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Abstract Whilst a plethora of literature has viewed technological progress as one of the critical influencing factors in relation to energy consumption and CO 2 emissions, little effort has been made to identify the sectoral differences in the relationship between technological progress and CO 2 emissions. Thereby, this paper remedies the inadequacies in the extant literature by empirically investigating the impact of technological progress on CO 2 emissions, specifically taking into account its heterogeneous effect in various economic sectors. This paper first decomposes the effect of technological progress as taking place in heavy industry, in light industry, in construction industry, and in service industry. A panel quantile regression approach and a balanced city panel data model are then applied, covering the period 2001–2013 in China. The empirical results show that technological progress in heavy industry and light industry surprisingly facilitates a higher level of CO 2 emissions, despite its prominent contribution to energy efficiency improvement. Meanwhile, as distinct from the effect it shows in the heavy and light industries, technological progress in construction and service industries exerts a negative effect on CO 2 emissions. Additionally, this paper further discovers that the strength of the multiple impacts of technological progress also varies with the level of emitters. By studying the heterogeneous effect brought about by technological progress in different economic sectors and emitters, this paper provides a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between CO 2 emissions and technological progress. Highlights • The study considers the sectoral and scale heterogeneity of technological progress in relation to CO 2 emissions. • We apply a panel quantile regression approach to balanced city-level panel data. • Technological progress within different economic sectors exerts different effects on CO 2 emissions. • The role of technological progress in moderating energy intensity varies across emitters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computing systems have been focused on performance improvements, driven by the demand of user applications in past few decades, particularly from 1990 to 2010. However, due to their ever-increasing energy demand which causes large energy bills and CO 2 emissions, over the past six years the focus has shifted towards energy-performance aware. The average energy consumption of servers is increasing continuously; and several researchers suggest, if this trend continues further, the cost of energy consumed by a server during its lifetime will exceed the hardware costs. The energy consumption problem is even greater for large-scale infrastructures, such as clusters, grids and clouds, which consist of several thousand heterogeneous servers. Efforts are continuously made to minimize the energy consumption of these systems, but the interest of people in computational services and popularity of smart devices make it a difficult task. In this paper, we discuss the energy consumption of ICT equipment, and present a taxonomy of energy and performance efficient techniques for large computing systems covering clusters, grids and clouds (datacenters). We discuss both energy and performance efficiency, which makes this survey different from those already published in the literature. Key research papers are surveyed and mapped onto taxonomies to characterise and identify outstanding and key issues for further research. We discuss several state-of-the-art resource management techniques, reported in the literature, that claim significant improvement in the energy efficiency and performance of ICT equipment and large-scale computing systems such as datacenters, and identify a few open challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels are believed to be the main factor for alarming rise in global temperatures. Conference of Parties 21 held at Paris in the year 2015 strictly warned and asked the nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emission level. This makes the nations to adopt renewable energy technology to substitute burning fossil fuels. Solar energy due to its accessibility and affordability leads the renewable energy application race. Even though Photovoltaic (PV) technology is mature but the effect of temperature on its efficiency is considerable, which opens up new front of research where combination of PV and thermal absorber is focussed to harness thermal energy which otherwise negatively affect the PV electrical efficiency. In the proposed study starting from the effect temperature on PV electrical efficiency, construction of Photovoltaic-Thermal (PV/T) module, historical development of PV/T, about different types of PV/T's developed around the globe along with performance of developed PV/T's, effect of operating parameters and methods of thermodynamic management are reviewed and presented. The study emphasised on the use of nano fluid and phase change material to harness maximum thermal energy from the system, also includes an insight into commercially available PV/T modules across the globe. This paper presents enviro-economic evaluation of PV/T systems developed by various researchers and also enumerated thermodynamic methods for evaluating system efficiency, which includes both energy and exergy analysis. This paper also provides the necessary information about the requirement of future research in PV/T. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first reviews the potential causality from biomass energy to CO 2 emissions and economic development within relevant literature. Later, the paper examines statistically the impacts of biomass energy consumption on CO 2 emissions and GDP in the US. To this end, paper observes environmental and economic implications of biomass fuel usage throughout energy literature and launches asymmetric causality test to confirm/disconfirm the literature output. The findings of the tests indicate that biomass energy consumption per capita mitigates CO 2 emissions per capita and increases GDP per capita. Eventually, upon its output, this research asserts that biomass energy consumption can be an efficient policy tool for environmentally sustainable development in the US, and, that, hence, biomass production technologies and biomass consumption need to be promoted in other countries as well as in the US. On the other hand, analyses underline the fact that policy makers should consider as well some potential constraints of biomass energy usage such as land use constraints and carbon leakage from biomass production. Therefore, although this paper explores the remedial impact of biomass on environment and growth, one may suggest also that further possible works consider the effects of biomass sources in detail to minimize the some worsening influence of biomass usage on climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: With increasing attention on energy shortage and global warming, bioenergy is a promising alternative energy to mitigate CO 2 emissions. Despite the environmental friendly potential, a certain quantity of bioenergy-related CO 2 is still emitted in China. This paper investigates the temporal dynamics of bioenergy-related CO 2 emissions in 2000–2010 in China, and explores the underlying influence factors based on logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI). Then the core results are verified with a GIS-based approach from a spacial perspective. The results show that four impact factors: emission intensity, energy structure, energy efficiency and economic development have different impacts on bioenergy-related CO 2 emissions, of which economic development is the major factor contributing to its increase, while energy efficiency is the major determinant for the decline. Per capita bioenergy-related CO 2 emissions in different areas are verified in accordance with either economic development factor or energy efficiency factor to some extent. To achieve the dual purpose of sustainable development and CO 2 emissions reduction, this paper provides a practical policy framework for rural bioenergy and economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Nutritional energy (E n) and nutritional exergy (Ex n) are the inherent thermodynamic properties of foods; specific cumulative energy (CEnC) and exergy (CExC) utilization are thermodynamic properties associated with their production. Cumulative specific carbon dioxide emission (CCO 2 E) is an environmental parameter used in parallel with the other thermodynamic parameters to describe the specific carbon dioxide emission during production. Interrelation of Ex n and E n is assessed by referring to 87 foods. Values of (CEnC), (CExC) and (CCO 2 E) are presented for 146 foods. The data presented here are expected to make it easier to perform energy and exergy balances around people and animals while assessing their diets, and also while assessing food production systems. This paper is expected to serve as a comprehensive source of data in thermodynamic analyses pertinent to food processing