Growth Rate Of Energy Consumption Research Articles

Global Educational Change under the Current Situation of Global Warming

Global warming has increasingly become the focus of global concern, which significantly impacts the ecological environment and social structure. The response to this crisis will require educational reform. This paper aims to green campus construction a crucial step in addressing the urgent environmental issues facing our planet. By embracing sustainable practices, schools can lead the way in promoting environmental awareness, cultivating green behavioral habits, and driving innovative solutions that contribute to the global community's overall health and well-being. The integration of environmental education and history discipline under the framework of multi-disciplinary integration education provides us with valuable experience and enlightenment. Interdisciplinary integration is an effective way to improve the quality of education and cultivate students' comprehensive literacy. By integrating knowledge, skills and values from different disciplines, the learning experience of children's green development concepts can be achieved through this process. As a large energy consumer, China has a significant impact on the global energy landscape. In the face of increasingly severe energy and environmental challenges, China has not only taken measures in terms of policy to adjust the energy structure, reduce the growth rate of energy consumption, and increase research efforts

An analysis of the decomposition and driving force of carbon emissions in transport sector in China

China’s transport carbon emissions are increasing quickly and the issue of emission reduction is urgent. This article aims to calculate and decompose China’s transport carbon emissions during 2001–2019. It first calculates the China’s transport carbon emissions by IPCC carbon emission factor method, and then applies the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) model for decomposition analysis. The conclusion indicates that: (1) Diesel, gasoline, kerosene, and fuel oil are the major energy sources used in China’s transport sector, with the combined consumption of diesel and gasoline exceeding 70%, and the annual growth rate of energy consumption reached 8.92% during 2000–2019. Among them, natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) have the fastest growth rate, while the only one showing a downward trend is raw coal, indicating that China’s transportation energy structure is being optimized. (2) Although China’s transport carbon emissions have been increasing, the growth rate has declined since 2013. The proportion of carbon emissions from kerosene, diesel, natural gas, and LPG increased from 2000 to 2019, while that of raw coal, gasoline, and fuel oil decreased. This suggests that the use of clean energy, air transportation, and large-scale transportation is increasing, while the use of heavily polluting fuels and small-scale road transportation is decreasing. (3) Per capita GDP is the driving factor that has the most influence on the increase of China’s transport carbon emissions. Population positively influences transportation carbon emissions too, but issues such as aging, low fertility rates, and insufficient labor force may change the direction of the impact in the next 30 years. (4) The negative effect of energy intensity on transport carbon emissions is the greatest, followed by industrial structure and energy structure. The development of highways, new energy vehicles, railway electrification, multimodal transportation, third-party logistics, and logistics information technology in China has improved the energy structure, reduced energy intensity, and brought China’s transport sector into an important stage of innovation driven and pursuit of coordinated development with the environment.

Experimental Study on the Influence of Rotational Speed on Grinding Efficiency for the Vertical Stirred Mill

The rotational speed of the agitator is one of the important parameters that affect the grinding efficiency of the vertical stirred mill. Increasing the speed will improve the grinding effect, but it will increase energy consumption, and determining a reasonable speed setting is a system issue. The effects of different speeds on energy consumption, product particle size, and grinding efficiency were analyzed in this study. An experimental vertical stirred mill was used to grind iron ore, and five different speed parameters from 175 rpm to 350 rpm were set as variables. It was found that increasing the rotational speed will increase the grinding effect, but it will trigger more energy consumption. A new evaluation index to comprehensively reflect the grinding efficiency of the mill, which was defined as the ability of a mill to grind the same product per unit of time and energy consumption, was proposed. The grinding efficiency was calculated when the particle size of iron ore powder decreased to −45, −38, and −28 μm at different speeds. It can be seen that the growth rate of energy consumption is faster than that of the percentage of particle size, which leads to a continuous decrease in grinding efficiency with the increase in rotational speed. If high processing capacity is pursued within a certain period of time, high speed can be chosen, but it will result in energy loss. On the contrary, the low speed can be chosen, if considering grinding economy.

