• Energy Research

Abstract Carbon intensity is a valuable indicator for balancing economic growth and environmental pollution, and plays an important role in mitigating global climate change and promoting environmental sustainability. This study attempts to examine the impacts of export on carbon intensity by proposing a novel framework that targeting at the gap between export aggregate carbon intensity (EACI) and self aggregate carbon intensity (SACI) which constitute the total carbon intensity to reveal export effects. Multi-region input-output model was used to calculate EACI and SACI in 44 world regions in 2014. LMDI approach was further adopted to decompose the gap between EACI and SACI from sectoral perspective. Some main results are concluded. (1) On global scale, exports increased 7.2% in carbon intensity. On national scale, exports showed increased effects on most countries (42/44). The regional EACI/SACI ranged from 0.79 to 3.53. (2) Sectoral aggregate carbon intensity (ACI) of export decreased EACI by 51 g/$, while sectoral aggregate structure (AS) of export increased EACI by 186 g/$, resulting in 135 g/$ increase in EACI globally. (3) For most regions, although ACI of carbon-intensive sectors (Elec., Metal, Nonmetal, Trans., Chem. and Coke&petrol.) in exports was lower than that in self, the high AS of these sectors in exports resulted in EACI higher than SACI, causing pulling force of export on global carbon intensity. Thus reducing carbon-intensive industries’ weights in exports would have great effects on global and national carbon intensity mitigation.

Air pollution, particularly SO2 emission, has become a global problem, seriously threatening the sustainable development and health of mankind. Based on the panel data of 248 prefecture-level cities in China during 2003–2018, this study used the Propensity Score Matching-Difference in Difference (PSM-DID) method within the counterfactual framework to evaluate the treatment effect of the policy made by the National Resource-Based Economic Transformation Comprehensive Supporting Reform Pilot Zone (CRZ) on sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions. The results show the following. (1) The benchmark regression results demonstrate that the CRZ policy has significantly decreased per capita SO2 emissions (PCSO2) and SO2 emissions per unit of GDP (PGSO2) in the pilot zone, and the placebo test indicates that the evaluation of the policy effect is robust. (2) The dynamic effect test indicates that there is a lag in the effect of the CRZ policy on reducing SO2 emissions. The policy effect of the CRZ policy on PCSO2 and PGSO2 was not obvious in the first stage (2011–2015), the CRZ policy significantly reduced the PCSO2 and PGSO2 in the second stage of policy implementation (2016 and beyond), and the reduction effect of CRZ policy on SO2 emissions is increasing over time. (3) The mechanism analysis shows that optimizing industrial structure, increasing human capital, strengthening technological innovation, and expanding opening to the outside world are the main ways for the CRZ policy to reduce SO2 emissions. The study will help promote SO2 emissions reduction in Shanxi Province, providing a reference for the transformation and development of other resource-based cities in China and the world and contributing to accelerating the achievement of regional emission reduction targets and sustainable development.

Abstract Pricing carbon is a widely used policy instrument for climate change mitigation. Quantitative analysis of carbon pricing are mainly conducted at the regional and national level, rarely at the city level due to data availability. As a representative of coastal megacities that are vulnerable to both climate change and climate policies, Singapore has announced to impose carbon tax on large direct emitters as a complementary mitigation option to technical measures. A city-level Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model is developed to simulate potential impacts of carbon pricing on the city, including paying border-carbon-adjustment (BCA) on exports or introducing a domestic carbon tax. Different sector coverages and carbon tax revenue recycling schemes are investigated for domestic carbon tax. The simulation results show that a domestic carbon tax is a more cost-effective option than paying BCA. Given an identical carbon price at S$10/t-CO 2 , GDP, total exports and household consumption would decline less and average abatement cost is much smaller in the carbon tax scenarios compared to the BCA scenario. In terms of absolute emissions reduction, a carbon tax that covers energy, manufacturing and land transport sectors would be preferred, making emissions around 2.7% lower than 2010 baseline level.

