Total Amount Control Research Articles

Initial Allocation Model of CO2 Emission Allowances Based on the Equity-Efficiency Tradeoff

Reasonably and fairly allocating carbon intensity reduction targets among Chinese provinces is a key problem in effectively controlling and reducing CO2 emissions. This study establishes the ZSG-DDF model combining the Zero-Sum Gains DEA and the Directional Distance Function to study the CO2 emission allowance allocations from the perspective of maximum efficiency. This model can discriminate desirable and undesirable outputs and solve the problem of total CO2 emission amount control. Then, we add the equity principle to the constraint conditions, namely, the proportion of carbon emission allowance approaching the proportion of GDP. Finally, we establish a CO2 emission allocation scheme based on the equity-efficiency tradeoff while considering the relationship between economic development and carbon emissions as well as achieving maximum efficiency. We use this new model to allocate CO2 emission allowance during the Chinese 13th Five-Year Plan, and compare it with the other two allocation schemes, including National allocations during the 13th Five-Year Plan, allocation scheme from the perspective of efficiency maximization. The results have a certain significance for government departments to formulate the allocation scheme of CO2 emission allowance.

VARMA-EGARCH Model for Air-Quality Analyses and Application in Southern Taiwan

This study adopted the Exponential Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (EGARCH) model to analyze seven air pollutants (or the seven variables in this study) from ten air quality monitoring stations in the Kaohsiung–Pingtung Air Pollutant Control Area located in southern Taiwan. Before the verification analysis of the EGARCH model is conducted, the air quality data collected at the ten air quality monitoring stations in the Kaohsiung–Pingtung area are classified into three major factors using the factor analyses in multiple statistical analyses. The factors with the most significance are then selected as the targets for conducting investigations; they are termed “photochemical pollution factors”, or factors related to pollution caused by air pollutants, including particulate matter with particles below 10 microns (PM10), ozone (O3) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). Then, we applied the Vector Autoregressive Moving Average-EGARCH (VARMA-EGARCH) model under the condition where the standardized residual existed in order to study the relationships among three air pollutants and how their concentration changed in the time series. By simulating the optimal model, namely VARMA (1,1)-EGARCH (1,1), we found that when O3 was the dependent variable, the concentration of O3 was not affected by the concentration of PM10 and NO2 in the same term. In terms of the impact response analysis on the predictive power of the three air pollutants in the time series, we found that the asymmetry effect of NO2 was the most significant, meaning that NO2 influenced the GARCH effect the least when the change of seasons caused the NO2 concentration to fluctuate; it also suggested that the concentration of NO2 produced in this area and the degree of change are lower than those of the other two air pollutants. This research is the first of its kind in the world to adopt a VARMA-EGARCH model to explore the interplay among various air pollutants and reactions triggered by it over time. The results of this study can be referenced by authorities for planning air quality total quantity control, applying and examining various air quality models, simulating the allowable increase in air quality limits, and evaluating the benefit of air quality improvement.

Is energy the key to pursuing clean air and water at the city level? A case study of Jinan City, China

Concern toward air and water pollution is increasing worldwide due to their adverse impacts on human health and the ecosystem. Cities are the core of in policy design and implementation as they are basic administrative units. However, existing studies only conducted city-level carbon dioxide calculations at the inventory level and failed to reflect its impacts on health and the ecosystem. In this study, air and water pollution at the city level were quantitatively analyzed from environmental and economic perspectives by conducting a case study of Jinan City, China, from 2005 to 2017. The results showed that the human and ecological impacts and economic burdens of pollution were 1.60 × 105 DALY, 600.13 species.year, and $5.36 × 109 in 2017, respectively, which were mainly derived from air pollution. This study demonstrated that energy consumption contributed the most to the overall impacts. CO2, PM10, SO2, and Cu are key crucial substances for reducing environmental and economic burdens. Key sector analysis revealed that the impacts were mainly due to raw coal consumption in the electric and heat power sector. The ecosystem quality impact of imported energy was 1.45 times higher than that of direct emissions. Effective measures of managing the environmental and economic impacts of air and water pollution at the city-level include adjusting the types of energy used, the promotion of clean coal technologies, adjusting the industrial structure, implementing total quantity control, and internalizing external costs.

