• Energy Research
• 2021-2025close
• 13. Climate action close
• 11. Sustainability close
• 12. Responsible consumption close
• Tsinghua University close

This dataset provides the data applied in the case studies of the manuscript "Backcasting the Techno-economic Targets For Constructing Low-carbon Power Systems". Both the modified Garver’s 6-bus and realistic Northwest China power system are presented here, in two excel files respectively. The datasets include detailed information about buses, units, existing corridors, and candidate corridors.Average cost variations and load growth rate over the planning period are also provided.

Based on the observation monthly climatic data collected from 2766 weather observation stations on global during the period from 1981 to 2010, and the climatic scenarios data of SSP1_2.6、SSP1_4.5 and SSP1_8.5 scenarios released by CMIP6, the mean annual biotemperature, average total annual precipitation and potential evapotranspiration ratio on spatial resolution of 0.1º× 0.1º were respectively obtained by operating a high accuracy and speed method of surfacing modeling (HASM) (Yue, 2010, Yue et al., 2016) during all the four periods from 2020 to 2050 per decade. The method for surface modelling of land cover scenarios (SMLCS) has been developed to simulate the scenarios of land cover in Eurasia （Fan et al., 2019, 2020, 2021）. Finally, the scenario dataset of land cover under scenario SSP1_2.6、SSP1_4.5 and SSP1_8.5 were simulated by the SMLCS method from 2020 to 2050. 采用1981-2010年全球2766个气象观测站的观测月气候数据，以及CMIP6发布的SSP1_2.6、SSP1_4.5和SSP1_8.5情景的气候情景数据。通过运行高精度面建模方法（HASM）(Yue, 2010, Yue et al., 2016)，分别获得2020-2050年间每10年的空间分辨率为0.1º×0.1º的平均生物温度数据、多年平均年降水和潜在蒸散比率数据。采用自主研发的土地覆被情景曲面建模（SMLCS）方法（Fan et al., 2019, 2020, 2021），实现了SSP1_2.6、SSP1_4.5和SSP1_8.5情景的2020-2050年间每10年的全球土地覆被变化情景模拟。

The greatest sustainability challenge facing humanity today is the greenhouse gas emissions and the global climate change with fossil fuels led by coal, natural gas and oil contributing 61.3% of global electricity generation in the year 2020. The cumulative effect of the Stockholm, Rio, and Johannesburg conferences identified sustainable energy development (SED) as a very important factor in the sustainable global development. This study reviews energy transition strategies and proposes a roadmap for sustainable energy transition for sustainable electricity generation and supply in line with commitments of the Paris Agreement aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and limiting the rise in global average temperature to 1.5°C above the preindustrial level. The sustainable transition strategies typically consist of three major technological changes namely, energy savings on the demand side, generation efficiency at production level and fossil fuel substitution by various renewable energy sources and low carbon nuclear. For the transition remain technically and economically feasible and beneficial, policy initiatives are necessary to steer the global electricity transition towards a sustainable energy and electricity system. Large-scale renewable energy adoption should include measures to improve efficiency of existing nonrenewable sources which still have an important cost reduction and stabilization role. A resilient grid with advanced energy storage for storage and absorption of variable renewables should also be part of the transition strategies. From this study, it was noted that whereas sustainable development has social, economic, and environmental pillars, energy sustainability is best analysed by five-dimensional approach consisting of environmental, economic, social, technical, and institutional/political sustainability to determine resource sustainability. The energy transition requires new technology for maximum use of the abundant but intermittent renewable sources a sustainable mix with limited nonrenewable sources optimized to minimize cost and environmental impact but maintained quality, stability, and flexibility of an electricity supply system. Technologies needed for the transition are those that use conventional mitigation, negative emissions technologies which capture and sequester carbon emissions and finally technologies which alter the global atmospheric radiative energy budget to stabilize and reduce global average temperature. A sustainable electricity system needs facilitating technology, policy, strategies and infrastructure like smart grids, and models with an appropriate mix of both renewable and low carbon energy sources.

This is the database of articles "Global supply chains amplify economic costs of future extreme heat risk". The database contains the number of deaths caused by future heat waves in countries around the world under different SSP scenarios (e.g. SSP119, SSP245, SSP585), as well as global health losses, labor losses, and indirect losses as a percentage of national or sectoral value added under different SSP scenarios.

