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China’s paper industry consumes a lot of energy and emits huge amounts of pollutions. The Chinese government over the past decades has done a lot to promote energy efficiency of the industry. This paper studies the impact of industrial polices to improve energy efficiency. The energy efficiency change is firstly studied under a framework of total factor efficiency. On this basis, different econometric models are built to discuss the detailed energy efficiency characteristics of the paper industry. The main results are as follow: (i) ownership structure did influence the energy efficiency, but the influence is different in different conditions; (ii) energy efficiency of the paper industry can be improved by economies of scale; (iii) market competition can to some extent overcome the motivation and supervision problem that often occur in state-owned companies; (iv) energy price cannot play the role of resource allocation well in China. Finally, based on our findings, some suggestions are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's paper industry accounts for a larger proportion of the global paper industry and consumes large amounts of energy. Energy conservation and pollution reduction of the industry have become the focus of China's national development strategy. Energy efficiency is an important index which directly determines the amounts of energy consumption and pollution emissions. To understand the energy efficiency evolution of China's paper industry, this paper establishes an input-output data of the paper industry for 29 provinces in China and applies DEA method and econometric models to estimate and comprehensively discuss the energy efficiency issues based on the framework of total factor efficiency. Our results indicate that China's paper industry has a large energy saving potential even though its energy efficiency has improved during the period 1990–2013. The saving potential is about 65% under the meta-frontier and 44% under the group-frontier. Moreover, there are significant differences between different regions in production technology and energy efficiency. The performance of eastern China is better than other regions. But the technology gaps between the different regions are shrinking and converging over time. Finally, some policy recommendations are proposed to improve the energy efficiency of the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current approaches to study the coupling mechanism between economy and environment seem to fall into self-circulation, failed to reveal "economy–environment interdependence". In this context, an exogenous variable is introduced into these models for better understanding the relationship. Benzo[a]pyrene (Bap) environment inventories in different cities in China were estimated by fugacity model based on Bap concentration data collected from previous studies. An extended model, stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence and technology (STIRPAT), generated from original IPAT (a model that expresses the idea that environmental impact (I) is the product of three factors: population (P), affluence (A) and technology (T)) was used to study the relationship between Bap environment inventory and anthropogenic factors including population, vehicle amount, affluence and energy consumption. A ridge regression has been applied to optimize the model parameters. Overall, there exist good relationships between Bap inventories and economic factors. Specifically, population and affluence are the most significant factors that influence Bap inventory. Rise of the scale of population and vehicle amount increases the Bap inventory, as growth of GDP per capita and the efficiency of energy utilization have inhibitory effect on Bap inventory. Apparently, the influences of anthropogenic factors on Bap inventory are different between north and south China. Bap inventory in north China is more sensitive to the change of population and energy consumption, while is highly correlated to GDP per capita in south China. Further, according to social-economic development prediction, with assist of the result from STIRPAT model, we find out that Bap inventory drop 31% from 2001 to 2020 in China. Our estimates are comparable with the published data and confirmed that Bap can be regarded as a chemical indicator of social-economic development in China. Image 1 • An extended STIRPAT model derived from original IPAT was developed. • Population and affluence are the key factors that influence Bap inventory. • Advance of affluence and technology level curbs Bap environmental exposure. • We predict Bap environmental inventory drop 31% from 2001 to 2020 in China. • Bap can be used as an indicator of social-economic development in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Currently, wind and solar energy have not been well utilized in China, and the rate of abandoned wind and solar facilities in China is increasing annually. Renewable portfolio standards (RPS) are an effective system for promoting large-scale renewable energy integration and consumption and realizing the goal of renewable energy development. To clarify the interactive relationship between the different levels and multiple actors in RPS, this paper uses policy network theory to analyze the interactive relationship of stakeholders from the three aspects of network subject, network structure and network interaction. The policy network of the RPS consists of the policy community, professional network, intergovernmental network, producer network and issue network. Under the RPS, to meet their own needs, participants affect the formulation and implementation of the RPS through the actions of confrontation, alliance, competition and cooperation. In different stages of developing the RPS, the openness and integration of policy networks change accordingly. This study overcomes the limitations of past simple analyses of the actor relationship in the policy process and thereby offers certain reference significance. Highlights • The actors of RPS policy networks are analyzed. • This paper analyze the game relationship of the stakeholders from three aspects. • This research reveals the network relationship between multiple stakeholders. • This study breaks through the limitations of past analysis of actor relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The time-varying dynamics of the transition to renewable energy reflect the effectiveness and efficiency of energy policy. This paper investigates renewable energy transition behavior in China using Markov regime-switching models. Two distinct phases, expansion and contraction, are identified based on the growth rates of renewable energy consumption share. We find that since China started its new-energy national strategy in 2005, there has been an extended period in which it has been in the expansion state, although it occasionally reverts to a contraction state. Intriguingly, we uncover that the timing of transition state changes can be explained by the changes in policy-related, market-based instruments and risk-related indexes. These findings present implications for policymakers in developing more precise and effective policies, that drives investment choices to align with the goal of a sustainable energy system. