Carbon Emission Abatement Research Articles

Decarbonizing Urban Logistics: Perspectives for Low- and Middle-Income Countries

What initiatives abate urban logistics’ carbon emissions more efficiently and effectively? Numerous theoretical and practical studies address the challenge of reducing carbon emissions from the logistics sector while ensuring the flow of goods to highly urbanized areas. In this position paper, we present and discuss various initiatives seeking to abate urban logistics carbon emissions in the domains of (1) reducing the demand for freight transport or moderating/arresting its growth, (2) shifting freight to lower-carbon transportation modes, (3) optimizing vehicle loading, (4) increasing vehicle energy efficiency, and (5) switching to lower-carbon energy sources. The solutions that we discuss herein range from regulatory to operational and technological. We adopt a holistic approach underlining that urban transport is strongly related to the choices made in the logistics operation, including aspects like consolidation and deconsolidation in the supply chain, as well as how cities may leverage public space to support logistics operations. By conducting a thorough literature review, we illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of each initiative, case studies, and practical recommendations. We find that regulatory measures yield better performance in carbon emissions abatement potential and ease of implementation. Thus, we identify the initiatives that have more applicability across the developing world.

Carbon Tax, Subsidy, and Emission Reduction: Analysis Based on DSGE Model

Carbon emission has negative externalities, which will cause severe natural and social problems. In recent years, more and more attention has been paid to carbon emission reduction issue both in academic and application fields. This paper aims to explore the impact of punitive carbon tax and incentive carbon emission reduction subsidy on economy and environment through the dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) framework. The results show that both carbon tax and carbon emission reduction subsidy policies can help to reduce carbon emissions and to improve environment quality. In addition, carbon emission reduction subsidy has a positive impact on economy, while carbon tax has the opposite impact. It follows that the incentive carbon emission reduction policy is more conducive to the coordinated development of economy and environment. This research can be a guideline for the government to formulate carbon emission abatement policies from the perspective of coordinated development.

The driving factors in the corporate proactivity of carbon emissions abatement: Empirical evidence from China

The abatement of carbon emissions is an important way to alleviate global warming. It is therefore crucial to explore the factors behind the corporate proactivity of carbon emissions abatement (CPCEA). However, existing research mainly focused on the factors that promote national, provincial, city-level, and industrial carbon emissions reduction, without looking at the micro-company level. In response to the research gap, this study therefore explored the drivers of CPCEA using panel data from 736 listed companies in China. This study used the logit regression to examine the effects of pre-identified factors on the CPCEA. The results indicated that political ties, corporate scale, industry category, and regional disparity have significant impacts on the CPCEA. Contrary to expectations, environmental regulation was not found to affect CPCEA. Based on the findings of this study, five policy implications to improve CPCEA in China were proposed. This paper presented empirical evidence to promote CPCEA. Additionally, the results have important practical implications and priority guide for carbon emissions reduction in China and around the world.

Effect of institutional quality and renewable energy consumption on CO2 emissions-an empirical investigation for developing countries.

This paper investigates the role of institutional quality in moderating the impact of energy consumption on CO2 emission, with other variables such as trade, capital formation, FDI, financial development and population in 39 developing countries for 1995-2017. We use mean group (MG), augmented mean group (AMG), common correlated effects mean group (CCEMG) estimator, dynamic system GMM, panel grouped-mean FMOLS and panel quantile regression for the empirical results. From the different estimation techniques, we find that institutional quality moderates energy consumption and strengthens its effectiveness in abating carbon emissions. The combined influence of institutional quality and sector wise energy consumption on emissions is significant and negative. Our finding also confirms the Environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in the presence of institutional quality. Renewable energy consumption is also found to reduce emissions significantly in the long run. Given the importance of institutional quality and renewable energy in reducing CO2 emission, the policymakers need to improve the quality of institutions and deploy more renewable energy for final consumption to achieve long-term climate goals.

