Decrease Carbon Emissions Research Articles

Impact and mechanism of digital economy on China's carbon emissions: from the perspective of spatial heterogeneity.

Using panel data from 30 provinces and cities in China over the period 2013–2019, we intend to explore the mechanism and regional heterogeneity of the influence of digital economy development on carbon emissions. Specifically, this relationship is analyzed by including the geographical variable coefficient model into the chain mediation effect model, taking spatial correlation and heterogeneity into account. The results indicate that the digital economy decreases carbon emissions by enhancing energy intensity, but raises carbon emissions by fostering economic expansion, making digital economy a net contribution to carbon emissions. Moreover, the effect of the digital economy on carbon emissions varies by geographic location. For instance, the total impact is the greatest in northern China, followed by the southwest and southeast, and relatively minor in the northwest and south. Our findings contribute to the existing research and offer policymakers with a theoretical reference, allowing them to customize carbon reduction plans to local conditions.

Change of tillage system affects the soil carbon pools characters, reduces carbon emissions and improves maize yield in the Loess Plateau

Understanding the response of soil aggregates and soil carbon pools to different tillage practices is an important way to illustrate the role of conservation tillage in climate change mitigation. Therefore, a long-term tillage experiment was conducted from 2007 to 2020 with four tillage practices: 1) The rotational tillage practice consisting of no-tillage in the first year, conventional tillage in the second year, subsoiling in the third year and a cycle of three years (NCS); 2) no-tillage (NT); 3) subsoiling (ST); and 4) conventional tillage (CT) to explore the relationship among soil aggregates, soil carbon pools, soil carbon sequestration and emissions. After long-term experiment, NCS and NT improved the soil total organic carbon (TOC) stock by 14.4% and 9.0% compared with CT in the 0–40 cm soil depth. Meanwhile, NCS, NT, ST decreased carbon emissions by 18.6∼36.6% during the observation period, when compared with CT. Partial least squares path model revealed that soil aggregates structures and soil carbon pools stability were the main causes of soil carbon sequestration and emissions affected by conservation tillage. NCS, NT and ST increased soil aggregates proportion, mean weight diameter, geometric mean diameter and aggregates associated carbon compared with CT. Meanwhile, NCS and NT improved the carbon pools management index (CPMI) by 11.1% and 16.5%, respectively. The increased stability of soil aggregates and the improvement of soil carbon pools reduced soil carbon emissions and increased soil carbon sequestration. However, NT and ST significantly increased the TOC stratification ratios (SR) by 38.8% and 30.1% in the 0–10 and 10–20 cm soil depth compared with NCS, which was not conducive to the vertical distribution of TOC. In additional, NCS, NT and ST increased yield by 16.7∼22.6% compared with CT. Collectively, based on the combined effects of environmental protection, production, and soil physicochemical property improvement, we recommend NCS (with highest comprehensive index: 6.76) as a sustainable tillage practice that can improve yield with ecological effects.

From West to East: Tree Placement Differentially Affects Summertime Household Energy Consumption in a Semi-Arid City

Background: Urban tree canopy (UTC) is often proposed as a mitigation strategy for simultaneously decreasing carbon emissions and urban heating in cities. Not only can trees reduce outdoor temperatures through shading and transpiration, but research also suggests that microclimate regulation by trees surrounding buildings can lead to cooler indoor temperatures and a subsequent decrease in summertime energy use. Methods: We analyzed summertime cooling electricity consumption for 21,048 single-family homes in a semi-arid city in northern Colorado, USA. Using Pearson’s correlation coefficients and multiple linear regression models, we evaluated the potential impact of UTC on cooling electricity use in 16 different zones around each house. We hypothesized that trees closer to the home, and trees located on the west and south sides of homes, would have the greatest impact on cooling electricity use. Results: UTC in all 16 zones around residential buildings was associated with negative correlation coefficients, indicating that UTC may be having an impact on energy use. Our regression results showed that UTC on the east side of single-family homes had the greatest effect. Conclusions: Although our results indicated that trees in landscapes around residential buildings can lead to some decreases in household-level energy consumption, the reductions in electricity usage were not as substantial as previous studies have predicted. Past research has shown that tree location matters, and our results indeed show that where UTC is located in reference to a building can change how much impact trees have on energy use. However, our results also show that trees on the east side of buildings have the most impact on household energy consumption in a semi-arid city in Colorado during the summer months. These results directly contradict predictions offered by popular ecosystem service models that show trees on the west and south sides of buildings as having the most impact on energy use in the Northern Hemisphere. Furthermore, many studies have suggested that the energy benefits provided by urban trees outweigh their carbon sequestration potential, and our results indicated this assumption may not hold true in all cities.

