Reduction In China Research Articles

Influence mechanism of technological innovation of electric power industry on carbon emission reduction in China

PurposeThis study aims to analyse the scientific relationship between technological innovation and carbon emissions. Taking the Chinese electric power industry as the empirical research object, this study examined the effect of power technological innovation on carbon emissions and proposed policy recommendations for the development of technological innovation in China.Design/methodology/approachThis study first calculated the energy consumption and carbon emission level of the Chinese electric power industry from 2005 to 2018. Secondly, this study built an evaluation index system for technological innovation of electric power with six indicators: average utilisation hours of power generation equipment; power consumption rate of power plant; line loss rate; standard coal consumption for power generation; standard coal consumption for power supply; and number of patent applications granted for generation, conversion or distribution of electric power in China. Finally, from a practical point of view, the relationship between technological innovation and carbon emissions of the Chinese electric power industry from 2005 to 2018 is evaluated and analysed.FindingsPower technology innovation has been found to have a long-term and relatively large effect on carbon emissions, and carbon emissions have a short-term and insignificant impact on power technology innovation.Research limitations/implicationsThis study puts forward relevant suggestions for developing technological innovation and technology transfer, which is essential to establishing a low-carbon or zero-carbon power system in China.Practical implicationsThis study provides empirical evidence for clarifying the relationship between technological innovation and carbon emissions in the power industry and further develops research theories on technological innovation and carbon emissions.Social implicationsRelevant authorities will adopt measures to promote technological innovation and development in the power sector to reduce carbon emissions.Originality/valueThis study built an evaluation index system with six indicators for technological innovation of electric power. The evaluation method was used to measure the technological innovation level of the Chinese electric power industry. The causal link between technological innovation and carbon emissions in China was analysed.

RESEARCH STATUS AND DEVELOPMENT TREND OF PHOTOGRAMMETRY AND REMOTE SENSING IN URBAN FLOOD DISASTERS

Abstract. In recent years, urban floods occur frequently in China, and urban flood disaster has become one of the important reasons for the sustainable development of cities. Photogrammetry and remote sensing technology has the advantages of large observation range, large amount of information, fast speed, good real-time performance and strong dynamic. It plays an increasingly important role in flood control and disaster reduction, and has become an important support means for flood control and flood reduction in China. This paper mainly reviews the research status and development trend of photogrammetry and remote sensing technology in urban floods, summarizes the monitoring and evaluation of flood disasters, numerical simulation of flood disasters, and acquisition of hydrological characteristics, and prospects the future development of photogrammetry and remote sensing technology in flood disaster management in China.

Scaling of Chinese urban CO2 emissions and multiple dimensions of city size

Cities are both the primary cause of global climate change and the key to the mitigation agenda. China's unprecedented urbanization has paralleled a growth in energy demand and urban areas have emerged as the crux of CO2 emissions reduction in China. There is a crucial need for policymakers to understand how CO2 emissions scale with city size and adopt economies of scale (cost savings) for mitigation, particularly through a multidimensional lens of city size. This study reveals a set of scaling relations between urban scope 1 CO2 emissions and five dimensions of city size in 340 Chinese cities, including population (POP), built-up area (BA), building height (BH), specific built-up area (SBA), and built-up volume (BV). The findings show that CO2 emissions in Chinese cities scale linearly with POP and BA but sublinearly with BA, SBA, and BV, and more diverse regimes exist across various geographic zones, population hierarchies, administrative hierarchies, and governance contexts. The prevalent sublinear scaling regime between CO2 emissions and SBA and BV demonstrates the potential importance of optimizing the vertical built-up landscapes for establishing a zero‑carbon society. Furthermore, the top 10 % and bottom 10 % performance of individual cities in emissions identified by the Scale-Adjusted Metropolitan Indicator (SAMI) (the smaller the better) highlights the imprints of the socioeconomic context (e.g., Low Carbon City Initiative) on the scaling of CO2 emissions in Chinese cities, which is critical for developing decarbonization strategies. Our multidimensional analysis can assist in the local-tailored low-carbon development of Chinese cities.

