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Because China has emerged as the largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter in total annual emissions, to accelerate the pace of GHG emission reduction in China is important to the success of global efforts in addressing climate change. Carbon trading is a market mechanism and key instrument in the mitigation of climate change. This paper explores the policy process and development state to date of China׳s carbon-trade market to understand the emergence and development of that market and to understand what barriers are hampering China׳s carbon-trade market development. To achieve this goal, this paper introduces and analyzes China׳s status in the international market, examines the factors driving carbon-market launching by the Chinese government, and traces the development of mandatory carbon-emission trading and voluntary emission trading. It is argued that China׳s carbon-trading market is confronted with challenges such as the absence of a functional carbon-trading market, inaccuracy of the quota allocation, an imperfect trading mechanism, and lagging legislation. At the present stage, shortcomings such as having no real-time carbon price and dominated spot transactions differentiate China׳s trade market substantially from a functional system. A quick market integration of China׳s carbon market appears remote. It is suggested that specific measures be taken to promote the development of the Chinese carbon-trading market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews urban heat (UrHT) challenges following the SBAR (situation, background, assessment and recommendation) framework. The results indicate that heatwaves become more frequent, lasting and intense, especially after 1990s. Above 1960s level, heatwaves across China doubled in both magnitude and frequency by 2018. Jianghuai and Southern China underwent the largest magnitude and most widespread increases. Under 1.5 °C warming limit, the average heatwave days and duration across China will increase by 10.8 days and 3.9 days. Drought–heatwave co–occurrence is increasingly frequent at 7–11%/decade (from 1961 to 2018) and the co–occurrence leads to more intense heatwaves. UHIs are a common issue for almost all Chinese cities and UHIs have been aggravating annually. Daytime UHIs peak in summer, indicating the synergies with heatwaves. The synergies are prominent in southeastern cities for strong summer daytime UHIs in eastern cities and intense heatwaves in southern regions. UrHTs have not been recognised and there are no dedicated/mandatory plans. Mega–challenges of climate change, rapid urbanisation, carbon– and labour–intensive economic growth and demographic changes can potentially lock China into UrHT challenges. Addressing UrHT challenges is urgent in China not only for environmental, ecosystem, social and health consequences, but also for economic impacts relevant to labour, capital, and goods or services. Efforts are suggested in technical improvement, policy formulation, social participation, economic investment and co-benefit approach recognition. Overall, this paper provides a comprehensive understanding of heat–related challenges in China and can guide the creation of cool cities and communities in practice. [Display omitted] • Almost all cities in China are under the impacts of urban heat islands. • Heatwaves and urban heat islands can synergise, especially in Southeastern China. • China has not well recognised urban heat challenges and no dedicated plan. • UrHT affects economic productivity by affecting outputs, labour, capital and goods. • UrHT may drive population migrating out the extreme heat areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latent heat thermal energy storage technologies based on phase change materials (PCMs) are found to be significantly efficient and viable methods for thermal energy storage. These energy storage techniques have been proved to be with positive effects on buildings energy efficiency. The integration of appropriate thermal energy storage system and selection of suitable PCMs plays a very dominating role in the upgrading of energy efficiency. Short and long term storage helps in the reduction of energy demand or shifting peak load for both heating and cooling. However, a comprehensive study for the application of these technologies adopting Chinese built environment is lacking which can relate to climate, energy storage and energy efficiency. The goal of this paper is to provide coherent picture of current status on PCM-based techniques that have been studied with the focus of application in China and analyse the selection and suitability of PCMs and techniques in Chinese regions. The results show that many PCMs and techniques are promising to be used in China however studies can be conducted with the consideration of changing climate rather than winter/summer only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper systematically presents a survey of the empirical literature studying the embodied CO 2 emissions in China’s foreign trade (ECCT). Based on the bibliometric method and the online version of Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCI-E) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), this study summarizes the