and nutrition. Highlights • Ex n and E n are interrelated parameters used in thermodynamic analysis of dieting. • (CEnC) and (CExC) are employed in thermodynamic analyses of food processing. • (CCO 2 E) is an environmental parameter used in parallel with (CEnC) and (CExC). • Thermodynamic data are presented for 87 nutrition and 146 processing cases. • This study will be a data source in food and nutrition related thermodynamic analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solutions based exclusively on technology are unlikely to fully deliver a transition towards a low-carbon society. Shifts in consumption patterns and lifestyles associated with technological solutions are essential to achieve safe GHG concentration levels. Considering households' consumption patterns, residential electricity consumption represents a major issue, as it is closely related to lifestyle choices and living standards. In this context, this paper discusses how specific electricity requirements may vary across different deciles of living standard in Brazil and France. The present evaluation is based on specific electricity consumption and its corresponding carbon dioxide emissions for different home appliances used for food conservation, lighting, daily chores (e.g. cloth washing), as well as information and leisure. Results ratify, on the one hand, the significant income gap existing between French and Brazilian households. On the other hand, they show that differences regarding specific electricity requirements in the two countries are lower than intuitively expected. Hence, they evidence a converging trend in electricity requirements between the two countries, especially among higher income deciles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid development of agriculture mechanization and the agro–industry in China (considered as a large agricultural country) has led to a substantial increase in energy consumption and CO 2 emissions. Majority of existing studies usually explore the driving forces of the sector's CO 2 emissions using the averaging method. However, data distribution of economic variables is often non–normal, with the tail having hidden important information. According to the average annual CO 2 emissions, this paper divides China's 30 provinces into six quantile grades, and uses the quantile regression method to investigate the driving forces of CO 2 emissions under high, medium, and low emission levels. The results show that the effects of economic growth on CO 2 emissions in the upper 90th and 75th–90th quantile provinces are higher than in the 50th–75th, 25th–50th, 10th–25th and lower 10th quantile provinces due to the differences in fixed–asset investment and agricultural processing. The impact of energy efficiency in the upper 90th, 75th–90th, and 50th–75th quantile provinces are stronger than those in the 25th–50th, 10th–25th, and lower 10th quantile provinces because of the huge difference in R&D funding and R&D personnel investments. The effect of urbanization in the higher 90th quantile provinces is higher than in the other quantile provinces, owing to the differences in the level of agricultural mechanization and human capital accumulation. Similarly, financial capacity has the largest impact on CO 2 emissions in the upper 90th quantile provinces in all quantile provinces. However, the impact of industrialization in the upper 90th quantile provinces is lower than in other quantile provinces. Thus, the heterogeneous effects of the driving forces should be taken into consideration when discussing CO 2 emissions reduction in China's agriculture sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China consumes more energy and emits more carbon dioxide than any other country. The building sector accounts for nearly 1/3 of the total national energy consumption in China; thus, it is critical to find a solution for improving buildings’ energy efficiency. Under the market-oriented mechanism, constrained by the energy performance contracting (EPC) mode, energy service companies (ESCOs) play an important role in improving energy efficiency for high-energy-consumption industries, including the building sector. The aim of this study is to determine the strategy for boosting the building ESCO industry. By conducting a strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat (SWOT) analysis, this paper presented the status of the building ESCO industry in China and proposed alternative strategies. By utilizing a conventional multi-criteria decision-making method, namely, the Analytic Network Process (ANP), this study provides a quantitative basis to analytically determine the ranking of the factors in SWOT analysis and select the best strategy to promote the development of the building ESCO industry. The results showed that the ANP-SWOT is a viable and highly capable methodology that provides invaluable insights for strategic management decisions in the building ESCO industry, and a set of strategies for promoting ESCO development in the building sector were proposed based on this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Road transport consumes significant quantities of fossil fuel and accounts for a significant proportion of CO 2 and pollutant emissions worldwide. The driver is a major and often overlooked factor that determines vehicle performance. Eco-driving is a relatively low-cost and immediate measure to reduce fuel consumption and emissions significantly. This paper reviews the major factors, research methods and implementation of eco-driving technology. The major factors of eco-driving are acceleration/deceleration, driving speed, route choice and idling. Eco-driving training programs and in-vehicle feedback devices are commonly used to implement eco-driving skills. After training or using in-vehicle devices, immediate and significant reductions in fuel consumption and CO 2 emissions have been observed with slightly increased travel time. However, the impacts of both methods attenuate over time due to the ingrained driving habits developed over the years. These findings imply the necessity of developing quantitative eco-driving patterns that could be integrated into vehicle hardware so as to generate more constant and uniform improvements, as well as developing more effective and lasting training programs and in-vehicle devices. Current eco-driving studies mainly focus on the fuel savings and CO 2 reduction of individual vehicles, but ignore the pollutant emissions and the impacts at network levels. Finally, the challenges and future research directions of eco-driving technology are elaborated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To benchmark the contributions of building retrofits to the National Energy Efficiency Action Plans (NEEAPs) of the Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU) and to identify potential improvements to the general EU methodology, this paper presents homogenous mapping of the potential for energy savings and associated effects on CO 2 emissions for the building stocks of five selected MS: France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The mapping is created using a verified building stock modeling methodology, and includes results related to technical and techno-economical improvements for ten energy conservation measures (ECMs) and six ECM packages. These results are compared to the corresponding estimates in the NEEAPs, as well as those in the literature. Although both our results and those in the literature show high variability for the cost-efficiency of the ECMs between the five national building stocks, the potential application of complete ECM packages generally appears to be more profitable than the application of individual ECMs. Certain challenges must be overcome before this potential can be realized. The energy savings for Year 2020 projected in the NEEAPs appear to be overly optimistic when one considers the efficiency trends, current regulatory framework, and techno-economical potential detailed in this study. Furthermore, the NEEAPs are not in full compliance with the requirements of the EU Energy Efficiency Directive. These requirements could be defined more specifically, so as to address the identified information gaps, thereby facilitating the implementation and monitoring of energy savings in existing buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the determinants of carbon emissions based on energy consumption, analyzing the data of 30 countries using nuclear energy for the period 1990–2014. Renewable energy and nuclear energy consumption are adopted as determinants, and real coal price and real GDP are used as additive variables. The panel cointegration analysis and Granger causality tests are conducted to investigating the relationship among the variables. First, the panel cointegration test results suggest that long-run equilibrium relationship exists among carbon emissions, renewable energy consumption, and nuclear energy consumption. The results of the long-run cointegrating vector and Granger causality tests indicate that nuclear energy does not contribute to carbon reduction unlike renewable energy. Thus, the