Spatial Differentiation of Carbon Budgets and Carbon Balance Zoning in China Based on the Land Use Perspective

Carbon emission reduction in China is of great significance to curb global warming. Based on the land use perspective, the spatial characteristics of carbon emissions and carbon sinks in 30 Chinese provinces were analyzed and the carbon balance was partitioned by combining the economic contribution coefficient (ECC) and ecological support coefficient (ESC). It was found that (1) the intensity of land use in China is strong, being high in the southeast and low in the northwest, divided by the Heihe–Tengchong Line, and carbon source and carbon sink lands show clear spatial heterogeneity. (2) Total carbon emissions show clear spatial heterogeneity. Carbon emissions from construction land are the main source of carbon emissions. The carbon emission intensity and per capita carbon emissions are both high in the north and low in the south. (3) The total carbon sink is high in the north–south and low in the middle of the country, and woodland and grassland are the main sites of terrestrial carbon absorption. The overall carbon sink intensity shows a continuous decrease from southeast to northwest. (4) Based on the ECC and ESC indicators, 30 provinces were divided into four carbon zones and differentiated low-carbon development suggestions are proposed.

Scenario prediction and decoupling analysis of carbon emission in Jiangsu Province, China

As a major energy consumption province in China, Jiangsu Province is a key area for carbon emission reduction in China. Grasping the future trends of carbon emission in Jiangsu Province will help to find effective ways to reduce carbon emission. This paper proposes the STIRPAT-IGWO-SVR model, including screening the carbon emission influencing factors based on the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) model, optimizing the parameters of the support vector regression (SVR) model using the gray wolf optimization (GWO) algorithm improved by the differential evolution (DE) algorithm, and sets five scenarios to predict and compare the carbon emissions of Jiangsu Province under different scenarios. In addition, the Tapio decoupling model is used to analyze the decoupling relationship of carbon emission and economic growth in each scenario. The results show that the STIRPAT-IGWO-SVR model proposed in this paper shows good performance compared with other models. For Jiangsu Province, improving the energy structure has the strongest inhibitory effect on carbon emission, stronger than reducing energy intensity, and far stronger than optimizing the industrial structure. Compared with a single plan, even if the measures are slightly weakened, the implementation of combined planning measures can more effectively control carbon emission.

“Waste-free Cities” Construction and Carbon Emission Reduction in China: Based on the Perspective of Circular Economy

Solid waste and carbon dioxide are important elements of environmental governance. Under the background of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, the research on whether and how to promote the construction of “no waste cities” and carbon emission reduction is of great significance in China. The generation of solid waste and greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide has the same origin, which can be well coordinated to promote environmental governance.

Unequal age-based household carbon footprint in China

ABSTRACT Controlling household consumption is an essential means to achieve carbon neutrality in China, and population ageing has an important impact on its structure. Since older people exhibit different consumption patterns than younger people, an increase in the proportion of aged people affects overall consumption patterns. This paper adopts an input–output model to reflect the heterogeneity in the consumption structure and household carbon footprint of different age groups, followed by a simulation of the future household carbon footprint. The results find that in China, the total household carbon footprint shows an inverted U-shape with age, with the lowest total carbon footprint coming from aged households (age of household head 65 and above) and the highest total carbon footprint from middle-aged households (age of household head 45–54). The average household carbon footprint decreases with age, with aged households remaining the lowest. Aged households, however, have the highest share of the direct carbon footprint. Interestingly, urban households of all ages have a higher carbon footprint than rural households, with the largest difference being among aged households. The projection results show that based on demographic changes, although the average household carbon footprint of elderly households in China is low, as the number of elderly households increases, the total carbon footprint of elderly households will be sizable and need to be taken seriously. Key policy insights The total carbon footprint of elderly households will become more significant and sizable as the number of elderly households increases. Urban life is more carbon-intensive, and China’s urbanization is leading to an increase in the carbon footprint. Aged households require more attention in future climate policies. Targeted, consumption-based climate policies are necessary for carbon reduction in China and will have relevance in other countries with similar consumption structure and demographic trends, e.g. with ageing or rapidly urbanizing populations.

Regional differences and influencing factors of the carbon emission efficiency from public buildings in China

The rapid development of the tertiary industry has made the energy consumption of public buildings grow too fast during the operation stage, which has become a key area of energy conservation and emission reduction in China’s construction industry. This study uses the Minimum Distance to Strong effective Frontier function (MinDS) and Malmquist-Luenberger (ML) index analysis methods to measure the public building carbon emission efficiency (PBCEE) of 30 provincial-level units in China’s eight economic regions from 2010 to 2019, and analyze regional differences and evolution. Then, the influencing factors of PBCEE in different regions were analyzed using the fixed-effect panel data model. The results show that: 1) China’s PBCEE is generally low, with an average efficiency value of only 0.74, and there are great differences among regions, showing the spatial characteristics of “high in the east and low in the west.” 2) Relying on the positive impact of technological progress, the PBCEE in the eight regions increased year by year, with an annual growth rate of 1.82%. 3) The influence results and degrees of various factors on PBCEE are different in different economic zones, but increasing the proportion of electricity consumption has a certain positive effect on improving PBCEE. The same influencing factor has obvious threshold characteristics for PBCEE in different regions, so the government needs to consider the actual situation of the region when formulating carbon emission reduction policies for public buildings.

