• Energy Research

Abstract In recent years, the international crude oil price has become increasingly volatile. It influences the exchange rate changes of relevant countries through economic growth, price level, international balance of payments, and other channels. Such exchange rate fluctuations have caused certain risks for the development of China’s “Belt and Road” Initiative. This article analyzes the impact of oil price changes on the exchange rates of countries. Because the fluctuation of oil prices and exchange rates has shown the characteristics of multiple time scales, this study used the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) method to obtain the long-cycle and short-cycle sequences of oil prices and the exchange rates of various countries, then analyzed the impact of oil price changes on exchange rates under different time scales. The results showed that oil price fluctuations have an impact on the exchange rate changes of countries along the “Belt and Road” under different time scales. However, this effect is asymmetric between oil-producing countries and non-oil-producing countries, and the transmission path of oil prices to exchange rates varies from cycle to cycle.

AbstractThe article chooses nine indicators from scale, liquidity, financing function, investment function and effectiveness of stock market, using factor analysis to simplified them to three comprehensive indicators: capital allocation, investment and financing level and operation, then focuses on the different weight of each index based on its influence degree to build the index which can fully reflect the development of Chinese stock market. The results show that although the overall development of Chinese stock market in 2003-2012 was on the rise, there are still many problems, such as inefficient operation, the prevailing wind of speculation and the irrational investment behaviour.

Abstract Policies to address climate change have been implemented worldwide in recent years. The core of these policies is to control greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which primarily stem from the consumption of fossil fuels. Consequently, the implementation of climate policies can affect other energy-related issues, such as energy poverty, a critical element of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper uses cross-country data from 2000 to 2020 to study the possible policy spillovers from climate actions to energy poverty. We show that a spillover effect does exist. In other words, a higher number of climate policies is associated with a lower level of energy poverty. The spillover is realized through improvements in energy efficiency, the promotion of renewable energy, and support for innovations. In addition, legislative policies are found to have stronger spillover effects. While the overall policy effects are positive for executive policies, regulations tend to have negative impacts on energy development. There is also evidence demonstrating heterogeneous effects between long-term and short-term policies, and between developed and developing countries. Discovering this spillover effect gives extra motivation for countries to adopt climate policies and actively seek synergies in achieving broader sustainable goals.

With the increase in global geopolitical risks and the frequent occurrence of extreme climate in recent years, the electricity prices in Europe have shown large fluctuations. Electricity price has an important impact on the cost of production and living, while electricity demand will also affect other energy markets. A double-layer system based on the spillover effects from a systematic perspective is constructed in this paper to explore the connectedness between different electricity markets and other related energy markets in Europe, considering the impact of climate risks. The results show that there are certain spillover effects among electricity markets in different countries, with a temporary upward trend in the beginning of the Russia–Ukraine conflict, and the electricity markets in the UK and Germany have a more important role in Europe. There are two-way spillover effects between the electricity market and fossil fuel markets, carbon market and carbon emission. Since 2022, the electricity market is affected by gas prices, while it has a certain impact on carbon emissions. The heating degree day (HDD) has significant spillover effects on the electricity market and other energy markets, while the spillover effects of the cooling degree day (CDD) are relatively small.

Abstract China and India are two major contributors to the growth of global energy demand. As energy is one central part of the geopolitics, the energy security for both countries get complicated by the political environment. The paper investigates the positions of China and India in the trading relationships with different regions of the world. The paper also examines recent events that affect the energy security of China and India. The conclusion is that during the past decade, China and India have diversified sources of energy, especially from the Middle East, though China demonstrates a higher level of diversification and occupies a less passive position in its trading relationships. Shale revolution, the US energy sanctions on Iran and Venezuela and the US-Chinese trade conflicts, can bring China, India and Russia closer to each other due to the shrinking market influence of Russia in Europe and the needs of India and China to further diversify import sources so that energy supplies will not be disrupted by political chaos.

Abstract With the implementation of the Policy of “Targeted Poverty Alleviation” in 2013, China has been in the critical stage to fight against poverty and the county economy has entered into a new stage of development which presents new evolutionary characteristics. However, traditional poverty county assessments are mostly based on the economic census, which not only costs a lot of manpower and material resources, but also shows the feature of hysteresis and scarcity. In this paper, county-level electricity consumption data is adopted to explore the characteristics of China's county-level economy development based on BIRCH clustering since electricity consumption data can be more sensitive and objective in reflecting regional economic development and residents' income level. The results show that four kinds of county-level economic development patterns can be categorized in China with different industrial structures. Then the potential problems with different development patterns are explored and suitable policy suggestions for each pattern is proposed separately. It can be found that electricity consumption should be a useful auxiliary tool for economic development assessment and monitoring for China and other similar developing countries.

Abstract To meet its solemn commitments in the area of climate change and environmental protection, China is working to promote the development of green finance, hoping to direct more resources to green sectors such as the new energy industry. Data show that China is among the world leaders in the amount of green bond and green credit issuance, but green companies in China still do not receive enough support from the stock market. The purpose of this article is to identify the factors that affect the stock prices of new energy companies and to provide specific suggestions for improving stock performance, which will help new energy companies obtain finance in the stock market. This paper takes the listed new energy and polluting companies of China's A-share market as research objects and uses the Baidu Index as a proxy for investor attention. A mediating effect model is adopted to investigate the transmission mechanism among air pollution, investor attention and stock prices. The results indicate that air pollution will not directly increase the stock prices of new energy companies, but it will directly reduce the stock prices of polluting companies. Moreover, the mediator between air pollution and stock prices is investor attention because both new energy and polluting enterprises receive more attention on trading days with air pollution, and increased investor attention could translate into higher stock prices. However, the results of the subsample analysis show that when the stock market shows an upward trend or fluctuates frequently, air pollution causes investors to pay less attention to both types of companies, and air pollution does not significantly reduce the stock prices of polluting companies.