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable consumption (SC) is key for sustainable development, but only limited studies have examined how to motivate SC among consumers in developing countries. Younger consumers tend to more sustainable consumption while whether they really understand the SC concept is not clear. To explore the role of SC understanding for motivating SC behaviors, this paper develops a concept model with hypotheses to propose that SC understanding mediates relationships between influencing factors and SC behaviors. Based on 623 usable questionnaires collected from junior high schools and senior high schools in three eastern cities of China, five influencing factors for SC behaviors are identified, they are, education, awareness & attitude, social influence, effectiveness of energy saving and emission reduction for sustainable products, and differentiation of sustainable products from regular products. Statistic results through hierarchical regression analysis demonstrate that SC understanding is necessary to motivate SC behaviors with certain influencing factors. Chinese adolescents can understand the SC concept through education and then purchase sustainable products. Only if sustainable products can show benefits of energy saving and emission reduction, Chinese adolescent would like to use these products. Environmental awareness and attitude can bring environmental treatment and disposal of products, but SC understanding is necessary. This paper contributes to extend the TPB to develop a conceptual model including education as one influencing factor for SC behaviors. It also develops three factors for SC behaviors from the product life cycle perspective. Besides, it also contributes to extend the previous studies about motivation of SC consumption to adolescents in an emergent economy of China to examine the role of SC understanding. Statistic results reveal the low implementation level of SC behaviors, and the government should highlight sustainable education to improve sustainable awareness and SC understanding. It is also shown that adolescents would like to purchase sustainable products if environmental performance of such products can be demonstrated, which also provide insights for enterprises to achieve win-win opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognizing the industrial sector's high energy use and vast potential for energy saving, many national governments have established voluntary or negotiated agreements that set quantitative energy-saving targets for individual industrial enterprises. The most commonly used energy-saving targets worldwide are volume and energy intensity targets. Since 2006, the Chinese government has set mandatory, enterprise-level energy-saving targets in terms of the “amount of energy saved”; this represents a unique category that differs from both volume and energy intensity targets. Based on first-hand data collected at ten case enterprises, this paper represents one of the first attempts to verify the reliability of the amount of energy saved data reported by the Chinese government and to rigorously and systematically investigate the inherent weaknesses of the amount of energy saved targets through a comparison with the mainstream categories of energy-saving targets. The ten case enterprises reported four different types of amount of energy saved. While all of the case enterprises claimed full achievement of their amount of energy saved targets, four enterprises exaggerated their performance by violating the National Standard for Calculating the Amount of Energy Saved of Enterprises. The paper thus hypothesizes that the National Top-1000 Enterprise Program's alleged achievement of performance 65% higher relative to its amount of energy saved target is likely an overestimation. Although amount of energy saved targets constitute an innovative energy-saving indicator, they do not represent a step forward from conventional volume and intensity targets because of the following four weaknesses: 1) amount of energy saved targets provide limited potential for comparison given the different types of amount of energy saved and the different calculation methods, 2) they generate uncertain environmental outcomes as it is possible to meet a portion of an amount of energy saved target through production volume expansion, 3) they are difficult to enforce due to the complexity of data verification on the part of local government agencies, and 4) they are poorly correlated with the national target for reducing energy intensity. Amount of energy saved targets should therefore be replaced with “double-control” targets that impose both volume and intensity targets on industrial enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging economies like China, India, and Mexico are becoming the world's manufacturing leaders through the engagement in offshoring production activities. In achieving this status, however, they have met with difficult environmental issues. This paper features an analysis of industry-level panel data to examine the link between different offshoring tasks in China and carbon dioxide emissions. Through this analysis, the environmental effects of offshored production are addressed. Specifically an input–output model is presented, thereby quantifying offshored production tasks in China. The results show that iron and steel, nonferrous metals (IS) and chemicals (CH) generate the most carbon dioxide during production of processed goods. Additionally, electrical machinery (EM) and general machinery (GM) generate a higher amount of carbon dioxide during production of parts and components. The results also show that those industries characterized by higher energy consumption have higher carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions induced by offshoring. Given these results, it seems that any solutions geared towards reducing