development and expansion of renewable, not nuclear, energy are essential to prevent global warming. Though there is a concern that rising energy prices caused by the expansion of renewable energy may impact the economy negatively, our empirical results also imply that renewable energy consumption will promote economic growth. In other words, our evidence shows that using and expanding renewable energy is both economically and ecologically beneficial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change urges that global CO 2 emissions from the power sector should be reduced by 90 percent or more below 2010 levels between 2040 and 2070. Such a reduction will most likely require greatly increasing the share of wind, solar, energy storage and nuclear energy in the energy mix in the next 40–50 years. This paper emphasizes the importance of developing large energy storage systems without which, wind and solar can only have a limited impact on CO 2 emissions as it will depend mainly on the energy mix used during wind and solar down time. The large areas that are required would be challenging, but not unrealistic, as long as a solution for energy storage exists. Carbon capture and storage has considerable potential to reduce CO 2 emissions from coal and gas power plants, but also from heavy industries such as cement and steel manufacturing. To give an idea of the scale of the required infrastructure, in the United States, coal and gas power plants emit approximately 2.4 billion tonnes of CO 2 per year; whereas the US annual petroleum consumption is about 0.9 billion tonnes (6.9 billion barrels). This paper also emphasizes that uranium and thorium used in breeder reactors represent an almost infinite source of low-carbon energy. The issues associated with the management of nuclear wastes are real, but they are not the uniquely difficult issues perceived by the media, much of the public and by many politicians. Finally, the investment necessary to implement a wind and solar powered economy would very likely be higher than that necessary to implement a nuclear powered economy because of the much larger number of GWe required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis using 40 year spanned time series for the Turkey case. CO 2 emission series representing environmental pressure and GDP per capita values representing economic development are used for the period 1968–2007. A cointegration has been determined among nonstationary series. First phases of an inverted U form EKC relationship have been determined for Turkey from the econometric estimations. This result is conflicting with that of the similar models for Turkey case. On the other hand, this conflict refers the important arguments in the literature and constitutes the main points of the paper. Sensitivity critiques (for example, Ahking et al.) for cointegration tests (Johansen and Engle–Granger tests) have been supported in our study. Moreover, we detected important diversion in results according to drift and trend assumptions both in CI vector and EKC model specifications. We conclude that building EKC model according to cointegration (CI) equation restrictions can be important source for diversion when sensitivity exists in estimations and cointegration tests; therefore, EKC estimations should be held in non-restrictive way. The additional structural reasons have been also discussed for developing country EKC cases. The most important one is that the narrow income sample of developing countries makes it possible to be defined by similar but different paths; therefore, policy implications to be drawn from those analyses should not ignore this feature of developing country analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development and exploitation of sustainable and environmentally friendly energy sources are required in order to resolve global energy shortages and to reduce the reliance of many countries on fossil fuel combustion. Salinity gradient energy has been considered a potential candidate for renewable energy due to the abundance of saline waters that could be combined with less saline solutions across the globe. Pressure Retarded Osmosis (PRO) is one of the technologies to harness salinity gradient energy. Apart from zero carbon dioxide emission, PRO is capable of producing power with less periodicity, abundance and low environmental impacts. One of the preconditions for the technical and financial feasibility of PRO, however, is the development of a PRO-specific membrane—one that meets the conditions that none of the current commercially-available membranes have met so far. The current paper discusses the progress made in PRO membrane development, particularly during the past decade, and analyses the challenges that are still hindering the implementation of PRO at large scales. Also, this paper explores possibilities for the implementation of PRO by analysing various combinations of existent solutions of various salt concentrations. Australia has been chosen to demonstrate some potential applications of PRO. This vast country has extensive reserves of saline waters that could be paired with less concentrated solutions to generate power. For each combination of solutions, a conceptual idea is presented, and an estimate of power production is given. Also, advantages and disadvantages of each scheme are discussed. The ideas and estimates can be easily extrapolated, with minor adjustments, to other countries with similar conditions. It is hoped that this publication will be valuable to those nations that have similar policies as Australia’s, with government incentives for the development and implementation of new technologies to explore new renewable energy sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the deepening of carbon capture research using ammonia solution, CO2 disposal problem after carbon capture has become an important limiting factor affecting the industrial applications of carbon capture technology. It can be seen that CO2 not only controls as a greenhouse gas, but also it is a valuable carbon resource at the same time, CO2 resource recycling has a very good market prospects in near future. Two viable paths for CO2 resource utilization based on carbon capture using ammonia solution are divided in the paper. One path is regenerative resource utilization, i.e., rich liquid regenerates after the decarbonization reaction; the desorbed CO2 is sequestrated under geological layer or reused in other fields. Another path is transformed resource utilization; flue gas decarbonization combines with chemical production, and the ingredients produced from the reaction of ammonia with CO2 are transformed, carbon is fixed into nitrogen fertilizer or other chemical products, such as soda. The existing problems and the economic performance of CO2 resource utilization in power plants were reviewed in the paper. CO2 resource utilization based on carbon capture using ammonia solution is beneficial to the carbon emission reduction in coal-fired power plants; especially transformed resource utilization has economic advantage and good application prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction sector delivers the infrastructure and buildings to the society by consumption large amount of unrenewable energy. Consequently, this consumption causes the large emission of CO 2 . This paper explores and compares the level of CO 2 emission caused by the construction activities globally by using the world environmental input-output table 2009. It analyses CO 2 emission of construction sector in 40 countries, considering 26 kinds of energy use and non-energy use. Results indicate: 1) the total CO 2 emission of the global construction sector was 5.7 billion tons in 2009, contributing 23% of the total CO 2 emissions produced by the global economics activities. 94% of the total CO 2 from the global construction sector are indirect emission. 