Search

China has made remarkable achievements in reducing carbon emissions in recent years. However, there is still much reduction room before achieving carbon neutrality. In Beijing, the capital of China, it is a strategic choice to respond to global climate change by promoting green and low-carbon development. This paper calculates the carbon dioxide emissions of key industries in Beijing and analyzes the temporal evolution trend of carbon emissions. Carbon dioxide emissions in Beijing before 2030 are predicted based on the grey prediction GM (1,1) and BP neural network model. The effects of factors of carbon dioxide emissions are discussed using the threshold regression model under different economic conditions. The results show that energy consumption intensity, GDP per capita, and the ownership of civil cars have a positive impact on carbon dioxide emissions, while the number of permanent residents and urban green space areas have a negative impact on carbon dioxide emissions. These findings of carbon emission prediction and influencing factors contribute to carbon reduction path design. Related policy implications on carbon emission reduction are put forward from the aspects of promoting industrial upgrading, accelerating the construction of advanced economic structures, optimizing transportation structures, and strengthening green building development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon capture is one of the important methods to achieve carbon neutrality. In this paper, a simple and reliable method for the preparation of poly(anthraquinone)/multi-walled carbon nanotube composites (PAQ/MWCNTs) for capturing carbon dioxide is proposed. Using constant magnetic stirring, 1,4-anthraquinone (1,4-AQ) was allowed to accumulate on multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNTs) substrates via π–π. The poly(anthraquinone)/multi-walled carbon nanotube composites were produced by this continuous process. Besides, the carbon cloth electrode prepared from PAQ/MWCNTs composites was subjected to redox potentials for carbon dioxide capture. Results showed that PAQ/MWCNTs composites had good redox reversibility, their carbon dioxide capture capacity was 7.80 mmol·g−1 while the material utilization rate reaches reached 73.4%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing global concern over greenhouse gas emissions has led to a demand for understanding and addressing carbon emissions, with China being one of the main contributors to global carbon emissions, committed to reach the carbon peak by 2030. As a result, much previous research has delved into the drivers of carbon emissions in China; however, few studies have included new energy factors in the extended STIRPAT model when analysing the data, employed more advanced visualisation techniques such as force-directed diagrams, and explored factors outside of the industrial and energy sectors in determining China's ability to reach their environmental goals. In this study, we use the extended STIRPAT model to analyse a more diverse range of drivers for carbon emissions in China and discuss methods to reach peak carbon emissions through the implementation of environmental policies. Using data from China's 14th Five-Year Plan and Vision 2035 to set up two simulation scenarios, we predict China's carbon emissions, introducing ridge regression to ensure validity, and employing big data and visualisation techniques to aid in interpreting results. Our findings suggest that China needs to implement more stringent environmental policies to meet its commitment to reach peak carbon emissions by 2030, revealing that factors such as per capita arable land area, per capita GDP, the proportion of people living in extreme poverty, the level of tourism development, the use of fossil fuels, and new energy technologies have a significant impact on China's carbon emissions. As such, we can recommend more stringent policies relating to the agricultural, energy, and tourism sectors to help China achieve their goal of carbon peak by 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is of great scientific value to study the spatial differences and influencing factors of carbon emission intensity (CEI) in urban agglomerations (UAs), and it also has reference significance for China in formulating energy-saving and emission-reduction policies to achieve the target of carbon neutrality. Taking 165 prefecture-level cities in 19 UAs in China from 2007 to 2019 as the research object, this study investigated the spatial differences of CEI in UAs using exploratory spatial data analysis and explored the influencing factors of CEI via Geodetector. The results showed the following: (1) The CEI of the UAs showed a downward trend. (2) The CEI of the UAs has typical spatial agglomeration characteristics, where the North comprises mainly high-high and low-high types, whereas the South is primarily high-low and low-low types. (3) The influencing factors of CEI have undergone a transformation from industrial structure to population urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has clearly put forward the strategic goals of reaching the "Carbon Emission Peak" by 2030, and achieving "Carbon Neutrality" by 2060. To