• Energy Research

Abstract This paper examines the pollution haven effect from the perspective of carbon emission. Based on a theoretical analysis of how stringent environmental regulation affects carbon emission transfer within regions, we put forward the concept of carbon heaven effect (CHE) and explore the mechanism that environmental regulation influences carbon emissions through investment. We employ a mediating effect model to empirically study the existence of CHE in terms of per capita carbon emission, carbon emission intensity, and the proportion of regional carbon emission to the national emission. Further, the impacts of environmental regulation on the scale expansion and employment of carbon-intensive industries (CIIs) are investigated. Our results indicate that: (1) The CHE does exist in China, i.e., different environmental regulation intensities among different areas have indeed caused carbon emission transfer within regions; (2) The impact of environmental regulation on carbon emissions includes the total effect of emission reduction and the indirect effect of carbon-intensive industrial investment transfer; (3) The scale and employment of CIIs in regions with stringent environmental regulation have been constrained, while the regions with weaker environmental regulation become the havens for CIIs development; (4) Giving that the emission reduction targets were assigned and implemented at the provincial level since 2006, we further examine the effects of this constrain policy on CHE, and find that the impacts of environmental regulation on local carbon emission has strengthened.

Abstract We evaluate the potential of China's pendent carbon tax policy in CO 2 (carbon dioxide) mitigations from the perspective of interfactor/interfuel substitution. The analysis is conducted by region given that interfactor/interfuel elasticities of substitution are often discrepant among different areas. The results indicate that nearly 3% reduction in CO 2 emissions from the 2010 level can be achieved by levying a carbon tax at 50 Yuan/tonne. The inelastic demand for fuel inputs in the face of rapid processes for industrialization and urbanization limits the effectiveness of China's carbon tax to a great extent. Specifically, a total amount of more than 130 million tonnes CO 2 emissions can be reduced in the East coast and Southwest areas, and the areas of Municipalities and Northwest could also achieve CO 2 mitigation by more than 3%. In contrast, the areas of Midland and Northwest can merely cut their CO 2 emissions by 1.6% and 0.92%, respectively.

Abstract With the impacts of climate change causing widespread concerns, many scholars had discussed carbon leakage in the international trade, which ignored carbon transfer within domestic sectors. Departing from them, this paper took into account energy-related CO2 emissions embodied in intermediate production processes. We used the SRIO model to calculate and analyze the carbon footprint of economic sectors in India during the period of 1995–2009, and also investigated the changes in the carbon emission intensity of each sector. The results showed that, from the production perspective, the most famous "high carbon" sector was EGW (electricity, gas and water supply), and this sector accounted for 60% of the CO2 emissions of the secondary industry. From the consumption perspective, this ratio was only maintained at between 10%–16%. In contrast, traditional "low carbon" sector, CON (construction) emitted the largest CO2 to other sectors. In addition, more than 90% of the sectors showed a decreasing trend of carbon emission intensity. The conclusions of this paper have important policy implications for the correct allocation of CO2 emission responsibility, establishment of fair and effective emission reduction policies and the transformation of low carbon economy in India.

This paper investigates how industries' participation in global value chains (GVCs) affects their own energy intensity. Both industries' GVCs position and GVCs participation degree are constructed to describe the characteristics of industries' participation in GVCs. We first provide a theoretical analysis on the impacting mechanism of industries' participation in GVCs on energy intensity. Then a panel data of 56 industries in 42 countries over the period 2000 to 2014 is used for empirical tests. The results show that the promotion of industries' GVCs position has significantly reduced their own energy intensity, while the effect of industries' GVCs participation degree on that is ambiguous. The improvement of the industrial internal structure and technology progress are the main channels through which the promotion of GVCs position reduces energy intensity. Compared to backward GVCs position, the change of forward GVCs position has a greater impact on energy intensity. Moreover, for developed countries, the deepening of GVCs participation degree reduces manufacturing industries' energy intensity, whereas for developing countries, the deepening of GVCs participation degree increases manufacturing industries’ energy intensity, which verifies the pollution haven hypothesis to some extent.

Abstract This paper applies the zero-sum gains data envelopment analysis (ZSG-DEA) model to assess the provincial CO2 emission reduction scheme of China in 2020 and then calculates optimized values for the provinces in 2030. Results from two standard optimization procedures to solve the ZSG-DEA model are compared. We also extend the current methods by improving the iterative approach and then introduce fairness to the efficiency-oriented approach for the 2030 case. We found that the choice of optimization procedures has only a minimal impact on the results, but the specification of model does matter. For 2020, a standard DEA approach shows that only 2 provinces out of 30 are efficient. According to the estimation results of the ZSG-DEA model, 12 provinces need to set higher reduction targets, whereas the other 18 provinces could have lower target values to achieve overall efficiency. These results are generally consistent across different optimization approaches. The improved approach is applied to further evaluate a number of scenarios in 2030, in which the adjustment values towards optimum can be calculated for each scenario. Furthermore, we show that the inclusion of fairness can significantly affect the adjustment targets, which is of great importance to policymakers

Abstract In this paper, we try to investigate the effects of China's Western Development Strategy (WDS), carried out since 2000, on local ecological economic performance. We first construct an eco-productivity index that incorporates economic growth, inputs saving, and emissions reduction within an integrated analysis framework. Then the eco-productivity scores of 30 administrative provinces in China's over 1996–2015 are evaluated with sequential data envelopment analysis technique. The results indicate the eco-productivity score in the east and central area (ECA) declines continuously over the whole study period, while that in the west area (WA) increases persistently since 2000 when the WDS was launched. We infer from the narrowing gap of eco-productivity scores between the two areas that China's WDS implementation has promoted local ecological economic development to a certain extent. In subsequent, this preliminary inference is further verified by conducting an empirical test.

Abstract The Chinese government has made an important effort to diversify the country’s energy mix and exploit different sources of renewable energy. Although China’s installed wind power capacity has experienced a dramatic expansion over the past five years, electricity generation from wind power has not increased as expected. This paper aims to present the current status of wind generation in China and analyze the causes of the large discrepancy between installed capacity and generation. We find that this is mainly caused by the inadequacy of the power transmission grid, the absence of economic incentives to transmission and backup generation providers, and the lack of a generation-based renewable portfolio standard.