Digital economy, energy efficiency, and carbon emissions: Evidence from provincial panel data in China

Improving energy efficiency and lowering carbon emissions are of great importance to realize the “dual carbon” goal of carbon peak and carbon neutrality. Digital economy is a new engine of economic development, but whether or how it affects energy efficiency and carbon emissions are unclear. Utilizing panel data of China's 30 provinces from 2012 to 2019, this study empirically explores the relationships among digital economy, energy efficiency, and carbon emissions. Meanwhile, from the perspective of energy efficiency, applying mediation models and panel threshold model, it analyzes the direct, indirect, and nonlinear influencing mechanisms of digital economy on carbon emissions. The results reflect that the development of digital economy in China intensifies carbon emissions. Energy efficiency serves as a vital partial mediator between the two. The enhancement of energy efficiency can lower carbon emissions. However, the development of digital economy is not conducive to improving energy efficiency, thereby, indirectly increasing carbon emissions. The mediating effect of energy efficiency accounts for 30.58 % of the total effect of digital economy on carbon emissions. Meanwhile, taking energy efficiency into account, the impact of digital economy on carbon emissions has a significant double-threshold effect and presents an N-shaped trend. [0.824, 0.912] is the optimal range of energy efficiency, within which the growth of the digital economy can empower carbon emission abatement to some extent. In addition, the expansion of population size, the coal-based energy consumption structure, and the industrial structure significantly increase carbon emissions. The improvements in living standards and environmental regulations can help to decrease carbon emissions, but the emission abatement effects are not significant. Those conclusions reveal the importance of optimizing the level and quality of digital economy and adopting differentiated digital economy development policies based on energy efficiency to achieve carbon emission reduction.

Green energy investment, renewable energy consumption, and carbon neutrality in China

This study investigates the dynamic impact of green energy investment and energy consumption on carbon emissions in China from 1995 to 2020. It employed the Bootstrap Autoregressive Distributed Lag method to examine the short and long-run relationship. The long-run findings indicate that green energy investment and renewable energy consumption decrease carbon emissions, whereas non-renewable energy consumption and economic growth increase carbon emissions in shorter and longer periods. The long-term reduction in carbon emissions may imply the transition toward carbon neutrality. However, the marginal contribution of renewable energy towards carbon neutrality is significantly higher than green energy investment due to investment lag effects. Moreover, the Error Correction Term (ECT) is significantly negative, authorizing the convergence towards steady-state equilibrium in case of any deviation with a 25% adjustment rate. The empirical results suggest that China should encourage green energy investment and increase the share of renewable energy sources to ensure carbon neutrality in the long run.

Design of a machine learning model for the precise manufacturing of green cementitious composites modified with waste granite powder

In this study, a machine learning model for the precise manufacturing of green cementitious composites modified with granite powder sourced from quarry waste was designed. For this purpose, decision tree, random forest and AdaBoost ensemble models were used and compared. A database was created containing 216 sets of data based on an experimental study. The database consists of parameters such as the percentage of cement substituted with granite powder, time of testing and curing conditions. It was shown that this method for designing green cementitious composite mixes, in terms of predicting compressive strength using ensemble models and only three input parameters, can be more accurate and much more precise than the conventional approach. Moreover, to the best of the authors' knowledge, artificial intelligence has been one of the most effective and precise methods used in the design and manufacturing industry in recent decades. The simplicity of this method makes it more suitable for construction practice due to the ease of evaluating the input variables. As the push towards decreasing carbon emissions increases, a method for designing green cementitious composites without producing waste that is more precise than traditional tests performed in a laboratory is essential.