achieve these goals, it is necessary to precisely understand the spatial distribution characteristics of historical carbon emissions in different regions. This paper has selected a representative national-level urban agglomeration in China, the Harbin–Changchun urban agglomeration, to study the temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of carbon emissions in its counties. This paper has constructed global and local Moran's I indexes for the 103 counties in this urban agglomeration by using the carbon emission values reflected by night light data from 1997 to 2017 to perform global and local autocorrelation analysis on a spatial level. The results show that: (1) the main characteristic of carbon emission clustering in the Harbin–Changchun urban agglomeration is similar clustering; (2) the changes in carbon emissions of the Harbin–Changchun urban agglomeration have a strong correlation with relevant policies. For example, due to the impact of the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" policies, in 2013, the global county-level Moran's I index of the carbon emissions in the Harbin–Changchun urban agglomeration decreased by 0.0598; (3) the areas where high carbon emission values cluster together ("High–High Cluster") and low carbon emission values cluster together ("Low–Low Cluster") in the Harbin–Changchun urban agglomeration are highly concentrated, and the clusters are closely related to the development level of different regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, carbon emissions have become a hot spot issue, and countries have made efforts to control the increasing rate of CO2 concentration. Prior studies have mainly focused on the national total carbon emissions, but per capita carbon emissions are still poorly known. Here, we used multiple economic development indices to investigate the dynamics of per capita carbon emissions. Additionally, we used the Mann–Kendall test to assess the directions and magnitudes of trends and to investigate abrupt changes in per capita carbon emissions. Our results showed the highest positive growth rate of 0.439 mts/yr in Oman, and the highest negative growth rate of −0.462 mts/yr in the United Arab Emirates. Hurst Index analysis showed that about 86% of countries will keep the current trends of carbon emissions if current mitigation measures remain unchanged. Furthermore, we analyzed the shift in the center of gravity for per capita carbon emissions and used the contribution decomposition method to identify the drivers for the shift, which changed direction in 2004. The main driver behind the westward shift in the gravity center before 2004 was the fact that carbon emissions grew more strongly in the west than in the east before 2004, while the driver for behind the eastward shift in the gravity center after 2004 was a combination of emission reductions in the west and emission increases in the east. Our results highlighted the importance of understanding that the per capita CO2 emissions are clearly defined within the context of global carbon neutrality, which can help policymakers set more reasonable targets with which to better achieve carbon neutrality goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The excessive consumption of fossil fuels has resulted in massive carbon emissions and serious ecological and environmental crises. Therefore, achieving the efficient utilization of waste carbon sources is considered as an important pathway to addressing the aforementioned issues in the context of carbon neutrality. Developing and designing suitable catalyst materials has become the key to converting COx into valuable platform chemicals and value-added liquid fuels (e.g., CO, CH4, CH3OH, and C2+ hydrocarbons). A moderate interaction between nitrogen-doped carbon materials and active metals is more favorable for the progress of the COx hydrogenation reaction compared to traditional metal oxide carriers. In this work, we comprehensively summarize the synthesis methods of N-doped carbon materials and the relevant research progress in the field of COx hydrogenation. In addition, a general assessment of carbon-based catalysts for COx hydrogenation reactions, concerning the support and metal properties, the activity and product selectivity, and their interactions is systematically discussed. Finally, this review discusses the roles of N-doped carbon materials, the current challenges, and future development directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For curbing the global climate crisis, China has set an ambitious target of peak carbon emissions by 2030. Beijing, the capital of China, has implemented a carbon reduction policy since 2012. Using the reduced and generalized forms of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), we deduce that both the cubic EKC and the genetic algorithm-based EKC have an N-shape. The first turning point of the three-order EKC occurs around 2011, demonstrating the effectiveness of the carbon reduction policy. However, the time series model predicts that Beijing will reach the second turning point around 2026, when the gross domestic product (GDP) is about CNY 5000 billion and carbon emissions will begin to increase again. Interpretable machine