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Abstract Wood use for residential space heating has become an important topic of study in the US Pacific northwest. This article presents wood use profiles, estimates on the amount of electricity (kWh) wood use displaces and reasons that house-holds use wood. The data indicate that many households can easily switch between wood and electricity for space heating. One conclusion is that utilities in this region should be cognizant of large possible swings in electricity demand resulting from changes in electricity prices and availability of wood. In general, wood use has the potential to complicate regional energy planning efforts to fashion cost-effective residential conservation programmes.

The global warming debate has neglected and thus underestimated the importance of technical change in considering reduction in greenhouse gases and adaptation to climate change. Relevant quantitative cases of long-run technical change during the past 100 years are presented in computing, communications, transport, energy, and agriculture. A noteworthy technological trajectory is that of decarbonization, or decreasing carbon intensity of primary energy. If human societies have not yet reached the end of the history of technology, the cost structure for mitigation and adaptation changes could be cheap.

Abstract The industry in China has been developing extensively in the last few decades. Large investments in China's industry may cause congestion because congestion is a widely observed economic phenomenon in such a scenario. In order to know the performance and allocate resources well, it is necessary for the Chinese government to measure congestion of the industry. Many scholars have studied this topic by means of data envelopment analysis (DEA). However, previous studies only pay attention to the framework of desirable outputs. In fact, undesirable outputs often accompany desirable outputs in production. Thus, in this study, a new approach for measuring congestion with undesirable outputs is proposed and applied to analyzing congestion of the industry in 31 administrative regions of China. The results show that five regions have congestion in their industry in 2010. Besides, the regions located in the east of the country perform the best in ecological efficiency, followed by regions in central and west China. Based on these findings, this paper proposes some political schemes to improve regional industrial efficiency.

Abstract Energy utilization of crop straw is of high economic, social and ecological benefit. In this paper, based on the beneficiary pays principle, we use biogas production from crop straw as an example and analyze households' willingness to pay (WTP) for the local government-led project on energy utilization of crop straw. “Interpersonal trust” and “institutional trust” variables are introduced to improve the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model, on the basis of which, Probit and Interval Regression Models are employed to explore the determinants of households' WTP. Results show that: 1) Most households are willing to pay for biogas utilization of crop straw, and the average expected value of households' WTP is about 20.72 RMB per household monthly; 2) Crop straw program cost and benefit trade-offs, convenience of logistics and technology, and trust factors all play an important role in households’ WTP; 3) If the cultivation of trust is neglected, even if households have high expectations for the ecological performance of biogas production from crop straw, their WTP will not be improved. Conclusions are summarized to provide an important reference for the formulation of policies to improve energy utilization of crop straw in developing countries or regions.

Abstract Using country level panel data from East Asia over the period 1998–2011, this paper examines the implications of international production fragmentation-induced intermediate goods trade on the link between energy consumption and carbon pollution. The paper focuses on the interaction effect between energy consumption and trade in intermediate goods on carbon emission. The empirical results presented suggest that international trade in intermediate goods decreases the positive impact on carbon emission of energy consumption. When compared with the trade in final goods, intermediate goods trade contributes to a greater decrease in carbon pollution resulting from energy consumption. These results confirm that the link between energy consumption and carbon pollution in East Asia is significantly affected by international production fragmentation-induced trade in intermediate goods. The results presented in this paper have some important policy implications.

Abstract The United States (US) Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Mandatory Reporting Program (GHGRP) is designed to collect accurate and timely facility-level emissions data that might be used by policy makers to support sound climate policy decisions in the future. After reviewing the US Inventory and the expected improvements under GHGRP, we find that the benefits of GHGRP are minimal and quite possibly zero while the cost of implementation is relatively high, that the stated goal of reducing emissions uncertainty is not met by the program in its current form, and that the additional emissions data to be collected is likely not needed given the ongoing non-committal environment of US GHG regulation. Our review also highlights the need for EPA to make its US Inventory GHG models accessible to the public, which would enable a more thorough review of its assumptions and methods by the broader scientific community.

Abstract Under the sponsorship of the US Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, staff at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) studied the Rebuild America program for the purpose of identifying key factors associated with successful operations. This involved performing a quantitative analysis of the relationships between program results and selected characteristics of the partnerships as well as soliciting opinion data from partnership representatives regarding the factors related to good performance. The statistical analysis revealed that partnership age and the number of projects per partnership were both positively related to all the results measures tested, by themselves and in the presence of each other. The factors most frequently mentioned by the interviewed partnership representatives as influencing good partnership performance were: general assistance from the Rebuild America representative; open communications among all partners; existence of a “champion” for the partnership; support from the relevant city or state government; effective marketing to attract new partners; strong community interest; quick return on investment; interaction with other community organizations; and continuity of funding. A full discussion of all study findings can be found in the ORNL Report entitled an examination of Rebuild America partnership accomplishments and the factors influencing them (ORNL/CON-490, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN).

China faces growing environmental problems as rapid economic growth comes at the cost of excessive resource consumption. Sustainable development can only be realized by reducing energy intensity. Although some general factors that influence energy intensity have been described, less information is available to compare energy intensity in different regions. Here we use existing literature to assess the effects of three internal factors (economic structure, energy consumption structure, and technological progress) on energy intensity in three regions of China. We use panel data from 2000 to 2009 and find that the effects of each factor differ in each region. We further differentiate these effects by decomposing technological progress into three parts using the DEA-Malmquist approach. We find three components of technological change have completely different effects in each region. Furthermore, these findings are applied to propose relevant suggestions to reduce energy intensity in different regions of China.

Abstract The European Union (EU) has the world's most extensive regional power trade, making it essential for the EU environmental energy policies. Understanding the nexus amongst water, power and CO2 emissions is essential for sustainable water and energy resource management. Although a number of related studies on the nexus have been conducted, integrating virtual water and CO2 emission footprints for the power sector requires further attention. The current study analyses the virtual water and CO2 emissions embodied in the power supply, demand and regional trade. A network model is developed to track the virtual water and CO2 emissions of the inter-regional power trade for the case of EU-27 countries in 2017. The total virtual CO2 emissions and the embodied virtual water in the EU inter-regional power trade are estimated as 7.0 × 104 t CO2 and 5.6 × 108 m3, with a hydropower contribution of 37.8%. The largest virtual water and CO2 emissions exporters are identified by France (8.8 × 107 m3) and Germany (2 × 104 t), whilst the largest virtual CO2 importer is Austria (1 × 104 t). The identified synergy of climate mitigation and water scarcity provides a benchmark for policymakers to develop strategies for sustainable power development considering the virtual footprint in trade flow simultaneously.