Assessing the design of three carbon trading pilot programs in China

To help overcome the challenge of growing CO₂ emissions, China is experimenting with market-based instruments, including pilot CO₂ emissions trading systems (ETSs) in seven regions that serve as precursors of a national CO₂ ETS. Implementing an ETS in a rapidly growing economy in which government authorities exercise significant control over markets poses many challenges. This study assesses how well three of the most developed pilot ETSs, in Guangdong, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, have adapted carbon emissions trading to China's economic and political context. We base our study on new information gathered through interviews with local pilot ETS regulators and experts, analysis of recent trading data, and extensive legal and literature reviews. We point out instances in which pilot regulators have deftly tailored carbon emissions trading to China's unique context and instances in which designs are insufficient to ensure smooth operation. We also indicate areas in which broader institutional reforms of China's political economy may be required for carbon emissions trading to operate successfully. We make nine recommendations to improve the design and operation of the pilot programs and to inform the construction of a national CO₂ ETS.     

Opportunities for low carbon sustainability in large commercial buildings in China

China's building sector consumes one quarter of total energy consumption in the country and plays an important role in long-term ability of the country to achieve sustainable development. This paper discusses a comprehensive approach to achieving low carbon sustainability in large commercial buildings in China incorporating both energy and carbon-reduction strategies. The approach concentrates primarily on three complementary aspects: (a) the introduction of an effective energy management system; (b) the incorporation of relevant advanced energy saving technologies and measures and (c) the promotion of awareness among occupants to make changes in their behaviour towards a more environmental-friendly behaviour. However, reference is also made to the role that renewable energy and offsetting may have in the effective management and environmental performance of buildings.Nine examples of large commercial buildings in Beijing and Shanghai were studied and the average electricity consumption of around 153 kWh/m² per annum is about 5 times higher than average electricity use in residential buildings. At the same time the associated green house gas (GHG) emissions are around 158 kg/m² per annum.     

Analysis of the impacts of combining carbon taxation and emission trading on different industry sectors

Application of price mechanisms has been the important instrument for carbon reduction, among which the carbon tax has been frequently advocated as a cost-effective economic tool. However, blanket taxes applied to all industries in a country might not always be fair or successful. It should therefore be implemented together with other economic tools, such as emission trading, for CO₂ reduction. This study aims to analyze the impacts of combining a carbon tax and emission trading on different industry sectors. Results indicate that the “grandfathering rule (RCE2000)” is the more feasible approach in allocating the emission permit to each industry sector. Results also find that the accumulated GDP loss of the petrochemical industry by the carbon tax during the period 2011–2020 is 5.7%. However, the accumulated value of GDP will drop by only 4.7% if carbon taxation is implemented together with emission trading. Besides, among petrochemical-related industry sectors, up-stream sectors earn profit from emission trading, while down-stream sectors have to purchase additional emission permits due to failure to achieve their emission targets.     

Potentials and costs of carbon dioxide mitigation in the world's buildings

Buildings are responsible for over a third of global energy-related carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. A significant share of these emissions can be avoided cost effectively through improved energy efficiency, while providing the same or higher level of energy services. How large is this emission reduction potential globally and how much will it cost for society to unlock it? This paper provides answers to these questions, presenting the results of bottom-up research conducted for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), based on the assessment of 80 country- or regional-level mitigation studies throughout the world. First, the paper analyses the findings of these studies in a common framework. Then, it aggregates their results into a global estimate of CO₂ mitigation potential. The paper concludes that by 2020 it is possible to cut cost effectively approximately 29% of buildings-related global CO₂ emissions, the largest among all sectors reported by the IPCC, representing a 3.2 GtCO₂eq. reduction. Developing countries house the largest cost-effective potential with up to 52% of building-level emissions, whereas transition economies and industrialised countries have cost-effective potentials of up to 37% and 25%, respectively. Energy-efficient lighting was identified as the most attractive measure worldwide, in terms of both reduction potential and cost effectiveness. If this potential is realised, the building-related CO₂ emissions would stay constant over 2004–2030. These stabilisation levels (if achieved by all other sectors) would cancel about 3°C temperature increase over the projected period of time.     

Energy consumption-economic growth relationship and carbon dioxide emissions in China

This paper applies the panel unit root, heterogeneous panel cointegration and panel-based dynamic OLS to re-investigate the co-movement and relationship between energy consumption and economic growth for 30 provinces in mainland China from 1985 to 2007. The empirical results show that there is a positive long-run cointegrated relationship between real GDP per capita and energy consumption variables. Furthermore, we investigate two cross-regional groups, namely the east China and west China groups, and get more important results and implications. In the long-term, a 1% increase in real GDP per capita increases the consumption of energy by approximately 0.48–0.50% and accordingly increases the carbon dioxide emissions by about 0.41–0.43% in China. The economic growth in east China is energy-dependent to a great extent, and the income elasticity of energy consumption in east China is over 2 times that of the west China. At present, China is subject to tremendous pressures for mitigating climate change issues. It is possible that the GDP per capita elasticity of carbon dioxide emissions would be controlled in a range from 0.2 to 0.3 by the great effort.     

