Low-carbon Strategies Research Articles

Spatiotemporal Variations of City-Level Carbon Emissions in China during 2000–2017 Using Nighttime Light Data

China is one of the largest carbon emitting countries in the world. Numerous strategies have been considered by the Chinese government to mitigate carbon emissions in recent years. Accurate and timely estimation of spatiotemporal variations of city-level carbon emissions is of vital importance for planning of low-carbon strategies. For an assessment of the spatiotemporal variations of city-level carbon emissions in China during the periods 2000–2017, we used nighttime light data as a proxy from two sources: Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS) data and the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (NPP-VIIRS). The results show that cities with low carbon emissions are located in the western and central parts of China. In contrast, cities with high carbon emissions are mainly located in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region (BTH) and Yangtze River Delta (YRD). Half of the cities of China have been making efforts to reduce carbon emissions since 2012, and regional disparities among cities are steadily decreasing. Two clusters of high-emission cities located in the BTH and YRD followed two different paths of carbon emissions owing to the diverse political status and pillar industries. We conclude that carbon emissions in China have undergone a transformation to decline, but a very slow balancing between the spatial pattern of high-emission versus low-emission regions in China can be presumed.

Urban expansion simulation towards low-carbon development: A case study of Wuhan, China

Rapid urbanization causes great changes of carbon metabolism. Current research mainly focuses on carbon consequences of urban expansion projections, but rarely explores how carbon management strategies affect future urban growth trajectories. Here, we propose a hierarchy of low-carbon management strategies and incorporate it into an integrated cellular automata model to obtain sustainable urban development plans. In the hierarchy, a top-down strategy regarding carbon emission reduction is used to adjust future urban land demand, while a bottom-up strategy regarding carbon sequestration conservation of land patches is used to constrain land use conversions. We design four expansion scenarios based on different combinations of the two low-carbon strategies for Wuhan in 2025, including business as usual (BAU), the scenario with top-town strategy (T-UES), the scenario with bottom-up strategy (B-UES), and the scenario with both two strategies (TB-UES). Our results demonstrate that the proposed method can generate promising urban expansion plans with less ecological loss, and promote compact and infilling urban development.

The impacts of climate change risks on financial performance of mining industry: Evidence from listed companies in China

The mining industry is susceptible to climate change risks since it has the characteristics of high exposure, high sensitivity and high substitution. Firstly, this paper reviews the impact mechanism of climate change risks on corporate financial performance from direct and indirect channels. Secondly, this paper employs the unique data, climate risk indicator with 5 types of climate risks, to analyze the effect of climate change risks on the China's mineral listed companies. The empirical analysis shows that there is a correlation between climate change and financial performance of mining companies. The mining companies with different types of resource have different sensitivities to climate change risks. The climate change risks have both positive and negative effects on the financial performance of mining companies. In respond to the climate change risks, mining companies should actively implement low-carbon strategies and proactively disclose emission information to improve the brand value and create new competitive advantages for long-term development.

Assessing the greenhouse gas mitigation potential of urban precincts with hybrid life cycle assessment

As the critical link between individual building and city, precinct represents an important scale for urban planning, at which low-carbon strategies for urban built environment can be tested and measured. However, previous studies often failed to assess the life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the urban precincts comprehensively and reliably due to methodological and data-related limitations. This study is conceived to bridge this gap by applying a case-specific hybrid life cycle assessment (LCA) to a typical residential precinct including buildings, open spaces, network, on-site energy units and occupant-related mobility. Meanwhile, the corresponding conventional process-based LCA is conducted alongside to quantify the impact of applying different LCA approaches. For the whole precinct, the life cycle GHG emissions from hybrid LCA is 16% higher than its corresponding process-based LCA result, reaching 16.6 t CO2e/inhabitant/year. Embodied emissions, operational emissions and occupant-related transport emissions take up 28%, 32% and 40% of the life cycle GHG emissions, respectively, and the biggest difference between these two LCA approaches is seen in embodied emissions (22%), followed by transport emissions (17%) and operational emissions (11%).Assuming no technology innovation and substantial changes in economic structure, precinct design and lifestyle are involved, twelve GHG emissions mitigation measures are quantified. While process-based LCA suggests a mitigation potential of 35%, hybrid LCA results in a reduction of 31%. The most effective measures are related to reducing transport emissions and operational emissions, but for the embodied emissions, instead of reducing them, the combination of all measures brings about a slight increase both absolutely and relatively. From base case to mitigated case, the differences between two LCA approaches are enlarged and the biggest difference is always seen in embodied emission. This implies the process-based LCA would further underestimate the life cycle GHG emissions in mitigated case, therefore, the use of hybrid LCA is more favourable for the purpose of providing a comprehensive and reliable assessment.