Multi-Regional Energy Industrial Water Withdrawal Research under Different Energy Development Scenarios: A Case Study of China

Limited water resources are threatening the development of energy industry, especially for a country like China, with huge yet still fast increasing energy demand, geographically inverse distribution of energy resources and water resources. However, previous studies mainly focus on a nation-wide scale and merely in coal industry chain. Understanding the impact of regional differences on energy industrial water withdrawal remains a challenge. In this work, a multi-regional supply and demand analytical method is proposed, and China is divided into 17 regions for multi-regional analysis. Results indicate that water withdrawal pressure of energy industry differs greatly in different regions. An energy development path of carbon emission reduction can have a significant coordinating water-saving effect. long-distance power transmission may aggravate water shortage in water-scarce regions. Three representative coal-rich energy bases are analysed and the gap between demand of energy industrial water withdrawal and water supply is huge in a business-as-usual scenario. This gap can be reduced or eliminated only if both total amount control and intensity control strategies are jointly adopted.

Equilibrium cost of water environmental protection based on watershed sustainability

There are multiple relationship curves between watershed socioeconomic development and water environmental conservation. The goal of this paper is to present a theoretical pattern of economic activities and water environmental improvement by incorporating their bidirectional causality relationship. The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) has been useful in connecting economic and environmental concepts, thus becoming an important tool for evaluating watershed sustainability. The high governance cost makes water pollution-intensive goods relatively expensive to produce. According to the EKC, there is an inverted U‐shaped relationship between water environment deterioration and the level of social and economic improvement. Based on EKC hypothesis, we studied the coordinated relationship between environmental protection of water and economic and social sustainable development in the Huntai River Watershed from 2003 to 2012 by means of a panel threshold data. The EKC is an empirical curve that describes the relationship between economic restructuring and water environmental conditions improvement. The Green Environmental Kuznets Curve (GEKC) is used to describe the relationship among watershed pollution emissions, the environmental quality and income per capita. However, according to the GEKC, U‐shaped relationship exists between the coordination of water environmental protection and the level of social economic development (SED). The GEKC is affected by water resource consumption, the regional trade situation (T), the per capita gross domestic product level (Y), and controls on the total amount of water pollution discharge. We try to adjust to the type of GEKC curve and apply dataset of water pollutant emission reduction cost control to fit main characteristic of equilibrium cost. In accordance with Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) and Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) data statistical analysis, the value of the GEKC regression equation independent variables Y, Y2, per capita water resources consumption (E), T, adding value of production (AVP) and modified socioeconomic development index (MSDI) were 1.988, −0.150, 0.720, 0.216, 0.070, and 1.890, respectively. In the long-term, the correlation formula of watershed per capita sewage discharge (C) to Y was 2.090–0.300Y. For every 1% increase in E, T, AVP, and MSDI, C increased by approximately 0.720%, 0.216%, 0.072%, and 1.890%, respectively. The E, T and MSDI are key factors in developing an effective way to control the levels of water pollution discharge. Pollution is endogenous, so water environment pollution is not necessarily caused by economic growth. According to the total amount control of water pollution discharge, the GEKC equilibrium optimization calculation results can be used to effectively control watershed pollutant emissions and improve water environmental quality. Through the adjustment of industrial structure or industrial transformation and technological progress, it is possible to change the relationship between current economic growth and water environment. With GEKC related Curve characteristic and indicator classes, it is possible to realize harmonious and sustainable development of regional economy and society in the Huntai River Watershed.

Supporting Sustainable Development of Water Resources: A Social Welfare Maximization Game Model.

