Energy Conservation And Emission Reduction Research Articles

Environmental and economic analysis of the transformation of paper mill sludge treatment technologies in China.

Paper mill sludge (PMS) is featured with a high content of cellulose and hemicellulose, and using its characteristics to make paperboard can achieve a high-value utilization of PMS, which has attracted growing interest. In this study, currently prevalent landfill, incineration technologies (generating heat and electricity by incineration), and three paperboard technologies (medium density fiberboard, pulp board, and corrugated paper) were evaluated and compared via life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) methods. LCA results show that the PMS-to-pulp board outperforms others with an energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER) value of - 2.86 × 10-8, while the landfill exhibits the highest overall environmental impact with an ECER value of 4.80 × 10-9. LCC results reveal that the PMS-to-pulp board delivers the highest economic profit with $257.357, while the landfill is the lowest with $ - 35.63. The PMS paperboard technologies are more economically friendly than the incineration technologies due to additional electricity/steam consumption during the PMS pre-drying process in incineration. In addition, different scenarios were set up to explore national GHG emission reduction potential by increasing paperboard technologies application rate and reducing the proportion of landfill and incineration. The scenario analysis suggests that replacing 90% of landfill and incineration ratio with PMS paperboard technologies could tremendously improve the overall emission reduction performance with - 9.08 × 1010 kg CO2 eq. This result indicates that the PMS treatment technology transformation has a significant favorable impact on the achievement of the "carbon neutrality" target.

“Hidden price”: Energy conservation and emission reduction targets and employment growth

To achieve the “Carbon Peak” and “Carbon Neutrality” goals, the Chinese government is continuously strengthening energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER) work. However, this measure may also have an impact on employment in enterprises. To clarify its impact characteristics, we manually collect and organize prefecture-level municipal government work reports, and characterize ECER targets based on whether the government's planning terms involve ECER. This paper combines the China Industrial Enterprise Database and China Listed Company Database to empirically test the impact of ECER targets on employment growth in enterprises. We find that ECER targets inhibit employment growth in enterprises, and this effect is still significant after considering the endogeneity problems. The results of the mechanism analysis show that at the macro level, ECER targets can inhibit employment growth by exacerbating resource mismatch and weakening market competition. At the micro level, ECER targets can increase the enterprise's fixed assets investment and tax burden, and reduce the enterprise's wage, which has a negative impact on employment growth. In addition, we also find that the inhibitory effect of ECER targets on employment growth is more significant in foreign-capital enterprises, private enterprises, and enterprises in the eastern region.

Green Public Finance and “Dual Control” of Carbon Emissions: New Evidence from China

In response to the escalating global climate change, countries are progressively adopting green public finance as a crucial instrument for achieving carbon neutrality. This study considers energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER) in demonstration cities’ construction as a natural experiment and verifies the effect of green public finance on total carbon emissions (TCEs) and carbon emission intensity (CEI) by using a difference-in-differences (DID) model with the help of the panel data of 276 Chinese cities from 2006 to 2019. The empirical results indicate that (1) the ECER policy effectively reduces CEs in the demonstration cities, resulting in a reduction of TCEs by 13.13% and CEI by 12.90%; (2) the ECER policy can help optimize energy structure, accelerate green technology innovation, and improve energy efficiency, thus promoting “dual control” of CEs; and (3) the CE reduction effect of the ECER policy is stronger in western cities, southern cities, lower-administrative-level cities, and cities with weaker financial strength, which has a typical “supporting the weak” effect. Based on this, we conclude that green public finance is conducive to promoting “dual control” of CEs. Our conclusions not only enrich the theoretical research on green public finance but also provide governments with empirical evidence to implement more effective green public finance policies and expedite carbon neutrality.