The Impact of Digital Economy on Industrial Carbon Emission Efficiency: Evidence from Chinese Provincial Data

Digital economy has become an important driving force for green economic growth in China. Based on the province-level data of China from 2003 to 2018, this paper constructed the Total-factor Nonradial Directional Distance Function (TNDDF) model to measure the carbon emission efficiency of industrial sector and discussed the impact of digital economy on carbon emission efficiency. Empirical analysis shows that the carbon emission efficiency of China’s industrial sector is low, and there is obvious regional heterogeneity where the carbon emission efficiency of eastern China is higher than that of central and western China. Areas with high level of digital economy development have higher carbon emission efficiency, and digital economy is conducive to promoting energy conservation and pollution reduction in China’s industrial sector. The optimal threshold interval of digital economy for promoting carbon emission efficiency is explored by means of threshold model. In view of this, the Chinese government should vigorously develop the digital economy, promote industrial enterprises to networking and digital evolution, and improve the efficiency of carbon emission as well.

How mitigation efforts moderate the impact of climate change on agricultural efficiency: a preliminary analysis from China

ABSTRACTIn this paper, we empirically evaluate the effect of climate change on agricultural technical efficiency, considering the moderating effect of mitigation efforts based on emission reduction in China. In particular, we directly measure the intensity of mitigation efforts using the climate change mitigation index. We then apply the two-stage double bootstrap DEA method to build up the empirical model, effectively avoiding biased estimation using the traditional two-stage DEA method. Our results show that the intensity of mitigation measures moderates the impacts of global warming on efficiency and mild mitigation measures are better than drastic ones.

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.

Analysis of spatial associations in the energy–carbon emission efficiency of the transportation industry and its influencing factors: Evidence from China

Grasping the structure of the spatial associations in the energy–carbon emission efficiency (ECEE) of the transportation industry is of great importance for ensuring the green and sustainable development of the transportation industry. Based on the panel data on the transportation industry in 30 Chinese provinces from 2003 to 2017, this paper measures the provincial ECEE using the non-radial directional distance function (NDDF) and explores the structure of the spatial associations in ECEE and its influencing factors using social network analysis (SNA). The results show that (1) the average value of transportation ECEE in China is 0.34. The overall ECEE is relatively low and exhibits obvious spatial and temporal heterogeneity. (2) The network structure of the spatial associations for ECEE exhibit a hierarchical gradient characterized by density in the east and sparsity in the west, with provinces in the eastern and central regions, such as Henan, Zhejiang, and Fujian, possessing core leadership positions in the spatial transportation ECEE network. (3) The results of the block model show that the spatial ECEE network in the Chinese transportation industry has an obvious factional structure and that there are significant spatial associations among the blocks. Block 4, which contains several western provinces, exerts clear spatial spillover effects. (4) Regarding the factors affecting the formation of the spatial association network for ECEE, the differences in industrial structures, transportation energy structures, education levels, environmental regulations, and foreign direct investment among the provinces have positive and relatively significant effects on ECEE networks. The findings of this paper have theoretical and policy implications for integrating energy conservation and carbon emission reduction in China's transportation industry across regions.

County carbon emissions in the Yangtze River Delta region: Spatial layout, dynamic evolution and spatial spillover effects

The Yangtze River Delta region contributes nearly 16% of the national carbon emissions and is the key area for carbon emission reduction in China. Accurately grasping the spatial evolution characteristics of carbon emissions and the interaction between counties and regions is of great practical significance for precise and collaborative carbon reduction. This study firstly explores the spatial layout and dynamic evolution characteristics of county carbon emissions in the Yangtze River Delta region from 2000 to 2018 by using spatial statistical analysis, secondly identifies the influencing factors of county carbon emissions (CAR) in the Yangtze River Delta region from dynamic and static dimensions respectively by using static and dynamic Spatial Dubin Model, and finally judges the spatial spillover effects of each factor. We find that county carbon emissions are more complex and more diverse in non-synchronous state compared to provinces and cities. The high carbon areas in the Yangtze River Delta region are concentrated in Shanghai and its neighboring cities, as well as industrial counties under the jurisdiction of other sub-core cities, which are continuously clustered towards the center. We have made some theoretical discussions on the results of the spillover effects of various factors on carbon emissions, and concluded that economic of scale (ECO) and industrial structure (IND) have a “polarization effect”, population size (POP) is consistent with the Malthusian view, technological advance (TEC) has a “cumulative effect”, and environmental quality (ENV) The “pollution paradise effect” is mitigated. Finally, we believe that the main unit of precise carbon reduction can take the form of “city-county” combination, and the government should implement differentiated and coordinated carbon reduction policies.