Electrocatalytic green ammonia production beyond ambient aqueous nitrogen reduction

Ammonia (NH3), the second highest produced chemical in the world, is dominantly used for fertilizer production to underpin the modern agriculture, and recently attracts increasing interest as an energy-dense, carbon-neutral carrier for renewable energy. The present Haber-Bosch process for NH3 production is energy-, emission-, and capital-intensive. Therefore, recent research efforts have been devoted to developing efficient alternatives with decreased carbon emissions, higher compatibility with renewables, and flexible operation. Electrocatalysis technologies represent a crucial role and great potentials, especially the electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR). However, the achieved performance is still far from feasibility due to the intrinsic limitations from nitrogen activation and reaction system. In this Review, we first discussed the roadmap towards green NH3, critically assessed the challenges of NRR, and then focused on several emerging strategies beyond conventional catalyst design and engineering under ambient aqueous conditions, including electrolyte effect, operation pressure, Li-mediated reaction, reactor innovation, new N-transformation reactions, and redox-mediated catalysis.

Toward carbon‐neutral ethylene production: assessment of the application potential of bio‐ethylene production pathways in China

AbstractThe production of bio‐ethylene is a promising way to replace fossil‐based ethylene production, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and working towards China's carbon neutrality goals. This study elaborates on five bio‐ethylene technological pathways: first‐ and second‐generation bioethanol dehydration, direct and indirect thermochemical synthesis, and methanol‐to‐olefins (MTO). It retrieves information about them from commercial patents and the scientific literature, and comprehensively assesses their potential for application in large‐scale ethylene production in China. The techno‐economic feasibility of these five technological pathways is discussed in terms of feedstock availability, investment level, technological development level, and political issues such as the carbon neutrality goal to which China's government is committed. Overall, two pathways (indirect thermochemical synthesis and MTO) exhibited competitive minimum ethylene selling prices at 5243 yuan/t (822 USD t–1) and 6767 yuan/t (1061 USD t–1), respectively, of which both are lower than the average ethylene market price of 7000 yuan/t (1098 USD t–1). In comparison with the conventional fossil‐derived ethylene, bio‐ethylene could decrease carbon emission by 3.2%–15.1% under a scenario of 20% bio‐ethylene substitution in 2019, showing promising potential for decarbonizing the ethylene industry and contributing to the achievement of China's carbon neutrality goals. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

How financial geo-density mitigates carbon emission intensity: Transmission mechanisms in spatial insights

Controlling carbon emissions and sustaining growth constitute essential concerns in the post-financial crisis era combined with low-carbon sustainable development. However, the impact of financial development on carbon emissions remains controversial and lacks mechanisms investigation covering finance spatial attributes. Relying on China province's data during 2005–2019, this paper contributes to the literature by constructing multi-spatial models to investigate how financial geo-density mitigates carbon emission intensity and explore the spatial transmission mechanisms. The results reveal that there is a balance between financial geo-density and carbon emission intensity. The intrinsic mechanisms include: (1) raising financial geo-density is accompanied by the law of marginal diminishing carbon emission intensity tendency; (2) high financial geo-density accelerates technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading, thereby decreasing carbon emission intensity, but drives industrial-scale expansion, thereby increasing carbon emission intensity; and (3) financial institution competition and inter-industry linkage notably influence the relationship between financial geo-density and carbon emission intensity, promoting the emission reduction effect of financial geo-density in accelerating technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading, and suppressing the emission increase effect of financial geo-density in driving industrial expansion. Our findings provide new insights for developing systemic emission reduction policies for employing financial sectors as catch-all and integrating industries and competition.

Natural resources, consumer prices and financial development in China: Measures to control carbon emissions and ecological footprints

China's natural resources are a major factor in its rapid financial development. In this race of development, the environment is compromised and China became the top polluted country in the world. A sustainable environment is required for sustainable development. Unlike others, we examine CO2 emissions and ecological footprint (EFP) to compare the role of natural resource rents (NRR), consumer prices (CP), financial development (FD), and population density (PD) in China. To empirically estimate the proposed linkages, the latest econometric techniques are used i. e, “Stationarity and co-integration tests with structural breaks and the autoregressive distributed lag models”. Findings report U-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) for CO2 emissions and EFP, which means GDP is helping to control CO2 emissions and EFP in China. However, natural resources, consumer prices, and population density are increasing environmental degradation. Moreover, financial development is helpful to decrease carbon emissions and ecological footprints. China needs to re-consider the policy regarding consumer prices, dense inhabitant population and use of natural resources.

