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The carbon neutrality agenda requires that carbon lock-in enters an endgame. A well-developed energy system, which is secure, equitable, and sustainable is paramount to getting rid of carbon lock-in and realizing decarbonization. We carry out systematic research to empirically study the possible carbon lock-in reduction effect of energy trilemma based on the instrumental variable-generalized method of moment (IV-GMM) model. We also detect heterogeneous effects in terms of geographical locations and endowments of capital, as well as the impact mechanisms. Moreover, this paper highlights the mediating and threshold role of environmental regulation. We thus get the following conclusions. (1) The paper's primary findings underscore that the continuous increase of energy trilemma exacerbates carbon lock-in and hampers the process of decarbonization; (2) Energy trilemma has a higher stimulating effect on carbon lock-in in provinces that lie in the central region and that have a comparatively low level of physical, social, and human capital; (3) Energy trilemma can also indirectly aggravate carbon lock-in by inhibiting technology innovation and exacerbating carbon emissions intensity; (4) The interaction of environmental regulation and energy trilemma can alleviate the energy trilemma - carbon lock-in nexus, and environmental regulation also shows a significant threshold effect. • We investigate the impact of the energy trilemma on carbon lock-in. • Energy trilemma eradication is an effective way to realize the carbon lock-in endgame. • The nexus between energy trilemma and carbon lock-in is more prominent in provinces with high capital endowments. • Environmental regulation shows significant mediating and threshold effects. • The exacerbate carbon lock-in effect of energy trilemma depends on technology and intensity effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper explores the effects of enforced Chinese policies regarding environmental matters at the provincial level. The paper proposes several features and explores datasets from the last four Five-Year Plans, which extensively covered the period from 1995 to 2015. As the datasets are multidimensional, dimensional reduction is applied with a control of information loss described by data variance preservation. A data-based clustering algorithm is applied to identify the similarities, and characteristics are explored in relation to the specific features. The use of this method makes it possible to identify the changes in the relevance of the features in the most recent Five-Year Plan, in which decarbonization is relevant instead of productivity. This method also makes it possible to identify specific efforts several provinces have made to introduce cleaner energy production. Following the analysis, it is concluded that the proposed features enable the proposed method to be considered a tool for analyzing the real-world effects of the adopted policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With rapid economic development and expansion of built environment since the year 2000, urbanization has led to great challenge of reduction targets in energy intensity and carbon dioxide emissions. This paper aims to explore the disaggregate driving force of different sectors and investigate the potential of carbon dioxide reduction of them in the context of rapid urbanization. By using the panel datasets at a provincial level in a LMDI (Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index) model, we investigated the effects of various energy-related and socioeconomic factors on regional carbon dioxide emissions in 30 China's provinces from 2000 to 2013. The results show that the factors of economic development are the largest drivers of regional carbon dioxide emissions, compared with the factors of structural change, energy intensity, and social transition. Meanwhile, evidence is found that the urbanization process has contributed to the regional CO 2 emissions in China's provinces through a variety of approaches, including changing the energy use characteristics of urban households, transportation, and business sectors. Finally, we found that the changing trend of these influence factors' effect on regional CO 2 emissions varied across different provinces, which means there are significant regional heterogeneity in the influence mechanisms of urbanization process on regional CO 2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's power industry contributes around 40% CO 2 emissions to the national total. The substitution of wind power for coal-fired power is crucial to the realization of CO 2 emission reduction target in China. By deploying the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method, this paper identifies that the carbon footprints of a representative coal fired plant and a wind farm in China are 810.35 g/kWh and 12.51 g/kWh respectively. Built on these results, the substitution capacities of wind power for coal-fired power to realize the CO 2 emission reduction target in 2020 and 2030 are discussed. It is concluded that China's wind power needs to develop faster than the goal set in the 12th Five Year Renewable Energy Development Plan for achieving the target of 45% emission reduction in 2020. Moreover, the feasibility of the substitution of wind power for coal-fired power is analyzed. It is argued that whilst China has great potential to realize such substitution given its rich wind resources, the full realization of the substitution requires some radical reforms in the power sector in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: China has been the second CO2 emitter in the world, while the transportation sector accounts for a major share of CO2 emissions. Analysis of transportation sector CO2 emissions is help to decrease CO2 emissions. Thus the purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential factors influencing the change of transport sector CO2 emissions in China. First, the transport sector CO2 emissions over the period 1985–2009 is calculated based on the presented method. Then the presented LMDI (logarithmic mean Divisia index) method is used to find the nature of the factors those influence the changes in transport sector CO2 emissions. We find that: (1) Transport sector CO2 emissions has increased from 79.67 Mt in 1985 to 887.34 Mt in 2009, following an annual growth rate of 10.56%. Highways transport is the biggest CO2 emitter. (2) The per capita economic activity effect and transportation modal shifting effect are found to be primarily responsible for driving transport sector CO2 emissions growth over the study period. (3) The transportation intensity effect and transportation services share effect are found to be the main drivers of the reduction of CO2 emissions in China. However, the emission coefficient effect plays a very minor role over the study period. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper identifies the main features of CO2 emission from fossil energy combustion in China. Then it estimates China''s future energy requirements and projects its CO2 emission from 2010 to 2020 based on the scenario analysis approach. China''s rate of carbon productivity growth is estimated to be 5.4% in the period 2005–2020, while the CO2 intensity of GDP will reduce by about 50% but CO2 emission in 2020 will still be about 40% higher than prevailing in 2005 because of rapid growth of GDP. This estimation is based on the assumption that China will implement a sustainable development strategy in consideration of climate change issues. The main objectives of the strategy are to implement an “energy conservation first” strategy, to develop renewable energy and advanced nuclear technology actively, to readjust the country''s economic structure, and to formulate and legislate laws and regulations, and to build institutions for energy conservation and development of renewable energy. It concludes that international measures to mitigate CO2 emission will limit world fossil fuel consumption. China is not placed to replicate the modernization model adopted by developed countries and has to coordinate economic development and carbon dioxide emission control while still in the process of industrialization and modernization. China has to evolve a low carbon industrialization model. This is the key to the success of sustainable development initiatives in China. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The paper highlights the energy dilemma in China’s modernization process. It explores the technological and policy options for the transition to a sustainable energy system in China with Tsinghua University’s Low Carbon Energy Model (LCEM). China has already taken intensive efforts to promote research, development, demonstration and commercialization of sustainable energy technologies over the past five year. The policy actions cover binding energy conservation and environmental pollution control targets, economic incentives for sustainable energy, and public R&D supports. In order to achieve the sustainable energy system transformation eventually, however, China needs to take further actions such as strengthening R&D of radically innovative sustainable energy technologies and systems such as poly-generation, enhancing the domestic manufacturing capacity of sustainable energy technologies and systems, creating stronger economic incentives for research, development, demonstration and commercialization of sustainable energy technologies, and playing a leading role in international technology collaborations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]