the energy consumption of entire manufacturing industries would be useful. Furthermore, the results of the analyses presented here indicate that China would be responsible for working with developed countries to reduce carbon dioxide emissions through cooperative environmental regulation. A globalization perspective is adopted to offer unique insight into the environmental issues faced by China. The results of this paper would provide quantified, actionable information for formulating practical industrial policies geared towards reducing carbon dioxide leakage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies pay little attention to when or under which conditions foreign direct investment (FDI) can spill energy-saving technologies. From a perspective of energy-biased technical change and using a two-layer nested constant elasticity of substitution (CES) production function, this paper investigates the energy-saving spillover effect of FDI on technical change (i.e., energy-saving spillovers) in China between 2002 and 2015. In particular, we consider the conditions of marketization, industry, technology, and labor mobility to examine whether and when FDI has energy-saving spillovers. The results indicate no income inequality effect, i.e., there is no evidence supporting that FDI flowing into low- and middle-income regions increases energy consumption, while FDI flowing into high-income regions conserves energy. However, there is a condition effect: FDI can improve (support the halo effect) or deteriorate (contradict the halo effect) the environmental performance under different conditions. Moreover, there is a threshold effect: the direction of FDI spillovers varies with the different levels of the threshold variables. An increasing marketization motivates enterprises to select energy-biased technologies. It is more likely to generate energy-saving spillovers in the regions with a lower specialized agglomeration level. FDI will have energy-biased spillovers when domestic technological level is relatively high with an evident energy-biased technology. In addition, a moderate labor mobility is beneficial to the energy-saving spillovers of FDI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alleviating energy poverty is a significant issue in many countries, for which effective energy poverty measurement is the prerequisite. This paper seeks to make a comprehensive and systematic assessment of the energy poverty performance of 30 provinces in China for 11-year period (2007–2017) by emphasizing their spatial-temporal changes. The paper firstly constructed energy poverty measurement conceptual framework based on overviewing previous studies. Secondly, a technique based on the integrated fuzzy DEMATEL (Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) and Data Envelopment Analysis - Assurance Region (DEA-AR) for performance assessment was proposed. Then, the energy poverty performance was assessed, and clustering analysis was conducted to investigate the spatial-temporal changes of energy poverty in China. Finally, sensitivity analysis was applied for verifying the robustness of the proposed method. It is found that the energy poverty condition in China tends to be similar among most regions, but the gap between the best and worst performers gets wider. In addition, provinces with better economic conditions, have higher performance and are classified into the progressive group for alleviating energy poverty. On the contrary, provinces, whose economy lags, have regressed the most and are also the worst performers in reducing energy poverty. Thus, policies to improve household energy cleanability in high-income provinces and increase energy affordability in low-income regions would help reduce energy poverty in China. • A comprehensive energy poverty assessment framework was proposed. • An integrated Fuzzy DEMATEL/DEA-AR was proposed to evaluate the performance. • The comparison between the proposed Fuzzy DEMATEL/DEA-AR model and conventional DEA was conducted. • Spatial and temporal analysis of energy poverty performance in China was conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Theses on China's low-carbon economy focus on the driving forces of carbon emissions, energy–carbon efficiency, and the carbon–economy nexus. Meanwhile, comprehensive frameworks that assess China's green economy and also analyze its driving forces are lacking. This paper constructs a green productivity index based on the Global Malmquist–Luenberger productivity index to evaluate the development of the low-carbon economy in China. A panel vector auto-regression model is adopted to further analyze the endogenous interactions and dynamic relationships among aspects of the green economy and its influencing factors. Empirical results show that China has seen a balanced development of green economic growth in 2000–2016, achieved in a series of clear stages. To maintain the sustainable growth of the low-carbon economy in the future, China must rely more on technological progress. This research also makes some important discoveries that have not been found in previous studies: the impact of China's industrial structure and energy consumption structure on the green economy are short term, having a duration of impact of approximately four years. Finally, we provide an assessment of provincial green economy development and describe the corresponding policy implications. Graphical abstract Image Highlights • A comprehensive analysis of China's green economy. • A slack-based Global Malmquist–Luenberger index is adopted to calculate the Green Productivity Index in China. • The stage characteristics of green economic development are identified. • A panel vector autoregressive model is used to analyze the interactions among aspects of the environmental economic system. • The findings that the impact duration of energy structure, industry structure, and urbanization on the green economy is about four years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of urbanization on provincial energy efficiency in China. Using panel data of 30 Chinese provinces between 2003 and 2014, we adopt a stochastic frontier model to estimate energy efficiency in China, and apply a series of spatial panel data models to tackle spatial dependence of energy efficiency between provinces. Our results show that the overall impact of urbanization on energy efficiency is negative in China. These results are established after controlling for spatial correlation and other confounding factors, and are also robust to various model specifications. We also document that the impact of