latest publications regarding ECCT in peer-reviewed journals in terms of quantities, most productive countries, institutions, authors, citations, and disciplines. By using synthetic analysis of keyword frequency, this study reveals the most popular methodologies applied in measuring ECCT, discusses the variation of numerical results in the literature, and reasons and countermeasures for the results uncertainties. Continuous investigation of the literature releases the methodology employed for measuring ECCT becoming more reasonable and the results more critical. However, the numerical results of ECCT are of great discrepancies within given year by different considerations on methodology specification, accounting principles, and data sources and processing. For instance, the estimates of CO 2 embodied in China’s exports changed from 478 Mt to over 3000 Mt and those of in China’s imports ranged from 140 Mt to over 1700 Mt in 2007. Therefore, overcoming data inherent limitations and reducing discrepancies among available databases should be urgently considered. The results imply that the prospective research tendencies on ECCT are to (1) improve China’s regional input-output data and energy intensity data to more precise estimates under global perspective; (2) estimate China’s carbon emission at firm level by different firm ownerships in production and consumption worldwide; (3) assess China’s carbon emission from processing or non-processing trade by compiling more detailed multi-regional input-output table; (4) evaluate city level carbon mitigation capacity in China under global MRIO model; (5) explore new carbon management experience in China’s carbon trading market and new trade expansion policy of ‘ one belt and one road’ in her new growth era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and global warming have become severe environmental issues of global concern, and many countries have promulgated renewable energy development planning to achieve the targets of carbon emission reduction and sustainable development. Accelerating the development of renewable energy technology innovation is one of the major measures to stimulate the utilization of renewable resources. This paper analyzes the impact of renewable energy technology innovation on carbon intensity in 30 Chinese provinces from 2000 to 2015. Using the recent panel estimation methods that take cross-section dependence and slope heterogeneity into account, the results show that for every 1% increase in the innovation level of renewable energy technology, carbon intensity was significantly reduced by 0.051%. Specifically, renewable energy technology innovation does not affect carbon intensity in the short term. But in the long term, the influences are negative and significant. Moreover, the environmental benefits are most evident in eastern China, while there is no significant influence on the western regions. Finally, this paper provides some policy implications to further discuss the impetus of renewable energy technology innovation. • Renewable energy technology innovation can significantly reduce carbon intensity. • The influences of renewable energy technology innovation will change over time. • There exist differences in the innovation effects in different Chinese regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of carbon neutrality provides a new opportunity for the development of renewable energy, especially for wind power. In this paper, 11 regional climate models (RCMs) including CORDEX-EA and PRECIS at two different resolutions are used to evaluate the performance in simulating the spatio-temporal characteristics for wind speed and energy potential from 1981 to 2005. The results show that most models can reproduce the spatio-temporal patterns, and the simulation of the eastern region is better than that of the western region. Besides, most of the higher-resolution models had better simulation performance for spatial-temporal patterns and inter-annual variation. Then, the weighted multi-model ensemble is used to project the changes of the wind speed and the wind power density over China's mainland during the mid-21st century under the RCP8.5 scenario. In future, a decrease in wind speed is projected by most RCMs over China, although some regions, such as the southern parts of China, are projected to have more wind energy potential. The percentage variation of annual mean wind speed will remain in the range of ±4%. The wind power density will decrease in the north and the largest decrease will be found in the northwest. However, the annual mean wind power density in the southeast China will have an increase of 2.21% in the middle of this century. The inter-annual variation of the wind power density in most regions will increase by more than 20%. However, intra-annual variation in the wind power density is likely to decrease in most regions of China, ranging from about −20% to −50%. • A weighted multi-model ensemble was used to project the changes of wind power density over China. • The changes of annual mean wind power density vary in different sub-regions of China, ranging from −3.21% to 2.21%. • The inter-annual variation of the WPD in most regions will increase by more than 20%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy development is a