China has built the world’s largest power transmission infrastructure by consuming massive volumes of greenhouse gas- (GHG-) intensive products such as steel. A quantitative analysis of the carbon implications of expanding the transmission infrastructure would shed light on the trade-offs among three connected dimensions of sustainable development, namely, climate change mitigation, energy access and infrastructure development. By collecting a high-resolution inventory, we developed an assessment framework of, and analysed, the GHG emissions caused by China’s power transmission infrastructure construction during 1990–2017. We show that cumulative embodied GHG emissions have dramatically increased by more than 7.3 times those in 1990, reaching 0.89 GtCO2-equivalent in 2017. Over the same period, the gaps between the well-developed eastern and less-developed western regions in China have gradually narrowed. Voltage class, transmission-line length and terrain were important factors that influenced embodied GHG emissions. We discuss measures for the mitigation of GHG emissions from power transmission development that can inform global low-carbon infrastructure transitions. Expanding energy infrastructure has been vital to China’s development plans, but has had negative consequences. This study finds that in 2017 the level of embodied greenhouse gas emissions from the expansion of China’s power transmission infrastructure increased by more than 7.3 times that in 1990.

Abstract Air source heat pumps (ASHPs) are widely used in various types of buildings in different regions of China. Considering the significant differences in the characteristics in heat source side and user side, providing different products for different zones is an effective strategy to promote the systematic development of the ASHP technology. To realize the goal of energy conservation, standard rating conditions are extremely important. The principles for determining the standard rating conditions based on a two-side (heat source/user side) multi-grade (different conditions) method were proposed along with the development of related standards. Therefore, the establishment of standard rating condition is introduced and summarized systematically. For heat source side, the standard rating conditions for heating were classified into four types according to the lowest ambient temperature (−25, −12, −2, 7 °C), while for cooling they were constant (35 °C). For user side, the conditions for supply air (20/27 °C for heating/ cooling), floor heating (35 °C), radiator (50 °C), fan coil unit (41/7 °C for heating/cooling), domestic hot water (55 °C), and industrial use were also determined. This study introduced the implications on ASHP by different standard rating conditions, especially the technical requirements, which indicated the necessity of providing different system cycles and compressors. The energy savings and economic benefits were also evaluated. The primary energy saving rate reached 15.3% and 41.6% compared with coal heating and conventional ASHP respectively by using low ambient temperature ASHP. The results showed that these standards have been satisfactorily developed.

The over-exploitation of groundwater resources is a significant concern due to the potential risks associated with the depletion of this valuable freshwater source. Future planning must consider changes in groundwater availability and urban expansion which are critical for understanding urban growth patterns. This study aims to investigate the impact of land cover change on groundwater depletion. Further, the Land surface temperature (LST) analysis has been performed to find the spatial spread of urbanization and its impact on surface temperature. The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data for groundwater storage monitoring and Landsat data for land cover and LST mapping have been used. The GRACE-based Groundwater Storage (GWS) anomaly has been correlated with Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM)-based precipitation data. The GWS is further cross validated with the groundwater monitoring stations in the study area and the correlation of 0.7 is found. The time series analysis of GWS and the land cover maps with a decadal interval from 1990 to 2020 has been developed to find the impact of groundwater change due to urbanization. The results demonstrate a rapid increase in groundwater depletion and urbanization rates over the past decade. The LST spatial pattern is increasing similarly with the study area’s urban expansion, indicating the temperature rise due to urbanization. The study highlights the limitation of effective policies to regulate groundwater extraction in urban areas and the importance of proper planning to ensure the long-term sustainability of freshwater resources.

Study Region Mekong River Basin and surrounding areas. Study Focus: This study investigated the impacts of climate change on future meteorological and hydrological droughts in the Mekong River Basin and its surrounding areas. Our work is based on the output of five global climate models (GCMs) and simulations using the geomorphology-based hydrological model (GBHM) for the historical (1975–2004), near future (2010–2039), middle future (2040–2069), and far future (2070–2099) periods. The meteorological droughts in the study area were measured using SPI and SPEI, while the hydrological droughts were measured using SSI. New Hydrological Insights for the Region: The results suggest that droughts will generally reduce in the future over most of the study area, but will be more unevenly distributed with an eastward migration as compared to the historical period. Both meteorological and hydrological droughts will intensify in the near future, but will then reduce in intensity. Meteorological droughts will increase in the northeastern areas in the near future, followed by migration towards the south. Hydrological droughts showed similar aggravation followed by reduction, with upstream areas showing greater variability. In the general context of drought alleviation, southwestern China and the Mekong River estuary may suffer from a continuously increasing drought intensity in the future. This finding is based on 100-year extreme drought events.