urbanization on provincial energy efficiency manifests through both a direct negative impact induced by the focal province's urbanization process, and an indirect positive spillover effect caused by urbanization in adjacent areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reliable energy statistics serve as the foundation and starting point for understanding the climate policies of any country. As the most comprehensive sources of energy data for China, China Energy Statistics Yearbooks (ESY), published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), underwent three major revisions since 2005. This paper analyzes how these three major revisions correspond to data on China's energy use from 1996 to 2012, and theirs impacts on CO 2 emissions, emission intensity and the share of non-fossil energy in total energy consumption, which are key indicators of China's climate policies. Some notable changes include CO 2 emissions for 2012, which increased by 594 Million tons – a figure equivalent to South Korea's annual emissions, which implies that China's emissions at peak level will be higher than previous estimation. Meanwhile, revised emission intensity data show a higher amount and lower decreasing rate, which means that China's achievements in decreasing emission intensity during 2005–2012 have been overestimated, while future difficulties for achieving the goal of 40–45% reduction will be greater. On the share of non-fossil fuel energy in China's total energy mix, the adjustments increased the indicator by 1.26%, reflecting the fact that China's effort in developing non-fossil energy had been underestimated. Discrepancies in reported scattered coal in different statistics versions are the main contributors to these changes. To further enhance the reliability of its energy statistics, and thereby its climate policies, China should remove incentives for misreporting through legal means, and make the technical system for data collection more comprehensive and accurate, with particular emphasis on scattered coal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the incentives for pursuing a low-carbon electricity sector that are embedded in China's regulatory and policy framework. To do so, we first describe the industry structure and the regulatory framework. Second, we explicitly review the policies that were developed to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy. These policies range from the introduction of legal requirements to undertake particular actions to pricing mechanism and financial incentives. Based on this, we tease out the challenges faced by a sector governed by a myriad of complex arrangements, different institutions and agents who face different and often conflicting incentives for pursuing environmental and energy efficiency objectives. Finally, we provide suggestions to scientifically set up low-carbon policies and to achieve the expected goals with minimum social cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, the iron and steel industry (ISI) accounts for more than 16% of China's total energy consumption. Improving energy efficiency (EE) and promoting energy savings in this industry have vital significance for China's further sustainable development. Using provincial panel data from 2000 to 2014 and meta-frontier data envelopment analysis (DEA), this paper investigates EE and the energy-saving potential (EP) of China's ISI by considering regional technology heterogeneities. The results show that (1) from 2001 to 2014, EE in China's ISI achieved significant improvement. Technological progress is the most powerful driving factor, while the declines in scale efficiency and pure technical efficiency are two obstructive factors; (2) the sources of energy inefficiency (EI) show distinct spatial difference characteristics. EI in the eastern region mainly stems from scale inefficiency and pure technical inefficiency, while that in the central and western regions stems from three aspects of scale inefficiency, pure technical inefficiency, and technology gap; and (3) there is considerable EP in China's ISI, which represents nearly 80% of ISI's current total energy consumption. Because the sources of EP vary across regions, the focus of future work for China's regional ISI should also vary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the driving factors behind energy consumption changes provides insights about consumption patterns and can inform targeted energy saving polices. This paper applies a joint decomposition approach, introducing an index decomposition analysis (IDA) method into a production theoretical decomposition analysis (PDA). This integrated approach decomposed energy consumption changes into eight drivers. A subsequent empirical study of China resulted in three key findings. First, regardless of the geographic area considered, potential economic development was the largest factor driving energy consumption growth. Second, the technological change effects associated with economic development and energy savings both played significant roles in reducing energy consumption. Third, the efficiency change effects of energy use and economic development were generally unable to relieve the pressure of increases in energy consumption, especially in the eastern regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improvement of coal consumption efficiency is very important both for China in solving its problems of energy security and environmental pollution and for the world in addressing the issue of greenhouse gas emissions. Using a total-factor framework, this paper employs a data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to evaluate the coal consumption efficiency of six energy intensive sub-industries in China in 2015. Coal consumption efficiency is factorized into economic efficiency and environmental efficiency, with sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and industrial smoke, dust and soot emissions treated as undesirable outputs of energy consumptions. The results show the following. (1) Of the six energy intensive sub-industries studied, two exhibit both DEA-effective coal economic efficiency and coal environmental efficiency. Coal economic efficiency is found to be greater than coal environmental efficiency, indicating that the benefits of economic efficiency have masked the negative effects of the environmental impact. China should therefore pay more attention to the clean utilization of coal. (2) Low environmental efficiency mainly resulted from the joint effects of pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency; therefore, enterprises