Towards a sustainable energy balance: progressive efficiency and the return of energy conservation

We argue that a primary focus on energy efficiency may not be sufficient to slow (and ultimately reverse) the growth in total energy consumption and carbon emissions. Instead, policy makers need to return to an earlier emphasis on “conservation,” with energy efficiency seen as a means rather than an end in itself. We briefly review the concept of “intensive” versus “extensive” variables (i.e., energy efficiency versus energy consumption) and why attention to both consumption and efficiency is essential for effective policy in a carbon- and oil-constrained world with increasingly brittle energy markets. To start, energy indicators and policy evaluation metrics need to reflect energy consumption, as well as efficiency. We introduce the concept of “progressive efficiency,” with the expected or required level of efficiency varying as a function of house size, appliance capacity, or more generally, the scale of energy services. We propose introducing progressive efficiency criteria first in consumer information programs (including appliance labeling categories) and then in voluntary rating and recognition programs such as ENERGY STAR. As acceptance grows, the concept could be extended to utility rebates, tax incentives, and ultimately to mandatory codes and standards. For these and other programs, incorporating criteria for consumption, as well as efficiency, offers a path for energy experts, policymakers, and the public to begin building consensus on energy policies that recognize the limits of resources and global carrying capacity. Ultimately, it is both necessary and, we believe, possible to manage energy consumption, not just efficiency, in order to achieve a sustainable energy balance. Along the way, we may find it possible to shift expectations away from perpetual growth and toward satisfaction with sufficiency.

Reducing energy use in the buildings sector: measures, costs, and examples

This paper reviews the literature concerning the energy savings that can be achieved through optimized building shape and form, improved building envelopes, improved efficiencies of individual energy-using devices, alternative energy using systems in buildings, and through enlightened occupant behavior and operation of building systems. Cost information is also provided. Both new buildings and retrofits are discussed. Energy-relevant characteristics of the building envelope include window-to-wall ratios, insulation levels of the walls and roof, thermal resistance and solar heat gain coefficient of windows, degree of air tightness to prevent unwanted exchange of air between the inside and outside, and presence or absence of operable windows that connect to pathways for passive ventilation. Provision of a high-performance envelope is the single most important factor in the design of low-energy buildings, not only because it reduces the heating and cooling loads that the mechanical system must satisfy but also because it permits alternative (and low-energy) systems for meeting the reduced loads. In many cases, equipment with significantly greater efficiency than is currently used is available. However, the savings available through better and alternative energy-using systems (such as alternative heating, ventilation, cooling, and lighting systems) are generally much larger than the savings that can be achieved by using more efficient devices (such as boilers, fans, chillers, and lamps). Because improved building envelopes and improved building systems reduce the need for mechanical heating and cooling equipment, buildings with dramatically lower energy use (50–75% savings) often entail no greater construction cost than conventional design while yielding significant annual energy-cost savings.

Energy for sustainable road transportation in China: Challenges,initiatives and policy implications

This paper presents an overview of the initiatives launched in energy supply and consumption and the challenges encountered in sustainable road transportation development in China. It analyzes the main energy challenges related to road transportation development arising in the context of economic development, rapid urbanization, and improvement in living standards. It also discusses technological- and policy initiatives needed to deal with these challenges, drawing comparisons with foreign experience: promoting the development and dissemination of alternative fuels and clean vehicles such as: LPG, CNG, EV, HEV, FCV, ethanol, methanol, DME, bio-diesel, and CTL, strengthening regulations relating to vehicle fuel economy and emission, improving traffic efficiency and facilitating public transport development, and strengthening management of the soaring motor vehicle population. If the current pattern continues, by the year 2030, the vehicle population in China will be 400 million and fuel demand will be 350 million tons. The potential energy saving capacity being 60%, the actual oil demand by 2030 from on-road vehicles might technically be kept at the current level by improving fuel economy, propagating use of HEV and diesel vehicles, improving supply of alternative fuels, and developing public transport. Several uncertainties are identified that could greatly influence the effect of the technical proposals: traffic efficiency, central government's resolve, and consumers' choice.     