Water can carry a boat but can also overturn it (human societal sustainable development). Governments faced aquatic ecosystem restoration and preservation challenges following the establishment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This paper proposes a social welfare maximization game model to analyze the dominant strategy equilibrium of enterprise-1 and enterprise-2 based on welfare maximization under the total sewage emission control policy. Under the aforementioned control policy, a stricter total sewage emission control of an enterprise corresponds to a lower enterprise output and a higher output of a competing enterprise; that is, the profit transfer effect occurs. When the government implements a relatively strict total sewage emission control policy for an enterprise, it is beneficial to reduce the amount of sewage emission from an enterprise but has no impact on the amount of sewage emission from a competing enterprise; however, the amount of sewage reduction of both enterprises will increase. If the government does not provide capital and technical support to enterprise-2, then enterprise-1 and enterprise-2 should implement total quantity control policies with different rigor degrees to avoid the one-size-fits-all phenomenon. To maximize social welfare, the government should adjust the total sewage emission control policy in time according to sewage stock changes and focus more on enterprises with insufficient capital and poor technical skills and provide financial and technical support.

The application of green score method in total amount control of Shenzhen diesel vehicles

Shenzhen is highly developed in logistics and transportation industry. Motor vehicle transportation played an important role in the city and depended heavily on diesel vehicles. The effect of diesel vehicle emissions control could improve the air quality. Measures to control the total emissions of diesel vehicles became the first priority for Shenzhen government. The paper used AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) to construct Green Score system for diesel vehicles. The calculated carbon emission scores waere related to the degree of environmental pollution. The higher emission scores showed the greater pollution to the environment. The detailed calculation method was introduced by calculating the emission score of enterprise diesel vehicles.

Spatial Distribution Assessment and Source Apportionment of Land-Based Pollutant Yield from Qingdao, China

The spatial distribution of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total nitrogen (TN) yield from Qingdao are studied by comparing pollutant yield amount, densities and spatial aggregation (Getis-Ord indexes) among the land-based pollutant source regions (PSRs) entering the three sub-seas (i.e. the Jiaozhou Bay (JZB), other coastal area in the Yellow Sea (OCAYS) and Laizhou Bay (LZB), respectively). Industrial composition of the loads are also studied by comparing pollutant yield among the sources of agriculture, rural domesticity, industry, urban domesticity and service, and calculation of Gini coefficient. Results show that spatial distribution of COD and TN yield from Qingdao are extremely unbalanced. The JZB, with less than 3% of the total coastal sea area of Qingdao, received 62% COD load and 65% TN yield from Qingdao, while the OCAYS, with more than 97% area, only received 23% COD and 20% TN, which consist with the much worsen water quality of JZB than that of OCAYS. On the other hand, the source apportionment of COD and TN loads in the PSRs entering JZB and the OCAYS was similar. The agricultural and domestic sources with high pollution intensity account for more than 80%, while the industrial and service sources with low pollution intensity account for less than 20%. While Gini coefficients, COD 0.81 and TN 0.84 which are much higher than the ‘imbalance’ threshold of 0.4, show the uneven industrial structure of Qingdao. These results may be useful in the determination of land-based pollution total amount control at the PSR level.

Inexact stochastic optimization model for industrial water resources allocation under considering pollution charges and revenue-risk control

In this study, an inexact two-stage stochastic downside risk-aversion programming is developed for regional industrial water resources allocation under considering system return-risk and various environment control strategies. In the model, interval-parameter programming, two-stage stochastic programming, and downside risk measure are introduced into an integrated framework for reflecting the complexity and uncertainty of industrial system, and avoiding the expected revenue risk. The method could not only reflect industrial water resources allocation characteristic among multiple users and suppliers, but also provide an effective linkage between economic cost and the system stability. The model is applied to a real case of industrial water resources allocation management in Chongqing city, China, where regional industrial system has faced with lots of difficulties and complexities in water resources utilization and water environmental protection. The impact of pollutants emission reduction and risk-aversion attitude on water resources allocation for different industry sectors, system benefits, and pollutants emissions were analyzed. The results indicated that the total pollutants emission amount control and the expected revenue risk can be used as effective measures for regional industry structure adjustment from terminal environmental and macro-economic perspective. The model has a significant value for regional industrial water optimization allocation under uncertainty to achieve the maximum economic benefits and the effective utilization of multiple water resources.