Impact of government regulation of RPS on China’s power market under carbon abatement constraints

In a significant period of Chinese energy reformation to the point of expediting revolution in energy production and consumption, and promoting green low-carbon upgrading transformation of energy electricity, Chinese government has to implement the obligatory policy of renewable portfolio standards (RPS) with specific institutional provisions sternly. The renewable energy quotas in thermal power industry with carbon emission abatement constraints particularly have a latent impact on the behavior of thermal electricity producers, which is ineluctably involved in electricity connection of grid companies. To make clear the positive role in boosting investment in renewable energy generation in thermal power industry under mandatory quotas requirements, we will utilize evolutionary game based on system dynamics (SD) to tackle with the sophisticated nexus among the government, thermal power producers and grid companies. We begin analysis of general evolutionary strategy stability in scenario ll by dynamically adjusting values of external variables of SD model to uncover pivotal variables affecting evolutionary strategy stability. Then in scenario I, the dynamic punishment structure consisting of cost elements to spark off the emulation of optimal manoeuvre selections of tripartite game agents is amended based on the simulation of vital variables affecting evolutionary strategy stability in scenario II. The significant conclusions provide decision-making support and management enlightenment for Chinese government to edge renewable energy generation capacity of thermal power producers and constrained degree of dynamic penalty for grid companies.

Recycling carbon tax for inclusive green growth: A CGE analysis of India

In this decade, India has been pursuing a low carbon inclusive growth strategy. However, carbon tax, the most direct price instrument to reduce carbon emissions, has not found favour with policymakers because of its supposed detrimental effects on economic growth and income distribution. In the Indian context, the literature indicates that though carbon tax is extremely effective in abating carbon emissions, it simultaneously leads to reductions in GDP. There is, thus, an undesirable trade-off between economic growth and climate change mitigation. However, in trying to overcome this trade-off through a double-dividend from carbon tax, these studies have not really explored all possible options. Whether the carbon tax will yield a double-dividend or not, will depend upon how the carbon tax revenue is recycled.The present paper fills this gap in the literature on recycling carbon tax for inclusive green growth by exploring the consequences of using carbon tax revenue for investment to build capacity in all sectors or exclusively in the clean energy sectors and to execute transfers to households to improve the distribution of income. This analysis has been done with a recursively dynamic India-specific CGE model having a disaggregated energy sectors and an endogenous income distribution module.

Carbon Emissions Abatement (CEA) Allocation Based on Inverse Slack-Based Model (SBM)

Carbon emissions abatement (CEA) is an important issue that draws attention from both academicians and policymakers. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) has been a popular tool to allocate the CEA, and most previous works are based on radial DEA models. However, as shown in our paper, these models may give biased results due to their ignorance of slackness. To avoid such problems, we propose an allocation model based on the slack-based model and multiple-objective nonlinear programming to find the CEA allocation plan, which can minimize the GDP loss. The property of nonconvexity makes the model difficult to solve. Thus, we construct an approximation algorithm to solve this model with guaranteed error bounds and complexity. In the empirical application, we take regions of china as an illustrative example and find there is a significant region gap in China. Hence, we group the regions into eastern, central, and western, and give the main results, as well as the superiority of our allocation models compared with radial models.

Production and joint emission reduction decisions based on two-way cost-sharing contract under cap-and-trade regulation

Cap-and-trade regulation is widely applied as a carbon policy in low-carbon supply chain management. This study investigates production and carbon emission reduction strategies that are based on such regulation in a two-echelon supply chain, which comprises one manufacturer and one retailer. In this supply chain, the manufacturer directly participates in carbon emission reduction while the retailer is indirectly involved in low-carbon promotion. On this basis, we establish single and joint emission reduction models, in which supply chain members may adopt the one-way or two-way cost-sharing contracts. We then analyze the optimal strategy design for supply chain and the appropriate sharing rate contract. We find that the implementation of contracts can increase carbon emission abatement level, product quantity and supply chain profit. The one-way cost-sharing contract is beneficial for supply chain, whereas the two-way cost-sharing contract is also beneficial for supply chain when the sharing rate is in a small range. Under certain conditions, joint emission reduction model is optimal choice for supply chain. Meanwhile, the sharing rate can affect supply chain choice between decentralized and centralized decisions. Then we propose the extended multiple retailers model and find that this model offers better performance. In addition, carbon emission abatement level increases with carbon trading price by numerical study. The government can stimulate supply chain to reduce carbon emission by regulating carbon trading price, and should also pay attention to the impact on supply chain production and profits.