learning is proposed to explore the socio-economic drivers in carbon emissions, indicating that total energy consumption and GDP contribute the most. Therefore, we should accelerate the upgrading of energy consumption and adjust the industrial structure, thus facilitating Beijing to its peak carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban public buildings carbon emissions exhibit an upward trend and have a large potential in carbon emission reduction. The analysis of spatiotemporal characteristics and driving factors for urban public buildings carbon emissions is essential in formulating effective policies for carbon reduction, meeting commitments to peak carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality. This study takes China's urban public buildings carbon emissions as the research object, employing methods such as spatial autocorrelation analyses, kernel density estimation analyses, and the LMDI decomposition methods to explore the spatiotemporal characteristics and regional disparities in carbon emissions from 2006 to 2019. Furthermore, it quantifies the contributions of driving factors to the spatiotemporal changes in urban public buildings carbon emissions. The results show the following: (1) Urban public buildings carbon emissions among provinces are consistently increasing, indicating an overall upward trend. The spatial distribution highlights significant regional disparities. (2) The spatial characteristics of urban public buildings carbon emissions were basically stable. The eastern coastal regions demonstrate a high-high cluster, while the western regions exhibit a low-low cluster. The overall cluster evolution showed a decreasing trend from east to west. (3) Per capita urban public building area, economic density, urbanization rate, and population size serve as driving factors for carbon emissions from urban public buildings, while energy efficiency and energy consumption intensity act as inhibitory factors. The findings of this research can assist policymakers in getting a deeper comprehension of urban public buildings carbon emissions and providing a scientific basis to formulate appropriate carbon emission reduction policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) are used for manufacturing purposes in the semiconductor and display industries, resulting in an increased need for emission reduction due to the significant global warming potential of the associated greenhouse gases. The decomposition characteristics of etch-type and water film (WF)-type plasma-wet scrubbers were investigated. The PFCs used in the study were CF4, SF6, NF3, CHF3, C2F6, C3F8, and C4F8, and the destruction removal efficiency (DRE) and by-product gas generation rate were confirmed based on the changes in the parameters (total flow rate and power) of the plasma-wet scrubber. When the total flow rate reached 100 L/min and the measured maximum power (11 kW), the reduction efficiency of CF4 in the etch type was 95.60% and the DRE of other PFCs was 99.99%. Moreover, for the WF type, the DRE of CF4 was 90.06%, that of SF6 was 96.44%, and that of other PFCs was 99.99%. When the total flow rate reached 300 L/min and 11 kW, the DRE of SF6 in the etch type was 99%, and the DRE of NF3, CHF3, C2F6, C3F8, and C4F8 was 95.57%, 87.06%, 70.74%, 81.45%, and 95.59%, respectively. In addition, in the WF type, the DRE of SF6 was 94.39%, and the DRE of NF3, CHF3, C2F6, C3F8, and C4F8 was 99.80%, 95.34%, 85.38%, 88.49%, and 98.22%, respectively. The decomposition efficiency was high for the etch type for gases with small flow rates or no by-product gas generation. The by-product gas generation rate was significantly lower for the WF type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The carbon reduction effect of technological innovation in the transportation industry is conducive to China's anticipated realization of carbon neutrality. Therefore, we evaluated carbon emission reduction effect of technological innovation in the transportation industry in China. Based on the panel data of 30 sample provinces in China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Tibet) from 2012 to 2018, using the Moran'I index and Getis-Ord Gi index, this paper analyzes the evolutionary trend and spatial autocorrelation of carbon emission in the transportation industry, and analyzes the impact of technological innovation on carbon emission levels of the transportation industry and its spatiotemporal differences by using the geographical and temporal weighted regression (GTWR) model by using ArcGIS 10.4 software. The conclusions are as follows: The carbon emission level of China's transportation industry generally has been rising steadily, showing a spatial distribution pattern of high emissions in the east and low emissions in the west. The cold spots are concentrated in the western region, and the hot spots are situated in the central and eastern regions. Technological innovation has a carbon reduction effect on the transportation industry in the eastern and north-eastern regions, while the effect in other regions is not obvious. However, there is an obvious "inverted U-shaped" relationship between technological innovation and the transportation industry's carbon