in these industries must engage in management efforts to improve their ability to manage large enterprises. (3) The energy intensive industries characterized by coal environmental efficiency that failed to achieve pure technological effectiveness all exhibited input redundancy or output inadequacy of varying degrees while showing a potential for energy conservation and emissions reductions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the largest energy consumers, the transport sector generated direct and indirect emissions which significantly affect the environment, accounting for approximately one-third of the total carbon emissions. While the major impacts are from transport energy use and emissions, very few studies attempted to examine the impacts from transport infrastructure, especially at a city or country level. This paper, taking Shenzhen in China (a fast developing megacity) as the case study, is specially designed to quantify the carbon footprint of the urban roads by using streamlined life cycle assessment method. For given years (ranged from 2004 to 2013), various activities of urban roads (e.g. newly planned road construction, maintenance of road in use, and road renovation and demolition) have been examined in this study. The results show that the total carbon footprint from urban roads in Shenzhen was 260 (±20) thousand tons CO 2 e in 2013. The major contributor was the materials use (embodied impact) from newly constructed roads, which accounts for 52.3% of the total carbon footprint, followed by the maintenance stage (24.3%). The eco-design process of road construction plays a vital role in achieving the effective carbon footprint reduction. These findings help to better understand the carbon footprint from urban roads in megacities, and provide useful inputs for policy making process in terms of identifying carbon reduction opportunities for the transport sector. In addition, the methodologies are useful for the quantification of carbon footprint in other cities of China and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because industrial sectors in China are energy-intensive, improving energy efficiency and promoting energy savings in these sectors are of great importance for the further sustainable development of China’s economy. Using a proposed meta-frontier data envelopment analysis (DEA), this paper analyzes the total-factor energy efficiency and energy savings potential in China’s provincial industrial sectors for the years 2000–2014 from three perspectives, namely, the technology gap, management, and scale. The results indicate that (1) driven by technological progress, energy efficiency during the sample period was greatly improved, though the expansion of technology gaps between regions and the decline in scale efficiency represented two significant handicaps; (2) the current energy efficiency in China’s industrial sectors remains extremely low, indicating that there is considerable potential for energy efficiency improvement and energy savings; and (3) the sources of energy inefficiency and energy savings potential in China’s industrial sectors exhibit spatially distinct characteristics. Accordingly, it is determined that most of China’s eastern provinces should focus on improving scale and management efficiency, whereas most of its central and western provinces should concentrate on three factors: narrowing the regional technology gap, improving management efficiency, and optimizing the industrial scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zero-energy buildings have attracted interest worldwide as they consume less energy and can alleviate energy shortages caused by rapid economic development. This paper presents a review of the research and development regarding zero-energy buildings in China. First, it briefly introduces the evolution of the definition of zero-energy buildings and discusses the key influencing factors of such buildings in China. Then, envelope design, selection of mechanical and electrical equipment, and solar energy utilization aspects of zero-energy buildings are examined. Additionally, this paper discusses the development and application of zero-energy buildings in China, including project types, design methods, energy resources allocation, and energy operation management. Finally, this paper analyzes China's policies for zero-energy buildings, including incentive mechanisms, laws and regulations, and problems encountered, and provides suggestions for promoting zero-energy buildings in China. We expect this review to identify gaps and future directions for research and development, which will lead to new technologies, methods, policies, and standards that can be applied to zero-energy buildings. • Research and development of zero energy building in China is comprehensively reviewed. • Influencing factors and relevant zero-energy building design components are examined. • Development and application of zero-energy buildings in China are examined. • Zero energy policies in China are analyzed and suggestions for the promotion of zero-energy buildings are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes an empirical analysis of the effect of producer services agglomeration on China's energy efficiency under environmental constraints (EEE) by using spatial Durbin model. The results show that at the national level, the urbanization agglomeration of producer services not only improves the local EEE significantly, but also has an obvious spatial spillover effect on the surrounding regions, while the localization agglomeration of producer services is only beneficial to the improvement of the local EEE. From the regional perspective, both the urbanization and localization agglomeration of producer services show significant promotion effect and spatial spillover effect on China's EEE in the east region, and the promotion effect of the urbanization agglomeration of producer services is greater, while the improvement of EEE in the central and west regions mainly depend on the MAR externality of producer services agglomeration, and its spatial spillover effects are not obvious. Moreover, the above empirical results exhibit strong robustness. Based on these empirical findings, this paper puts forward some specific suggestions for improving China's EEE so as to achieve the multi-win of economic growth, energy conservation and environmental protection. The study contributes to improving the environmental quality and speeding up the construction of Beautiful China. • Use spatial Durbin model to analyze the effect of producer services agglomeration