Carbon Emissions Cost Analysis with Activity-Based Costing

Due to growing awareness about environmental issues, consumers are becoming more likely to purchase environmentally friendly products that involve lower carbon emissions (CE). Environmental regulations are being enforced and lower-carbon products are being produced in order to maintain competitiveness when complying with such regulations. This paper aims to explore the effect of CE on profit through three kinds of models using the activity-based costing (ABC) approach. The results indicate that governmental policy makers can effectively decrease CE by Total Quantity Control (TQC) to resolve problems of environmental degradation. Governmental policy makers can control CE by limiting the quantities of CE, thereby forcing manufacturers to decrease CE during production. Furthermore, policy makers can set up regulations on CE quotas to control CE well instead of imposing carbon taxes. Therefore, manufacturers will try their best to find methods of improving production processes, equipment, and/or materials to decrease the CE quantity and achieve maximum profit under the restricted carbon emissions quotas.

Scenario Analyses of the Volatile Organic Compound Emission Allowance and Allocation in the 13th Five-Year Period

China implemented the emission allowance and allocation strategy in 2016 to achieve effective control of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). An inventory of VOCs emissions for 2015 and future emissions for 2020 were developed and predicted, respectively, using emission factors and regression analysis. The results showed that anthropogenic VOCs emission in 2015 was 31117.0 kt. VOCs emission in 2020 under the business-as-usual scenario is predicted to be 41737.2 kt, an increase of 34.13% from that in 2015. Based on the Outline of the 13th Five-Year Plan, a total amount control target and pollution reduction task of about 28005.3 kt and 13731.9 kt, respectively, were proposed. Additionally, three control scenarios, i.e., implementing VOCs emission reduction strategies in all the key areas, in all the key industries, and in the key industries of the key areas, were established for the 13th Five-Year Plan using a scenario analysis method. The results showed that some differences exist between the potential mitigation of VOCs emissions and the emission reduction target for the three control scenarios, it is difficult to realize the emission allowance target. It is necessary to devote greater efforts to control VOCs. Moreover, reducing emissions of VOCs by implementing large-scale control projects is recommended. Further, regulation of VOC emissions in key areas and industries should be emphasized.

Integrated watershed management through multi-level and stepwise optimization for allocation of total load of water pollutants at large scales

The contradictory problem between water quality-induced water shortage and shortage of water quantity has been increasingly emerging. This research aims to control the total pollutant discharge in a transboundary river basin, to improve the water environment, and enhance the capabilities of water resources management and decision-making. The organic connection between the control of total discharge quantity, the reduction of pollutant discharge, and the improvement of water environmental quality is established at large-scale from the perspective of comprehensive decision-making and management. In addition, this paper innovatively proposes a comprehensive watershed management model of multi-level and stepwise optimization for allocation of total load of water pollutants, which is integrated through the Gini coefficients method, the comprehensive weights method, and the minimal optimization model of environmental Gini coefficient. It is capable of optimizing distributions of total amount control of water pollutants in the whole basin and controlling units both spatially and temporally. The model is applied to the Songhua River basin to address the conflicts among regions’ environmental fairness and environmental sustainability. According to the optimization results based on the proposed model, the scheme for the total load allocation of water pollutants developed through optimization is consistent with the actual present situation of Heilongjiang section. Major dischargers like Harbin, Suihua, Qiqihar, and Daqing are mainly controlled, and the control units with a low discharge load were rationally controlled. The study has shown that the model was useful in providing decision-making support for water pollution total amount control of the Songhua River basin.