emissions. The technological innovation in the transportation industry will have a significant carbon reduction effect after breaking through the technical pain points. This carbon reduction effect has a higher effect on the western region than on the eastern region. In addition, the economic development level, the fiscal expenditure proportion of the transportation industry, the higher education level, and the proportion of fixed asset investment in the transportation industry have played a positive role in reducing carbon in the transportation industry, but the spatial heterogeneity of this carbon reduction effect is relatively strong. Therefore, during the "14th Five-Year Plan" development period in China, it is necessary to continuously promote the low-carbon development of the transportation industry with technological innovation, while highlighting the differentiated carbon reduction governance, and consolidating the role of talents and fiscal support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is the first to propose the deployment of direct air capture (DAC) systems at large airports to provide solutions for achieving carbon neutrality in aviation transportation. Here, an estimating model for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the landing and take-off (LTO) phase of large airports was developed, and the suitability of deploying DAC systems at airports was evaluated by the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). This study found that the annual CO2 emissions of 52 large airports in the LTO phase are about 23 Mt, accounting for about 23% of the total CO2 emissions of civil aviation in China. The four dimensions of airport transportation conditions, meteorological conditions, space resources, and security levels had a decreasing impact on the deployment of DAC systems in that order. The airports with suitable DAC systems are mainly located in the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the Chengdu-Chongqing Airport Cluster. This study provides a theoretical basis for the deployment of DAC systems at airports, which provides new CO2 emission reduction solutions for the aviation transportation industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modern coal chemical industry is a typical high carbon emission industry, which has formed a large-scale development in China. In the context of carbon neutrality, it is considered to be an ideal combination mode that captures high-concentration CO2 emitted by the modern coal chemical plants and transports it to oilfields through pipelines, which can both realize the low-carbon development goals of the modern coal chemical industry and reduce the cost of the whole process of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), as well as promote the development of CCS in China. Based on the data from modern coal chemical projects and depleted oil basins across China, a model of a pipeline network with optimal layout design was constructed, aiming to achieve specific emission reduction targets. Meanwhile, its economic effects will be analyzed. It turns out that this layout can help achieve an annual emission reduction of 280 million tons of CO2, with an average annual net income of USD 2.20 billion, and a unit net income of USD 7.85 per ton of CO2. A total of 166 pipelines up to 15,783 km in total length need to be built across China. Suitable storage sites can be found within an average radius of 94 km for emission sources. A total of 11,115 km of pipelines needs to be built in the "Three North" areas, accounting for 70.4% of the total pipeline length. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of low efficiency of coal mine methane utilization is caused by the concentration of methane of less than 10%, or a concentration that varies dramatically directly emitted into the atmosphere. This work deals with the concept of a co-production system that blends lean methane and biogas to produce electric energy. It is recommended to add the biogas generated by straws around the mines in a controlled manner to the lean methane flow to obtain the desired gas concentration in order to generate electricity. Potential electricity generation and reduced greenhouse gas emissions were also evaluated. The result shows that the co-production system can significantly improve the utilization efficiency of lean methane in coal mines; the average use of pure methane in three coal mines is 0.18, 1.12, and 5.32 million m3 every year, respectively, and the emission reduction effect of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent is, respectively, 3081, 18,796, and 89,050 tons. The electricity generated and the economic environmental benefits of the co-production system are remarkable, and it has economic feasibility and broad perspectives for popularization. It not only has the advantage of improving the utilization rate of methane and biomass and providing power supply and heat source for mines, but also has practical significance in terms of saving energy, reducing environmental pollution, adjusting the energy structure, and achieving the target of carbon emission peak and carbon neutrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ports offer an effective way to