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With important implications for global climate change mitigation, the development of a cap-and-trade emission trading scheme (ETS) in China is embedded in distinctive political, economic, and institutional contexts and has been attracting increasing attention in recent years. To offer a clear perspective on current research progress, this paper systematically reviews the recent literature on China’s ETS from three main aspects: mechanism design, policy and regional linkages, as well as impact assessment. The current research consensuses are summarized based upon detailed literature analyses and commentaries, and together with observations of international experience and China’s actual condition, the paper provides policy proposals for the development of China’s national ETS during 2016–2020. Finally, several important controversies in the current literature are discussed with regard to the practical demands of China’s ETS development. Five pressing topics that need to be further studied in the coming years are highlighted, including cap setting, allowance allocation among sectors and enterprises, carbon pricing, policy package and unified carbon market construction, as well as ex-ante and ex-post impact assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an effort to address climate change, in 2013 China launched the world’s largest government-driven carbon emission reduction programme, the National Low Carbon Industrial Parks Pilot Programme (LCIPPP). This paper analyses this newly developed pilot program. To deepen our understanding of the causes and the impact of industrial park CO 2 emissions, we use the STIRPAT (Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology) model and data from 20 pilot industrial parks involved in the LCIPPP for the period 2012–2016. This study quantitatively evaluates the effect of CO 2 emissions on output, energy structure, energy intensity, industrial structure, R&D intensity, and population change in different regions and nationally through an elasticity coefficient method. The results confirm that an increase in output and energy intensity is a dominant contributor to the growth of CO 2 emissions whereas an increase of the share of tertiary industry and R&D intensity has significant effects on reducing CO 2 emissions. The elasticity of energy intensity and renewable energy consumption on CO 2 emissions in the eastern region of China is the highest, indicating that using renewable energy to reduce CO 2 emissions for the industrial parks is more effective in the eastern region as compared to the central and western regions of the country. The elasticity of population is significantly negative in both the central and western areas while it is positive in eastern part of China, thereby illustrating that promoting labour intensive industries will be an effective way to reduce CO 2 emissions for the industrial parks in China’s central and western regions. Our study reveals that differentiated low carbon development pathways should be adopted. Concrete policy implications for reducing CO 2 emissions are also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A passenger transport model, Asia-pacific Integrated Model (AIM)/Transport, incorporating travelers’ mode of choice and transport technological details was developed in this study. This AIM/Transport was coupled with the AIM/Computable General Equilibrium (AIM/CGE) to capture interactive mechanisms between the transport sector, energy consumption, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and the macro-economy. This paper presents the model structure and mathematical formulation of AIM/Transport, and explains how it was integrated with the CGE model by an iterative algorithm, taking into consideration the feedback between AIM/Transport and AIM/CGE. A numerical simulation proved that the integration of AIM/CGE and AIM/Transport can achieve a convergence after 13 iterations. A business-as-usual (BaU) scenario and a mitigation scenario were created to test the robustness of the model integration and how the mitigation potential and cost would be modified by coupling AIM/Transport. The key finding was that the carbon price and mitigation cost were modified with the coupled CGE-Transport model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

District Heating (DH) is considered as an efficient, environmentally friendly and cost-effective method for providing heat to buildings, and is playing an important role in the mitigation of climate change. Nowadays, Swedish DH companies are facing multiple challenges, and in urgent need for new price models to increase transparency and keep the competitiveness. In this paper, a survey is carried out to understand the structure of the present price models. Then, two restructured price models are proposed and compared with the price model most commonly used. To increase the transparency, price models should be based on users’ measured consumption profile; while to reduce the peak load, adoption of a pricing strategy based on a load demand component is an effective way. Consequently, users with flat consumption profiles will reduce cost, whereas users with steep consumption profiles will have a cost increase, both when charging the load demand cost based on the maximum daily or hourly peak load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a scenario-based model to identify and provide an array of electricity demand in Africa, and to derive them from the African power system of development. A system-based approach is performed by applying the scenario methodology developed by Schwartz in the context of the energy-economic modeling platform ‘Long-range Energy Alternative Planning’. Four scenarios are investigated. The Business as Usual scenario (BAU) replicates the regional and national Master Plans. The renewable-promotion scenario increases the share of renewable energy in the electricity mix. The demand and supply side efficiency scenarios investigate the impact of energy efficiency measures on the power system. The results show an increase in electricity demand by 4% by 2040, supply shortages and high emissions of Greenhouse Gases. Contrary to expectations, the renewable energy scenario did not emerge as the best solution to a sustainable electrification of the region. The energy efficiency scenarios have allowed us to draw a sustainable pathway for electrification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the energy and economic performance of roof and/or façades Building Integrated flat-plate PhotoVoltaic and Thermal (BIPVT) collectors for residential applications. Aim