Optimizing kitchen ventilation with an integrated stove air supply-exhaust system for reducing PM2.5 intake fraction and enhancing energy efficiency

Ensuring good ventilation is crucial for reducing the pollution caused by cooking activities in the indoor environment. Among them, fume exhaust devices as a vital component of kitchen ventilation, and their performance is particularly critical. Merely increasing the air volume of exhaust devices to remove fumes not only leads to the higher energy consumption of exhaust fans, but also has limited practical effect on reducing pollution. For improving the ventilation condition and reducing the energy consumption of supply and exhaust fan, a new ventilation system for kitchen with integrated stove air supply-exhaust (ISASE) was developed in this study. Firstly, the orthogonal experiment was utilized for arranging different combination schemes of five influencing factors, including the emission rate, exhaust flow, upper air supply angle, upper and lower air supply velocities. Then, the effect of ISASE in reducing the intake fraction of PM2.5 under each scheme was studied by using the computational fluid dynamics method. The energy consumption of this system under different ventilation schemes was investigated with on-site testing. Finally, performance-gaining rate was proposed by introducing intake fraction reduction rate and energy consumption growth rate to quantitatively evaluate the performance advantage of ISASE. Polynomial fitting was also used to explore the energy-saving effect of ISASE at high emission rate. The results showed that at low, medium, and high emission rates, the intake fraction of PM2.5 was reduced by 65.0 %–84.2 %. However, the energy consumption of ISASE merely increased by 7.4 %–16.8 % compared with traditional integrated stove without air supply conditions. Its maximum performance-gaining rate reached 0.49–0.66. The energy-saving rate of ISASE was 46.7 % compared with traditional integrated stove without air supply when the same intake fraction was achieved at high emission rate. The practical schemes of ISASE at different emission rates were given in this study, which optimized the working performance of integrated stove and provided a useful reference for its innovative design.

ANALYTICAL REVIEW OF MODERN NON-CONVENTIONAL ENERGY SOURCES

The structure of the world energy economy has developed in such a way that 80 % of the electricity consumed is obtained by burning fuel at power plants, where the chemical energy of the fuel is first converted into heat, heat into work, and work into electricity. Hydropower also provides a significant percentage (about 15 %), the rest is covered by other sources, mainly nuclear power plants. Human needs are growing, there are more and more people, and this causes gigantic volumes of energy production and growth rates of its consumption. Today, traditional energy sources (various fuels, hydro resources) and technologies for their use are no longer able to provide the required level of energy availability of society, because these are non-renewable sources. And although the explored reserves of natural fuels are very large, the problem of depletion of natural reserves at the current and projected rates of their development is moving into a real and near future. Even today, a number of fields, due to depletion, turn out to be unsuitable for industrial development, and for oil and gas, for example, one has to go to hard-to-reach, remote territories, to ocean shelves, etc. The forecast proves that while maintaining the current volumes and growth rates of energy consumption at 5–7 %, fossil fuel reserves will completely run out in 70–150 years. Another factor limiting a significant increase in energy production through fuel combustion is the ever-increasing environmental pollution from energy production waste. These wastes are significant in mass and contain a large number of various harmful components. This is where acid rain comes from, the disappearance of ozone, the poisoning of farmland and water bodies. Moreover, nature is no longer able to process these pollution and self-repair by natural physico-chemical and microbiological methods.
 In nuclear power, environmental problems of a different kind arise. They are associated with the need to exclude the ingress of nuclear fuel into the environment and the reliable disposal of nuclear waste, which, with the current level of development of technology and technology, is associated with great difficulties.
 No less harmful is the thermal pollution of the environment, which can lead to global warming of the Earth's climate, melting of glaciers and rising sea levels.
 In the light of the above, the widespread practical use of non-traditional and renewable energy sources, which are also environmentally friendly and do not pollute the environment, is becoming increasingly relevant.
 The article briefly presents an analytical review of modern non-traditional and renewable energy sources.