国内外碳交易所的发展特征及对我国的启示

全球碳排放交易市场发展迅猛,碳交易所作为第三方平台为碳交易的发展提供了重要支撑。国际碳交易所已逐步形成较为完善的交易体系,主要以欧元计价,并呈现出一定的融合趋势。中国虽是碳资源大国,但碳交易所的发展刚刚起步,在国际上没有话语权。当前,北京环境交易所、上海环境能源交易所、天津排放权交易所作为我国碳排放交易所的先行者,正在积极探索我国碳减排量核定体系和定价机制,通过与国际碳市场所对接,提高我国在碳排放交易中的地位和竞争力。     

Energy conservation measures on residential buildings in Saudi Arabia

The effect of energy conservation measures for a typical two-storey residential building in Saudi Arabia are studied. The analysis shows that insulating the walls and the roof (15 mm-thick insulation) results in a significant reduction in the peak cooling load (>23%) and the annual energy consumption (>27%). Hence, a significant saving in customer and government equivalent uniform annual cost (EUAC) will be observed. The effects of additional measures, such as reducing the glazing area and the infiltration rate, are also reported.     

Energy policies for sustainable livelihoods and sustainable development of poor areas in China

Focusing on the sustainable livelihoods of rural households and regional sustainable development, this research takes Yan’an at the upper reaches of Yellow River and Zhaotong at mid-upper reaches of the Yangtze River as the study areas, extracts the central affecting factors of energy consumption and characteristic indexes of energy zoning based on 1560 rural household questionnaires of 85 villages in 4 counties (districts) and database analysis of socio-economic development, conducts energy zoning for the poor areas in China, and puts forward specific supporting policies for each type of zone. The research finds that (1) the study areas are found to have the following energy consumption characteristics: low per capita energy consumption (merely 1/4 of the national average), with energy consumption for non-production purposes taking up the main part (more than 70%), high proportion of non-commercial energy, i.e. firewood, straw, etc. (more than 45%), low utilization rate of such new energy resources as biogas, solar energy, etc. (lower than 2% in high mountain regions), remarkable differentiation of vertical and horizontal zonality, etc. (2) Physical conditions like temperature and topography, socio-economic factors, i.e. income of rural households, energy endowment, transportation conditions, and institutional factors like policy support are the major affecting factors of energy consumption and characteristic indexes of energy policy zoning. (3) According to the characteristic index evaluation and matrix classification of both the suitability for energy development and types of regional energy endowment, the poor areas in China can be divided into three energy policy-oriented zones, i.e. network-based centralized energy supply zone, diversified energy utilization zone, and new energy utilization zone.     

A multivariate causality test of carbon dioxide emissions,energy consumption and economic growth in China

This paper uses multivariate co-integration Granger causality tests to investigate the correlations between carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption and economic growth in China. Some researchers have argued that the adoption of a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumption as a long term policy goal will result in a closed-form relationship, to the detriment of the economy. Therefore, a perspective that can make allowances for the fact that the exclusive pursuit of economic growth will increase energy consumption and CO₂ emissions is required; to the extent that such growth will have adverse effects with regard to global climate change.     

Energy consumption with sustainable development in developing country: a case in Jiangsu, China

Jiangsu is one of the provinces in China that have great population density and fast economic development. Therefore it is important to ensure large quantity of stable and high-quality energy supply for its development. With the development of the economy, the demand for energy is increasing very fast while the energy supply is going short. The supply of the local primary energy is only 23% of the demand. The final energy consumption reaches 78 Mtce (1 tce=7,000,000 kcal), among which the industry and construction account for 78%. Though the total consumption is large, the energy consumption per capita is only 1.13 tce, the electricity consumption per capita 1017 kW, and the household electricity consumption per capita is 138 kW. Coal accounts for about 76% of the total energy consumed. This paper discusses utilization ratio of energy and the serious pollution caused by energy consumption.     

Designing an emissions trading scheme for China with a dynamic computable general equilibrium model

To fulfill its Copenhagen pledges to control carbon emissions and mitigate climate change, China plans to establish a nationwide emissions trading scheme (ETS) in 2016. This paper develops a multi-sector dynamic computable general equilibrium model with an ETS module to study the appropriate ETS policy design, including a carbon cap, permit allocation and supplementary policies (e.g., penalty policies and subsidy policies). The main results are as follows. (1) To achieve China's Copenhagen pledge, the equilibrium nationwide carbon price is observed to be between 36 and 40 RMB yuan per metric ton. (2) The ETS policy has a cost-effective mitigation effect by improving China's production and energy structures with relatively little economic harm. (3) Various ETS sub-policies should be carefully designed to balance economic growth and carbon mitigation. In particular, the carbon cap should be set according to China's Copenhagen pledge. A relatively large distribution ratio of free permits, the output-based grandfathering rule for free permits, a penalty price (on illegitimate emissions) slightly above the carbon price, and a sufficient subsidy (from ETS revenue) are strongly recommended in the early stages to avoid significant economic loss. These designs can be adjusted in later stages to enhance the mitigation effect.     