2) Gasoline, diesel, other petroleum products and light fuel oil are four main energy sources for direct CO 2 emission of global construction sector. The indirect CO 2 emission mainly stems from hard coal, nature gas, and non-energy use. 3) The emerging economies cause nearly 60% of the global construction sector total CO 2 emission. China is the largest contributor. Moreover, the intensities of construction sector’s direct and indirect CO 2 emission in the developing countries are larger than the value in the developed countries. Therefore, promoting the development and use of the low embodied carbon building material and services, the energy efficiency of construction machines, as well as the renewable energy use are identified as three main pivotal opportunities to reduce the carbon emissions of the construction sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased variability and uncertainty of net electrical load due to high penetration of wind and solar power augments the need for dispatching conventional generators with sufficient ramping capability (RC) needed to balance demand with supply. Having sufficient RC reduces the need of last minute dispatch schedule modifications which cause cost, reliability and environmental outcomes that reduce the benefits of renewables. The Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), has modified its Unit Commitment and Economic Dispatch algorithms to account for the economic value of provisioning adequate RC levels. This paper explores the outcomes of this modified market-clearing process by simulating 10-minute operations of a scaled MISO test system, for three representative months under low and high wind penetration scenarios. Changes in system performance are quantified by comparing system costs, scarcity events/pricing, energy prices, generation-fuel mix, wind-power curtailment, and CO 2 emissions between the conventional market-clearing algorithm and one with flexible RC products. Results indicate that adding RC products lowers CO 2 emissions and system costs, facilitates wind integration, and improves reliability. These benefits are robust to changes in the market clearing algorithm parameters such as over/under generation penalties and reserve scarcity prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The residential sector accounts for approximately 27% and 17% of the world energy consumption and its CO 2 emission, respectively. Thus, it is necessary to develop measures to reduce the dioxide emissions in this sector to ensure the sustainable development of the urban environment. However, the majority of existing sustainable measures revolve around improving the thermal quality of the building's envelope with lesser focus on the social and behavioural aspects of energy consumption. For those reasons, our paper aims to address a completely new social aspect of energy sustainability which is household life-cycle transitions. More precisely, we will investigate the impact of UK households transitions from one household type to another (e.g. single to couple) on their energy consumption. To attain this, an official British database, which encompasses around 6000 households observed annually for over 10 years, was analysed using some statistical tests and procedures, including logistic regression. This enabled us to first determine the socioeconomic factors influencing the households’ evolutionary patterns. Subsequently, predict possible future transition patterns for a period of 10 years. Based on that, the impact of the predicted transitions on gas and electricity consumption was enquired. The analysis of main findings has suggested that households transition patterns have a significant impact on their gas and electricity consumption. However, this effect is weak and mostly positive in direction. Finally, we argue that incorporating the powerful concept of household life-cycle transition into urban energy planning will permit the forecasting of residential energy consumption in relation to different household transition patterns. This will in turn assist urban planners in their sustainable energy planning decision-making and enable them to develop appropriate measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this research is to examine the link between CO 2 emissions, hydroelectricity consumption, urbanisation and real GDP in China and India during the period of 1965–2013. The long-run cointegration is investigated by the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach, which is augmented with structural breaks. We employ the ARDL cointegration test to establish long run relationship in the variables. Furthermore, we use the ARDL to show that real GDP and urbanisation have long-run positive impact on emission, while hydroelectricity consumption exerts long-run negative impact on emission in both countries. The results support the existence of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in China and India. Besides, the paper assesses the causal link between the variables by using Granger causality procedures and the results show that there is long-run bidirectional relationship between the variables in both countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper formulates a model that assesses the economic and policy implications of the adoption and operation of microgrids. The recent climate agreement between the US and China as well as the historic Lima accord on climate change are prompting a massive demand in climate-friendly technologies. Given the increasing demand for electricity and the mounting costs of electricity supply associated with maximizing system performance through an optimal economic scheduling of microgrids, decision makers and policymakers are already facing the problem of sketching energy management strategies for localized operation and grid penetration. We employ a modified Benders' decomposition approach to explore the optimal scheduling of supply from different technology units in the microgrid in the face of supply and demand uncertainties. We guarantee that the power generated by the units meets systemic load while satisfying the primary operational and technological constraints. We implement our model in a quantitative numerical analysis where we investigate the operational regulation in the light of a public environmental policy. We extend prior research on this subject by uncovering a greater reliance on the grid under simultaneous uncertainties in demand and supply. We unlock a strategy for a proper mitigation of the effects of emissions. We find that carbon abatement policy can be used to motivate microgrids operators to invest in fuel cells and natural gas technologies when dealing with uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing interest in fully decarbonizing worldwide energy systems requires abandoning traditional generation expansion planning in favour of other flexibility-enabling energy system planning tools allowing the integration of energy storage and sector coupling. Therefore, this paper proposes a mixed-integer linear programming formulation focused on enabling flexibility provision on integrated energy systems targeting independent sizing of power and energy capacities for simultaneous generation and storage expansion planning. The optimization problem minimizes investment, maintenance, operation and emissions costs over a 20 year horizon with hourly resolution. In this context, islands represent suitable study cases for the energy transition due to their exceptional renewable availability, and fast-paced development; despite being regions with extreme external dependence and isolation. In particular, the island of Santiago, Cape Verde is selected as study case given its existing targets regarding reaching 50 and 100% renewable shares in 2030 and 2040, its data availability, and the extreme seasonal variation in wind and solar resources. Four scenarios are considered. The first and second dismiss flexibility: business as usual (BAU), and another one aligned with the government goals (Green). Then, the other two exploit it: one equivalent to Green, FlexG, and a last one finding the Optimal. In addition, three energy demand growth levels are considered in order to reduce uncertainty, corresponding to 1, 3 and 5%. Last, a sensitivity analysis with three additional scenarios is performed to provide a thorough view of Cape Verde's energy future. The results highlight the importance of flexibility exploitation which provides up to 85% savings and allows to decarbonize other sectors via electrification. • Solar and hydro pumped storage drive the transition. • Wind power's role increases in hydrogen intensive and surface constraint scenarios. • Integrating flexibility into generation expansion planning halves power needs. • The current paradigm is the most expensive option, doubling emissions in 20 years. • The Optimal configuration achieves 96% renewable penetration. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Many developing countries are acutely vulnerable to global climate changes. Pakistan ranks amongst the top of those nations where vulnerability index due to climate changes is very high. Though many of these are not major contributors to the Green House Gases (GHGs) emissions, yet they have adequate potential to mitigate GHGs in various sectors. The power sector, for instance, is one of the major contributors to GHGs in Pakistan and has prospects of abating GHGs by undertaking alternative and improving measures. The GHG contribution from grid connected power plants can be estimated through baseline emissions factor. This paper has calculated this baseline emission factor by determining annual fossil fuel consumption in the grid connected power plants, their net efficiencies, energy outputs and carbon emissions from each fuel source. The data in this regard has been collected from Pakistan Energy Year Book published in 2009, 2010 and 2011 and through related government agencies. The tools, procedures and methodologies of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are followed in this regard. The paper has calculated that the weighted average baseline emissions factor for power sector in Pakistan is 0.566tCO2/MWh (tons of carbon dioxide per megawatt hour) for wind and solar power projects and 0.478tCO2/MWh for hydro power projects excluding Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) grid