Study on the Relationship between Energy Structure Change and Economic Structure in China

Since 1978, China's economic growth rate has attracted international attention. While China's economy has maintained rapid growth, energy consumption has shown an opposite trend, namely, the growth rate of energy consumption has slowed down, and the energy consumption intensity of the national economy has continued to decline. The tertiary industry is underdeveloped, and the producer service industry is stagnant, with outstanding problems. It is worth noting that the proportion of China's industrial added value in GDP(Gross Domestic Product) exceeded the peak value of developed countries during the Wang Yehua period. Under the new normal of economic growth shift and tight resource and environment constraints, structural contradictions will become more prominent in the coming period. In order to practice the low-carbon economic model, the government puts forward the requirements of ensuring China's energy and economic security and accelerating the transformation of energy revolution and economic development mode. However, structural adjustment is not a simple superposition of policies and measures. This paper studies the relationship between energy structure change and economic structure in China. Structural adjustment is not simply the superposition of policies and measures. We must also with comprehensive consideration of energy supply security and use security, so as to provide decision-making basis for ensuring energy security and carrying out national macro-control.

Numerical explorations of the vortex-induced vibration of a streamlined box girder with water-filled barriers

The present study aims to investigate the charactefristics of vortex-induced vibrations (VIVs) of a streamlined box girder equipped with water-filled barriers (WFBs) through two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Initially, the VIV behavior of the bridge section is examined by considering various positions of WFBs and angles of attack (α), focusing on parameters involving vibration amplitude, surface pressure distribution, and flow field. Subsequently, in order to reveal the underlying VIV mechanism, the bridge section with WFBs commonly positioned was chosen to evaluate the contribution or inhibition of wind loads on specific regions around the bridge's surface to VIV, based on the pressure distribution and energy input process characteristics. The numerical results demonstrate that if the WFBs are positioned closer to the railing on the windward side of the bridge, as α shifts from negative to positive, the separated vortex on the upper surface of the bridge section tends to be larger. Additionally, the shedding of vortices at the tail of the deck becomes more pronounced, creating a greater periodic force on the bridge section and making it more vulnerable to VIV. The mean and standard deviations of pressure coefficients, as well as the predominant frequencies of the distributed pressures, are closely correlated with various stages of the VIV development process. The occurrence of VIV is actively triggered by the wind load acting on the upper surface upstream and lower surface downstream, while conversely, the wind load acting on the downstream of the upper surface and the upstream of the lower surface tends to inhibit the VIV. Moreover, it is worth noting that the growth rate of energy consumption on the downstream of upper surface is more significant than that of energy consumption in other regions, which makes a main effect on limiting the amplitude of VIV.

Analysis of the impact of energy consumption on regional agricultural economic growth based on panel data

Energy is an important resource for human survival and development. China has become the world’s second largest energy consumer, and its energy consumption growth rate ranks first in the world. With the rapid growth of China’s economy, such a way of energy consumption will inevitably hinder the rapid development of China’s economy in the long run, so it is necessary to improve China’s energy consumption way. In order to explore the impact of energy consumption on regional agricultural economic growth, improve the negative impact of unscientific energy consumption, and improve the level of regional economic development, this paper takes three regions as the research object to study the relationship between energy consumption and economic development. The research results show that there is no one-way or two-way causality in Type I areas with high economic development and high energy consumption, no matter in the short-term or long-term; in Type II areas with high economic development and low consumption, there is a bidirectional causal relationship between energy consumption and economic development in the short term. In the long run, economic growth is a one-way causal relationship. In Type III regions with slow economic growth and low energy consumption, only the single causal relationship between long-term energy consumption and economic development is less than 10% significant. This suggests that the long- and short-term causality between energy consumption and economic development varies across regions. Therefore, in order to coordinate regional economic development and narrow regional gaps, it is necessary to formulate appropriate regional energy consumption policies and strategies.

