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• We find a positive link between cofinancing and Chinese overseas infrastructure project outcomes. • Cofinanced projects are 3.3–7.1 percentage points less likely to be cancelled or suspended compared to non-cofinanced projects. • Projects cofinanced with recipient partners are more likely to have localized implementation. • Projects cofinanced with international partners have lower carbon emission intensity and lower biodiversity risk. • Our results underscore the importance of a collaborative approach to developing infrastructure projects in the Global South. Cofinancing from government agencies, development banks, and private actors is acknowledged as an important tool to bridge the infrastructure finance gap in developing countries, but relatively little is known about outcomes for cofinanced projects. To fill this void, we explore the role of cofinancing in shaping Chinese lending and overseas development finance for infrastructure projects in terms of implementation outcomes and environmental performance. We examine a sample of 2997 infrastructure projects committed between 2000 and 2017 that were funded by Chinese finance, among which 15 percent are cofinanced. Our study shows that cofinancing correlates with higher infrastructure project completion rates, as cofinanced projects are 3.3–7.1 percentage points less likely to be cancelled or suspended than non-cofinanced ones. We also find that cofinancing with certain partners suggests specific benefits. Cofinancing with partners from the recipient country is associated with more localized implementation, whereas cofinancing with international partners has demonstrated improved environmental performance, with a 2.7 percent lower carbon dioxide emissions intensity and a 0.42 standard deviation decrease in biodiversity risks. The results suggest that cofinancing could be an effective tool to enhance infrastructure project success and achieve greater sustainable performance in Chinese lending and overseas development finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Recently, China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced the establishment of a nationwide carbon emissions trading system (ETS), which will be the largest ETS in the world. The national ETS directly encourages enterprises to make a low-carbon transition through market mechanisms. In addition, the ETS is a potential source of significant government revenue through the auction of emissions permits. The allocation of this revenue is an important consideration for the NDRC. Some ETS areas already have experience with revenue recycling. For example, the California government directly returns ETS revenue to residents through electricity bill credits, as well as dedicated some of the revenue to the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF). This study uses a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to explore the economic impact of directly returning the revenue from the ETS to residents in China. At the same time, taking into account the significant differences between different income groups in urban and rural areas in China, the research explores the difference between different distribution policies. The results show that the coal industry will suffer the greatest negative impact from the ETS. By 2050, the number of people employed in the coal industry will fall by 63.8% compared to 2012, and under the ETS scenario, coal employment will decrease by 75.3%. However, these employment effects can be mitigated by targeted transfers to the displaced coal workers using ETS revenue. At the national level, ETS policies have a positive effect on GDP due to the income effect of revenue recycling. From the perspective of household income, the ETS policies will have differing impacts on different income groups. In addition, different income distribution methods will also change the impact on the income of different groups. Among these revenue distribution options, the distribution by population be most conducive to the promotion of social equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • We analyze interaction between China's national ETS and economic transition. • Economic transition alone will reduce emissions by 16% below baseline by 2050. • Economic transition lowers the cost of mitigation for firms under an ETS. • Increased consumption in less emissions-intensive sectors boosts economic growth. Abstract China's leaders are increasingly committed to low-carbon economic development. Although China's economy has dramatically transformed since the initiation of economic reforms in 1978, it is still structurally different from post-industrial, high-income countries, and economic reform is ongoing. At the same time, China is taking major steps towards regulating its carbon dioxide emissions. China is currently preparing to implement a national carbon dioxide emissions trading system (ETS), which will be the largest ETS in the world. Our analysis demonstrates how these major economic and emissions policies are linked in China's economy. We use a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of China's economy to simulate the interaction between a structural transition policy and a national ETS. We demonstrate an important policy instrument – the household savings rate – for stimulating economic transition. We show that by increasing consumption in lower emissions-intensity sectors, China can sustain growth in its economy while reducing emissions and transitioning to a more OECD-like economic structure. In addition, emissions reductions from an ETS regulation can be achieved at a lower cost for regulated firms when taking into account the changing structure of the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The nonnegligible environmental health co-benefit is considered in Beijing road transport sector. • Beijing's electric vehicles policy are studied under different level of EV market penetration. • The strict electric vehicles policy in Beijing will help the city to fulfil its low carbon city target. • The quota-limit policy and EV promotion in Beijing has substantial positive health co-benefit. • It provides a reference for effectiveness analysis of administrative decree policy in big cities. In the deep decarbonization era against climate change, big cities set ambitious targets for road transport. As China's capital, Beijing has very strict vehicles quota-limit policies. This study contributes to the literature for its innovations on the evaluation of quota-limit executive policy for big cities which few studies have studied, and its improved method with integrated analysis model which distinguish itself for including future co-benefit estimation and enterprise-level data analysis. This study estimates the energy consumption and health environmental co-benefit up to 2030, results show that the ambitious policy will significantly reduce both CO 2 and key atmospheric pollutants emissions. Besides, the health economic loss from different illnesses attributed to NO X , CO, PM 2.5 and HC will be 65 %, 61 %, 19 % and 57 % lower than reference scenario in 2030. During the energy transition, gasoline will still occupy the biggest proportion of the passenger sector fuel use in Beijing. However, the quota-limit policy will have significant integrated impact on both emission mitigation and avoiding public health damage. This study provides a good reference for big cities in other countries for both its improved method and the effectiveness of administrative decree policy for urban transport planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important conduit of industrial development, industrial