and 0.606tCO2/MWh for wind and solar power projects and 0.505tCO2/MWh for hydro by including KESC grid. This baseline emissions factor is also a determinant of the amount of Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) that can be accrued by implementing clean Alternative and Renewable Energy (ARE) projects. The amount of CERs generated by an ARE project also have the prospects to earn the carbon revenue streams. The paper has also suggested measures for mitigating grid emissions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: With rapid urbanization and industrialization, China has become both the largest energy consumer and CO2 emitting country in the world. As a clean and low-carbon energy source, renewable energy is a good choice to substitute for the exhausted fossil energy. The Chinese central and local governments have made a series of policies and optimistic plans to promote a rapid development of renewable energies. China′s renewable energy development has become a key to the sustainable development of socio-economic system. Unlike most of the current studies which mainly identified the challenges regarding policies and technologies around renewable energy or performed specific analyses for a certain kind of renewable energy, this paper summarizes the spatial disparity and consistency among the major renewable energies, coal resources, energy consumption and its major influencing factors in China, and reviews the positive and negative environmental impacts of major renewable energies. Based on the geographical and environmental perspectives, this paper recommends that the Chinese government: constructs the national energy production bases according to the resource distribution; integrates different energies on the basis of their natural features and spatial consistency; adjusts the overall layout of socio-economic development consistent with renewable energies; and promotes a moderate renewable energy development to maximize the environmental benefits. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: As an unconventional natural gas with the advantages of great resource potential and low carbon emissions, shale gas has currently aroused a new round of development and utilization worldwide. China’s shale gas resource is enormous and has huge potential for exploitation. However, due to the late start of exploration and development, it has not yet realized industrialization. By using the SWOT analysis method, this paper studies the internal and external development environment of Chinese shale gas, then explores shale gas development status of China from four dimensions including strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Finally, according to the combinations of SWOT matrix analysis, the paper formulates four kinds of different development strategies to provide certain references to the development of China’s shale gas industry. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The aim of this paper is to test whether income inequality contributes to environmental degradation in China and India, where both countries are giving a great concern about the implications of their unsustainable energy consumption to the environment not only to themselves but also to the global environmental sustainability. By applying the bounds test approach to cointegration we found in both countries a long-run but not a statistically significant relationship between income inequality and CO 2 emissions both in the long-run and in the short-run. The robustness of our cointegration results is also ascertained by using three different long-run tests. Furthermore, applying the variance decomposition analysis to examine the dynamic causal relationship between the Gini coefficient of income distribution and CO 2 emissions, we found that income inequality was the least important factor in determining CO 2 emissions and that there was no causality running in any direction between CO 2 emissions and income inequality in both countries. Still income and energy consumption are the major determinants of CO 2 emissions in both countries. Nevertheless, even though the evidence is not statistically significant, in the case of China it indicates that reducing income inequality can have a positive impact on environmental quality, while in India redistributing income to improve environmental degradation may not be effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of EU incentives, the UK government have set ambitious environmental targets relating to energy consumption including a reduction of carbon emissions of 80% by 2050. The use of various technologies can help meet these targets as well as providing a secure energy source for the UK in the future. This research took the UK as a case study and investigated where reduction measures are most suited to reduce energy consumption. This paper presents a review on the current state-of-the-art on the domestic technology available, in particular solar energy, heat pumps, phase changing materials (PCMs) and micro combined heat and power (micro-CHP) systems, aiming at identifying research and development opportunities for energy saving in these fields. Furthermore, the financial as well as environmental aspects are assessed as these are the two key considerations of typical household. A typical UK house design, including the floor plan, is created through the use of computer aided design (CAD) software. The house design gives a payback period between 8.7 years at best and 11.6 years at worst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's transport sector is facing severe energy and environmental challenges. Establishing energy efficiency standards is an essential measure to cope with these challenges. This paper comprehensively reviews the energy efficiency standards in China's road, water, aviation, railway and pipeline transport sectors. Based on the review, it is suggested that (1) the integrity of policy framework should be further improved. Energy efficiency standards-based market access qualification mechanism is quite necessary for all transport sectors, especially the aviation, railway and pipeline transport sectors, where such mechanism is absent. (2) Efforts for improving energy efficiency should be balanced among different transport sectors. Priority should be determined by considering each sector's energy consumption, the cost and potential of energy efficiency improvement, etc. Especially, the major energy-consuming sectors, such as heavy-duty vehicles should have similar priority to passenger vehicles in the overall energy efficiency improvement scheme. (3) The scientific basis for the energy efficiency standards should be enhanced. Policies should be proposed with full considerations of China's context, rather than borrowing the experiences of developed countries. Intelligence from the research community should be incorporated to ensure the rationality of the policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy consumption constitutes one of the important sources of carbon dioxide emission which cause global warming. This paper analyses greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions due to energy consumption in the domestic sector considering household activities and socioeconomic parameters. A stratified random survey of 1967 households in Bangalore pertaining to the energy consumption reveals that annual per capita electricity consumption ranges from 9.64 to 2337 kW h/year with an average of 336±267 kW h/year. Emission from most of the wards (66 wards) is about 10–15 Gg/year, while wards in peri-urban areas emit less than 10 Gg/year. Extrapolation of these, show that total carbon dioxide from all wards of Greater Bangalore accounts to 3350 Gg/Year. The energy consumption analyses reveal a proportional increase in the per capita energy consumption with the family income suggesting that economic levels in respective wards is an important parameter in the domestic energy consumption and also GHG emissions. Suggested interventions through large scale penetration of renewable sources of energy and energy conservation would help in reducing greenhouse gases and consequent warming of the Earth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Globally, the cement industry accounts for approximately 5 percent of current anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. World cement demand and production are increasing significantly, leading to an increase in this industry’s absolute energy use and CO2 emissions. Development of new energy-efficiency and CO2 emission-reduction technologies and their deployment in the market will be key for the cement industry’s mid- and long-term climate change mitigation strategies. This paper is an initial effort to compile available information on process description, energy savings, environmental and other benefits, costs, commercialization status, and references for emerging technologies to reduce the cement industry’s energy use and CO2 emissions. Although studies from around the world identify a variety of sector-specific and cross-cutting energy-efficiency technologies for the cement industry that have