of the analysis is to assess the active and passive effects due to the building integration of solar technologies on the building energy consumptions. In particular, a comparison among innovative building-plant system configurations, based on BIPVT collectors for the simultaneous production of electricity, thermal energy, and domestic hot water, is carried out. The simulation models of the proposed system layouts are designed and implemented in TRNSYS simulation environment for the dynamic assessment of their energy and economic performance. By means of the developed simulation model, the occurring summer and winter building passive energy effects due to the PVT building integration are also analysed. Several case studies are developed by modelling a representative multi-storey residential building and by taking into account different European climates. For such case studies a suitable energy parametric analysis is performed by varying the thermal resistances and capacitances of the building envelope. By the simulation results interesting design and economic feasibility guidelines are obtained. In particular, by varying the weather location and the building-plant configuration, the adoption of BIPVT panels produces a decrease of the primary energy demands from 67% to 89%. The passive effects of the BIPVT system in both the winter and summer season are also assessed for all the investigated climate zones. The calculated economic profitability resulted slightly better for roof BIPVT panels than for roof and façade applications. For the investigated case studies, the pay back periods appear quite long, varying from 11 years for South European weather zones to 20 for North European ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a methodology to allocate carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions that result from fuel combusted to produce electricity and heat to the end-use sectors (industry, buildings, transport, and agriculture) where the electricity and heat are actually consumed. Attributing these indirect emissions to the appropriate sectors results in a very different picture of CO 2 emissions per sector than is seen when only direct emissions are characterized. With attribution to the demand side, the industrial and buildings sectors contribute the largest shares of CO 2 emissions globally. When indirect emissions are allocated to their respective end-use sectors, the buildings sector’s share of total emissions increases the most, from 9% (direct emissions only) to 31% (including indirect emissions), which reflects the large share of electricity and heat consumed in this sector. The share of CO 2 emissions attributable to the industrial sector also increases significantly, from 18% to 37%. These increased values include emissions from both electricity and heat used in end-use sectors, in contrast to the traditional accounting method, which allocates all electricity and heat emissions to the transformation and energy sector. Allocating these emissions to end-use sectors makes it possible to assess the full potential impact of demand reduction of electricity and heat use. This article is based on contributions to the Fifth Assessment Report of Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concentration of CO 2 in the atmosphere is increasing rapidly. CO 2 emissions may have an impact on global climate change. Effective CO 2 emission abatement strategies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) are required to combat this trend. Compared with pre-combustion carbon capture and oxy-fuel carbon capture approaches, post-combustion CO 2 capture (PCC) using solvent process is one of the most mature carbon capture technologies. There are two main barriers for the PCC process using solvent to be commercially deployed: (a) high capital cost; (b) high thermal efficiency penalty due to solvent regeneration. Applying process intensification (PI) technology into PCC with solvent process has the potential to significantly reduce capital costs compared with conventional technology using packed columns. This paper intends to evaluate different PI technologies for their suitability in PCC process. The study shows that rotating packed bed (RPB) absorber/stripper has attracted much interest due to its high mass transfer capability. Currently experimental studies on CO 2 capture using RPB are based on standalone absorber or stripper. Therefore a schematic process flow diagram of intensified PCC process is proposed so as to motivate other researches for possible optimal design, operation and control. To intensify heat transfer in reboiler, spinning disc technology is recommended. To replace cross heat exchanger in conventional PCC (with packed column) process, printed circuit heat exchanger will be preferred. Solvent selection for conventional PCC process has been studied extensively. However, it needs more studies for solvent selection in intensified PCC process. The authors also predicted research challenges in intensified PCC process and potential new breakthrough from different aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploitation of shale gas in the UK is at a very early stage, but with the latest estimates suggesting potential resources of 3.8 × 10 13 cubic metres – enough to supply the UK for next 470 years – it is viewed by many as an exciting economic prospect. However, its environmental impacts are currently unknown. This is the focus of this paper which estimates for the first time the life cycle impacts of UK shale gas, assuming its use for electricity generation. Shale gas is compared to fossil-fuel alternatives (conventional gas and coal) and low-carbon options (nuclear, offshore wind and solar photovoltaics). The results suggest that the impacts range widely, depending on the assumptions. For example, the global warming potential (GWP100) of electricity from shale gas ranges from 412 to 1102 g CO 2 -eq./kWh with a central estimate of 462 g. The central estimates suggest that shale gas is comparable or superior to conventional gas and low-carbon technologies for depletion of abiotic resources, eutrophication, and freshwater, marine and human toxicities. Conversely, it has a higher potential for creation of photochemical oxidants (smog) and terrestrial toxicity than any other option considered. For acidification, shale gas is a better option than coal power but an order of magnitude worse than the other options. The impact on ozone layer depletion is within the range found for conventional gas, but nuclear and wind power are better options still. The results of this research highlight the need for tight regulation and further analysis