Assessment of environmental sustainability of nickel required for mobility transition

Nickel (Ni) in batteries (e.g., nickel-metal hydride battery (NiMH), lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide (NCA) and lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC)) aim to ensure higher energy density and greater storage capacity. Two typical layered nickel-rich ternary cathode materials, NCA and NMC, are commercialized as advanced lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) for electric vehicles (EVs). The technology of those batteries has been improving by steadily increasing the nickel content in each cathode generation. In this study, we consider two types of batteries having a composite cathode made of Li [Ni0.80Co0.1Al0.1]O2, and Li [Ni0.33Mn0.33Co0.33]O2, which are the most common cathode materials for LiBs in EVs since 2010 and their functional recycling is performed. The increasing use of nickel in battery technologies has resulted in the continuous growth of demand for nickel over recent years. Nickel was added to the list of critical materials by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) already in 2021. Unfortunately now, the sustainable supply of nickel is even at higher risk due to the sanctions-related disruption of supplies from Russia. Therefore, enhancing the circularity of nickel starts to be vital for many economies. Demand for recycled nickel is growing, however, a systematic analysis of the sustainability of its recycling is still missing. Therefore, we provide a comprehensive assessment of the sustainability of the global primary and secondary production of nickel. Using system dynamics modelling integrated with geometallurgy principles and by analyzing the processing routes (pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical processes), we quantify the key environmental concerns across the life cycle of primary and secondary nickel required for sustainable mobility transition. Energy consumption, water use, and related emissions are assessed for all stages of the nickel supply chain, from mining to recycling. Our analysis shows the possibility of reducing the emissions by around 4.7 mt for GHG, 6.9 kt for PM2.5, 34.3 t for BC, 2.8 kt for CH4, 7.5 kt for CO, 3.3 mt for CO2, 169.9 t for N2O, 3.8 kt for NOx, 11.8 kt for PM10, 104.8 t for POC, 1.6 mt for SOx, and 232.5 t for VOC by engaging in the secondary production of nickel through the recycling of batteries. However, identical growth rate of energy consumption and water use compared to nickel mass flows means no technical progress has been achieved in different stages of the nickel supply chain towards sustainability over the period 2010–2030. Therefore, an improvement in technology is needed to save energy and water in nickel production processes. The results and findings of this study contribute to a better understanding of the necessity for improving closed-loop supply chain policies for nickel.

데이터 센터의 공냉식 프리쿨링 냉동기 에너지 효율 분석

The number of data centers and the amount of data processed worldwide has exploded. However, the growth rate of energy consumption in data centers has shown a different pattern (from 194 TWh in 2010 to 205 TWh in 2018) which is attributed the spread of uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and increase in cooling efficiency.SUP(1)/SUP The decrease in electric power consumption due to the increase of such high-efficiency data centers can be confirmed through previous studies.SUP(2)/SUP There are various cooling methods that benefit from the increase in semiconductor performance in data centers.SUP(3)/SUP Recently, domestic data centers have also introduced systems that employ free cooling. In this study, the energy performance of an air-cooled free-cooling chiller and a general air-cooled chiller, in which water-side economizer (WSE) and a chiller are integrated, was compared based on historical data in Seoul, Korea. In addition, the power consumption and the cold water conditions of the data center were compared between the chillers. Finally, the energy efficiency was analyzed accordingly.

Demand-Supply Gap in Energy Use in BRICS Countries with Special Reference to India - Emerging Challenges and Policies

Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) Energy Research Co-operation Platform (ERCP) is an international program for developing energy-based sustainable development and sharing advanced energy technologies. BRICS is a heterogeneous club of nations having around a quarter of GDP, supplyling energy products to 40 percent of the world's population. The central objectives of the study are (a) the overall production consumption gap in energy use, (b) details of energy production, consumption; total proved reserves, import, export of energy, growth rate of energy consumption, (c) associations among energy use, demographic, socio-economic and environmental aspects and (d) policy measures undertaken to reduce energy gap along with pathways to the low-carbon environment. The study is based on the secondary data on (a) energy proved reserves, production and consumption for the period 2011-2021, (b) associated demographic, socio-economic, and environment related data obtained from different reports and others. Results have been presented through tabular forms and through figures, and percentages. Among BRICS countries, there are heterogeneous production-consumption gaps for different sources of energy, particularly oil.