on China's EEE. • Localization agglomeration of producer services is only beneficial to the local EEE. • Urbanization agglomeration not only improves China's local EEE, but also has an obvious spatial spillover effect. • Regional differences in the effect of urbanization and localization agglomeration of producer services on China's EEE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has the largest wind power installation across the world due to the tremendous inland wind capacity and the government has begun to pay much more attention to develop offshore wind power in recent years. During the shift from inland to offshore, it is very important to identify the difference of energy performance between them. This paper establishes 4 indicators; energy consumption intensity (EI), energy payback time (EPT), energy payback ratio (EPR) and energy return intensity (ERI) to measure the energy performance of wind farms. Meanwhile, coastal wind farms are introduced as a smooth transition cases from inland to offshore wind farms. Each of the 8 farms for inland, coastal and offshore wind are taken as the examples to assess. The results show that inland and coastal wind farms have the similar energy performance, which pose significant difference with that of offshore wind farms. Based on the relatively lower EI, EPT and higher EPR, land-based inland and coastal wind farms are better for energy efficiency. From the energy performance route of wind farms, the energy performance strength of offshore wind farms only appear after 9.2 years of operation when compared to the land-based wind farms. Therefore, it is wise to set a long-term moderate target for offshore wind power development in China, just as the highest ERI of offshore wind farms can only be obtained in a long-term period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, China has started to change its growth strategy to a more sustainable model in response to the limits-to-growth dilemma. Specifically, the national policy advocates to promote the use of green-manufacturing technologies through demonstration projects, and to incentivize Chinese manufacturers to adopt these green-technologies that are also encouraged by local governments. These green technologies can increase the economic gains of manufacturers by reducing costs on energy consumption and shift away from selling low-margin products. However, the local authorities often encounter obstacles when implementing policies for promoting these technologies among manufacturing firms. This paper explores the factors that affect the decision-making of user firms throughout the policy implementation process. Based on the econometric analysis of the survey for China's electric motors upgrading project in Guangdong Province, this study shows that three key factors are helpful in the local government's effort to implement the national project, i.e. manufacturers' awareness, the understanding of the energy-efficiency technology, and the long-term macroeconomic benefits. In addition, encouraging the participation of financial institutions is especially useful for local governments to convince small-and-medium sized firms. These findings are beneficial for local implementation of green-manufacturing technology diffusion policies in China and have worldwide policy implication as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2015 Paris climate change negotiations represents the most ambitious worldwide effort to date to combat climate change. As the largest energy consumer and carbon emitter, China pledges 60–65% cut in carbon intensity below 2005 levels by 2030. To accelerate China's climate efforts, China has also committed to cap its primary energy use at 4.8 billion tons of coal equivalent in 2020. This paper proposes an equitable and efficient scheme to disaggregate this national goal among provinces. A three-step disaggregation procedure is proposed which takes into account the initial allocation, national redistribution and inter-provincial adjustment. First, this study allocates the incremental energy quota, taking 2010 as the base year. Second, part of the energy quota is set aside by the central government for redistribution purposes, while an incremental energy quota index comprising equity and efficiency criteria is used for initial allocation among provinces. Finally, historical efforts and inter-provincial energy flows are considered for inter-provincial adjustment. This disaggregation scheme is flexible and can be easily extended to allocation and management of other resource and environmental targets. The empirical findings can assist decision-makers in identifying which provinces are likely to over-consume the energy quota relative to the proposed allocation and which provinces are likely to perform better in energy conservation. Moreover, the results show that the energy cap set for 2020 is unachievable without further action. Market-based instruments, such as an energy allowance trading market, are strongly recommended to achieve the energy use target in an equitable and cost-effective manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study analyzes the management of air pollutant substance in Chinese industrial sectors from 1998 to 2009. Decomposition analysis applying the logarithmic mean divisia index is used to analyze changes in emissions of air pollutants with a focus on the following five factors: coal pollution intensity (CPI), end-of-pipe treatment (EOP), the energy mix (EM), productive efficiency change (EFF), and production scale changes (PSC). Three pollutants are the main focus of this study: sulfur dioxide (SO2), dust, and soot. The novelty of this paper is focusing on the impact of the elimination policy on air pollution management in China by type of industry using the scale merit effect for pollution abatement technology change. First, the increase in SO2 emissions from Chinese industrial sectors because of the increase in the production scale is demonstrated. However, the EOP equipment that induced this change and improvements in energy efficiency has prevented an increase in SO2 emissions that is commensurate with the increase in production. Second, soot emissions were successfully reduced and controlled in all industries except the steel industry between 1998 and 2009, even though the production scale expanded for these industries. This reduction was achieved through improvements in EOP technology and in energy efficiency. Dust emissions decreased by nearly 65% between 1998 and 2009 in the Chinese industrial sectors. This successful reduction in emissions was achieved by implementing EOP technology and pollution prevention activities during the production processes, especially in the cement industry. Finally, pollution prevention in the cement industry is shown to result from production technology development rather than scale merit. