term optimization of United Arab Emirates energy future: Policy implications

The concept of Industry 5.0 emerges as a catalyst for accelerating sustainable development across various economic sectors. This article is devoted to the development of a framework for modeling the decarbonization of the economy based on energy innovation in the context of Industry 5.0 and sustainable development. The purpose of the article is to identify the stimulating factors for increasing the level of decarbonization, which corresponds to the Global Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the UN in 2015, especially Goal 7 Affordable and Clean Energy, Goal 9 Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, Goal 13 Climate Action and Goal 17 Partnerships for the Goals. Approaches to the formation of Industry 5.0 indicators, taking into account indicators of sustainable development and decarbonization of the economy, in particular, the Energy Transition Index, Global Innovation Energy Index, Digital Economy and Society Index, World Energy Trilemma Index, are investigated. The choice of Industry 5.0 components with indicators for the assessment of decarbonization, taking into account the components of sustainability, resilience and human-centricity, is justified. These include Energy intensity level of primary energy; Fossil CO2 Emissions in Power Sector; Patents in Climate change mitigation technology; Research and development expenditure; Industry (including construction), value added (% of GDP); Information and communication technologies (ICTs); Knowledge workers; Human capital and research. A cluster analysis of the level of decarbonization for the 26 countries selected for the study from Europe, Asia and North America is carried out. Taking into account the factors studied, the factors influencing the level of decarbonization are identified based on multivariate regression modelling. Recommendations on accelerating the decarbonization of the economy are provided, taking into account the experience of leading countries.

In recent years, the United States power sector emissions of CO2 and NOx have decreased due to declining coal and increasing natural gas and renewables in the fuel-mix. In April 2020, the COVID-19 social restrictions in the United States led to a decline in electricity demand from the commercial and industrial sectors. In this study, we estimate the changes in the emissions of CO2 and NOx from the U.S. power sector due to three factors: 1) weather, 2) the fuel-mix change in the past five years, and 3) the COVID-19 social restrictions. We use a multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) model to separate the impacts of outdoor temperature and type-of-day from the COVID-19 on power generation, and the daily operation status of 3013 power units to account for the fuel-mix change. We find that electricity demand changes due to COVID occurred mostly from March to June 2020, with electricity demand generally returning to 2015–2019 levels starting in July 2020. We find the U.S. power sector CO2 emissions, reported by EPA, dropped by 29.8 MTCO2 (−26%) in April 2020, relative to the average April emissions between 2015 and 2019. Of that reduction, we attribute declines of 18.3 ± 4.0 MTCO2 (−18 ± 4%) to the COVID-19 lockdowns, declines of 13.7 ± 4.2 MTCO2 (−12 ± 4%) to a fuel-mix change, and increases of 2.3 ± 1.1 MTCO2 (+2 ± 1%) due to weather variability compared to the five prior years. For the same month, the power sector NOx emissions dropped by 27.6 thousand metric tons (−42%) in April 2020, relative to the past five-year monthly average. Of that reduction, we attribute declines of 10.5 ± 2.4 thousand metric tons (−22 ± 5%) to the COVID-19 lockdowns, declines of 18.5 ± 2.5 thousand metric tons (−28 ± 4%) to a fuel-mix change, and increases of 1.4 ± 0.6 thousand metric tons (+2 ± 1%) due to weather variability. This result highlights the importance of accounting for weather and fuel-mix changes when estimating the impact of COVID-19 on the power sector emissions.

Major US electric utility climate pledges have the potential to collectively reduce power sector emissions by one-third

Impact of the economic recession on the European power sector’s CO2 emissions

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10098-022-02456-1.

Drivers of renewable energy penetration and its role in power sector's deep decarbonization towards carbon peak

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to strongly affect global energy systems. Global power sector CO2 emissions have shown a substantial decline, thanks to (a) the COVID-19-induced economic downturn and resulting reduction of electricity demand and (b) a decrease of carbon intensity of power generation as coal generation is decreased most strongly. These effects illustrate the opportunity for different policies to support a structural and accelerating decline of power sector emissions. The societal response to the pandemic has reduced global power demand, disproportionally affecting coal power generation and thus leading to a strong CO2 emissions decline. Policy should apply 2020’s lessons to ensure that power sector emissions have peaked in 2018 and go into structural decline.

The decarbonization of the fossil-intensive power sector is critical for climate mitigation. During the global financial crisis, we find that major countries changed their energy inputs and achieved a rapid low-carbon transition in the global power sector. In this study, we employ two-stage decomposition models to reveal the diverse drivers of the peak-and-decline dynamic in the global CO2 intensity of electricity. We then examine the regional heterogeneous drivers of CO2 intensity from major electricity-producing countries within three income groups. Results show that the global CO2 intensity of electricity has reached its peak and declined by 0.35% per year since 2007. High-income countries consistently reduce the CO2 intensity, while upper- and lower-middle income countries contribute to a reduction of the CO2 intensity until recently. The adoption of renewable energy, phase-out of thermal power, and improvement in energy efficiency supported by pronounced regional allocation effects contribute to the rapid decline in the global CO2 intensity of electricity. This paper reveals breakthroughs in the recent global energy transition and sheds light on future CO2 mitigation pathways in the global power sector.

This study aims to show how the impact of factors on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions differs at the quantile level and to demonstrate the superiority of the quantile regression method over the OLS method by using quantile regression and ordinary least squares (OLS) methods in order to examine the factors affecting CO2 emissions in Türkiye in depth. Covering the period 1990–2021, this study evaluates the relationship between CO2 emissions and GDP per capita growth, population growth, and renewable energy consumption. One of the important findings of the study is that the increase in the population ratio, which is insignificant according to the OLS method, positively affects CO2 emissions at the 0.25 quantile point. According to both OLS and quantile regression methods, GDP growth does not affect CO2 emissions, while renewable energy consumption has a significant and negative effect according to both models. These results demonstrate that economic growth has no discernible impact on CO2 emissions in Türkiye, while investments in renewable energy can significantly lower emissions and open the door for quantile regression to be used more widely in related research. Unlike traditional methods that focus only on the conditional mean, the quantile regression method provides a comprehensive framework for Türkiye’s sustainable development policies by exploring factor effects at different emission levels.

Marginal abatement costs of CO2 emissions in the thermal power sector: A regional empirical analysis from China

Renewable energy and economic growth relationship under the oil reserve ownership: Evidence from panel VAR approach