Multicriteria Decision Making and Its Application in Geothermal Power Project

The International Energy Agency (IEA) assesses Vietnam as the second largest electricity user in Southeast Asia. The energy consumption growth rate in the region is one of the fastest in the world, with demand growing at a steady 6% per year for the past 20 years. Within the context that domestic fossil fuel production cannot keep up with demand and climate change is occurring, to avoid depending on imported energy to operate the power system, the Government of Vietnam has turned to developing renewable energy. The potential for developing geothermal energy in Vietnam is promising with more than 200 sources of water around 40 to 100 °C, which is sufficient for the development of geothermal energy projects. Today, a method to conserve natural resources and invest in renewable energy is provided by the government by controlling the importation of gas and coal while investing in building geothermal power plants. One of the hardest problems, however, is determining a suitable place to construct a geothermal power plant (GPP). For this main reason, in the hope of solving this problem, the author has proposed a decision-making model that utilizes a fuzzy set under multi-criteria conditions. It uses two methods, Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) followed by Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (WASPAS), for a GPP site selection decision. The FAHP model is first used to determine the weights of each criterion and sub-criterion. Then, the ranking of each alternative is calculated by the WASPAS model. A final alternative is determined to be the best solution based on calculations from the methods above for identifying suitable locations for a GPP. This research has contributed a method of using a fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making model for determining a suitable location selection. This contribution also shows a development of flexibility towards decision making for other renewable energy projects worldwide.

CHINA’S GEO-ECONOMIC INTERESTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

China is a relative newcomer to the Middle East region. Indeed, as it is not in China’s immediate neighbourhood, for a long time its importance to Beijing remained low. This began to change in the early 2000s. Due to its impressive economic expansion, marked by joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, China’s energy consumption growth rate accelerated, making the energy-rich region increasingly crucial to China’s energy security. Thus, the destabilization that came to the Middle East with the Global War on Terror declared by the United States as a result of the 9/11 terrorist attack, endangered its interests. At the same time, however, having significant Muslim minorities of its own, China was keen to maintain the security of its Muslim-majority provinces and used the GWOT as justification for curbing the threat of its internal, separatist “Islamic terrorism”. Eventually, then, to accommodate its growing interest in the region, China expanded its “greater neighbourhood” to include the Middle East as well. Presently, while still not a key partner for Beijing, the region is one of the main suppliers of China’s gas and oil, an increasingly important export destination, a territory of continuous construction activity of Chinese companies under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and an object of a large-scale Chinese charm offensive. Slowly, it is becoming an object of Beijing’s security interests as well.

Creation Characteristics of Music Piano Arrangement Based on Distributed Sensors

Music piano arrangement is a popular creation method among the public at present, which can play a role in the promotion of traditional culture and the combination of popular culture. However, the traditional method of analyzing the creative characteristics of musical piano arrangements has limitations, and it is not suitable for today’s public review era. In this paper, to address the limitations, distributed sensor technology is employed. It utilizes the Top-k query method, KNN (one of the most basic approaches in data mining classification technology is the proximity algorithm, often known as the K closest neighbor classification algorithm) algorithm, and fused balance algorithm to classify the creative features of musical piano arrangements. It collects 50 classic piano arrangements and studies its compositional style, melody, and tone. The data results showed that, for the style characteristics, each algorithm has a high recognition rate for passion songs, and the three errors are small; for the melody characteristics, because the KNN algorithm has a delay in determining the rising tempo, the overall melody is not grasped correctly, and the Top-k query method is not sensitive to the descending tempo, and the recognition rate is low; for the tonal characteristics, the Top-k query method has a larger range of low-key judgments, so that the number of identifications is larger. As for the energy consumption of the system, as the number of nodes increases, the energy consumption of the three algorithms also increases gradually. Among them, the Top-k query method has the largest energy consumption, exceeding 400 W at 180 nodes, and its energy consumption growth rate continues to increase. The fusion algorithm fluctuates greatly, while the KNN algorithm is stable. This shows that KNN algorithm is more stable in terms of system performance, and its characteristics can be better summarized in the creation and research of piano adaptation.