A national approach to greenhouse gas abatement through blue carbon management

There is increasing interest in protecting, restoring and creating ‘blue carbon’ ecosystems (BCE; mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrasses) to sequester atmospheric CO2-C and thereby contribute to climate change mitigation. While a growing number of countries aspire to report greenhouse gas emission and carbon sequestration changes from these ecosystems under voluntary international reporting requirements, few countries have domestic policy frameworks that specifically support the quantification and financing of carbon emission abatement through BCE management.Australia, as home to approximately 5–11% of global blue carbon stocks, has a substantial interest in the development of blue carbon policy. Here we assess the potential inclusion of blue carbon within Australia's Emissions Reduction Fund, emphasizing issues and approaches that have global relevance. We used a participatory workshop of scientific experts and carbon industry stakeholders to identify blue carbon management actions that would meet the requirements of the Fund. In total, twelve actions were assessed for their greenhouse gas emission abatement potential and the ability to measure abatement reliably, using a combination of available data and qualitative and quantitative methods, including expert knowledge.We identify and discuss the five most relevant and promising activities, encompassing the protection, restoration and creation of mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrasses. On a per area basis, mean abatement intensity of organic carbon (Corg) was highest for the (re)introduction of tidal flow resulting in establishment of mangrove (13–15 Mg Corg ha−1 yr−1) and tidal marsh (6–8 Mg Corg ha−1 yr−1), followed by land use planning for sea-level rise for the creation of new mangrove habitat (8 Mg Corg ha−1 yr−1). The avoided disturbance of existing mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrasses has the twofold benefit of avoiding remineralisation of existing stocks, plus the future annual abatement associated with the net sequestration of atmospheric CO2-C as Corg with the continued functioning of these BCE. Our approach offers a template that uses best available information to identify options for carbon abatement through management of coastal landscapes, and details current knowledge gaps and important technical aspects that need to be considered for implementation in carbon crediting schemes.

Emission abatement and procurement strategies in a low-carbon supply chain with option contracts under stochastic demand

With the development of low-carbon economy, we discuss the decisions of carbon emission abatement and order quantity in a supply chain consisting of one manufacturer and one retailer under the stochastic demand. We analyze the models in the centralized and decentralized scenarios to find that the profits of all participants are improved, and carbon abatement can be increased. We further propose a unidirectional option (UO) contract contracts and a bidirectional option (BO) contract to coordinate supply chain members and analyze their different impacts on members. The results show that both contracts can effectively improve corporate profits and curb carbon emissions, but the UO contract is more beneficial to manufacturer, while the BO contract is more beneficial to retailer and the whole supply chain as well as the environment owing to its flexibility to cancel or return products not exceeding the option order quantity. Further, the numerical examples are given to analyze the influences of the retail price, wholesale price and demand volatility on the optimal strategies of all participants. Specially, we observe that option contracts have strong applicability, and if cooperating with option contracts, firms should pay more attention to the value of option price than the exercised option price.

Integration of Membrane Separation with Nonthermal Plasma Catalysis: A Proof-of-Concept for CO2 Capture and Utilization

Carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and utilization (CCU) plays an important role in abating carbon emissions, mitigating global warming, and converting CO2 as feedstock to value-added fuels and chemicals...

Provincial-Level CO2 Emissions Intensity Inequality in China: Regional Source and Explanatory Factors of Interregional and Intraregional Inequalities

As the largest emitter in the world, China has pledged to reduce CO2 emissions intensity (CO2 emissions per unit of output) by 60–65% between 2005 and 2030. CO2 emissions intensity inequality analysis in China can provide a scientific basis for the Chinese government to formulate reasonable regional carbon emission abatement strategies, so as to realize the goal above. This paper adopted the Theil index to study the provincial-level CO2 emissions intensity inequality in China during 2005–2015. The regional decomposition was firstly conducted and then the factors of interregional and intraregional inequalities were explored. The results show: (i) a clear increase in provincial CO2 emissions intensity inequality in China has happened; (ii) this inequality and its increase were both mainly explained by the intraregional component; and (iii) the energy efficiency was the most important and positive contributor in the interregional, Eastern, Central, and Western China inequalities. Energy efficiency was also the key factor that caused the growth in interregional and Western China inequalities. However, most of the Eastern and Central China inequality increments over the whole period were respectively driven by the expanding carbonization gap and the changing GDP share, instead of the trajectory of energy efficiency. According to the results, regional emission mitigation strategies were proposed.

