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Efforts to deal with anthropogenic environmental impacts are focussed predominantly on cities. This paper applies metafrontier-data envelopment analysis (DEA) to evaluate the capacity of 286 Chinese cities of different sizes and in different regions towards green growth development and assesses gaps in their efficiencies. The determinants of efficiency, including regional and population size effects, were estimated using logistic regression model. Results show that the state of green growth efficiency was different for cities of different sizes and from different regions, and gaps existed compared to the best production frontier. The paper suggests that more endeavours are required for environmental and social dimensions, and a short-term target can include achievement of group frontier efficiency and significant reduction in technology gap ratios. Owing to significant population size effect, policy programs should have target plans for cities of different sizes as they differ in performance and capacity building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is vast, abundant and particularly plentiful in energy sources, due to which it has obtained remarkable achievements on economy. However, its energy structure is too simple to support the sustainable development of economy as coal still contributes to the majority of energy consumption in China. As a consequence, Renewable Energy Law was enacted in 2005, and Chinese government announced a series of policies to boom renewable energy industry. Subsidy policy is one of the major forms of these policies. This paper aims to present these subsidy policies and to analyze their effects according to relative data in energy industry 2005–2013, to find out the deficiencies and enlighten possible policy improvements. The original intentions and abstracts of 5 different levels of subsidy related policies are summarized, and the effects in reality are attentively analyzed. It can be concluded that subsidy policies have different short-term effect on different renewable energies, and they all show some negative effect to a certain extent. 6 core problems are summarized in this paper, and remedy strategies are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, there is no specific legal basis for the development and utilisation of marine renewable energy, nor legal protection for the developers in China. The consequence is that the Chinese Government is unable to provide institutional support for the substantive development of marine renewable energy, resulting in slow development of China's marine energy industry. This paper provides an institutional framework for the establishment of relevant laws in China and legislative proposals in legal perspective, for the better development of marine renewable energy. The Chinese Government should optimise the administrative management system, strengthen financial regulation such as tax and emphasise sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development that conceptually can be divided into the following parts: environmental, social and economic, is a pattern of resource use, which aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come in future. This paper is a comparative study on the socio-environmental sustainability in traditional courtyard houses in Iran and China, as two of the ancient civilizations in the world. The aim is to investigate the potential of traditional courtyard houses in responding to environmental challenges alongside social norms over a long period of time. To achieve this purpose, social and environmental dimensions of the sustainability as well as the main elements of traditional courtyard houses in Iran and China are identified. Then, the way these elements have contributed to the social and environmental sustainability of heritage settlements are described, analyzed, and compared through library and field survey studies. Results of this research show that Iranian and Chinese traditional courtyard houses were designed based on a careful attention to climatic requirements in their socio-cultural context, in order to provide both physical and mental comforts for residents. As conclusion, some socio-environmental design principles are extracted, as lessons learned from the past, which can be considered in designing of contemporary sustainable residential buildings in Iran and China. These design patterns, can be generalized to all cases with similar climatic conditions, in order to save more energy as well as enhancing social values in mentioned areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ecological protection project of substituting small hydropower for fuel (SSHF) in China is to consolidate the achievements of conceding the land to forestry and natural forest protection, solve the problems of the peasants' fuel and rural energy, protect the ecological environment, and promote the comprehensive development of rural economy and society. It is of great importance to the sustainable development of China in the 21st century. This paper provides a survey of substituting small hydropower for fuel in China. Over the last ten years, using small hydropower to replace the rural living fuel in China has resulted in great fruits. By the end of 2013, 252 SSHF projects had been completed in China, and the newly installed capacity of the SSHF power plants had reached 564 MW (MW). The demand of 1.593 million rural residents for living fuel and energy had been met in a long term, 6.29 million ac-res of the forest area had been protected, and the emission of a large amount of pollutants had been decreased. Moreover, many SSHF projects all over the country are still under construction. With regard to the challenges existing in the development course, some suggestions have been proposed. Implementation of the SSHF project will help realize the harmonious coexistence between human beings and the nature in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy is believed to be the central issue in sustainable development. Literatures on renewables׳ costs are rather sparse, especially on costs of integration and system balancing. The objective of this paper is to fill the research gap by providing an assessment for the cost of China׳s grid-connected renewable energy development and analyze its sharing between different stakeholders. Due to China׳s pricing mechanism of renewable energy and their cost decreasing potential, the pricing model of feed-in tariff and dynamic technological learning processes are employed. In the estimation of purchasing cost, the positive bias is overcome by considering China׳s energy-saving