Breaking the mould: understanding the practicality of solar water pumps among small tea planters in a South Asian State of India

The South Asian region is the largest producer of tea in the entire world. Forming a core part of this industry, the state of Assam, located in India, is known to be the largest contiguous tea-growing area in the world. With respect to tea production in this state, the small tea grower (STG) community in Assam contributes nearly half to the total production, making them a significant stakeholder in the burgeoning tea industry. Notably, diesel pumps have been long-favored for water pumping in tea plantations. Nonetheless, a complex mix-match of factors such as global warming, unreliability of monsoon rains and unavailability of adequate infrastructure has made them vulnerable to universal winds of change. This study makes an effort to identify the prospects of using solar pumps for irrigation, assess the constraints faced by STGs with regard to irrigation facilities and discuss the cost-effectiveness of using solar water pumps. The methodology involves both primary and secondary data interpreted by means of a descriptive research technique and a statistical cost–benefit analysis. Analysis shows that the breakeven period between both types of pumps occurs at the third year of usage. This emphasises that although solar pumps are cost-intensive in the short run, their installation has significant benefits such as, zero power costs and environmental costs, for STGs in the long run. With large economies moving towards low carbon strategies these days, installation of solar water pumps presents an optimum policy prescription that combines both cost-effectiveness and environmental sustainability, while bearing immense possibility in nourishing the tea industry of not only Assam, but the entire South Asian region.

How Can Ski Resorts Get Smart? Transdisciplinary Approaches to Sustainable Winter Tourism in the European Alps

Climate change and the call for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the efficient use of (renewable) energy, and more resilient winter tourism regions, forces ski resorts across the European Alps to look for “smart” approaches to transition towards a sustainable, low-carbon economy. Drawing on the smart-city concept and considering the different historical developments of Alpine resorts, the Smart Altitude Decision-Making Toolkit was developed using a combination of an energy audit tool, a WebGIS, and collaborative and innovative living labs installed in Les Orres (France), Madonna di Campiglio (Italy), Krvavec (Slovenia), and Verbier (Switzerland). This step-by-step Decision-Making Toolkit enables ski resorts to get feedback on their energy demand, an overview of the locally available sources of renewable energy, and insights regarding their potential for improving their energy efficiency by low-carbon interventions. The Decision-Making Toolkit is suitable for knowledge transfer between stakeholders within living labs and moreover provides the flexibility for tailor-made low-carbon strategies adapting to the unique assets and situatedness of ski resorts.

Low-Carbon Strategies for Resilient Cities: A Place-Based Evaluation of Solar Technologies and Green Roofs Potential in Urban Contexts

Low-Carbon Strategies for Resilient Cities: A Place-Based Evaluation of Solar Technologies and Green Roofs Potential in Urban Contexts

Long-term impacts of urbanization through population migration on China’s energy demand and CO2 emissions

Better modeling of urbanization trends helps improve our understanding of the potential range of future energy demands and carbon dioxide emissions in developing countries and make informed response strategies. This paper extends the current analytical structure by integrating the population migration process from rural to urban areas with the energy system into a systematic framework, within which a link between urbanization and energy service demands through direct and indirect effects is built. Taking China as a study case, the results show that approximately 333 million people from rural areas are expected to migrate to urban areas toward 2050, resulting in the expansion of large-sized cities and the rapid growth of future energy service demands. Without significant technological improvements, urbanization will lead to more than double and triple the current energy consumption levels by 2050 in the building and transport sectors, respectively, while energy consumption growth in the industry sector will be the largest due to the rising demand for materials through the indirect effect. As a result, urbanization in China will cause more than double the total primary energy demand and an 82% increase in the carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, compared with 2013. In response, major mitigation measures and the role of each sector in the low carbon urbanization transition have been identified. Non-fossil fuel power generation is the top mitigation strategy, which can contribute 40% to the total mitigation potential, while power sector and industrial sector play a key role in realizing an earlier peak for the whole country. The total capital investment needed in each period will cost less than 2.5% of the total gross domestic product (GDP). Therefore, this work highlights the importance of understanding urbanization impact on energy system through applying an integrated population-energy-environment analytical framework and synthesizing the urbanization and long-term low carbon strategies in developing countries which are under rapid urbanization process.

