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China has set an ambitious national determined contributions target to peak CO 2 emissions by 2030 and aims to be carbon neutral by 2060. One of China's top energy consumers and CO 2 contributors, the steel industry accounts for 13% of the country's total consumption and 15% of CO 2 emissions. In response to the present global warming trend, there is an urgent need to cut energy consumption and CO 2 emissions to promote low-carbon growth. This paper attempts to provide a detailed analysis of the steel industry's CO 2 emission reduction path to carbon neutrality. Further efforts in terms of industrial structure, material efficiency, energy efficiency, and low- or zero-carbon technologies are required to achieve a low-carbon transition. Given that decarbonization is a significant priority in the steel industry in many countries, this study focuses on the goals and technological paths of low-carbon emissions projects to optimize existing technology priorities and propose development directions. Deep decarbonization is also projected to be achieved by combining CCUS and hydrogen metallurgy technologies. The steel industry requires collaborative efforts to standardize CO 2 emission accounting methodologies and establish a carbon trading system to strengthen carbon emission management. • The steel industry is one of the key contributors to carbon neutrality which needs to accelerate decarbonization. • Reducing energy consumption and CO 2 emissions to keep up with the current global warming trend are reviewed. • This paper selects low-carbon emission projects to optimize current technology priorities and provide development directions. • Policy recommendations and next steps for low-carbon transition are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With increased attention on the global warming phenomenon, greenhouse gas management has become an important issue, especially in textile industry. Therefore, an effective greenhouse gas performance appraisal system is necessary for textile enterprises to assess their sustainability and recognize their weakness in the greenhouse gas management. However, few studies have identified the comprehensive connotation of the enterprise’s greenhouse gas management. And there is no relevant research targeting at analyzing the textile enterprises’ greenhouse gas management performance. This paper aims at providing a better understanding of the greenhouse gas management and establishing an evaluation system for textile enterprises. The system divided the evaluation into four categories, including Greenhouse gas management commitment and policy, Greenhouse gas management target and program, Implementation and operation, and Corrective action and public reporting. Literature review, expert interview and on-site investigation were used to supplement the indicators and the weights were determined by Monte Carlo-Analytic Hierarchy Process method. Case studies were conducted on eight typical Chinese textile manufacturers to verify the effectiveness of the evaluation system. The result shows that the new evaluation system can reflect the actual greenhouse gas emission performance of textile enterprises. And the system not only allows textile enterprises to recognize their weakness in the greenhouse gas management and better improve their management level, but also provides reference and experience for other industries to draw upon in establishing the greenhouse gas evaluation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food production consumes a large amount of water consumption and generates huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. Quantitative study of impact food wastage imposing on water and greenhouse gas emissions contributes to public awareness that food wastage will further worsen the resource shortage and climate warming, reducing food wastage accordingly. This paper evaluates the impacts of food wastage in the consumption stage on water resources and the environment in China. The result indicates that in the year 2010, the wastage of major food in China was around 62818 M kg in the consumption link, accounting for 14.5% of the total food production, of which the plant food wastage takes up the majority. The loss of water resources (blue water plus green water) caused by food wastage is 60502 Mm³, more than 10% of the country's total water use. Food wastage has a serious impact on agricultural non-point source pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in a grey water footprint of 16292 Mm³ and 60.85 M ton of carbon emissions. Taking regional differences of food consumption into consideration, the proportion of water footprints and carbon emissions in the eastern and southern developed areas is relatively higher, while the plant food takes a relatively larger share in water footprints and carbon emissions in the western and central provinces. Reducing food waste is important to remove unnecessary burdens on the environment and natural resources. The optimization of resource utilization in the process of food production is conducive to effectively reduce water footprints and carbon emissions of food; healthy diets shall be popularized among citizens so that the animal food consumption which causes more water footprints and carbon emissions can be decreased, alleviating resource and environmental burdens through reduction of the wastage in food consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methane (CH 4 ), the second largest greenhouse gas emitted in China, hasn’t been given enough attention in the country’s policies and actions for addressing climate change. This paper aims to perform a bottom-up estimation and multi-regional input–output analysis for China’s anthropogenic CH 4 emissions from both production-based and consumption-based insights. As the world’s largest CH 4 emitter, China’s total anthropogenic CH 4 emissions in 2010 are estimated at 44.3 Tg and correspond to 1507.9 Mt CO 2 -eq by the lower global warming potential factor of 34. Energy activities as the largest contributor hold about half of the national total emissions, mainly from coal mining. Inherent economic driving factors covering consumption, investment and international exports play an important role in determining regional CH 4 emission inventories. Interregional transfers of embodied emissions via domestic trade are equivalent to half of the national total emissions from domestic production, of which two thirds are energy-related embodied emissions. Most central and western regions as net interregional CH 4 exporters such as Shanxi and Inner Mongolia have higher direct emissions, while the eastern coastal regions as net interregional importers such as Guangdong and Jiangsu always have larger embodied emissions. Since China’s CH 4 emissions have significant contributions to global climate change, a national comprehensive action plan to reduce CH 4 emissions should be designed by considering supply-side and demand-side emission characteristics, mitigation potentials and emission responsibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, comprehensive attention has been attracted to global warming. Meanwhile, China is a country with huge energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission. Therefore, it is urgent for China to reduce the air pollutants embodied in each unit of a good for a less greenhouse gas earth. In this paper, air pollutants embodied in goods consumption as well as import-export trade in China was accounted in 1995–2009. Besides, we checked the structural decomposition analysis of emissions' variation. The results showed: (1) in 1995–2009, air pollutants embodied in goods for consumption and import-export trade in China displayed a rising trend. Emission of carbon dioxide was the largest and methane, carbon monoxide, sulphur oxides, non-methane volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxides, ammonia, nitrous oxide were in proper sequence based at the average level. (2) Air pollutants embodied in goods exported were larger than those in imported and difference among nations existed. (3) The percentages of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides, carbon monoxide, non-methane volatile organic compounds embodied in Construction were larger than in other departments on the consumption side, while percentages of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides, carbon monoxide, non-methane volatile organic compounds embodied in Electrical and Optical Equipment was bigger on the trade side. (4) Emission reduction techniques reduced air pollutants embodied in goods consumption and import and export trade in China. Consequently, China ought to pay attention to emission reduction of carbon dioxide and raise awareness of air pollutants controlling, especially in Construction, Electrical and Optical Equipment and other departments. More importantly, China ought to strengthen cooperation with other nations in emission reduction and developing technologies so as to cut down air pollutants, not only for China but also for the earth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]