parks have contributed significantly to economic development, particularly through the construction of eco-industrial parks (EIPs). With the increase in the number and type of parks, industrial park recycling transformation (IPRT) has been pivotal in developing the circular economy concept at the regional level in China. Compared with EIPs, this study identifies the characteristics of IPRT as green, cyclic, efficient, shared, and sustainable. To effectively explore how to promote IPRT development, the concept of critical material flow with material flow analysis is introduced to trace materials that are critical to high consumption areas with significant environmental impacts. The paper also suggests that cleaner production audits of enterprises can provide a basis for critical material flow analysis. Analysis of critical material flow pathways can facilitate the establishment of reverse logistics, which is important for achieving closed-loop IPRT through imitation of natural ecosystem cycles. In addition, an information system and database management platform are required to support critical material flow analysis in IPRT. Using a case study of the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area, the findings reveal that IPRT can be promoted from enterprises at the micro-level to parks at the macro-level based on critical material flow analysis. These results provide a methodological and practical reference for improving the stability of the industrial symbiosis of EIPs and contribute to IPRT research. Moreover, an analytic framework is provided that demonstrates how to promote IPRT in practice. • Identifying the characteristics of IPRT as green, cyclic, efficient, shared, and sustainable. • Consideration of critical material flow provides detailed insight for IPRT. • An analytic framework to promote IPRT at micro-, meso-, and macro-levels is proposed. • The framework is successfully applied to assess water resource management in Tianjin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • The impact of the ETS on social equity is assessed. • A dynamic CGE model with disaggregated labor and household sectors is developed. • Employment in China's coal industry will decline by 75% in 2030 in the ETS scenario. • ETS revenue will peak at 2278 billion yuan in 2042 in our scenario. • ETS revenue redistribution can reduce the Gini coefficient by 10% compared to BAU. Abstract Carbon dioxide emissions trading systems (ETS) are an important market-based mitigation strategy and have been applied in many regions. This study evaluates the potential for a national ETS in China. Using a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model with detailed representations of economic activity, emissions, and income distribution, we examine alternative mitigation policies from now until 2050. Based on statistical and survey data, we disaggregate the labor and household sectors and simulate the impacts of ETS policies on the incomes of different household groups. We find that ETS has the potential to reconcile China's goals for sustained, inclusive, and low-carbon economic growth. Results show some key findings. First, the number of unemployed people in energy-intensive industries such as coal and construction will continue to increase; by 2050, employment in the coal industry will decline by 75%. Second, if the scope of the carbon market extends to all industries in China, carbon market revenues will continue to increase, reaching a maximum of 2278 billion yuan ($336 billion) in 2042 to become the world's largest carbon market. Third, the distribution of benefits from the national ETS can help achieve greater social equity. By comparing different distribution policies, we find that the combination of targeted subsidies for unemployed coal workers and direct household subsidies based on proportional per capita will reduce the social income gap to the greatest extent compared with other scenarios. By 2050, this distribution policy will reduce the Gini coefficient in China by 10% compared to the Business as Usual (BAU) scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If all the resources in power supply side, transmission part, and power demand side are considered together, the optimal expansion scheme from the perspective of the whole system can be achieved. In this paper, generation expansion planning and transmission expansion planning are combined into one model. Moreover, the effects of demand response in reducing peak load are taken into account in the planning model, which can cut back the generation expansion capacity and transmission expansion capacity. Existing approaches to considering demand response for planning tend to overestimate the impacts of demand response on peak load reduction. These approaches usually focus on power reduction at the moment of peak load without considering the situations in which load demand at another moment may unexpectedly become the new peak load due to demand response. These situations are analyzed in this paper. Accordingly, a novel approach to incorporating demand response in a planning model is proposed. A modified unit commitment model with demand response is utilized. The planning model is thereby a bi-level model with interactions between generation-transmission expansion planning and operation simulation to reflect the actual effects of demand response and find the reasonably optimal planning result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep decarbonization pathways (DDPs) can be cost-effective for carbon mitigation, but they also have environmental co-benefits and economic impacts that cannot be ignored. Despite many empirical studies on the co-benefits of NDCs at the national or sectoral level, there is lack of integrated assessment on DDPs for their energy, economic, and environmental impact. This is due to the limitations of bottom-up and top-down models when used alone. This paper aims to fill this gap and link the bottom-up MAPLE model with a top-down CGE model to evaluate China's DDPs' comprehensive impacts. First, results show that carbon dioxide emissions can be observed to peak in or before 2030, and non-fossil energy consumption in 2030 is around 27%, which is well above the NDC target of 20%. Second, significant environmental co-benefits can be expected: 7.1 million tons of SO 2 , 3.96 million tons of NO x , and 1.02 million tons of PM 2.5 will be reduced in the DDP scenario compared to the reference scenario. The health co-benefits demonstrated with the model-linking approach is around 678 billion RMB, and we observe that the linked model results are more in accordance with the conclusions of existing studies. Third, after linking, we find the real GDP loss from deep decarbonization is reduced from 0.92% to 0.54% in 2030. If the environmental co-benefits are considered, the GDP loss is further offset by 0.39%. The primary innovation of this study is to give a full picture of DDPs' impact, considering both environmental co-benefits and economic losses. We aim to provide positive evidence that developing countries can achieve targets higher than stated in the NDCs through DDP efforts, which will have clear environmental co-benefits to offset the economic losses. • We perform an integrated analysis of energy systems, the economy, and environmental impacts of China's DDP efforts. • Soft-linking of a bottom-up and a top-down model is a methodological improvement on co-benefit analyses. • China's DDPs have positive environmental co-benefits of around 678 billion RMB in 2030. • Taking environmental co-benefits into account reduces estimated GDP loss from DDP from 0.45% to 0.15%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]