Appraising the role of energy conservation and emission reduction policy for eco-friendly productivity improvements: An entropy-balancing DID approach

In pursuit of low-carbon and high-quality economic development, the Chinese government has implemented an energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER) policy. It has piloted this policy for three groups of prefecture-level cities since 2011. So far, there is no systematic evidence to demonstrate whether such a strategy can help China achieve a “win-win” situation between energy conservation and environmental protection. To identify the causal effect of the ECER policy on eco-friendly productivity (EFP), we explore variations in the timing of this policy across cities combined with the entropy-balancing method and assemble a balanced panel dataset encompassing China's 283 cities from 2006 to 2017. Empirical findings demonstrate that EFP in the ECER pilot cities had increased by 15.3% on average compared with EFP in non-ECER pilot regions based on the difference-in-differences framework. Notably, the ECER policy generates significant positive spatial spillover effects on surrounding ECER pilot regions. Our channel analysis confirms that the positive effect of the ECER policy is also realized through energy savings, structural effects, and green technological effects. Moreover, the observed effect is significantly heterogeneous regarding geographical locations, resource endowment, whether a city has an old industrial base, and environmental regulation. Finally, several policy implications concerning China's ECER policy and EFP improvement are put forward.

Assessing environmental burdens of China's wooden flooring production based on life-cycle assessment

After over 30 years of rapid development in the wooden flooring industry in China, there is an imperative need to address the resulting environmental impacts. Therefore, this study analyzed the environmental impacts of the four most common types of wooden flooring in China, such as solid wood flooring, multi-layer engineered wood flooring, three-layer engineered wood flooring, and laminated flooring, utilizing the life-cycle assessment approach. This study assessed 12 environmental indicators, the comprehensive index of energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER), and the eco-efficiency of the four wooden flooring types. A trade-off was observed among the various impact categories, making it challenging to rank the environmental performance of the four types of wooden flooring. Contribution analysis revealed that woody raw materials and electricity consumption in the production process were the primary environmental hotspots of wooden flooring. The ECER index indicated that the multi-layer engineered wood flooring exhibited the highest environmental impacts, followed by laminated flooring, three-layer engineered wood flooring, and solid wood flooring. The eco-efficiency of solid wood flooring was 237%, 767%, and 1454% higher than that of three-layer engineered wood flooring, multi-layer engineered wood flooring, and laminated flooring, respectively. Sensitivity analysis revealed that enhancing the environmental performance of wooden flooring lies in reducing power consumption and woody raw material consumption during the production process. These findings contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the environmental impacts associated with wooden flooring manufacturing, while also serving as a reference for further improvements in reducing their environmental impacts.

Fiscal policy promotes corporate green credit: Experience from the construction of energy conservation and emission reduction demonstration cities in China

<abstract> <p>Using a quasi-natural experiment of the staggered construction of energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER) demonstration cities in China, this paper explores the impact of fiscal policy on green credit (GC) for listed enterprises. The main findings are the following: (1) The ECER demonstration cities policy significantly improves enterprise GC. This conclusion remains robust after considering the heterogeneous treatment effects. (2) By extending the estimation period beyond the policy withdrawal, we use the difference-in-differences designs with multiple groups and periods (DIDM) estimator to compute the average treatment effect of policy switches. The results show that the intervention effect still exists after the policy withdrawal. (3) Direct cash subsidies, corporate green spending, and external financing constraints are the main mechanisms through which the ECER demonstration cities policy works. (4) The effects of the ECER demonstration cities policy are heterogeneous at the batch, urban, industry, and corporate levels. This paper explores the role of fiscal policy on enterprise green financing. The findings provide theoretical and empirical insights for leveraging fiscal tools to enhance environmental governance.</p> </abstract>

Influence of dual-credit policy on the energy conservation and emission reduction technology R&D of Chinese auto industry

The dual-credit policy, as an important industrial policy in the automotive industry to replace fiscal subsidies, aims to achieve the dual objectives of energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER) and promote the development of new energy vehicles by establishing a dual credit system based on the average fuel consumption of conventional vehicles and credits for new energy vehicles. This paper employs a game model to investigate the differential impact of the dual-credit policy on ECER among automobile manufacturers with different industry structures. The study finds that the existing policy primarily favors manufacturers adopting the integration mode, followed by the multilateral mode and supply-monopoly mode respectively. Furthermore, R&D cost coefficient, unit price of credits, degree of competition and elasticity of cross-demand for fuel-saving functions are the four main factors that influence the profit model of the automobile industry. The findings of this study suggest that targeted policies need to be formulated for different industry structures during the adjustment of the policy in order to fully stimulate their enthusiasm for ECER. Additionally, the flexible combination of the four factors should be considered when formulating a specific dual-credit policy so as to achieve more energy saving and emission reduction effect in the automobile industry.