Low- carbon design strategies for new residential buildings – lessons from architectural practice

ABSTRACT This study presents the environmental life cycle assessment of four low carbon design strategies applied in Danish, architectural practice. The subject of analysis is a set of five buildings erected within the same constrictions in terms of floor area, energy performance and construction costs. The tested design strategies were: use of recycled materials, design for extended durability of components, adaptable design, and design for reduction of operational energy demand. The results of the five buildings are compared with a reference building (i.e. a typical, Danish single-family dwelling). Results show that the recycling/upcycling strategy is the most effective in reducing the embodied carbon. The use of structural wood in the same design furthermore points to the use of wood as a viable low-carbon strategy. In combination, these two strategies result in an approximate 40% saving of life cycle embodied carbon compared to the reference. Using durable materials yields up to 30% lower embodied carbon compared to the reference, whereas a design for adaptability results in 17% lower embodied carbon. However, these results are sensitive to the scenarios made for the service lives of materials and the implemented disassembly solutions. In a life cycle carbon perspective, the emissions from energy use prove to be of importance, although depending on the modelling approaches of the energy mix. With the shrinking, global carbon budgets in mind, there is justified reason to holistically optimize the design of new buildings by integrating various design aspects addressing the whole life cycle of the building.

Will Enterprises Choose Low-carbon Production Technology? Evolutionary Game Model Considering Consumers’ Environmental Protection Moral and Market Clearing

Considering that manufacturing enterprises have two production strategies, one is traditional production strategy, and the other is low-carbon production strategy. Consumers have environmental protection moral, they are composed of green consumers and non-green consumers. In addition, enterprises are bounded rational. Based on this, we constructed an evolutionary game model of low-carbon production strategy selection, and analyzed the conditions for achieving the evolutionary stable equilibrium (ESS). Furthermore, the co-evolution of the proportion of companies adopting low-carbon strategy and the proportion of green consumers is also analyzed.

High spatio-temporal heterogeneity of carbon footprints in the Zhejiang Province, China, from 2005 to 2015: implications for climate change policies

Energy consumption is a major factor influencing climate change. Low-carbon strategies can be defined from carbon (C) footprint and ecological pressure caused by energy consumption. We hypothesized that this should be done at the regional and city levels because factors controlling C footprints vary with location and time, yet there is actually little knowledge at local levels. Here, we mapped the C emissions and footprint of 11 cities in the Zhejiang Province of China, a rapidly growing area of about 57 million inhabitants, which is representative of the strong economic growth in China. The C footprint is expressed as the land surface necessary to adsorb C emissions. We studied spatio-temporal evolution of C footprints from 2005 to 2015 using the center of gravity method. Results show that total annual C emissions due to energy consumption in Zhejiang increased by 40.83 million tons (55.8%) from 2005 to 2011. Then, from 2011 to 2015, C emissions decreased by 5.8%, which is explained by the 5-year national plan aiming at decreasing emissions. Similarly, the total C footprint increased by 55.8% from 29,201,904 hm2 in 2005 to 45,496,817 hm2 in 2011 and then declined by 5.8% from 2011 to 2015. At the city level, Ningbo has the largest C footprint contribution, whereas Lishui the lowest. Zhoushan shows an increase in C emissions and footprint, whereas Hangzhou and Shaoxing show a decline. The center of gravity of the C footprint is located in Shaoxing and is moving southeast from 2006 to 2011. Overall, our findings reveal the high spatial heterogeneity of C footprint at the regional and city levels, implying that national low-carbon strategies should be adapted at lower levels for higher efficiency.

Human waste anaerobic digestion as a promising low-carbon strategy: Operating performance, microbial dynamics and environmental footprint

Human waste (HW) poses environmental and public health risk, thereby its sustainable management is becoming a serious growing challenge. Anaerobic digestion (AD) has long been introduced as an environmental-friendly and sustainable waste management technology with bio-methane as final product. Energy production via AD of HW would significantly contribute to low-carbon energy production systems and circular bio-economy. In this study, optimal conditions, inhibiting factors, and microbial community changes in continuously fed biogas reactors during anaerobic digestion of HW at elevated influent feedstock concentration (IFC) were investigated. The highest methane yield (327 ± 21 mL g VS−1) was obtained at IFC of 3% TS. Increased IFC deteriorated the process and affected the microbiome dynamicity. Specifically, methane production was reduced by 50% with a concomitant increment of ammonia, Na+, and K+ concentration. Two archaeal species (Methanosaeta and WSA2) were dominating the microbial community at stable period. Two uncharacterized microbial groups (WWE1 and WSA2) were present and a potential syntrophic interaction between these two members was hypothesized to play a crucial role in achieving a well-performing process. AD process treating HW showed promising results for valorization of HW to clean energy-biomethane both in environmental and economic aspects. Specifically, 1 t of HW VS could obtain a greenhouse gases (GHG) mitigation of −54 to −272 kg CO2,eq via the AD process. The LCA results demonstrated that such a bioenergy system would also bring about environmental savings in ecosystem quality and resource damage categories. Although ammonia inhibition at elevated IFC found as a potential inhibitory factor, it can be easily overcome using co-digestion strategies or nitrogen recovery at upstream.