facilitate the global economy. However, massive carbon emission during port operating aggravates the atmospheric pollution in port cities. Capturing characteristics of port carbon emission is vital to reduce GHG (greenhouse gas) in the maritime realm as well as to achieve China's carbon neutral objective. In this work, an integrated framework is proposed for exploring the driving factors of China ports' emissions combined with stochastic effects on population, affluence and technology regression (STIRPAT), Global Malmquist-Luenberger (GML) and multiple linear regression (MLR). The port efficiency is estimated for each port and the potential driving factors of carbon emission are explored. The results indicate that port carbon emissions have a strong connection with port throughput, productivity, containerization and intermodal transshipment. It is worth noting that the containerization ratio and port physical facility with fossil-free energy improvement have positively correlated with carbon emissions. However, the specific value of waterborne transshipment shows a complex impact on carbon dioxide emission as the ratio increases. The findings reveal that China port authorities need to improve containerization ratio and develop intermodal transportation; meanwhile, it is responsible for port authorities to update energy use and improve energy efficiency in ways to minimize the proportion of non-green energy consumption in accordance with optimizing port operation management including peak shaving and intelligent management systems under a new horizon of clean energy and automatic equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of human-caused environmental pollution and global climate change on the economy and society can no longer be underestimated. Agriculture is the most directly and vulnerably affected sector by climate change. This study used beans, the food crop with the largest supply and demand gap in China, as the research object and established a panel spatial error model consisting of multiple indicators of four factors: climate environment, economic market, human planting behavior and technical development level of 25 provinces in China from 2005 to 2019 to explore the impact of climate environmental changes on the yields of beans. The study shows that: (1) The increase in precipitation has a significant positive effect on bean yields; however, the increase in temperature year by year has a significant negative effect on bean yields; (2) carbon emissions do not directly affect bean production at present but may have an indirect impact on bean production; (3) artificial irrigation and fertilization behavior on bean production has basically reached saturation, making it difficult to continue to increase bean yields and (4) the development of technology and human activity is a mixed blessing, and the consequent inhibiting effects on bean production are currently unable to offset their promoting effects. Thus, when it comes to bean cultivation, China should focus mainly on the overall impact of environmental changes on its production, rather than technical enhancements such as irrigation and fertilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2021, The People's Republic of China proposed goals for peaking carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060, in the 15 counties (districts) of the Main Stream Area of the Yellow River Basin in Gansu that plays an important role in ecological protection and green development. Next the CO2 equivalents were converted according to the IPCC2 standard, the total agricultural GHG emissions was calculated, the relationship with the agricultural output value was analyzed, and the discretization of the space was analyzed by the coefficient of variation and standard deviation. Firstly, the total agricultural GHG emissions in 15 counties (districts) of the Main Stream Area of the Yellow River Basin increased 55.54% in 2000–2019, and 2.35% annually, roughly divided into three stages: the rapid growth period (2000–2008), the slow decline period (2009–2014) and the rapid decline period (2015–2019). The economic efficiency is significantly improved, with an average annual decline of 6.49%, roughly divided into three stages: the slow-descent stage (2000–2004), the period of slow-growth stage (2005–2008) and the period of fast-decline (2009–2019). Secondly, based on the characteristics of the total GHG emissions, Maqu County has the largest GHG emissions increase, from 26.8842 kt in 2000 to 38.9603 kt, in 2019, an increase of 44.92%, while the smallest GHG emissions, in Anning District, decreased 87.33% from 111 t in 2000 to 14.1 t in 2019; In the rate of increase in the total GHG emissions, Dongxiang County had the largest rate of increase from 2000 to 2019, an increase of 160.28% and an average annual increase of 4.90%. The smallest rate of decrease in GHG emissions was seen in Chengguan District, where they decreased 92.11% from 2000 to 2019, an average annual decrease of 11.93%. The characteristics of agricultural GHG emissions intensity is a significant declining trending and agricultural production efficiency has been significantly improved. Finally, to provide a basis for the formulation of differentiated