Life-cycle environmental burdens of ethylene production in the context of China's chemical feedstock transition from naphtha to coal and shale gas by-product of ethane

China is experiencing an ethylene-feedstock transition from naphtha to cheap coal and ethane by-product of shale gas. This transition leads to the variation in the environmental burdens of ethylene production. Here, we compared the life-cycle environmental loads of ethylene, produced by four typical routes—naphtha to ethylene (OTE), ethane to ethylene (ETE), coal-based methanol to ethylene (CMTE), and bioethanol to ethylene (BETE). Global midpoint environmental impacts (with 12 indicators) and China-contextualized Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction (ECER) index were used. We found that the trade-off across the 12 environmental dimensions impedes directly comparing the environmental sustainability of the four ethylene routes. The emerging ethane-fed ETE route, as an example, generates low climate change loads (GWP) but high abiotic resource depletion potentials (ADP). China's indigenous ECER index, addressing this trading-off issue, shows the highest environmental burdens of the coal-fed CMTE route, followed by the BETE, ETE, and OTE routes. Raw material consumption dominates 58–85% environmental burdens of the four ethylene routes. Referring to the 2018 baseline, replacing the coal-fed CMTE route with the ethane-fed ETE would reduce the environmental load per tonne of ethylene product by 2–25% in 2030 and 6–42% in 2050. However, the total environmental loads of China's ethylene sector would still increase by 1–44% and 6–68% due to the continued industrial expansion. Given ethylene as the primary chemical material, our findings provide policymakers with reference to promote the environmental sustainability of chemical manufacturing sector.

The impact of fiscal transfer payments on energy conservation and emission reduction in China: Does the development stage matter?

Fiscal transfer payments (TRANS) are the institutional supplement of Chinese-style fiscal decentralization, which is of great significance to economic development. However, the relationship between TRANS and energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER) remains to be further discussed. Using panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2003 to 2020, this study empirically examines the impact of TRANS on energy-environmental performance (EEP) from the perspectives of influence mechanism, regional heterogeneity and nonlinearity. The results show that the influence of TRANS on ECER presents an obvious U-shaped relationship, and this influence has regional heterogeneity. At the same time, the investment-driven effect, infrastructure effect and industrial structure effect are important channels through which TRANS affect ECER. The partially linear functional coefficient models show that TRANS have different effects in different development stages. With the continuous improvement of economic level and urbanization level, the promotion effect of TRANS on ECER is more and more obvious. These results indicate that the government should increase fiscal investment in ECER, and pay attention to the development stage of different regions.

Low carbon technology for carbon neutrality in sustainable cities: A survey

This work aims to study the role and current situation of Low-Carbon Technology (LCT) in realizing urban Carbon Neutrality goals and Sustainable Urban Development (SUD). This work focuses on the three main aspects of Carbon Neutrality by means of investigation: the new energy-supported LCTs, building-oriented Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction (ECER), and Carbon Capture, Storage, and Utilization (CCSU) technology. The research of the past ten years (2013–2022) is reviewed from the Web of Science, Google Academic, and other literature databases. Over 20,000 articles are selected by using the keywords "Carbon Neutrality Technology," such as "IEEE," "Elsevier," and other journal documents. Finally, more than 150 papers with high citation rates and relatively novel research results are selected for specific analysis. This work also establishes a case study of urban green development with multiple co-governance and a case study of building energy conservation and carbon reduction solutions. Finally, suggestions are put forward for achieving SUD. China's energy consumption and Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions have increased year by year, but the Carbon Peak has not yet been reached. About 85% of CCUS technologies extract CO2 from the air and use it for other emission reduction processes. In addition, the carbon storage time and storage efficiency need to be improved, and the general level can only reach about 60% of the storage efficiency. The secondary use of CO2 by technology is of practical significance to many industries and must be fully implemented from the perspective of the whole life cycle. Especially building energy consumption is a huge carbon emitter and poses a challenge for SUD. How to take effective measures to control emissions is still an arduous task

Power enterprises-oriented carbon footprint verification system using edge computing and blockchain