An Optimization Model for Water Management Based on Water Resources and Environmental Carrying Capacities: A Case Study of the Yinma River Basin, Northeast China

In this study, an inexact two-stage stochastic programming (ITSP) model was developed for supporting water resources allocation for the four main water use sectors (industry, municipal, environmental, and agriculture) and total amount control of the pollutant emissions. The Yinma River Basin in northeast China was selected for a case study. A number of scenarios corresponding to different flow levels were examined. The flow levels reflect different probabilities of water resource availability and environmental carrying capacity. The results revealed that the optimal allocation strategies for each sector depend on water resource carrying capacity, wastewater treatment capacity, the total amount of regional control, and the water environment carrying capacity. Water ecology projects were identified that are needed to treat contaminated water and to address the insufficient carrying capacity for pollutant emissions generated in water-using processes. The results will be helpful for establishing sensible water management systems that integrate the development and utilization of water resources and protect the environment, and for providing a basis for water pollution prevention plans, the model can be used to guide management interventions to improve the water environment by regional pollutant emission control and the improvement of carrying capacity in the Yinma River Basin.

Decoupling and Chasing:A Study on the Green Development Path of Chinese Cities

China's current economic growth comes at the expense of a lot of pollution. We could reveal the fact that whether there is a synchronous change link between economic growth and environmental pollution according to decoupling theory, thereby theoretically paving the way for total amount control of pollution emissions. Based on the panel data of 271 cities in China from 2004 to 2013, this paper examines the convergence of the decoupling between economic growth and environmental pollution and the status of chasing decoupling. Results show that:(1) regional development of decoupling shows the characteristic of club convergence due to the heterogeneity on the existence of environmental regulation intensity and so on. The result suggests that it is possible for the ordinary cities to catch up the benchmark cities. (2) the no chasing decoupling cities are the mainstream in China, which shows that the gap between the ordinary cities and the benchmark cities in economic growth and pollution reduction is expanding. The policy implications are as follows:changing the way of attaching importance to economy while despising environment, and besides, the way of city green development needs differentiation.

Analyses of CO2 mitigation roadmap in China’s power industry: Using a Backcasting Model

CO2 mitigation roadmap is important for the total amount control of CO2 emission. However, as the connection and priority are being absent in some present CO2 mitigation roadmaps, technology policies may sometimes be invalid or unable to reach the mitigation target. Therefore, this research explores an innovative method of Backcasting Model (BCM) which is helpful to solve the problems. Since the Power industry is the essential department to realize the peak target of greenhouse gas emission in 2030 for China, the research takes the power industry as an example to analyze the CO2 mitigation roadmap based on BCM. According to 2020 and 2030 mitigation targets, this research selects 13 power generating technologies and calculates their implementation scales. Concrete timelines of 70 direct and indirect CO2 mitigation measures related to these technologies are derived, in which CO2 mitigation roadmaps from BCM are distinguished in terms of technique choices and implementation periods. Moreover, various types of accelerating measures provide different acceleration rates to the related direct measures. This study evaluates the feasibility and practicality of realizing mitigation targets by the 2020 and 2030 deadlines under present technologies and policies, and introduces options and roadmaps with high enforceability through the Backcasting Model.

Implementing the Prepaid Smart Meter System for Irrigated Groundwater Production in Northern China: Status and Problems

To reduce the gap between groundwater demand and supply caused by agricultural groundwater over-exploitation, the Prepaid Smart Meter System (PSMS) is being strongly implemented by the Chinese government in northern China. This study reports the analysis and results of PSMS field surveys in six typical provinces in northern China as well as domestic literature reviews. Based on the architecture and implementation policies of the system, the implementation differences between areas and the influencing factors were analyzed, particularly the acknowledgment of farmers, the installation proportion of tube wells, the social benefits. Great achievements have been gained in the implementation, and the management targets have been achieved, including accurately metering overall irrigation groundwater production, assisting in the total amount control and quota management, reducing groundwater exploitation, and improving water use efficiency. However, shortcomings remain in the implementation process, such as single initial investment channels, imperfect policy system construction, a lack of retrieving and analyzing data, and the unbalanced development between areas. Countermeasures and suggestions for these problems are discussed in this article.