already been commercialized, information is scarce and/or scattered regarding emerging or advanced energy-efficiency and low-carbon technologies that are not yet commercialized. This paper consolidates available information on eighteen emerging technologies for the cement industry, with the goal of providing engineers, researchers, investors, cement companies, policy makers, and other interested parties with easy access to a well-structured database of information on these technologies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The source of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions has been of great interest to researcher(s) and/or policy maker(s) within ongoing efforts to diminish the emissions in the world due to CO2''s serious adverse environmental effect. This paper investigates the possible existence of long run relationship between CO2 emissions and biomass consumption in US for the period January 1990–September 2011. To this end, paper first seeks for effect of biomass on CO2 through energy literature and later follows cointegration analyses with structural breaks to reveal parameter estimates of long run equilibrium of CO2 with fossil fuel consumption and biomass consumption. Eventually this paper explores that structural breaks are important to understand the course of CO2 and that, as expected, fossil fuel and biomass effect CO2 positively and negatively, respectively. Alternative cointegration analyses with regime shifts confirm negative impact of biomass and positive impact of fossil fuel on CO2, as well. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Urbanization and climate change are two defining environmental phenomena and these two processes are increasingly interconnected, as rapid urbanization is often accompanied by a change in lifestyle, increasing consumptions and energy uses, which contribute heavily towards climate change and thermal comfort. Success of public urban areas in attraction of residents depends on thermal comfort of the visitors. Thermal comfort of urban open spaces is variable, because it depends on climatic parameters and other influences, which are changeable throughout the year, as well as during the day. Therefore, the prediction of thermal comfort is significant in order to enable planning the time of usage of urban open spaces. This paper presents Support Vector Machine (SVM) to predict thermal comfort of visitors at an open urban area. Results from SVM-FFA were compared with two other soft computing method namely artificial neural network (ANN) and genetic programming (GP). The purpose of this research is also to predict carbon dioxide (CO2) emission based on the urban and rural population growth. Estimating carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions at an urban scale is the first step for adaptation and mitigation of climate change by local governments. The environment that governs the relationships between carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and gross domestic product (GDP) changes over time due to variations in economic growth, regulatory policy and technology. The relationship between economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions is considered as one of the most important empirical relationships. GDP is also predicted based on CO2 emissions. The reliability of the computational models were accessed based on simulation results and using several statistical indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has become the world׳s largest country in steel production and consumption. Steel industry is one of the major high-polluting industries, and serious pollution problems have been caused by steel industry in China. In this paper, we first present a review of the development status and the emissions of China׳s steel industry. Then, the emission reduction measures of China׳s steel industry are analyzed. These measures include the overall actions on emission reduction in China and some actions on emission reduction of China׳s steel industry. Finally, suggestions in five aspects to further promote the emission reduction of China׳s steel industry are proposed and discussed, including eliminating backward steel production capacity, improving the legal system of emission control, strengthening government regulation, improving steel production technology and efficiency, and establishing the national carbon emission trading market of the steel industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) and scenario analysis have been applied respectively to analyze the impact of CO 2 -emission and its potential reduction in China׳s power industry. According to the results of LMDI, there are six factors that affect the carbon emission in the power industry. Electricity intensity (EI), and economic activity (EA) are the primary driving factors for the increment in emissions, accounting for 42.33% and 57.05% of the total increment during 1985 to 2011. Results also demonstrated that energy efficiency (EE) contributed 13.54% abatement during 1985 to 2011, and will play a key role in emission abatement in the future. Furthermore, the paper estimate the trend of power sector׳s carbon dioxide emission under three scenarios (basic, moderate and optimum) in order to determine the mitigation potential. The potential mitigation rate will equal to 22.03% and 37.57% in 2020 in Case A and Case B respectively in 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to provide new empirical evidence on the impact of economic growth and energy use on carbon emissions (CO 2 emissions) for fifty eight countries over the period 1990–2012 by using a panel data model. We also apply this model in order to implement three regional sub-groups; European and North Asian region, Latin American and Caribbean region, and the Middle Eastern, North African and sub-Saharan region. The results revealed that the energy use has a positive impact on the carbon dioxide emissions for all the panels. The impact of economic growth on the environment has received increased attention as global warming and other environmental problems become more serious. Indeed, the per capita GDP has a positive and statistically significant impact on carbon for the global panel, for the Europe and North Asia, and for the Middle Eastern, North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, our empirical results indicate the presence of an inverted U-shaped curve between carbon dioxide emissions and GDP per capita. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlike previous studies, this paper empirically investigates the impact of urbanization on energy consumption and CO 2 emissions with consideration of provincial differences. The results show the following: (1) Urbanization increases energy consumption and CO 2 emissions in China, but it is not the most outstanding contributor to the increases. (2) Significant differences exist between provinces in terms of the impact of urbanization on energy consumption and CO 2 emissions. The distribution of urbanization strongly and relatively strongly affects energy consumption in regions with high-urbanization areas but also those with low-urbanization areas. Meanwhile, urbanization strongly and relatively strongly affects the regional CO 2 emissions in northern China, where the major coal production areas, characterized by an energy-guzzling heavy industry base, are located. (3) Some evidence supports the arguments of urban environmental transition theory. Cities at a post-industrial stage (such as Beijing and Shanghai) experience a large effect from urbanization because of higher energy consumption in private residential and public service sectors, while in western and central China, the impact of urbanization can be associated with industrial development, which is characterized by low energy efficiency, high energy consumption and high emissions. In eastern China, the coexistence of light industrial structures and rapid urbanization has led to a smaller impact from urbanization on energy consumption and CO 2 emissions than in the other two regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new mechanical model for vehicle fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions considering different types of vehicles and their various features, two engine models, namely, gasoline and diesel, different roads, a range of renewable and non-renewable fuels and wind effect. The aim is to investigate the effectiveness of new parameters such as temperature, driving style, asphalt efficiency and fuel efficiency. The new proposed model is based on top-down mechanical model which has five parts including the energy consumed due to loss of gravity, acceleration, rolling resistance, aerodynamic resistance and cornering losses. Moreover, the proposed model investigates three types of tolling systems. The validity of this model is also examined by analyzing the parameters in the range [−10%, +10%] and correlation coefficients between the new parameters and five parts of the mechanical model. The results indicate that: 10% improvement in driving style in cars reduces 8.81% of fuel consumption; cold and warm temperature ranges