The purpose is to study the Carbon Footprint (CF) verification system of power enterprises, promote the Low-Carbon Economy (LCE) in the power industry, and improve resource utilization during Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction (ECER). The Carbon Dioxide Emission (CDE) of power enterprises is explored based on the CF. First, Edge Computing (EC) is adopted to calculate the direct Carbon Dioxide Emission (CDE) of the Chinese power industry from 2005 to 2020 based on energy input. The direct CDE and the changing trend are analyzed. On this basis, Blockchain Technology (BCT) is employed to quantify the indirect CDEs of power enterprises’ energy consumption. A comprehensive analysis is made of the changing trend and circulation of the total CF of power enterprises based on the direct and indirect CDEs. The data show that the proportion of direct and indirect CDEs in total CF gradually decreases and increases. The results show that the power industry should increase the proportion of clean power in the power industry, control the CDEs from the source, and improve energy utilization to optimize the CF verification.

Impacts of intelligent transportation systems on energy conservation and emission reduction of transport systems: A comprehensive review

With the development of smart cities, new requirements have been put forward for the control of carbon emissions (CEs) in the transportation system. Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) provide a solution to the problems of traffic congestion and CEs caused by the rapid increase in the number of vehicles. This work aims at the impact of ITS on the energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER) of transportation networks. This work screened more than 100 pieces of relevant literature on ECER from Google Scholar and classified and analyzed them one by one. First, the development of the transportation system is studied. The monitoring of the transportation network is developing in a brilliant direction, from the initial induction coil detector to the current ITS. Then, the realization path of the ECER transportation system is studied from three aspects: transportation, transportation organization and management, and energy upgrading and replacement. Finally, the impact of ITS on ECER in different transportation domains is summarized. The results indicate that the traffic system has undergone traditional video surveillance and has become increasingly intelligent. Visually presenting traffic data in the management system plays a very influential role in alleviating traffic congestion and vehicle ECER. However, selecting the best vehicle parameters is necessary to realize ECER for the transport system. At the same time, the implementation of these energy-saving measures requires the traction and promotion of government policies in order for ECER transportation to fulfill its potential role. • Study the impact of ITS on Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction (ECER) of the transportation networks. • The realization path of the transportation system ECER is studied from three aspects. • The impact of ITS on ECER in different transportation fields is summarized.

Can urbanization move ahead with energy conservation and emission reduction? New evidence from China

In China, urbanization is mainly stimulated by resource flows, and industrialization is normally accompanied by an increase in the proportion of the urban population and urban land area. During the process, urbanization at a rapid pace often induces a huge consumption of energy and environmental emissions. Nevertheless, it is also worth considering whether urbanization positively affects urban environment promotion. With a more solid economic foundation, urban subjects will carry out energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER) from various aspects, primarily focusing on technological innovation, advancement of production mechanisms and structural optimization. Along these lines, this study aims to examine urbanization's direct and indirect impact on energy conservation and emission reduction using panel data consisting of 196 Chinese cities for the period of 2011–2018 with a Slacks-based model and transmission mechanism. Study results indicate that urbanization's development can give a direct impetus to ECER, which is quite robust after employing a series of robust tests, including instrumental variable estimation. Besides, urbanization indirectly influences ECER by promoting economic growth, better allocation of resources, internet advancement, and adjusting the employment structure. Further investigation suggests that the relationship between urbanization and ECER is nonlinear, depending on the levels of the above-mentioned mediating variables. Finally, essential policy suggestions are proposed, i.e. promoting high-quality development of urban clusters, accelerating the policies for ECER, and paying more attention to economic growth, resource allocation, internet technology, and employment structure.

Dynamic evaluation of environmental-economic performance of vehicle emission reduction policy from the perspective of the loss-aversion effect

With increasing intensification of vehicle pollutants and CO2 emissions, it has become difficult to realize the co-control of pollution reduction and carbon reduction. Considering the limitations of the single-congestion charging policy, this study first analyzed the dual effect of charging on vehicle travel using the loss-aversion effect and constructed a decision algorithm of vehicle trips based on this effect. In the second step, the strategy of public publicity and public transport priority policy (PTPP) were introduced to establish a vehicle energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER) management model based on the mode of “charging + public publicity + public transport priority” (CPP). Finally, the following conclusions were drawn based on a dynamic simulation: (1) The single-charging mode can induce side effects, leading to a rebound in the number of vehicle trips. (2) Increasing the investment in publicity funds and expanding the scope of publicity forms can significantly raise the public's awareness of environmental protection and have a restraining effect on vehicle trips. (3) Compared with the single-charging policy, the CPP mode has multiple performance levels for the environment and economy. Moreover, the CO, CO2 emissions, and economic costs decreased by 45.67%, 31.93%, and 45%, respectively.