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Energy consumption keeps increasing in China's building sector with the constant growth of urban population and people's living standard. In order to achieve co-benefits of reducing energy use, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy costs effectively, all respects related to the energy performance in the building sector need to be addressed. Considering the fact that over 80% of total energy use in a building's lifecycle is contributed by the operation stage, the study's focus is put on this stage for well understanding the energy consumption and carbon emissions and exploring the approach to achieve the effectiveness of co-benefits. The energy use in large commercial buildings is 4–6 times higher than residential buildings in China, thus IKEA Xuhui Store as one of large shopping malls in Shanghai is selected as the case study by using the method formed in the study. The outcomes of research show that the benefit of annual 170 MWh of energy use and 150 tons of CO2e reduction as well as the significant economic benefit have been achieved by implementing different measures in IKEA Xuhui Store between 2008 and 2011. Existing investment, technology and capacity barriers to co-benefits approach in a wider consideration of China's building sector are described. The assessment for evaluating co-benefits of cutting energy use and CO2 emissions in the production and demolition stages in a building's lifecycle are also addressed by the paper. However, it is very complicated to make a lifecycle assessment on the overall co-benefits in the building sector because of the complexity and the lack of available data for the research. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: With the world’s largest population and consistently rapid rates of economic growth, China faces a choice of whether it will move towards a more sustainable development trajectory. This paper identifies the different factors driving innovation in the fields of green chemistry and green engineering in China, which we find to be largely driven by energy efficiency policy, increasingly strict enforcement of pollution regulations, and national attention to cleaner production concepts, such as “circular economy.” We also identify seven key barriers to the development and implementation of green chemistry and engineering in China. They are (1) competition between economic growth and environmental agendas, (2) regulatory and bureaucratic barriers, (3) availability of research funding, (4) technical barriers, (5) workforce training, (6) industrial engineering capacity, and (7) economic and financial barriers. Our analysis reveals that the most crucial barriers to green chemistry and engineering innovations in China appear to be those that arise from competing priorities of economic growth and environmental protection as well as the technical challenges that arise from possessing a smaller base of experienced human capital. We find that there is a great deal of potential for both the development of the underlying science, as well as its implementation throughout the chemical enterprise, especially if investment occurs before problems of technological lock-in and sunk costs emerge. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: China has now the largest annual outputs of galvanized steel and the most amount of galvanizing plants in the world. However, with obsolete technology, the hot dip galvanizing industry has been proved as one of the industries, which consume large amounts of raw materials and energy, produce numerous pollutants and causes serious contamination in China. Cleaner Production in the hot dip galvanizing industry is now the only way to achieve the sustainable development of hot dip galvanizing industry. The implementation of the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) project: The Transfer of Technology and Promotion of demand: Batch hot dip galvanizing in China launched by International Zinc Association (IZA) is introduced in this paper, The Best Available Technologies of operation, energy and environmental management in the world are also introduced. With the implementation of the project, an assessment system of Cleaner Production and a training system have been developed and implementation of technical updating to the demonstration plant shows that the reduction of zinc loss, and water and fuel cost savings can be achieved. It is believed that the methodology of the project can be applied throughout China as the galvanizers see the cost benefits. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

PM 2.5 emissions has become a serious issue in China with enormous regional variation in economic development, resource endowment, and consumption patterns, which leads to great variations in regional PM 2.5 emissions and embodied PM 2.5 transfer among provinces. The spatial and temporal evolution pattern of PM 2.5 and its influencing factors are important issues in the study of air pollution emissions and control, which could help policy makers allocate emission responsibilities and reduction targets. Based on the perspective of final consumption, this paper uses a multiregional input-output model to estimate PM 2.5 emissions in 30 provinces in different years in China, applies a geographically weighted regression model to analyze different driving factors, and then analyzes the spatial heterogeneity of consumption-based PM 2.5 emissions. The results show that consumption-based PM 2.5 presents a significant reduction trend, although the separation of production and consumption areas of PM 2.5 emission is further intensified. The provinces with rich energy but relatively backward economies and manufacturing industries correspond to the primary net inflow of PM 2.5 , while the provinces with strong consumption ability and the most developed economies and industries present a net outflow of PM 2.5. Moreover, the slowdown of consumption growth and the improvement of consumption quality have a positive impact on PM 2.5 emission reductions. The optimization of industrial structure has a more significant impact on pollution control and haze reduction in the western region, while the improvement of energy utilization efficiency and rational use of construction land are more conducive to the reduction of consumption-based