Low-carbon development strategy of Russia considering the impact on the economy

The article considers the impact of national climate policy on the development of the Russian economy and energy sector. Implementation of an aggressive scenario (which is aimed at containing at any cost the rise in global temperature within 1.5 °C compared to the pre-industrial era) is unacceptable to Russia from socioeconomic perspective given it leads to lowering the average annual GDP growth rate by 1.8 percentage points by 2050. Effective long-term development strategy with low GHG emissions level should focus on structural and technological modernization of the economy; improve the absorption potential of the LULUCF sector; stimulate only those structural changes in the energy sector that involve production and technological chains within the country and do not provide for excessive price growth. Russia retains a significant potential for energy efficiency growth, and the necessary condition for activating this process is sustainable economic growth as it involves modernization of the production facilities and using available and competitive industrial capacities. The implementation of a reasonable scenario, based on these principles, would allow Russia to fulfil the nationally determined contributions within the Paris Agreement while ensuring economic growth at the rate not less than the global average one.

Low carbon strategies for sustainable bio-alkane gas production and renewable energy

Strategy for bio-alkane gas (propane and butane) production through the conversion of waste volatile fatty acids by bacterial cultures.

A New Economy for Sustainable Development Goals in Ukraine

The article examines trends and prospects of the new economy for achieving the goals of sustainable development, systematizes the basic principles of a green economy. The authors analyzes key indicators of sustainable development in Ukraine, examines the possibility of implementing a low carbon strategy and the basics of the green economy in Ukraine and summarizes the main levers of the country for the transition to sustainable development. Keywords sustainable development, low carbon strategy, green economy, development, blue economy, natural resources, economic growth.

Modelling dynamic soil organic carbon flows of annual and perennial energy crops to inform energy-transport policy scenarios in France

Low carbon strategies recently focus on soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration potentials from agriculture and forestry, while Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) increasingly becomes the framework of choice to estimate the environmental impacts of these activities. Classic LCA is limited to static carbon neutral approaches, disregarding dynamic SOC flows and their time-dependent GHG contributions. To overcome such limitation, the purpose of this study is to model SOC flows associated with agricultural land use (LU) and the provision of agricultural substrates to transport biofuels, thus generating dynamic inventories and comparatively assessing energy policy scenarios and their climate consequences in the context of dynamic LCA. The proposed framework allows computing SOC from annual and perennial species under specific management practices (e.g. residue removal rates, organic fertiliser use). The results associated with the implementation of three energy policies and two accounting philosophies (C-neutral and C-complete) show that shifting energy pathways towards advanced biofuels reduces overall resource consumption, LU and GHG emissions. The French 2015 Energy Transition for Green Growth Act (LTECV) leads towards higher mitigation targets compared with business-as-usual (BAU) and intermediate (15BIO) policy constraints. C-neutral results show reduced radiative forcing effects by 10% and 34% for 15BIO and LTECV respectively, with respect to BAU. C-complete (i.e. dynamic assessment of all biogenic- and fossil-sourced C flows) results reveal further mitigation potentials across policies, whereof 50%-65% can be attributed to temporal C sequestration in perennial rhizomes. A sensitivity analysis suggests important SOC variations due to temperature increase (+2°C) and changes in residue removal rates. Both parameters affect mitigation and the latter also LU, by a factor of −0.56 to + 5. This article highlights the importance of SOC modelling in the context of LU in LCA, which is usually disregarded, as SOC is considered only in the context of land use change (LUC).