Optimal Pricing and Carbon Emission Abatement Allocation Decisions in Supply Chains With Option Contract

With the continuous increase of carbon emissions and the deterioration of environment, governments have passed various laws and regulations to force enterprises to take carbon emission abatement measures. As one of the regulations, carbon tax plays an important and positive role in environmental protection. For enterprises, the allocation of carbon emission abatement is a common means to promote emission reduction. In this paper, under the uncertain market demand, the option contract is adopted to study the retailer's optimal retail price and order quantity, as well as the manufacturer's optimal ratio of total carbon emission abatement and production quantity under the carbon tax. In addition, We analyze the optimal decisions and expected profits of supply chain members with respect to the carbon tax, total carbon emission abatement and option prices by analytical and numerical study, and find that (1) when the carbon tax increases, the optimal ratio of total carbon emission abatement and the optimal retail price increase, while the optimal order and production quantity decrease, which is contrary to the situation of the total carbon emission abatement; (2) when the option prices increase, the optimal retail price increases while the ratio of total carbon emission abatement and the optimal order and production quantity decrease; (3) the expected profits of the manufacturer and retailer show the same trend with the increase of carbon tax and total carbon emission abatement, while have the opposite trend with the increase of option prices.

On the share of embodied energy in the lifetime energy use of typical Hellenic residential buildings

The evolution of the built sector towards nearly zero energy buildings is a key issue in the global effort to reduce the greenhouse effect through the abatement of carbon emissions. For a realistic assessment of the potential for energy consumption and emissions reduction in the built sector, a life cycle approach is deemed necessary. However, the contribution of the embodied energy (EE) and related carbon emissions associated with the building lifespan from the early construction phase to its demolition has more often than not been neglected. This work contributes to the existing knowledge on the role of EE in the lifetime primary energy consumption of typical Hellenic residential buildings representing different construction types and vintages. Cradle-to-gate embodied energy coefficients for the most common construction materials have been derived through data analysis from new field surveys and published data from local manufacturing facilities in Greece and compared against international data bases using the Simapro LCA software. Complementary data from the Ecoinvent LCI database have been used where necessary. Practical EE intensities for the building envelope and the share of EE in the whole lifetime energy consumption have been derived for residential building types, taking into account common renovation measures.

Analyzing the Impact of Eco-Innovation on Carbon Emissions Abatement: Evidence from OECD Countries

This present study aimed to assess the impact of eco-innovation on carbon emission abatement in OECD countries. However, 34 OECD countries were sampled in a panel to carefully understand the phenomenon. The data for the study were sourced from OECD database and World Bank’s World Development Indicators from 2005 to 2018. Numerous econometric approaches were followed to arrive the conclusion of this study. Econometric approaches such as unit root rests, correlation matrix, cointegration test, Granger causality test, ordinary least square regression method, and fully modified ordinary least square regression method. The findings of the study suggest that eco-innovation could positively and negatively impact carbon emission abatement regarding the kind of proxy used. From the findings, it was realised that energy intensity, and patents positively impact carbon emission abatement, hence a percentage point increase in energy intensity could lead to an increase in carbon emission by 0.677% and 0.705% while a percentage increase in patent could also lead to 0.073% and 0.087% of carbon emission, respectively. On the other hand, research and development expenditure seemingly contribute to carbon emission abatement, where a percentage point increase in research and development expenditure could lead to 0.032% carbon emission abatement. This implies that increase in real income could encourage research and development and reduce energy intensity. Moreover, to ensure low carbon economy, conservation policies that support reduction in energy intensity, strengthening of environmental regulations, and improving research and development should be encouraged.

Pricing Strategy and Carbon Emission Abatement under Cap-and-Trade Regulation Considering Social Learning

In an uncertainty market, social learning plays a significant role in obtaining information to make better decisions. Under cap-and-trade regulation, this paper aims to investigate firms’ pricing and carbon emission abatement issues considering the impact of social learning. This paper establishes a two-period model in a market consisting of a manufacturer and heterogeneous consumers. The manufacturer produces two alternatives (ordinary product and low-carbon product) and makes decisions on sales prices and carbon emission abatement levels. Consumers make decisions on whether and which product to buy. Consumers are not sure about their valuations of products and have the opportunity to discover their true valuation by social learning. The results show that the emission abatement level on ordinary product is affected by the pricing strategy for both types of products. However, the emission abatement level on low-carbon product is only affected by its own pricing strategy. It also shows that social learning lowers the emission abatement level on ordinary product, whereas it improves the emission abatement level on low-carbon product when charging a high price for low-carbon product. Moreover, the price of ordinary product in period 1 is no less than that in period 2. In contrast, the price of low-carbon product in period 2 is higher than that in period 1.