Impact of population agglomeration in big cities on carbon emissions.

The study explored the influencing mechanism of population agglomeration in large cities on carbon emissions, including technological innovation, industrial structure, and transportation effects. Moreover, we attempt to explore the nonlinear impact of population agglomeration in large cities on carbon emissions. We used the panel data of 207 big cities with a permanent resident population of more than 1 million to study the relationship between population agglomeration and carbon emissions. We found that population agglomeration to big cities increased urban carbon emissions significantly. The results of the mechanism analysis showed that population agglomeration to big cities raised carbon emissions by the channel of industrial structure and transportation effects. The channel of technological innovation effect decreased carbon emissions but did not offset the growth of carbon emissions caused by industrial structure and transportation effects. Nonlinear estimation findings demonstrated that the impact of population agglomeration on carbon emissions was different in big cities with varying levels of population.

The criticality of financial risk to environment sustainability in top carbon emitting countries.

This research examines the linkage between financial risk and carbon emissions using a quarterly dataset spanning from1991 to 2019 for top carbon emitting countries. To achieve the study objective, this study apply quantile-on-quantile regression (QQR), the quantileregression (QR) approach for robustness check, and the nonparametric predictive test that identifies causality in mean and variance. Empirical findings from the QQR technique disclose the following: (i) financial risk decreases carbon emissions in the USA, Russia, Germany, and Canada; (ii) in China, India, Japan, Brazil, and Indonesia, financial risk enhances carbon emissions (iii) while we find mixed reactions in the case of South Korea. The outcomes of the conventional quantile regression also confirm the QQR outcomes, while that of nonparametric causality discloses evidence of causality in majority of quantiles from financial risk to carbon emissions. Based on these empirical outcomes, policymakers in the financial risk-induced-environmental degradation regions should consider implementing policies or reforms that would keep financial systems sound, in order to prevent shocks to the environment, and its attendant multiplier impact on the environmental sustainability targets implemented to protect both the immediate and the future generations.

Carbon-emission and waste reduction of a manufacturing-remanufacturing system using green technology and autonomated inspection

Environmental-friendly technology helps to reduce waste and carbon emissions of an imperfect production system. In general, the defective products generated during the “out-of-control” state are treated as waste. The single-stage manufacturing-remanufacturing system effectively depletes such defective spare parts within the same cycle but causes a tremendous amount of carbon. In such a circumstance, green technology to reduce carbon emissions is highly recommended. Also, the autonomated inspection makes defective detection more reliable and is ultimately helpful for waste reduction. Hence, in this study, we optimize the production plan along with the investments for applying green technology and autonomated inspection in an assembled product manufacturing-remanufacturing system. The numerical result shows that the appropriate green technology decreases carbon emissions up to 2.81% and autonomated inspection reduces the waste up to 2.37%, along with a reduction of entire production cycle cost up to 18.26%. In addition, the setup cost reduction is considered due to the characteristics of assembled product production.

Improvement Potential and Sustainability Index of Photovoltaic Thermal Solar Air Collector

Photovoltaic thermal (PVT) system is the future technology that will help in decreasing carbon emissions because this PVT technology generates electricity and thermal simultaneously. The advantage of PVT technology is that it is clean, saves space and cost, et cetera. This research applies an experimental approach in the laboratory and outdoors. The objective of this comparison is to generate real and controlled data and parameters. The analysis conducted is the improvement potential and sustainability index analysis. Both analyses are rarely conducted in PVT technology studies. Mass flow rate used was 0.01 kg/s-0.05 kg/s and sun intensity used was 800 W/m2. The result indicated the impact of mass flow rate on improvement potential and sustainability index. The higher the mass flow rate, the lower the improvement potential decreased; the higher the mass flow rate used, the higher the sustainability index increased.

A bacteria-based carbon sequestration and waste recycling system

Achieving carbon neutrality requires a variety of technological approaches. In the present study, we confirmed the applicability of a carbon cycle system in several industrial fields using sulphur-oxidising bacteria. This system produces a nitrogen fertiliser, which decreases carbon emissions by recycling H2S and NH3 pollutants discharged into the atmosphere or wastewater. It should be considered in industrial fields as a carbon reduction strategy.