Spatiotemporal characteristics of China’s carbon emissions and driving forces: A Five-Year Plan perspective from 2001 to 2015

China’s Five-Year Strategic Plan for National Economic and Social Development (FYP) sets up development goals, main tasks, and policy measures to regulate or facilitate the development of the relevant industries for the next five-year, and therefore play a critical role in achieving the national goal of carbon dioxide emission control. This study analyzes China’s energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in the economic sectors and their driving forces among three full cycles of the 10th, 11th and 12th FYPs, by applying the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index method. Our results show that the total emissions began to drop in 2014 and 2015 after a continuous increase from 2001 to 2013, making emission growth during the 12th FYP less than half of the previous two periods. Energy efficiency has been the main player in limiting the emission growth associated with economic activities. The emission mitigation effect of energy structure change became noticeable during the 12th FYP while that from the economic structure change is still marginal, suggesting structure decarbonization as the focal point of future plan design and implementation. We found strong diversities in the emission scale and growth patterns among the 30 provinces (except Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao where no data are available), and a significant switch from high emission growth mode to low emission growth mode in a number of eastern and central provinces. The latter suggesting that the measures taken during the 11–12th FYPs to control emission growth have been effective. Results from this study sheds light on how future FYP may shape low-carbon strategies in China, which may also benefit other emerging economies, especially the “Road and Belt Plan” related regions.

Modelling of sectoral emissions of short-lived and long-lived climate pollutants under various control technological strategies

In India, air pollution has been acknowledged as the fifth most imperative cause of mortality due to high emissions from burning of fossil fuels in industries (brick kilns and thermal power plants), biomass burning, agricultural residue burning and transportation. The emissions of black carbon (BC) with the other air pollutants (CO2, CH4, N2O, HFC, PFC, and SF6), is taking considerable attention in the world because of its ability to effect air quality and weather. The Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) region has been considered as one of the greatest source of emissions in India. The short lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) like BC, methane, tropospheric ozone and hydrofluorocarbons have been considered as a climate forcing agent along with CO2. These pollutants have shorter lifetime in atmosphere compared to CO2 and account for the 40–45% of global warming. Among them, BC has a great global warming ability and can increase the Earth's temperature much quicker than carbon dioxide. After CO2, the second highest donors to global warming are CH4 and BC. Recognising the importance of these pollutants, daily concentrations of BC, PM2.5 and PM10 were monitored in three district of IGP during January 2015 to December 2016. The GAINS model was used for assessment of pollution effects, emissions of SLCPs, GHGs and identifying appropriate control actions. The outcomes of modelling advocate that low carbon strategies are more competent to reduce emissions as compared to other control strategies. But, application of low carbon strategies would be restricted by the accessibility of clean fuels. In some cases, finance will be needed to support monitoring of air pollution and other supportive technologies.

A practical methodology to evaluate internationally consistent energy data for China's transport sector

Abstract Because China's statistical system differs from other countries, the reported energy data of its transport sector cannot be used for worldwide comparison, representing an obstacle for scientific research and policy making. A practical methodology to evaluate internationally consistent energy data for China's transport sector is presented in this paper. A calibration process was used to combine the results from top-down and bottom-up methods. The results indicate that the total energy consumption related to all transport activities is about one-third higher than the officially reported data. Gasoline and diesel used by non-operating vehicles in the road sector represent the greatest difference. Total energy demand in China's transport sector was 327 million tons of coal equivalent (Mtce) in 2010, 411 Mtce in 2013, and 452 Mtce in 2015. After adjustment, the transport sector accounted for 13% of the total final energy demand in 2010 and 2013, 14% in 2015, and 10% of national CO2 emissions in 2015. During 2010–2013 and 2013–2015, total energy demand in China's transport sector increased by 84 Mtce and 41 Mtce, respectively, and 88% and 85% of the growth came from the road sector. Without calibration, bottom-up methods often resulted in an overestimation of energy consumption for gasoline and diesel, sometimes exceeding the total national consumption level. The proposed method and estimated results not only support the development of energy consumption and CO2 emission inventories for China but also lay the foundation for further research on low-carbon strategies for China's transport sector and associated policies. Uncertainties in the estimations and suggestions for improvement are also discussed.

Governmental cap regulation and manufacturer’s low carbon strategy in a supply chain with different power structures

Considering the cap-and-trade regulation and manufacturer’s two types of strategies: adopting green technology (GT) and purchasing carbon credits (PC), we develop game models to investigate the manufacturer’s production and emission abatement decisions as well as the governmental emission cap regulation in a supply chain with three power structures (Manufacturer Stackelberg (MS), Retail Stackelberg (RS) and Vertical Nash (VN)), and analyze how a manufacturer’s low carbon strategy changes with the various governmental cap under the three supply chain power structures. The main conclusions are as follows. If the manufacturer adopts green technology strategy, supply chain power structure will not affect social welfare. High consumer’s low-carbon preference is more beneficial to the social welfare, the government should advocate the consumer’s preference for low carbon product. If the manufacturer purchases carbon credits, the government under the power structure of VN will gain the most social welfare.