major response to address the issues of climate change and energy security. The utilization of renewable resources, however, highly depends on the climate conditions, which may be impacted in the future due to global climate change. Based on literature analysis, this paper presents a general framework for renewable energy vulnerability assessment and applies grey cluster analysis method to demonstrate the features of vulnerability, and then employs the Simple Additive Weighting Approach to address the multiple-attribute decision problems of vulnerability assessment in China. The categorized results imply that the proposed index system is suitable for decision-making analysis and comparative analysis of renewable energy vulnerability to climate change in China. In terms of exposure part, the cluster results are complex and varied due to the unique combination of natural factors, social factors and the energy structure. In the sensitivity section, the results are presented on the distribution of areas rich in hydropower, wind power and solar energy potential. Moreover, the main results of this study are the higher renewable energy vulnerability of the poorer regions of China to climate change and the relative higher importance of adaptive capacity building in vulnerability management. Finally, policy recommendations on regional renewable energy vulnerability management are also made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to mitigate global climate change and air pollution, the Chinese government has assigned high priority to expanding low-carbon power generation in China. Recent studies have shown that wind power is one of the most promising renewable energy option in China. Although many studies have estimated the generation potential of onshore wind power, their results vary widely from 1783 TWh to 39,000 TWh. Therefore, we examine the different assumptions in these papers and identify three main factors influencing the results. The three influencing factors are: weather data set, land utilisation factor, and wind turbine configuration. For our model-based analysis, we define a reference scenario which is used to compare the results. Our analysis shows using a different weather data set increases the generation potential to roughly 35,000 TWh. This is 54% higher than the generation potential of the reference scenario. The land utilisation factor also has a large influence, ranging between −10% and −51%. The studies' assumptions and data should be subjected to careful scrutiny, as the calculated wind power potentials are widely used to develop decarbonisation strategies for the energy system. • Study results on wind power potentials in China vary from 1783 TWh to 39,000 TWh • Influencing factors: weather data set, land utilisation, and wind turbine configuration. • Model-based sensitivity analysis with nine scenario settings. • Chosen weather data set has the highest impact on the calculated results with a variation of 54%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pyrolysis is considered to be an effective technology that not only provides renewable energy but also mitigates climate change. Biochar, one by-product of pyrolysis, can be utilized in multiple ways by different biochar applications, which could result in considerable changes in renewable energy production and carbon sequestration. In existing literature, however, the economic and environmental benefits of pyrolysis and biochar applications are rately discussed, thus, a thorough investigation on conjunctive applications of pyrolysis and biochar should be conducted. This study (1) reviews the pyrolysis outputs from various inputs such as energy crops, crop residuals, animal manures, municipal solid wastes, and sewer sludge; (2) discusses the economic and environmental consequences from pyrolysis and biochar applications through the investigation of a lifecycle assessment; and (3) illustrates the potential climate-induced impacts on agriculture and stability of feedstock supply. To do this, this paper adopts a sector-wide model to compare the effectiveness and efficiency of pyrolysis and biochar applications with and without impacts of climate change for a specific region as a case study; and addresses the influential factors that potentially affect the large-scale development of pyrolysis. The results show that, in the absence of climate change impacts, conjunctive applications of pyrolysis and biochar can reduce more than 2.69 million tons of CO 2 emission and generate electricity of 3,962 MWh annually. In the cases where climate-induced impacts do have influences on crop yields, transitions among pyrolysis technologies and agricultural practice would occur. Under such a circumstance, net electricity generation and emission reduction would decrease by 1.72% and 3.19%, respectively. Thus,taking potential climate change impacts into account is necessary to avoid considerable deviations from the target. • Various organic feedstocks and pyrolysis technologies are reviewed and discussed. • Pyrolysis and biochar applications improve sustainable energy and social development. • Climate-induced impacts are assessed to understand uncertainty. • Pyrolysis and biochar efficiency are introduced in the face of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]