once typical UK values of key parameters for shale gas are established, including its composition, recovery per well, fugitive emissions and disposal of drilling waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Several studies show the potential benefits achievable by recurring to roof vegetation. Really, little literature investigates the economic feasibility of such solution. The paper verifies utility of green roofs, under environmental and energy point of views, by considering all the aspects that influence their performances. With reference to several climates, intensity of rainfalls, needs of irrigation and kind of building use, a large parametric analysis evaluates the technical and economical feasibility of green roofs applied to a modern office building, considering various vegetations and different external coatings. The scarce amount of rainfall – and thus the irrigation cost – can nullify the savings in energy demand for air-conditioning. Moreover, even if green roofs show satisfactory performance if monthly rainfalls do not imply significant additional watering – the economic investigation shows scarce convenience for well-insulated buildings, above all if the higher initial cost of a green roof, compared to traditional roofing coating, is computed. Finally, cool roofs, by means of high-reflective and high-emissive coatings, are suitable solutions in warm climates, strongly improving the summer performances, with low extra costs for installation and maintenance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Growing energy demand and global climate change are compelling reasons to look for effective utilisation of waste thermal energy and renewable energy resources. Fifteen percent of the electricity produced in the whole world is employed for refrigeration and air-conditioning processes of various kinds. Low-temperature heat operated environment-friendly adsorption cooling systems are emerging as viable alternatives to electricity-driven vapour compression refrigeration systems. Comparatively bigger sizes of adsorption based cooling units, due to their low specific cooling power, are preventing successful commercialization of the technology. Efforts are on to enhance the performance of adsorption systems through improvements in adsorbents properties, use of advanced cycles, etc. Recent application of nano-technology in the development of adsorbent material may be a big step forward towards making this technology competitive with available technologies in the market. This paper traces the evolution of the technology and analyses the obstacles to wide spread use of adsorption chillers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Renewable energy is one of the possible solutions when addressing climate change. Today, large-scale renewable energy integration needs to include the experience to balance the discrepancy between electricity demand and supply. The electrification of transportation may have the potential to deal with this imbalance and to reduce its high dependence on oil production. For this reason, it is interesting to analyse the extent to which transport electrification can further the renewable energy integration. This paper quantifies this issue in Inner Mongolia, where the share of wind power in the electricity supply was 6.5% in 2009 and which has the plan to develop large-scale wind power. The results show that electric vehicles (EVs) have the ability to balance the electricity demand and supply and to further the wind power integration. In the best case, the energy system with EV can increase wind power integration by 8%. The application of EVs benefits from saving both energy system cost and fuel cost. However, the negative consequences of decreasing energy system efficiency and increasing the CO2 emission should be noted when applying the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle (HFCV). The results also indicate that developing renewable energy is crucial for transportation electrification. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper estimates the affordability of increased energy costs for Chinese companies due to the possible introduction of carbon pricing policies. The data were collected from 121 valid respondents in Taicang, China, using a multiple-bounded discrete choice (MBDC) format. Estimations indicate that a mean of 8.5% in energy cost increase would be acceptable for the surveyed companies on the whole. Companies from chemical and dyeing industries expressed a slightly higher affordability, with the mean of acceptable energy cost increase being 9.8% and 9.4% respectively. Econometric analysis identified two determinants of affordability for companies. One is the current energy price level, having a significant but negative relationship with affordability. The other is the energy management strategies of companies, significantly and positively associated with affordability. Calculations indicate that the mean of affordable energy cost increases for companies roughly equals a carbon price of 60 CNY/t-CO2 (about 9 USD/t-CO2). This result may be used as a referendum during the development of carbon tax policy and the establishment of a domestic carbon emissions trading scheme in China from the perspective of individual companies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Climate change poses an unprecedented challenge for policy makers. This paper analyzes how industry sector policy expertise can contribute to improved policy making processes. Previous research has identified that policy making benefit by including non-governmental policy analysts in learning processes. Recent climate and energy policy developments, including amendments and the introduction of new initiatives, have rendered current policy regimes as novel to both governments and the industry. This increases business investment risk perceptions and may thus reduce the effectiveness and efficiency of the policy framework. In order to explore how government–industry policy learning can improve policy making in this context, this article studied the Swedish case. A literature survey analyzed how policy learning had been previously addressed, identifying that the current situation regarding novel policies had been overlooked. Interviews provided how industrial actors view Swedish policy implementation processes and participatory aspects thereof. The authors conclude that an increased involvement of the industry sector in policy design and management processes can be an important measure to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of climate and energy policies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]