Abstract Index decomposition analysis (IDA) and structural decomposition analysis (SDA) are analytical techniques that have been extensively used by researchers to study drivers of changes in energy consumption and energy-related emissions for energy and climate policy assessment and development. We compare the two techniques from the methodological and application viewpoints and with specific reference to economy-wide analysis where the overlap between the two is the greatest. Our study brings up to date several previous studies and provides a detailed assessment of the post-2010 developments. In addition, a framework for additive and multiplicative decomposition methods is presented, specific application in policy analysis is discussed with representative examples given, and the selection between the two techniques is described. Despite the differences between the two techniques in terms of origin, there has been some convergence in their application in some specific areas. However, even if the same dataset is used, application of the two techniques will lead to different numerical results due to underlying differences in some core concepts and the meanings of the drivers of change defined. A good understanding of these similarities and differences will help researchers in making sound judgment in their adoption and implementation in policy studies.

Abstract Aggregate energy and emission intensities have respectively been widely used to measure the overall performance of energy consumption and environmental pollution from the production perspective. Recently, Su and Ang (2017) propose the aggregate embodied intensity (AEI) indicator, defined as the ratio of embodied energy (or emissions) to embodied value added, to analyze the relationship between energy (or emissions) and value added or GDP from the demand perspective using the input-output (I-O) framework. Besides I-O analysis, structural path analysis (SPA) can be used to split the I-O analysis results into different layers to extract the important paths in terms of energy consumption and the resulting emissions. This paper incorporates the SPA technique with the AEI indicators and structural decomposition analysis (SDA) technique in the context of energy and emission studies. An empirical study using China's 2007 and 2012 datasets is presented to illustrate the AEI at the detailed transmission layers, show their relationships with the AEI indicators at different levels, and further investigate the driving forces to the changes of these AEI indicators. The proposed multi-level AEI framework can also be applied to other indicators and extended to multi-country/region analysis.

Abstract Large-scale population migration entails changes in productive and consumptive activities, which has enormous implications on the spatial relocation of carbon emissions. This study uses multiple methods to empirically assess the impact of interprovincial population migration of China on its trade-induced carbon transfers from a spatial view over 2002–2012. We constructed two networks of migration and carbon transfers, and based on the analysis of their topological structure, we inferred that carbon flows and migration are complements–larger migration flows typically correlate with larger trade-related carbon flows. Furthermore, we analyzed how migration affects interprovincial carbon transfers; in addition, we explored the geographical factor by dividing Chinese provinces into five subregions. The results illustrated that trade-induced carbon emissions situation in China was shaped partly by interprovincial migration at the national level. While the contribution of migration varies markedly across subregions owing to the unbalanced regional economic development and carbon intensity, migration-focused emission control strategy should be enhanced discriminatively to better understand China's inter-provincial joint energy conservation and emission reduction policy.

Abstract There has been growing interest among researchers and policymakers in comparing or benchmarking countries on the basis of their performance in energy consumption or energy-related CO 2 emissions. Such studies allow variations among countries to be revealed, the contributing factors identified, and the scope for improvement better understood. At the same time, tracking changes or quantifying improvements in energy use or emissions over time in a country have long been a focus area of researchers and policy makers. To provide a fuller picture on country performance in a multi-country study over time, it would be of interest to integrate the above-mentioned spatial and temporal analyses in a single analysis framework. This paper deals with this issue using the technique of index decomposition analysis. A spatial–temporal approach is introduced and two application cases are presented to illustrate how the approach can be applied. The first analyzes variations and changes in the aggregate CO 2 intensity of electricity production for ten countries from 1990 to 2010, and the second deals with variations and changes in the aggregate energy intensity for eight economic regions of China from 2002 to 2012. In addition, two different ways of presenting the results are introduced. Our study shows that the proposed approach can supplement studies which are conducted purely on a spatial or temporal basis.

Abstract With increased acknowledgment of global climate change and warming, governments, consumers, and firms are responding collectively to create today's low-carbon economy. Carbon footprint labeling has developed as a meaningful instrument to motivate greenhouse gas emission reductions. This paper reviews existing research and implementation examples to understand the development of carbon labeling. This includes discussing the evolution of the carbon labeling concept, and different measurement methodologies and standards for carbon labels. These methods and standards include life cycle assessment, Public Available Standard 2050, Greenhouse Gas Protocol, and International Organization for Standardization 14067. The review also considers carbon label implementation in different countries and the potential impacts of carbon labeling schemes. The paper closes with recommendations for carbon label implementation, summarizing the advantages and drawbacks of carbon labeling approaches. Governments, consumers, and firms may use this review to adjust their strategy for future carbon label implementation.