How the growth rate influences low-carbon sustainable production performance under different disposabilities in China’s manufacturing industries?

An improved understanding of the influence of growth rates under different disposabilities on low-carbon sustainable production performance (LCSPP) can aid China’s manufacturing industries (MIs) to synchronize productivity enhancement and carbon emission abatement. To demonstrate the relationship between the growth rates under different disposabilities and their LCSPP well, this work provides the following contributions: (a) The effects of growth rate on LCSPP under different development models are analyzed using the disposability framework in economics; (b) the data envelopment analysis (DEA) model for estimating industrial LCSPP is explored by incorporating a non-radial and non-oriented directional distance function (NNDDF) into the DEA environmental assessment; (c) the effects of growth rate on LCSPP under different disposabilities are evaluated by applying econometric models in China’s MIs between 2001 and 2015. Results show that growth rates negatively influence the improvement of the LCSPP of China’s MIs. The effect on LCSPP is stronger under natural disposability than under managerial disposability. Low-end MIs and heavy chemical industries exert considerable efforts on their economies, while light industries and high-end MIs provide considerable efforts on environmental performance. Some important policy implications are presented on the basis of theoretical analysis and empirical conclusions.

Information sharing format and carbon emission abatement in a supply chain with competition

This paper aims to investigate the interaction between information management and operational management and a retailer’s ability of truthful information sharing, considering government environmental policies and public eco-friendly awareness. Under cap-and-trade regulation, we analyse different information sharing formats (no information sharing, partial information sharing, and public information sharing) among a supply chain comprised of one manufacturer, one incumbent retailer with private demand information, and an uninformed entrant retailer. The result shows that the incumbent retailer’s decision on information sharing format and the ability of truthful information are significantly affected by the manufacturer’s capability in abating carbon emissions and the demand uncertainty. In partial information sharing scenario, a babbling equilibrium dominates an informative equilibrium. In public information sharing scenario, the incumbent retailer is able to share truthful information under a sequential-move. Moreover, we examine the impacts of public information sharing on every member’s profit. The results show that public information sharing benefits the incumbent retailer when the demand uncertainty is relatively small. The manufacturer always benefit from public information sharing. Consequently, to obtain the benefits of information sharing, the manufacturer should make effort to improve carbon emission abatement capacity.

Urbanization’s short-and long-term effects on CO2 emissions: evidence from China

It is necessary to investigate the nexus of China’s urbanization and carbon emissions, in order to better understand China’s carbon emissions abatement target. Urbanization’s impact on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions has hysteretic effects, it takes time to fully materialize. Knowing this is helpful for policymakers to better coordinate CO2 mitigation and development. To this end, this study takes the panel data of 30 provinces/cities in China from 1995 to 2015 and applies the dynamic spatial panel data model to empirically analyze the short- and long-term effects of urbanization on CO2 emissions. The application of the novel approach brings some new discoveries: there exist spatial and time lag effects in China, in terms of CO2 emissions; urbanization progress has beneficial spatial spillover effects on CO2 abatement in both the short and long run; energy intensity also exerts significant short- and long-term directs as well as spillover effects on CO2 emissions; on the contrary, FDI and industrial structure have no significant impacts on CO2 emissions in China.

Distributive PV trading market in China: A design of multi-agent-based model and its forecast analysis

China's photovoltaic power generation has experienced an ever-growing speed recently while fast expansion also exposed problems like insufficient power consumption and subsidy gaps in the finance of the government. Now the pilot project for promoting the distributed PV trading market was proposed to address the problem. Accordingly, this study simulates the trading market by analysing the economic behaviours of various agents in an expanded multi-agent-based model with extensions of local consumption principle and matchmaking bidding, which explores the interactions between agents, the trading market and the environment. This study documents that: (1) the trading market can be successfully implemented with the descending subsidy and the grid parity target; (2) the trading market can significantly facilitate local power consumption and release the burden of PV abandonment (e.g. the simulation implies that the abandonment rate of PV in the Gansu Province in 2018 could be reduced from 10.3% to 6%); (3) All firms gain considerable profits after the trading market introduced, and the government also achieves significant benefits from carbon emissions abatement; (4) the power grid suffers from negative margins while the downward trend would eventually end. This raises new perspectives on proposing proper incentive mechanisms like the system of permitted income.