Does Land Urbanization Affect the Catch-Up Effect of Carbon Emissions Reduction in China’s Logistics?

Logistics is playing an important role in China with the rapid growth of the digital economy, and has caused large quantities of carbon emissions as an energy-intensive industry. Due to the extreme imbalance of land urbanization, the performance of carbon emissions reduction in logistics is significantly different among regions. This paper establishes a new indicator to describe the carbon emissions catch-up effect and decomposes the impact of land urbanization into 4 driving factors, thereby identifying the impact of land urbanization on carbon emissions catch-up effect in detail. The results indicate that: (1) at the national level, the catch-up effect of carbon emissions in logistics showed three stages of “catching up-lagging behind-catching up”, which was consistent with the development of logistics. (2) At the regional level, the land urbanization-related factors had significant but different impacts on the catch-up effect of carbon emissions. The spatial expansion and road network density effect were the main inhibitors for catch-up effect of the eastern region, and spatial structure effect was the main inhibitor for central and western regions. (3) At the provincial level, the impact of land urbanization-related factors on provinces at different development stages was different. Finally, some policy implications are proposed to achieve carbon neutrality targets.

Influence of the water tank size and air source heat pump size on the energy saving potential of the energy storage heating system

“Clean heating” has become a national strategy for energy conservation and carbon reduction in China. The energy storage heating system with air source heat pump and water tank has been proven to be energy saving in the previous studies. However, how to determine the sizes of the water storage tank and the air source heat pump based on the building heating load profile has not been investigated comprehensively. In this paper, the model of the energy storage heating system is established on the TRNSYS platform and validated by long-term monitored data. The influence of the water storage tank size and the air source heat pump size on the energy saving potential of the energy storage heating system is investigated comprehensively. The results show that even a small water tank, i.e., 0.06 m3 ~ 0.5 m3, can reduce the start-stop loss of the air source heat pump effectively. When the water tank volume increases to 0.5 m3 and 1 m3, the start-stop loss is reduced from 12.5 % to 0.8 % and 0.2 %, respectively. When the water tank volume increases from 1 m3 to 4m3, the average operating temperature difference of the air source heat pump between the energy storage heating system and the baseline heating system increases from 0.7 to 3.3 °C, and the corresponding energy saving rates caused by the operating temperature difference is approximately 1.0 % ~ 6.3 %. When the ASHP size varies from 80 % to 100 % of the design heating load of the building, the energy saving rates change within 1 %. The ASHP size can be reduced to a certain extent to reduce the investment of the energy storage heating system.

Physicochemical Characteristics of PM2.5 Based on Long-term Hourly Data at National Intensive Monitoring Sites in Korea

The objective of this study was to analyze the temporal and spatial characteristics of fine particulate matters by using huge hourly datasets of PM2.5, including chemical information monitored at the 6 national intensive monitoring sites (NIMSs) from 2013 to 2018 in Korea. Hourly PM2.5 raw datasets were obtained from the National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER) in Korea. Monitoring sites included urban, rural/agricultural, industrial, and marine environments. Since the PM2.5 concentration steadily decreased nationwide, each species concentration also decreased in general. One of key reasons for decreasing PM2.5 might be explained by the implementation of domestic fine dust reduction policies and external influences such as PM2.5 concentration reduction in China. It was observed that 45.0% of all datasets for 6 years were classified as good condition. The average sum of 14 elements over all sites in 2018 was calculated to be 501.5 ng/m3, and its mass ratio for PM2.5 (21.9 μg/m3) was 2.30%. The inorganic elements were generally higher in industrial/urban areas than in agricultural areas. In addition, the average TC (total carbon) over all 6 sites was 28.3% of PM2.5 with the range of 23.6% to 31.4%. The TC in small urban areas was much higher than that in marine areas or even that in large, populated urban area/industrial areas. It seemed that the latter areas were better controlled than the former area in terms of combustion activities of fossil fuels. It is suggested that these results could be play an important role as important basic data to manage ambient air quality and establish effective emission reduction strategies in each region.