increase fuel consumption by 5.57% and 1.71%, respectively; the PCC type of asphalt has 6.21% less fuel efficiency than AC type; and, the fuel consumption of car using gasoline fuel is 6.84 times higher than biodiesel fuel. The findings show that the carbon dioxide emission and fuel consumption rates increase as we move from free-flow system to electronic tolling system, and then, to the traditional tolling one. Moreover, the fuel consumption in the electronic tolling system for every fuel is twice less than the the amount obtained in the traditional tolling system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper MARKAL integrated energy system model is applied to explore the impacts and opportunities for low emissions energy system development in Macedonia, identifying CO 2 emission reduction policies and the cost of taking action. Two scenarios with different reduction target have been examined: higher ambition scenario where emissions are restricted to 10% above 1990 levels in 2021 and 2.5% in 2030, and moderate ambition scenario where emissions are restricted to 25% above 1990 levels in 2021 and 15% in 2030. In order to provide insights into the optimal timing of emission reductions, both of these cases have also been run under cumulative constraints, that is, rather than having the specified annual targets, there is a carbon “budget” set for 2015–2030 (44 Mt and 26 Mt for higher and moderate ambition cases, respectively), reflecting the same ambition as the above cases but providing flexibility to reduce emissions in the most cost-optimal way. The results show that most of the CO 2 reductions are in the power generation sector, which is not surprising as this tends to be the most carbon intensive sector. The higher ambition case is considerably more expensive than the reference case, with costs 1.9% higher, while the increase under the moderate ambition case is 1%. Under a cumulative constraint, the additional costs are reduced to 1.5% and 0.6% respectively, highlighting the importance of the timing of action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper mainly investigates the relationship among energy consumption, carbon emissions and economic growth in China from 1952 to 2012. First, we implement unit root and cointegration analysis to test the stationary. Furthermore, we analyze the mutual influence among energy consumption, carbon emissions and economic growth through Granger causality analysis. Next, we also conduct static and dynamic regression analysis on the determinants of carbon emissions and economic growth. Last, we predict the future influence of different energy consumption on carbon emissions and economic growth. We find that coal has dominant impact on economic growth and carbon emissions. GDP (Gross Domestic Product) has bi-directional relationship with CO 2 (carbon dioxide) emission, coal, gas, and electricity consumption. It is imperative to change energy consumption structure in China. We had better decrease coal consumption rate. It is significant to develop hydro and nuclear power in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization and industrialization have significant impacts on energy consumption and CO 2 emissions, but their relationship varies at different stages of economic development. Taking cognizance of heterogeneity and the “ratchet effect,” this paper adopts the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) framework as a starting point and re-estimates the relationship using different panel date models. The main results are obtained by dynamic panel threshold regression models, which divide a balanced panel dataset of 73 countries over the period of 1971–2010 into four groups according to their annual income levels. The key results are: (1) in the low-income group, urbanization decreases energy consumption but increases CO 2 emissions; (2) in the middle-/low-income and high-income groups, industrialization decreases energy consumption but increases CO 2 emissions, while urbanization significantly increases both energy consumption and CO 2 emissions; (3) for the middle-/high-income group, urbanization does not significantly affect energy consumption, but does hinder the growth of emissions; while industrialization was found to have an insignificant impact on energy consumption and CO 2 emissions; (4) from the population perspective, it produces positive effects on energy consumption, and also increases emissions except for the high-income group. These novel methodology and findings reveal that different development strategies of urbanization and industrialization should be pursued depending on the levels of income in a bid to conserve energy and reduce emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a methodology that discusses a reallocation of carbon emission quotas based on the ZSG-DEA model, also introduces the process of solving the ZSG-DEA model in extensive detail and derives Theorems 1 and 2. Theorem 1 shows the equivalence in competition and the cooperation case, while Theorem 2 indicates the correlation between quota adjustment and efficiency change. Through this ZSG-DEA model, the determination of carbon emission quotas is no longer subjective, and reasonable carbon emission quotas among countries can be obtained. The reallocation of carbon emission quotas can not only ensure that all countries have 100% efficiencies, but also help all countries gain through Pareto improvement. The conclusions of this paper are that most developed countries should increase their carbon emission quotas and that most less developed countries need to reduce theirs, including the two most populous countries of China and India. The reallocation process should be paid by selling the quotas of low efficient countries so that they can obtain funds to support their development, while at the same time high efficient countries can produce more due to relaxation of environmental constraints, thus achieving global Pareto improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iron and steel industry is the largest energy consuming manufacturing sector in the world. It is responsible for emitting 4–5% of the total anthropogenic CO 2 . Due to consistently increasing demand of iron and steel products for human needs, fossil-fuel energy use and CO 2 emission will continue to grow in this industry. So there is a strong motivation to develop and implement energy-efficient and low-carbon technologies as well as carbon reduction programs for this industry. Enhancing the development and deployment of high-temperature waste heat energy recovering technologies along a desired combination of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies will be the effective solution to reducing CO 2 emissions from iron and steel production. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the worldwide carbon reduction programs and new CO 2 breakthrough technologies for energy saving and carbon capture and storage in iron and steel making processes by collating updated information from a wide range of sources. Also, a discussion on the selection of the appropriate technology and their barriers and stages of development and deployment is presented. It is found that lots of factors that limit the role of using biomass in CO 2 abatement, so implementation of CCS technology in coal-based integrated steel plant would be an efficient means for sustainable green iron and steel manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both large hydropower projects (LHPs) and small hydropower projects (SHPs) have environmental and societal externalities, which have not been taken into account in their construction costs and operation benefits. These externalities are becoming an increasingly important issue in hydropower development policy making; as a result, it is essential to perform a systematic assessment of them among different hydropower patterns. The purpose of this paper was to establish a general externalities inventory for hydropower development through reviewing worldwide. This inventory allowed these externalities to be classified into three categories: externalities due to civil works, due to reservoir impoundment and due to cumulative impacts. Meanwhile, as these inventories were all related to greenhouse gas (GHG) activity, they could be transformed into the CO 2 equivalent (CO 2 -e), either directly or indirectly. This transformation method not only enables a feasible comparison of the externalities between different hydropower patterns but also enriches the carbon footprint assessment for hydropower. In the case study of 5 LHPs (>50 MW) and 10 SHPs in Tibet, China, SHPs have reduced externalities compared to LHPs, with SHPs and LHPs representing a burden of 5.1 and 29.2 gCO 2 -ekW h −1 on average, respectively. This extra carbon emission burden indicates that the present low-carbon potential of hydropower has been overestimated. Meanwhile, this reduced externality makes SHPs perform better in terms of environmentally friendly development and low-carbon energy than LHPs for Tibet. The externality caused by reservoir impoundment and occupation is the primary component of the total externality of a LHP; therefore, increasing the power density is an efficient way to decrease its externality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the atmosphere has been exposed to a substantial increase in concentration of the trace gases. In 2012, energy-related CO 2 emissions reached a record of 31.6 gigatonnes which corresponds to 1.4% comparing to 2011. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), an energy revolution is needed to achieve a 50% reduction of global CO 2 emissions relative to current levels by 2050. In this revolution, energy efficiency, energy storage, new transport technologies, nuclear energy and CO 2 capture and storage should play a crucial role. Furthermore, renewable energy technologies comprise a large potential for emission reductions which takes second place after energy efficiency improvements. Until 2035, renewable energy will also have greater impact than other potential alternatives including both CO 2 capture and storage or nuclear energy. For this reason, renewable energy industries, markets, and policy frameworks are developed rapidly in recent years, and they will play a substantial role in the world׳s future. This paper presents an overview of renewable electric power capacity worldwide and discusses the current status, technologies, industry and recent developments of renewable energy sources (RESs) in detail. In addition, the top countries in terms of total installed renewable electric power capacity are also identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

District heating systems can play significant role in achieving stringent targets for CO 2 emissions with concurrent increase in fuel efficiency. However, there are a lot of the potentials for future improvement of their operation. One of the potential domains is control and prediction. Control of the most district heating systems is feed forward without any feedback from consumers. With reliable predictions of consumers heat need, production could be altered to match the real consumers’ needs. This will have effect on lowering the distribution cost, heat losses and especially on lowered return secondary and primary temperature which will result in increase of overall efficiency of combined heat and power plants. In this paper, to predict the heat load for individual consumers in district heating systems, an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inferences system (ANFIS) was constructed. Simulation results indicate that further improvements on model are needed especially for prediction horizons greater than 1 h. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study shows that grid-connected photovoltaic systems (SFVI) are profitable for electricity users falling within the so called Domestic High Consumption Tariff (DAC). These users do not receive any subsidy and make a SFVI feasibly due to the following double mechanism: on the one hand, the reduced amount of electricity that is drawn from the grid, and on the other, a re-classification which makes them pass from the DAC to a lower consumption tariff which benefits from State subsidies. It is also shown that the utilisation of SFVI would lead to economic benefits for the electric power sector which in consequence accounts for a social benefit. It is estimated that Tariff 1 DAC users account for a potential SFVI capacity of slightly above 400 MW. This capacity may deploy a first significant SFVI market in Mexico which so far barely exists and would also represent a reduction in electricity drawn from the grid of nearly 614 GWh per year and reduced CO 2eq emissions of 841 thousand tonnes per year. Finally, some recommendations are inferred in order to improve the social benefit of this first deployment of SFVI in the Mexican Household sector. The analysis presented for Mexico can be replicated for other countries with subsidised residential tariffs and similar structures such as those countries identified in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The iron & steel industry is one of the major industrial sectors of energy consumption and CO 2 emissions in China. In this paper, we estimate the total factor CO 2 emissions performance (TFCP) and the CO 2 emission mitigation potential (CMP) in China׳s iron & steel sector using the stochastic frontier analysis technique. During the period of 2000–2011, the average TFCP of China׳s iron & steel industry was 0.780, the cumulative CMP was 835.32 million tons in 12 years, and the average annual CMP was 69.61 million tons. Regional analysis showed that the TFCP is high in the northeastern and eastern regions but low in the central and western inland regions. Since the CMP is affected not only by TFCP, but also by the actual CO 2 emissions, both the eastern and western regions have the greatest potential for reducing CO 2 emissions. For the eastern region, the realization of the CMP relies on structural reform and government regulation; while for the western region, policies should focus on changing the production pattern and reducing efficiency loss. For all the regions in China, mitigating CO 2 emissions should place more emphasis on technical innovation and low-carbon investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite reforms, China still largely applies the cost plus pricing mechanism for the energy sector. Government administrative energy pricing leads to energy price distortions, which could result in not only the excessive and wasteful energy consumption, but also environmental deterioration, thereby undermining energy conservation and emission abatement. Using fossil-fuel subsidies as a proxy for the level of energy price distortions, this paper estimates the subsidy of 22 Chinese departments during the period 2006–2010, and adopts the price-gap approach to analyze the impacts of subsidy removal on energy consumption and CO 2 emissions for the various sectors and energy types. The results demonstrate that removing energy subsidies would reduce energy consumption and emissions by 3.77% and 2.85%, respectively, but the effects vary across sectors. The transport, storage and post sector and the electricity, gas and water supply sector are much more affected by energy subsidies removal than other sectors. With respect to energy types, fuel oil and natural gas are sensitive to subsidies, indicating the magnitude of their consumption. This suggests that removing subsidies on these fuel types could significantly reduce CO 2 emissions. Finally, we comprehensively discuss relevant policy issues on energy price formation reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global energy demand and environmental concerns are the driving force for use of alternative, sustainable, and clean energy sources. Solar energy is the inexhaustible and CO 2 -emission-free energy source worldwide. The Sun provides 1.4×10 5 TW power as received on the surface of the Earth and about 3.6×10 4 TW of this power is usable. In 2012, world power consumption was 17 TW, which is less than 3.6×10 4 TW. Photovoltaic (PV) cells are the basic element for converting solar energy into electricity. PV cell technologies, energy conversion efficiency, economic analysis, energy policies, environmental impact, various applications, prospects, and progress have been comprehensively reviewed and presented in this paper. This work compiles the latest literature (i.e. journal articles, conference proceedings, and reports, among others) on PV power generation, economic analysis, environmental impact, and policies to increase public awareness. From the review, it was found that PV is an easy way to capture solar energy where PV based power generation has also rapidly increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the dynamic causal relationships between energy consumption, energy price and economic activity in Saudi Arabia based on a demand side approach. We use a Johansen multivariate cointegration approach and incorporate CO 2 emissions as a control variable. The results indicate that there exists at least a long-run relationship between energy consumption, energy price, carbon dioxide emissions, and economic growth. Furthermore, a long-run unidirectional causality stands from energy consumption to economic growth and CO 2 emissions, bidirectional causality between carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth, and a long-run unidirectional causality runs from energy price to economic growth and CO 2 emissions. In the short-run, there is unidirectional causality running from CO 2 emissions to energy consumption and economic output and from energy price to CO 2 emissions. Even though, the energy-led growth hypothesis is valid, the share of energy consumption in explaining economic growth is minimal. Energy price is the most important factor in explaining economic growth. Hence, policies aimed at reducing energy consumption and controlling for CO 2 emissions may not reduce significantly Saudi׳s economic growth. Investing in the use of renewable energy sources like solar and wind power is an urgent necessity to control for fossil fuel consumption and CO 2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]