The Study on Urban Agglomeration Environmental Rights Trading Paradigm—With the Emission Trading Model of Wan-Jiang City Belt

As the deterioration of the modern environmental problems, developed countries started to explore concrete ways of internalization of external effects produced by environmental problems. The theory of new institutional economics which produced the environmental property theory is widely used in the research of environmental management. On the premise of total amount control of pollution, the subjects of public power distribute or sell the rights is the basic paradigm of this method. Buyers take possession of the rights and utilize, profit from or dispose of them. The coordinated development of urban agglomeration is the main direction of China’s regional development strategy. As there are differences in environmental governance in different cities, the environment property trading system of urban agglomeration needs to be established urgently. Due to environmental property’s complexity and its attributes of public goods, the transaction of environmental property is restricted by amounts of factors. This research concludes that it is necessary to define the possessor of environmental property, strengthen the construction of trading platform, improving the public participation and supervision mechanism and control transaction cost by establishing and analyzing the emission trading model of the city-cluster along the Yangtze River in Anhui Province.

Preparation of High Purity Rare Earth Metals of Samarium, Ytterbium and Thulium

Abstract High purity rare earth metals, including samarium, ytterbium and thulium, were prepared by vacuum reduction-distillation of each rare earth oxide with lanthanum metal. The results show that the rare earth metals of samarium and ytterbium with 4N-purity are obtained by direct vacuum reduction-distillation, and their purity is 99.99 wt% and 99.993 wt%, respectively, with respect to 75 impurities. There is a high concentration of reductant in thulium metal due to the higher reaction temperature and lower distillation velocity ratio of metallic thulium to lanthanum, so that the sublimation purification with lower temperature and high vacuum is needed. The purified thulium can reach a high purity of 99.995wt% with respect to 75 impurities. Therefore, the preparation of high purity reductant of lanthanum metal, especially of total amount control of metallic impurities, is the key step to obtain 99.99%-purity rare earth metallic samarium, ytterbium and thulium

Analyses of Control Over the Gross Discharge of Regional Air Pollutants

Total quantity control is an important means and measure of protecting the quality of the air and environment. Generally speaking, the existing calculation of the total quantity in environmental control is discussed under assumptions in the closed system. This is largely inconsistent with the practical facts. In this paper, the region is regarded as an open environment system, Datong Economic Development Zone is taken as the background, and the quality control of the air and environment is taken as the objective. Next, the concentration contribution curve and distribution function of the dispersal of air pollution sources are analyzed, the share and proportion of contribution of the interior and exterior pollution sources of the development zone are calculated. An optimization model of the total pollutant discharge is constructed, and the total quantity of pollutant discharged by the development zone is measured, calculated and analyzed.

Innovative allocation mechanism design of carbon emission permits in China under the background of a low-carbon economy

The total quantity control and trading of carbon emission permits (CEPs) are important means to promote the development of a low-carbon economy, and the key is the initial allocation of the CEPs. For the initial allocation problem of CEPs in China, we analyze the disadvantages of the existing free allocation method, namely, that it cannot stimulate the polluters to declare their real marginal-cost information and so it is difficult to achieve effectiveness in resource allocation. Considering these disadvantages, we design an incentive auction mechanism for allocating CEPs based on the theory and methods of a divisible-good auction, to achieve the optimal supply strategy of the government and the equilibrium bidding strategies of polluters. The theoretical proof shows that this auction mechanism has properties such as stimulation of information and validity of allocation.The auction mechanism is applied to the problem of CEP allocation in fourteen cities in the Hanjiang River Basin in China. From the allocation results of this application example, we make some suggestions for improving the implementation of the CEP trading system and the design of future environmental policy in a low-carbon economy.