Empirical analysis of the role of the environmental accountability system in energy conservation and emission reduction in China

Many developing countries are facing the difficulty of choosing between economic growth and energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER). China has strengthened the implementation of ECER by setting environmental accountability as the development goal of local governments, hoping to have better governance effects. To evaluate the actual intervention effect of this approach, this paper constructs panel data covering 46 countries from 1995 to 2014 and uses the difference-in-differences (DID) method and the composite control method to quantitatively analyse the policy effect. The results show that China can effectively curb energy consumption and carbon emission intensity per unit of GDP by adding ECER targets to the government’s five-year plan, which has significant effects on ECER. Furthermore, we use an intermediary mechanism to test and identify low-carbon alternatives and an ECER promotion mechanism for technological advancement. The conclusion shows that economic development is compatible with low carbon and energy consumption. Combined with China’s long-term goals for ECER, it can be considered that on the road to achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality in the future, the economy and tertiary industry should be rationally developed, the degree of urbanization should receive more attention, and the proportion of thermal power generation should be reduced.

Multi-objective optimization of energy conservation and emission reduction in China's iron and steel industry based on dimensionality reduction

With increasingly stringent environmental restrictions, the iron and steel industry is faced with multiple targets such as energy conservation, emission reduction, and cost control, hence, making industrial-environmental management a multi-objective optimization (MOO) problem. Existing studies adopt MOO models to address this issue, however, their methods result in high-dimension problems that increase computational cost and the difficulty to formulate optimal management schemes. This study builds a constrained MOO model in China's iron and steel industry, and introduces a dimensionality reduction technique to identify redundant objectives which can be omitted without altering the Pareto dominance structure of the original high-dimension problem. NSGA-II is then applied on the resulting lower-dimension problem to optimize the application of five types of Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction (ECER) measures, consisting of 23-process equipment and 55-ECER technologies. Results show that: (1) The high-dimension problem can be reduced to a four objective optimization problem. The four key-objectives are cost, energy, CO2, and PM intensity control. Hence, ECER policies should focus on these four key-objectives since optimizing them will synergistically minimize redundant objectives like NOx and SO2 emissions; (2) For the resulting lower-dimension problem, solution quality increases as reflected by algorithm verification metrics (spacing metric and hypervolume indicator), while computational cost is reduced by 73% and the decision making process is simplified significantly; (3) By-production reutilization and cleaner production technologies are the most attractive measures, contributing about 60% of ECER potential and only 30% of total cost. Equipment upgrading also has good ECER effects, but requires strong economic incentives, while end-of-pipe and renewable energy technologies have the lowest ECER potential. In sum, this study proposed a methodology to reduce the complexity of ECER optimization under multiple objectives, and provided suggestions to enhance industrial-environmental management under increasing environmental restrictions.

Many-objective optimization of energy conservation and emission reduction under uncertainty: A case study in China's cement industry

The difficulty of Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction (ECER) management has increased due to the large number of conflicting objectives and multiple uncertainty factors. Most studies only optimize few objectives, and neglect the effect of these uncertainties. This study optimizes 10-ECER objectives in China's cement industry. First, we simulate uncertainties through random sampling, and adopt the Mean-effective mechanism NSGA-III to calculate optimal solutions under uncertainty. Finally, we minimize the occurrence of uncertainties through Morris test, and apply VIKOR to generate optimal ECER management schemes. Results show that: (1) Uncertainties significantly affect ECER management. For example, the deterministic NOx reduction potential is 774 g/t, which is 12% higher than under uncertainty (699 g/t). Therefore, ignoring uncertainties result in setting too strict targets that do not match practical reality; (2) Clinker/Cement ratio and abatement efficiency of end-of-Pipe technologies are critical parameters which cause most uncertainties. Hence, policy makers can significantly minimize the occurrence of uncertainties by strictly controlling their fluctuation; (3) ECER schemes encourage the promotion of 1-renewable energy utilization approach, 3-supplementary cementitious materials, an incentivized application of 7-advanced technologies and equipment upgrading. In sum, the proposed methodology can minimize the occurrence of uncertainties in ECER management, and support decision-making under many conflicting objectives.