Impact of interaction between financial development, urbanization, and energy consumption in China

Given the urgent need for China to reduce the growth rate of energy consumption (EC), the relationship between financial development (FD), urbanization (UR), and EC is directly related to the effectiveness of China's current ecological civilization construction. This study analyzes the internal relationship between the three from the perspectives of financial scale (FD1), financial structure (FD2), and financial efficiency (FD3) through the generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation, impulse response, and variance decomposition of the panel vector autoregression (PVAR) model. The following conclusions are derived. First, the results of the PVAR model show that when FD is measured with FD1, FD2, and FD3, each variable has path dependence, and the lag-phase-one term of each variable has a strengthening effect on itself. Second, based on the pulse response diagram, a positive response occurs after FD1 and FD2 give a standardized shock to EC, but a negative response occurs when FD is characterized by FD3. When FD is measured with FD1, a positive response occurs after UR gives a normalized shock to EC. When FD is measured with FD2 and FD3, there is a weak negative response. Third, the results of the variance decomposition show that the changes of FD, UR, and EC rely more on their own inertia. Although the impact of FD and UR on EC has an increasing trend, the impact is small. Therefore, local governments should rationally control the financial scale, optimize the financial structure, improve the financial efficiency, and strengthen the propaganda of energy conservation.

Transformation of the energy sector and its impact on the European Union’s external trade in energy raw materials in 2000–2020

The purpose of the paper is to investigate the multifaceted impact of the transformation of the energy sector on domestic economies and international economic relations under the conditions of growing global interdependence. The authors formulate the following research question: What were the changes in the consumption and structure of generating energy, as well as the structure of exports and imports of energy sources, resulting from the transformation of the energy sector in the EU? The following methods were used. The theoretical analysis of the energy sector transformation is based on an interdisciplinary approach proposed by representatives of the International Political Economy. The empirical analysis uses the following indicators: growth rates of energy consumption, shares of selected countries and the EU in the global energy consumption, shares of major sources in the consumption of energy in selected economies, shares of major energy sources in exports and imports of the EU and its member states. Considering the achievements of the EU’s energy policy focused on decreasing the consumption of energy and departing from traditional sources (especially coal) to renewables, the authors concentrate on the results and consequences of the energy policy in the EU. It revealed that the EU had better results on the global scale in limiting energy consumption in 2000–2020. However, the transformation of the energy sector that leads to greater use of renewables is still in the initial stages. Oil and natural gas remain the main sources of energy consumption. When evaluating the impact of transformation on EU energy trade, the dependence on high energy imports in the EU is notable, which actually increased in 2000–2019 from 56.3% to 60.7%. The structure of the imports remained basically the same. The share of oil and natural gas increased slightly, from 88.7% to 89.8%, and the share of renewables climbed from 0.1% to 1.4%. An unfavourable change from the point of view of EU energy policy is the growing share of solid fossil fuels, which was, for the most part, caused by imports to Poland, Slovakia, Czechia and Germany. The structure of exports was quite stable, with oil and natural gas as dominant sources (73.5% and 13.3%, respectively). However, the share of solid fossil fuels in EU exports decreased from 8.8% to 2.8% (2000–2019), which is a positive trend.

Перспективная оценка спроса на электроэнергию в РФ и регионах с учетом углубленной электрификации

A global priority of electrification expansion in all areas is also stated in the Energy Strategy of the Russian Federation. The study aims to forecast electricity demand in Russia taking into account possible electrification options in economic sectors. The article presents a multi-stage procedure and a concise review of methodological approaches to the long-term assessment of electricity demand, which considers the impact of complex interrelationships in social, economic and technological policies. In particular, this approach focuses on the regional level, where the interests of energy producers and consumers are reconciled. The current and promising directions of electricity use in Russian regions and economic sectors were analysed based on various statistics and forecasts. The conducted analysis demonstrated the stability of sectoral and territorial energy consumption patterns, as well as a decrease and convergence of values of gross regional product (GRP) energy intensity. Energy consumption of regions varies due to significant differences in industrial specialisation and living standards of the population. The highest energy consumption is observed in developed regions (Central Federal District) or regions with a large share of energy-intensive industries (Siberian Federal District). According to the accepted economic development and electrification expansion strategies for the period 2025–2040, on average, electricity demand in Russian regions is expected to increase by 1.4–1.8 % annually. It is anticipated that the Siberian and Far Eastern Federal Districts will show the highest growth rates of energy consumption due to the accelerated development of these territories. Predicted dynamics of the gross domestic product (GDP) energy intensity in Russia confirms its compliance with global trends. The research findings may prove useful in creating programmes and development strategies for the country and its regions.