dispatching policy. The results suggest that purchasing cost would be 32.57–40.80 billion Yuan over 2012–2020, and peak in 2017. Grid integration costs which further involve costs of grid infrastructure and system balancing are also investigated. We find that grid infrastructure will cost 27.88 billion Yuan by 2015 and soar to 45.32 billion by 2020, while system balancing will cost 31.49 billion Yuan in 2015 and 63.97 billion Yuan in 2020 among which a substantial part (over 60%) comes from electricity loss in energy transfer. The different parts of these costs are underwritten by disparate participants due to China׳s renewable energy policies and its institutional arrangement. Purchasing cost is shared by power consumers through RES; the cost of grid infrastructure is mainly covered by grid enterprises; and there is no mechanism to specify how to share the cost electricity loss during system balancing which might become a major obstacle for system balancing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the great successes in improving rural electrification and reducing poverty, China's small hydropower (SHP) development is expected to provide a good example for other developing countries. However, recently, nearly all new SHP development plans have been halted, and many plants have been urged to shut down or even be removed. The SHP industry in China is now in a dilemma. This paper presents a review of the status of SHP development in China and explores the challenges troubling this industry. It was revealed that SHP resources in many provinces have been intensively exploited, with an exploration rate over 0.80, while untapped resources are primarily located in remote western provinces, such as ecologically fragile Tibet. This intensive and disordered SHP development has caused serious dewatering of rivers and affected local agricultural and household water access, which arouses fierce controversy. Moreover, the role of SHP has been gradually weakened by the extension of power grids and diversified electricity sources. Therefore, the transition and upgrade of the SHP industry has become critical to enhance its sustainable development and to provide a solid example for the world. A divergence management strategy for SHP should be adopted to achieve low-impact development, as opposed to blind large-scale development or rigidly discontinuing all projects. Future transition strategies are proposed in this paper that include delicate management of existing plants and construction of new plants with higher standards, as well as pathways for the development benefits to be shared by a wider range of local residents. • This study investigated the history and status quo of SHP development in China. • SHP resources in most provinces are intensively developed except some western areas. • Growing challenges that trouble the SHP industry in China were identified. • Future transition strategies for the SHP industry in China were proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid growing number of automobiles, new energy vehicle is becoming one of approaches to mitigate the dependence of the auto industry on petroleum so as to reduce pollutant emissions. The Chinese government has promulgated a number of policies from the perspectives of industrial development, development plans, demonstration projects, fiscal subsidies and tax incentives with an aim to promote the new energy vehicle industry. This paper presents a comprehensive and critical review of the policy framework for new energy vehicles. The analysis shows that electric vehicle has been assigned a top priority in the future development of the automobile industry in China. Policy guidance and planning has played a vital role to the growth of new energy vehicle industry. However, this industry faces significant challenges related to technologies, industrial chain and social factors. Some core technologies are still in its infancy. Similarly, the market share of new energy vehicles is very small in spite of the preferential policies. The construction of supporting facilities and infrastructures has to be accelerated in order to accommodate the growing demands. There is a long way to go for the industrialization and popularization of new energy vehicles in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing biogas capacity is a key pillar in China’s rural sustainable development program. The very dynamic transition of the rural socio-economic platform on which the current biogas development strategy has been based will require significant adjustments in material, technology and supply. The changes of socio-economic status, the problems of resent state and prospects of rural biogas development in China, including fermentation material, fermentation technology, development model and comprehensive utilization of biogas, are discussed in this paper. The results of our analysis indicated the full use of straw as a raw material will be the direction of biogas development in China. Dry methane fermentation will become an important method in the large scale production of biogas from agricultural wastes. The central supply model is the future biogas development model in rural China. It is with broad market and great potential to produce commercial fertilizer from biogas residue. Using biogas to generate electricity has become a new and efficient way to use biogas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, renewable energy plays a vital role in the sustainable development of a society. In China, renewable energy power has developed rapidly since the implementation of Renewable Energy Act. Through a series of specific incentive measures, especially subsidy policies, China's renewable energy power has made great achievements both in technology and application. Based on the state-of-the-art of renewable energy power, this paper comprehensively analyzed the costs and benefits of renewable energy power subsidy in China. The analysis results show the cost of renewable energy power subsidy was 0.248 CNY/kWh between 2006 and April 2011, which was distributed among different renewable energy power types (including wind power, biomass power, and solar PV power) or categories (including electricity price, accessing-grid projects, and public independent renewable energy power system). On the other hand, the renewable energy power subsidy also brings benefits to different aspects of the society. Specifically, the environmental benefit amounted to 17.88 billion CNY, and the benefits of guaranteeing energy security, advancing technology innovation and promoting economic development were also noteworthy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]