PM 2.5 emissions in the eastern region. From the perspective of temporal and spatial changes, significant spatial differences occur between regions. Energy consumption, environmental protection investment and construction land show the trend of " high value area diffusion and low value area reduction". • Explores the spatial distribution characteristics of PM 2.5 emissions in China from the perspective of consumption. • Consider and analyze the inter-annual variation of pollutant emission transfer. • Clarifies the spatial heterogeneity characteristics of influencing factors. • Emphasizes the importance of further optimizing influencing factors to reduce haze from the consumption end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether embedding in global value chain(GVC)can promote China's manufacturing industry green growth is of great importance for China to accelerate the realization of green economy transformation and building of China's high-quality modern ecological economic system. This paper analyzes the impact of embedding in GVC on China's manufacturing industry green growth from perspectives of embedding position and embedding degree, using panel data from 17 manufacturing industries from 2000 to 2014. The study finds that during the inspection period, GVC embedding position and embedding degree of China's manufacturing industry have a fluctuation and there is a large difference between industries, most industries are still in the downstream of GVC, and low-tech industries embedding in GVC to a deeper degree. In the meantime, China's manufacturing industry green growth level has declined, and green growth situation is not optimistic. Dynamic panel results show that raising the GVC embedding position can significantly promote China's manufacturing industry green growth. Further, threshold regression is used to find that when the embedding position crosses a certain threshold, the effect of increasing the GVC embedding degree on green growth changes from inhibition to promotion. And the effect of GVC embedding position and degree on China's manufacturing industry green growth has significant industry heterogeneity. Finally, based on the research conclusions, concrete implications for promoting China's manufacturing industry green growth are put forward: First, China should improve the GVC embedding position of manufacturing industry and enhance the value-added and control capabilities of the value chain. Second, China should increase the GVC high-end links embedding degree of manufacturing industry. While realizing value chain functional upgrading and chain upgrading, increase GVC embedding degree. Third, China should accelerate energy technology innovation, promote the development of new energy, and accelerate the transformation of energy consumption structure. Last of all, China should implement industry differentiation policies, enhance the overall competitiveness of the high-tech industry, and achieve the "essential" improvement of the GVC position of the low-tech industry. At the same time, for all industries, China must improve the level of environmental regulation, increase R&D investment, and reduce the proportion of coal consumption and the proportion of state-owned enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because China's statistical system differs from other countries, the reported energy data of its transport sector cannot be used for worldwide comparison, representing an obstacle for scientific research and policy making. A practical methodology to evaluate internationally consistent energy data for China's transport sector is presented in this paper. A calibration process was used to combine the results from top-down and bottom-up methods. The results indicate that the total energy consumption related to all transport activities is about one-third higher than the officially reported data. Gasoline and diesel used by non-operating vehicles in the road sector represent the greatest difference. Total energy demand in China's transport sector was 327 million tons of coal equivalent (Mtce) in 2010, 411 Mtce in 2013, and 452 Mtce in 2015. After adjustment, the transport sector accounted for 13% of the total final energy demand in 2010 and 2013, 14% in 2015, and 10% of national CO 2 emissions in 2015. During 2010–2013 and 2013–2015, total energy demand in China's transport sector increased by 84 Mtce and 41 Mtce, respectively, and 88% and 85% of the growth came from the road sector. Without calibration, bottom-up methods often resulted in an overestimation of energy consumption for gasoline and diesel, sometimes exceeding the total national consumption level. The proposed method and estimated results not only support the development of energy consumption and CO 2 emission inventories for China but also lay the foundation for further research on low-carbon strategies for China's transport sector and associated policies. Uncertainties in the estimations and suggestions for improvement are also discussed. • Official data underestimated the energy demand in China's transport sector. • A methodology to evaluate energy data for China's transport sector was introduced. • Energy demand and CO 2 emissions in transport in 2010, 2013 and 2015 were evaluated. • Total energy demand of transport sector was one-third higher than official data. • The reliability of evaluation result was substantially improved by this method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's urbanization is rapidly proceeding while bringing marked impact on the energy consumption. This paper contributes to current literature by using an improved spatial econometric model Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology (STIRPAT) to investigate the effect of urbanization on energy consumption for China's regions. The impact of urbanization is further disaggregated into direct and indirect impacts from the perspective of spatial econometrics. Results show that, if the urbanization level increases by 1.0%, energy consumption levels will correspondingly decrease by 0.089%. The spatial spillover effect on adjacent areas is positive: a 1.0% increase in one specific area's urbanization level leads to a 0.136% increase in an adjacent area's energy consumption. It is suggested that, it is essential to devote major efforts to energy conservation, in the process of improving the new-type urbanization. In particular, disaggregating China's targets for controlling energy consumption into smaller targets for different regions will contribute to controlling the growth of energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]