Analysis of the Effectiveness and Countermeasures of High-Quality Economic Development in the Pearl River Delta City Cluster

Through quantitative analysis method, this paper studies the effect of high-quality economic development in PRD urban agglomeration from five aspects: innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing. The results are as follows: The overall situation of high-quality development has an obvious positive trend. The problem of coordinated development has been alleviated, the income gap between urban and rural areas has been gradually narrowed, the level of green development has been improved, individual cities and prefecture-level cities still face great pressure to control the growth rate of energy consumption, the degree of opening up still needs to be deepened, and the real consumption power of people experiencing shared development has been rising. Therefore, to promote the high-quality economic development of the PRD urban agglomeration in the future, it is necessary to rationally coordinate the synergistic development relationship between different aspects within the system, make up for the shortcomings, and synchronously promote the innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development.

Environmental Efficiency of Construction Industry with onsiderations to Carbon Emission: A Case Study in Henan, China

Low energy utilization is observed in China due to the extensive economic growth mode, which further leads to considerable energy wastes and environmental pollution. The construction industry plays an important role in the national economic development of China and consumes tremendous materials; thus, this industry discharges abundant CO2. The energy consumption growth rate of the construction industry in China is far higher than the national energy consumption growth rate, resulting in the prominent situation of high energy consumption and low yield. A case study based on Henan Province, China, was conducted to further analyze the environmental efficiency of the construction industry. An index system was established by using the Super-slack-based model (Super-SBM). This system chooses the following: labor, energy, capital, and technology of the construction industry as the input variables, economic output as the output variable, and carbon emissions as the unexpected output. This system was also used to investigate the energy efficiency of the construction industry in Henan Province from 2008 to 2019. Results demonstrated that the construction industry in Henan Province has failed to eliminate the extensive development mode thus far. The environmental efficiency of the construction industry presents a fluctuating growth with a mean of 1.048, which generally remains at a relatively low level. The numbers of construction machines and enterprises in the construction industry have redundancy in approximately 50% of the years. Thus, this study can provide some positive references to enrich the evaluation index system and estimation model of energy efficiency of the construction industry, which includes unexpected output. Moreover, the current study can provide a comprehensive understanding of the environmental efficiency of the construction industry in a province in China and realize reasonable allocation of construction industrial resources.

Driving Factors of CO2 Emissions: Further Study Based on Machine Learning

Greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, are viewed as one of the core causes of climate change, and it has become one of the most important environmental problems in the world. This paper attempts to investigate the relation between CO2 emissions and economic growth, industry structure, urbanization, research and development (R&D) investment, actual use of foreign capital, and growth rate of energy consumption in China between 2000 and 2018. This study is important for China as it has pledged to peak its carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. We apply a suite of machine learning algorithms on the training set of data, 2000–2015, and predict the levels of CO2 emissions for the testing set, 2016–2018. Employing rmse for model selection, results show that the nonlinear model of k-nearest neighbors (KNN) model performs the best among linear models, nonlinear models, ensemble models, and artificial neural networks for the present dataset. Using KNN model, sensitivity analysis of CO2 emissions around its centroid position was conducted. The findings indicate that not all provinces should develop its industrialization. Some provinces should stay at relatively mild industrialization stage while selected others should develop theirs as quickly as possible. It is because CO2 emissions will eventually decrease after saturation point. In terms of urbanization, there is an optimal range for a province. At the optimal range, the CO2 emissions would be at a minimum, and it is likely a result of technological innovation in energy usage and efficiency. Moreover, China should increase its R&D investment intensity from the present level as it will decrease CO2 emissions. If R&D reinvestment is associated with actual use of foreign capital, policy makers should prioritize the use of foreign capital for R&D investment on green technology. Last, economic growth requires consuming energy. However, policy makers must refrain from consuming energy beyond a certain optimal growth rate. The above findings provide a guide to policy makers to achieve dual-carbon strategy while sustaining economic development.