Analysis of the air pollution reduction and climate change mitigation effects of the Three-Year Action Plan for Blue Skies on the “2+26” Cities in China

City clusters play an important role in air pollutant and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction in China, primarily due to their high fossil energy consumption levels. The "2+26" Cities, i.e., Beijing, Tianjin and 26 other perfectures in northern China, has experienced serious air pollution in recent years. We employ the Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollution Interactions and Synergies model adapted to the "2+26" Cities (GAINS-JJJ) to evaluate the impacts of structural adjustments in four major sectors, industry, energy, transport and land use, under the Three-Year Action Plan for Blue Skies (Three-Year Action Plan) on the emissions of both the major air pollutants and CO2 in the "2+26" Cities. The results indicate that the Three-Year Action Plan applied in the "2+26" Cities reduces the total emissions of primary fine particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of ≤ 2.5μm (PM2.5), SO2, NOx, NH3 and CO2 by 17%, 25%, 21%, 3% and 1%, respectively, from 2017 to 2020. The emission reduction potentials vary widely across the 28 prefectures, which may be attributed to the differences in energy structure, industrial composition, and policy enforcement rate. Among the four sectors, adjustment of industrial structure attains the highest co-benefits of CO2 reduction and air pollution control due to its high CO2 reduction potential, while structural adjustments in energy and transport attain much lower co-benefits, despite their relatively high air pollutant emissions reductions, primarily resulting from an increase in the coal-electric load and associated carbon emissions caused by electric reform policies..

Environmental Protection Tax Law on the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction in China: Evidence from a panel data of 107 cities

Many of air pollutants and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) have common emission sources, determining that they should be controlled collaboratively rather than treated separately. To protect the environment, China implemented the Environmental Protection Tax (EPT) Law on January 1st, 2018. Yet CO 2 is not included in the tax category, whether the EPT Law can achieve coordinated control of air pollutants and CO 2 emissions remains unclear. This paper examines the role of the EPT Law in the synergy of pollution reduction (PR) and carbon reduction (CR) by employing the Difference-In-Differences (DID) model on China's 107 cities from 2015 to 2019. We find that the policy, although not including CO 2 as one taxable item, has significantly increased the synergistic reduction degree of “sulfur dioxide (SO 2 )-CO 2 ” by 41%, and the synergistic reduction degree of “particulate matter (PM)-CO 2 ” by 39%. Moreover, strengthening environmental protection supervision, optimizing energy structure and improving green technology innovation are main transmission mechanisms through which EPT Law affects the synergy degree of PR and CR. Further, the heterogeneity of policy effects caused by different magnitudes of tax rate increase is unveiled, showing that the policy effects on the synergy of PR and CR are most significant in regions that raised the SO 2 tax rate beyond 2.4 Yuan and raised the PM tax rate between 2.4 Yuan and 6 Yuan. This paper suggests that the EPT Law serves a critical function in enhancing the synergy of PR and CR, and thus the synergistic effect of air pollutants reduction on carbon reduction should be considered when formulating possible carbon tax rate in the future.

Impact of Labor Migration and Foreign Exchange Inflow on Rural Poverty Reduction

Foreign exchange inflow plays a crucial role in rural poverty reduction and economic growth in developing countries. Taking China as an example, the authors analyzed the role of labor migration and agricultural foreign exchange inflow in alleviating rural poverty. Based on the time series data from 1980 to 2021, this paper investigated the historical incidence of poverty in China. Moreover, the effects of agricultural development, dynamic migration and foreign exchange inflow on rural poverty reduction in China were deeply analyzed by using the autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) from the perspectives of long-term and short-term estimation. Finally, effective measures to reduce poverty were proposed from the aspects of rural incentive plan, introduction of agricultural irrigation technology and provision of economic and technical subsidies, and inspiration to rural targeted poverty alleviation of other developing countries was pointed out.

Farmers' technology preference and influencing factors for pesticide reduction: evidence from Hubei Province, China.

Based on the successful experience of pesticide reduction in China, this study uses survey data from Hubei Province to measure rice farmers’ technology preferences for pesticide reduction considering their needs, and compare the heterogeneous factors influencing farmers’ adoption behavior. The results show that large-scale farmers prefer drone services and efficient machinery, while small-scale farmers prefer scientific standards and biopesticides for pesticide reduction. Second, farmers’ adoption behavior of pesticide reduction technologies is mostly influenced by education, risk attitude, income, agricultural labor, scale, rice price, residue testing, brand, training, subsidy, and demonstration. Among them, education, risk attitude, scale, rice price, cost, and training, significantly affect farmers’ adoption level of multiple pesticide reduction technologies. Further, higher rice prices and participation in training could promote the use of pesticide reduction technologies in a larger area by farmers. Therefore, the real needs of farmers should be focused on the promotion of pesticide reduction technologies, and pesticide reduction programs in different regions should carry out precise intervention policies. These findings can provide practical policy guidance for effective pesticide reduction in the central region of China.