agricultural energy conservation and emissions reduction policies, reduce agricultural GHG emissions intensity and reduce the use efficiency of resources by formulating differentiated emission targets, tasks and incentive measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon-negative policies for mitigating the emissions of greenhouse gas (GHG) from the energy sector are becoming more urgent and important. Therefore, the environmental policies and regulatory promotion for reusing waste wood as a carbon-negative resource in Taiwan were discussed in this work, which focused on mitigating the emissions of GHG from the energy industries and the manufacturing and construction industries. Considering the official GHG inventory report, the trend analysis of GHG emissions from the energy and the manufacturing and construction industries was addressed first. In addition, this study placed emphasis on the environmental policies and regulatory measures for the material and energy resources from waste wood according to the promulgation of the relevant acts. It was found that the total GHG emissions from the energy and the manufacturing and construction industries accounted for over 80% of net GHG emissions in 2018. In review of the resource recycling and circular economy, lignocellulose-based (or bamboo-based) char, ecological building material, and wood-to-biofuel pathways (e.g., solid recovered fuel) were discussed in this work because they have been promoted by the central competent authorities of the Council of Agriculture (COA), the Ministry of Interior (MOI), and the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), respectively. In order to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Taiwan, carbon-negative policies for reusing waste wood as material and energy resources will play an important role in the mitigation of GHG emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution and climate change are closely interlinked, once both share common emission sources, which mainly arise from fuel combustion and industrial processes. Climate mitigation actions bring co-benefits on air quality and human health. However, specific solutions can provide negative trade-offs for one side. The Portuguese Carbon Neutrality Roadmap was developed to assess conceivable cost-effective pathways to achieve zero net carbon emissions by 2050. Assessing its impacts, on air pollutant emissions, is the main focus of the present work. The bottom-up linear optimization energy system the integrated MARKAL-EFOM system (TIMES) model was selected as a modeling tool for the decarbonization scenarios assessment. The estimation of air pollutant emissions was performed exogenously to the TIMES model. Results show that reaching net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is possible, and technologically feasible, in Portugal, by 2050. The crucial and most cost-effective vector for decarbonizing the national economy is the end-use energy consumption electrification, renewable based, across all end-use sectors. Decarbonization efforts were found to have strong co-benefits for reducing air pollutant emissions in Portugal. Transport and power generation are the sectors with the greatest potential to reduce GHG emissions, providing likewise the most significant reductions of air pollutant emissions. Despite the overall positive effects, there are antagonistic effects, such as the use of biomass, mainly in industry and residential sectors, which translates into increases in particulate matter emissions. This is relevant for medium term projections, since results show that, by 2030, PM2.5 emissions are unlikely to meet the emission reduction commitments set at the European level, if no additional control measures are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To reach the Paris Agreement targets of holding the global temperature increase below 2 °C above the preindustrial levels, every human activity will need to be carbon neutral by 2050. Feasible means for industries to achieve carbon neutrality must be developed and assessed economically. Herein we present a case study on available solutions to achieve net-zero carbon from the get-go for a planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Quebec, which would classify as a large Canadian greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter. From a literature review, available options were prioritized with the promoter. Each prioritized potential solution is discussed in light of its feasibility and the associated economic opportunities and challenges. Although net-zero carbon is feasible from the get-go, results show that the promoter should identify opportunities to reduce as much as possible emissions at source, cooperate with other industries for CO2 capture and utilization, replace natural gas from fossil sources by renewable sources and offset the remaining emissions by planting trees and/or buying offsets on the compliance and voluntary markets. As some of these solutions are still to be developed, to ensure timely net-zero pledge for the lifespan of the LNG plant, a portfolio and progressive approach to combine offsets and other options is preferable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]