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Abstract This paper provides the first estimates of China's global developmental finance institutions in general and China's policy bank lending to foreign governments for energy in particular. According to the China Global Energy Finance database, between 2000 and 2017, China Development Bank (CDB) and China Export-Import Bank (CHEXIM) provided $225.75 billion in overseas energy development finance. We find that: China's ‘policy banks’ and funds have doubled the availability of global development finance –and hold more assets than the major Western-backed MDBs operating in developing countries. With the onset of a new family of funds and multilateral development banks co-financed by China, China is poised to be the largest development lender in the world as Western-backed MDBs appear stagnated in their ability to increase their capital bases. China's global energy portfolio is heavily exposed to country, macroeconomic, climate, and social risks, however. To mitigate such risks and meet the broader sustainable development challenge for the 21st Century, China's development finance will need to shift the composition of its global energy lending in a significant manner.

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.

In this paper we investigate the prospects for the large-scale use of low-emission energy technologies in Africa. Many African countries have recently experienced substantial economic growth and aim at fulfilling much of the energy needs associated with continuing along paths of economic expansion by exploiting their large domestic potentials of renewable forms of energy. Important benefits of the abundant renewable energy resources in Africa are that they allow for stimulating economic development, increasing energy access and alleviating poverty, while simultaneously avoiding emissions of greenhouse gases. In this study we analyse what the likely energy demand in Africa could be until 2050, and inspect multiple scenarios for the concomitant levels of greenhouse gas emissions and emission intensities. We use the TIAM-ECN model for our study, which enawbbles detailed energy systems research through a technology-rich cost-minimisation procedure. The results from our analysis fully support an Africa-led effort to substantially enhance the use of the continent's renewable energy potential. But they suggest that the current aim of achieving 300 GW of additional renewable electricity generation capacity by 2030 is perhaps unrealistic, even given high GDP and population growth: we find figures that are close to half this level. On the other hand, we find evidence for leap-frogging opportunities, by which renewable energy options rather than fossil fuels could constitute the cost-optimal solution to fulfil most of Africa's growing energy requirements. An important benefit of leap-frogging is that it avoids an ultimately expensive fossil fuels lock-in that would fix the carbon footprint of the continent until at least the middle of the century.

In 2014, the Portuguese government appointed a Commission for Environmental Tax Reform that formulated a carbon-tax proposal designed to achieve three dividends: to help Portugal meet the European Union's target for emissions reductions by 2030, to boost long-term employment and GDP above their pre-carbon-tax levels, and to strengthen public finances by lowering public indebtedness. A key feature of this proposal was a judicious set of mixed strategies to recycle all carbon-tax revenues back into the economy. In this note, we show how the carbon tax that the Portuguese Parliament eventually approved deviated from such guidelines, and ultimately failed to achieve the triple dividend. We argue that authorities need to quickly amend the existing legislation to avoid this misguided attempt turning into a missed opportunity to improve environmental, macroeconomic, and fiscal outcomes.

Abstract China now faces the three hard truths of thirsting for more oil, relying heavily on coal, and ranking first in global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Given these truths, two key questions must be addressed to develop a low-carbon economy: how to use coal in a carbon-constrained future? How to increase domestic oil supply to enhance energy security? Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) may be a technological solution that can deal with today's energy and environmental needs while enabling China to move closer to a low-carbon energy future. This paper has been developed to propose a possible CCS roadmap for China. To develop the roadmap, we first explore major carbon capture opportunities in China and then identify critical CCS-enabling technologies, as well as analyze their current status and future prospects. We find that coal gasification or polygeneration in combination with CCS could be a nearly unbeatable combination for China's low-carbon future. Even without CCS, gasification offers many benefits: once coal is gasified into syngas, it can be used for many different purposes including for alternative fuels production, thereby increasing the domestic oil supply and the flexibility of the energy system.

New, small-scale electric generation technologies permit utility customers to generate some of their own electric power and to utilize waste heat for space heating and other applications at the building site. This combined heat and power (CHP) characteristic can provide significant energy-cost savings. However, most current US utility regulations leave CHP standby rate specification largely to utility discretion resulting in claims by CHP advocates that excessive standby rates are significantly reducing CHP-related savings and inhibiting CHP diffusion. The impacts of standby rates on the adoption of CHP are difficult to determine; however, because of the characteristically slow nature of new technology diffusion. This study develops an agent-based microsimulation model of CHP technology choice using cellular automata to represent new technology information dispersion and knowledge acquisition. Applying the model as an n-factorial experiment quantifies the impacts of standby rates on CHP technologies under alternative diffusion paths. Analysis of a sample utility indicates that, regardless of the likely diffusion process, reducing standby rates to reflect the cost of serving a large number of small, spatially clustered CHP systems significantly increases the adoption of these technologies.

Solar energy is one option for reducing future greenhouse gas emissions. Offsetting 50% of all future growth in thermal electricity generation by photovoltaics (PVs) would reduce annual global carbon dioxide emission from projected increased levels by 10% in 20 years and 32% in 50 years. Several projects are under way worldwide to demonstrate the feasibility of PV systems. This paper examines the economic competitiveness of PV systems and concludes that even after including externality costs, without significant technological breakthroughs, the economics of PV applications are unlikely to allow for an unsubsidized, widespread adoption of this technology in the near future. Further, if the goal of PV transfer programmes is to limit future greenhouse gas emissions, there are larger and cheaper opportunities available in industrialized countries to achieve reductions. Alternative measures for ensuring a market for photovoltaics, hence providing manufacturers with opportunities to improve the current technology, include mandating that utilities install a certain quantity of solar technologies by a certain date. Finally, moving towards a renewable energy future that includes PV systems requires a sustained R&D programme that will lead to improvements in panel and other system efficiencies.

Abstract This paper investigates methodologies to quantify CO2 emissions from cars and light trucks in Florida. The most widely used methodology to calculate greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector at the local level uses a harmonic average (HA) methodology based on nationally averaged fuel economies that assume 55% city and 45% highway VMTs. This paper presents a local condition (LC) methodology that accounts for county-level variations in city and highway VMTs, as opposed to assumed uniform driving conditions. Both HA and LC methodologies were used to estimate and compare absolute and per capita CO2 emissions both statewide and counties for 2000 and 2008. From 2000 to 2008, statewide absolute and per capita CO2 emissions increased similarly using HA and LC methodologies; however, the percent change varied considerably among counties. Statewide CO2 emissions calculated from HA and LC methodologies differed by only −0.2% (2000) and 1.7% (2008); however, the differences in the county-level emissions ranged from −8.0% to 14.9% (2000) and from −5.6% to 17.0% (2008). While either the HA or the LC methodology yields a similar result statewide, significant variation exists at the county level, warranting the need to consider local driving conditions when estimating county-level emissions.