The comparative life-cycle environmental effects of chemical feedstock change driven by energy system transition: A case study from China's ethylene glycol industry

A vital avenue through which replacing coal with shale gas in the energy system reshapes the feedstock of China's chemical manufacturing and related environmental burdens. Here, we use ethylene glycol production as an example to evaluate the environmental loads from four typical production routes—naphtha to ethylene glycol (OEG), ethane to ethylene glycol (EEG), coal-based methanol to ethylene glycol (MEG), and coal-based syngas to ethylene glycol (CEG)—by life-cycle assessment method based on global nine midpoint impacts and China's localized energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER) index. The result shows that replacing the traditional coal-fed MEG and CEG capacity with ethane-fed EEG capacity reduces most environmental stresses but increases ODP and POFP burdens by 87% and 21%, respectively. Furthermore, the scenario analysis shows that feedstock change and production growth referring to the 2018 baseline increase the environmental burdens of China's ethylene glycol industry by 20–170% by 2025. This study updates the environmental-burden picture of ethylene glycol production under the dual contexts of the energy system and chemical feedstock transitions to achieve sustainable development for policymakers.

Measuring China's agricultural green total factor productivity and its drivers during 1998–2019

Improving agricultural green total factor productivity (AGTFP) is essential to China's agricultural sustainable development. Although several studies have focused on China's AGTFP, its measurement and drivers are not fully investigated yet. More specifically, the published research examining the drivers of China's AGTFP at both the production and factor levels is still scarce. To fill this gap, this study constructs two different data envelopment analysis models combined with green Luenberger productivity indicator (GLPI), the biennial weight modified Russell model and the biennial bounded adjusted model, to measure China's AGTFP as well as check the robustness. We further decompose the AGTFP growth at both production and factor levels to investigate its drivers. The main findings are as follows. First, during 1998–2019, the central region with its GLPI at 0.0377 had the largest AGTFP growth, followed by the western (0.0281) and eastern regions (0.0254). Second, in terms of production-decomposition, technical progress was crucial driver to AGTFP growth, energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER) and market performance. Third, in terms of factors-decomposition, the contributions of these factors to the AGTFP growth were positive and the contribution rates ranged from 1.01% (pesticide) to 38.51% (agricultural carbon emissions). Additionally, ECER performance was the primary driver of AGTFP, accounting for about 51.35% of the growth. Finally, according to the decompositions, Porter effect was discovered in China's agricultural sector. ECER drove China's agriculture to achieve win-win development between the environment and economic production.

Industrial-environmental management in China's iron and steel industry under multiple objectives and uncertainties

Industrial-environmental management is a multi-objective optimization problem plagued with multiple uncertainties. Most studies only optimize few objectives and often neglect these uncertainties. This study builds a 6-objective optimization problem to quantify energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER) potentials in China's iron and steel industry. First, uncertainties are simulated through 100,000-time random sampling, NSGA-II and the mean-effective objective mechanism are applied to calculate optimal solutions. Finally, a global sensitivity analysis is performed to classify uncertainty parameters based on their impacts on objectives' performance. Results show: (1) There exist significant discrepancies between objectives' performance under certainty and uncertainty. For example, the deterministic CO2 intensity is 1148 kg/t, which is 11.93% lower than its value under uncertainty. Therefore, neglecting uncertainty increases the risk of noncompliance with policy targets as they might be too strict; (2) Two critical uncertainty parameters (steel ratios and technology penetration rates) have the most severe impacts on objectives' performance, hence, reducing their fluctuation can minimize uncertainties when estimating ECER potentials; (3) By-product recycling and energy efficiency measures have good performance in all objectives, thus, should be prioritized. Moreover, from 77-strategies assessed, 11 are identified as key-strategies due to their large ECER effects, hence, should be strongly promoted.