Performance investigation of a grid-connected system integrated photovoltaic, battery storage and electric vehicles: A case study for gymnasium building

It has been a pressing challenge for human beings to reduce the energy consumption of buildings and decrease carbon emission. The application of photovoltaic (PV) system in buildings is identified as a renewable energy and carbon reduction approach. As a kind of typical building, the gymnasium usually has a large non-occupation roof area, which shows great application potential to cover the building demand by available photovoltaic source. This paper presents the performance of a grid-connected system integrated photovoltaic, battery storage, and electric vehicles (EV) applied in gymnasium buildings. The main building demand of gymnasium buildings can be easily covered by adopting an appropriate size of PV installation and battery capacity. The load cover ratio can achieve 0.95 when PV generation equals the energy consumption of the building and the battery with 2.7 times capacity of average daily building load is equipped. The proposed charging strategy for EVs can significantly decrease the peak power of the system compared with the constant power charging method. The peak grid power of the system adopted with the proposed charging strategy can be decreased by 51.7% of the rated load power on a typical day when PV generation is 1.4 times the energy consumption of the building and the battery capacity is 66% of the average daily building load. The results of this study show a reference for the configuration and operation scheme of PV system and electric vehicles in gymnasium buildings for renewable energy development and zero-carbon activity.

Climate Policy Transition Risk and the Macroeconomy

Uncertainty surrounding if the U.S. will implement a federal climate policy introduces risk into the decision to invest in long-lived capital assets, particularly those designed to use, or to replace fossil fuel. We develop a dynamic, general equilibrium model to quantify the macroeconomic impacts of this climate policy transition risk. The model incorporates beliefs over the likelihood that the government adopts a climate policy causing the economy to dynamically transition to a lower carbon steady state. We find that climate policy transition risk decreases carbon emissions today by causing investment to become relatively cleaner and output to fall. This result counters the Green Paradox, which argues that climate policy risk raises emissions today by increasing incentives to extract fossil fuel, expanding its supply. Even allowing for the supply-side response, we find the demand-side response dominates, and the net effect of climate policy transition risk is still to reduce emissions today.

Climate policy transition risk and the macroeconomy

Uncertainty surrounding if the U.S. will implement a federal climate policy introduces risk into the decision to invest in long-lived capital assets, particularly those designed to use, or to replace fossil fuel. We develop a dynamic, general equilibrium model to quantify the macroeconomic impacts of this climate policy transition risk. The model incorporates beliefs over the likelihood that the government adopts a climate policy causing the economy to dynamically transition to a lower carbon steady state. We find that climate policy transition risk decreases carbon emissions today by causing investment to become relatively cleaner and output to fall. This result counters the Green Paradox, which argues that climate policy risk raises emissions today by increasing incentives to extract fossil fuel, expanding its supply. Even allowing for the supply-side response, we find the demand-side response dominates, and the net effect of climate policy transition risk is still to reduce emissions today.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) Implementation For Low Carbon – Eco Friendly Housing

Housing development in Indonesia is increasing annually and leads to the high demand of housing provision. In this recent time, Indonesian government facing housing backlog until 13,5 million. To solve this problem, the government then focus on housing regulation by implemented One Million Housing program from 2015. In one hand, this regulation is effective to solve housing backlog but in term of environmental awareness, this massive development leads to increasing of carbon emission. The impact is due to the building material and construction process that far from eco-friendly. For this reason, a solution is needed to reduce the environmental impact that occurs. One of the solutions that can be done is to develop a low-carbon housing design by using alternative materials that are environmentally friendly. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is one method to give a broad view regarding carbon emission of housing by integrative design modelling. This study then aims to analyze housing prototype of type 36 with low carbon emission. In this study, the material alternative for housing is light weight concrete panel by using plastic waste. The result show that the design alternative that proposed in this study is decreasing carbon emission as amount of 26% compared to conventional housing. The panel with 1 cm thickness has value of emission carbon as amount 2.56 tCO2e, is lower than conventional wall panel.

Energy Efficiency Subsidies and Mandates: Not All they're Hyped Up to be

Advocates praise the use of energy efficiency (EE) for reducing climate change and the energy bills of consumers. Many contend that it is the most economical way to decrease carbon emissions—that by reducing energy consumption along with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, these initiatives more than pay for themselves. Advocates of EE also believe that much more needs to be done to encourage and even mandate further EE investments by energy consumers.