2012年中国能源流分析

根据2012年中国能源平衡表更新了中国能源流图,按类别概述了中国能源生产、供给和消费及其在部门间的转换和流动状况,简要分析了全国能源生产和消费的区域布局或跨区流动情况,并介绍了中国在世界能源发展中的地位。     

Evaluation on energy and thermal performance for residential envelopes in hot summer and cold winter zone of China

As a result of rapid economic growth in the last several decades, energy issue is becoming more and more important in today’s world because of a possible energy shortage in the future; the usage of residential electricity has increased rapidly in China and building energy efficiency is included as one of the 10 key programs targeting energy efficiency improvement in the 11th Five-Year Plan. In response to the growing concerns about energy conservation in residential buildings and its implications for the environment, systematic evaluation on energy and thermal Performance for residential envelops (EETP) is put forward to assess the energy efficiency of envelop designs and to calculate the energy consumption of cooling and heating systems. Hot summer and cold winter zone of China was selected for EETP analysis because of its rigorous climatic and huge energy consumption. The correlations between EETPs and electricity consumptions in cooling season, heating season, and the whole year were built in Shanghai, Changsha, Shaoguan and Chengdu, which represent A, B, C and D subzone of hot summer and cold winter zone in China, respectively. Illustrations indicate that the algorithm is simple and effective, energy and thermal performance of residential envelopes can be evaluated easily. The maximum allowable values of EETPs were determined when just meeting the compulsory indices of Standard JGJ134-2001, the corresponding allowable EETPs were also gained when achieving different energy-saving degrees on basis of it. EETP method can suggest possible ways to improve the energy efficiency for envelope designs of new building and retrofits of existing buildings and provide governments some useful information for the establishment of new policy on energy efficiency buildings. It has important meanings to carry out sustainable residential building designs with high thermal comfort and low energy consumption.     

The energy situation and its sustainable development strategy in China

The paper briefly summarizes China’s energy situation and sustainable development strategy as they were by 2009. The energy consumption in 2009 is reported to be 3.1 billion tons standard coal equivalent, 1/7 of the world total, 6.3% higher than in the year 2008, and its share of world CO₂ emissions increased rapidly to 20.3% in 2006. These trends are most likely to continue with China’s plan to accomplish its social and economy development goals. To address these problems and also respond to increasing world pressure for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the Chinese government plans and has legislated promotion of energy conservation, efficiency, renewable energy technologies and use, and reduction of energy-related environmental impacts to reduce energy intensity by 20% during the 2006-2010 period, and to reduce the CO₂ emission/GDP ratio by 40-45% by 2020 relative to 2005. China is facing severe energy-related challenges that conflict resources shortages with the planned rapid economic development, energy use with the related environmental pollution, and new technology with the old production/consumption patterns. It is recognized that energy development must, however, follow a sustainable path to coordinate economy growth, social development, and environmental protection.     

The effect of increasing exports on industrial energy intensity in China

Given China's heavy reliance on fuel energy and the dominance of its industrial sector in the economy, improving energy efficiency remains one of the practical means for the country to decrease energy intensity and to fulfill its commitment made at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference to achieve a 40–45 percent reduction in CO₂ emission intensity by 2020. This study investigates the impact of exports on industrial energy intensity to explore the possibility of reducing energy intensity through greater exports. A panel varying-coefficient regression model with a dataset of China's 20 industrial sub-sectors over 1999–2007 suggests that in general, greater exports aggravate energy intensity of the industrial sector and that great divergences exist in the impact of exports on energy intensity across sub-sectors. A panel threshold model further estimates the thresholds for the major determinants of energy intensity: exports, input in technological innovations, and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) intensity. Given the great differences in specific sub-sector characteristics and the changing roles played by different factors across sub-sectors, there is no general export policy that would work for all sub-sectors in reducing sub-sector energy intensity. Instead, policies and measures aiming to encourage more efficient use of energy should take into full consideration the characteristics and situations of individual sub-sectors.     

黑龙江省低碳经济发展路径的探讨

低碳经济是实现经济社会可持续发展的一种模式。中国积极实施节能减排,促进低碳经济发展,构建生态文明社会,已经成为不可逆转的时代趋势。文章结合当前形势,讨论我省发展低碳经济的制约因素,并给出一些建议。     

Energy conservation and sustainable economic growth: The case of Latin America and the Caribbean

This study examines the causal relationships among energy consumption, economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions in twenty countries from Latin America and the Caribbean region. The methodology includes the use of Phillips and Perron (PP) tests, a cointegration model with vector error correction modeling (VECM) and vector autoregression (VAR) with Granger causality. The study concludes that of the twenty countries analyzed, only in four of them will it be possible to implement energy conservation polices without affecting their economic growth, four others are not able to consider an energy conservation policy with economic growth, and the other twelve should focus on their economic growth before adopting any conservation policies. Energy efficiency was found in this region, especially in the countries which have both cointegration and short-term equilibrium.