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A surge in the size of the automobile population has caused vehicular emissions to become a major source of urban atmospheric pollution. Elevating standards is an effective method of controlling vehicular emissions and improving air quality. Light-duty vehicles are the major contributors to HC and CO emissions as they constitute a large proportion of all vehicles. Consequently, controlling light-duty vehicular emissions has been the primary means of air pollution prevention in China. This paper first reviews the progress of emission control standards in mainland China. Second, it analyzes features of the China 6 emissions standards, namely the continuation of European standards, the harmony of global technology regulations, and fusion with the standards of the USA. This is followed by a description and discussion of the status of research on mainstream after-treatment technologies such as the gasoline particulate filter, lean-NOx trap, and selective catalytic reduction. Finally, this study argues that the technical routes for implementing three-way catalysts, gasoline particulate filters, and onboard refueling vapor recovery in gasoline vehicles and diesel oxidation catalysts, diesel particulate filters, and selective catalyst reduction in diesel vehicles meet China 6 standards. Moreover, onboard diagnostics-based control of light vehicle emissions is introduced, and the development directions of vehicle gasoline (the reduction in sulfur, olefin, and aromatic content and vapor pressure control in summer) and vehicle diesel (an increase in the Cetane number and reduction in the forecasted polycyclic aromatic content) are discussed. State-of-the-art outlook for light-duty vehicle emission control standards in China

This study explores the impact of public concerns on green innovation in China’s automotive industry and examines whether the effect varies based on firm size, ownership, and time phase. The study investigates 151 automobile enterprises and provides a novel, large-scale, and data-based perspective and estimation method for exploring critical factors of green innovation. By applying transition probabilities matrix (TPM) model, this paper finds that for different-sizes automotive enterprises there are significant differences in innovation sustainability, non-innovation sustainability, and liquidity between innovation and non-innovation, and such differences also exist for state-owned and non-state-owned enterprises. Then, based on the dynamic panel random probit (DPRP) model, the paper further analyzes the possible reasons for these differences, and particularly focuses on exploring the impact of public environmental concern on the environmental technology innovation. The empirical results show: 1) public concerns encourages green innovation emerging in all automotive firms, but only affects innovation persistence in medium and large companies. 2) public concerns encourages non-innovator state-owned companies to become innovators and motivates them to maintain continuous innovation. 3) the impact of public concerns changes over time. In the periods of 2002–2007 and 2012–2013, the role of public concerns is not significant. However, in the 2007–2012 period, public concerns significantly stimulate enterprises to move from non-innovators to innovators and promotes continuous innovation.

Previous works on real-world vehicle emission characteristics have mainly focused on the influences of fuel, speed, vehicle type, elevation, and other factors on vehicle emission quantity and components. However, few studies have investigated the transient trend of automotive exhaust emissions through on-road measurements. The key objective of the present paper was to examine the transient characteristics of exhaust emissions from different vehicle types on the roads of Tianjin. To achieve the goal, a portable emission measurement system (PEMS) was employed to monitor emissions from selected test vehicles—private cars, passenger vehicles, and cargo vehicles. It was found that the high-emission points of test vehicles were mainly distributed in two regions: the high-speed region (speed > 70–90 km/h, vehicle-specific power (VSP) > 0 kW/t) and the medium-speed–acceleration region (20–30 km/h < speed < 60–90 km/h, 0 kW/t <VSP < 12 kW/t). The CO, hydrocarbon (HC), NOx, and particulate number (PN) average emission rates in the high-emission points could be 3.15–14.93 times, 1.93–24.89 times, 3.23–6.03 times, and 3.22–30.27 times of those of average emission rates. The HC, NOx, and PN average emission rates of China IV vehicles in the high-emission points were 2.46–4.92 times, 3.56–6.03 times, and 3.22–13.21 times of those of average emission rates, not less than those of China III (1.93–2.52 times, 2.75–3.90 times, and 9.98–22.34 times). Test vehicles mainly emitted nucleation-mode and Aitken-mode particles, and the increase of the PN concentration emission rate in low-speed and high-speed regions was higher than that in the medium-speed region. The exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) + diesel particulate filter (DPF) could effectively inhibit the Aitken output caused by turbocharged intercooler (CIC). The selective catalytic reduction (SCR) might cause more nucleation-mode particles.

The sustainable development of the aquaculture industry is of great significance for national food security within the context of increasing consumer demand, scarce land resources, and continuous ecological and environmental deterioration. China is a major shrimp farming country. It is crucial to investigate the spatiotemporal variations in the characteristics of shrimp aquaculture for the stability and sustainable development of China’s shrimp aquaculture industry, as well as to explore an optimization strategy for the spatial layout of this industry. Existing research mainly focuses on the fluctuations in shrimp production and their influencing factors, while studies on the spatiotemporal variations of shrimp aquaculture and their influencing mechanisms are few. In this study, we analyzed the patterns of spatiotemporal variation in shrimp aquaculture in China and further explored their influencing factors using standard deviational ellipse and Geodetector, based on China’s shrimp aquaculture production data from 2003 to 2020. The results show that (1) there has been a steady upward trend in shrimp aquaculture production in China over the past 18 years, with a growth rate of 128% and an average annual growth rate of 5.2%; (2) the spatial distribution range of shrimp farms has expanded, showing a zonal distribution pattern from the northeast to southwest, and the center of the shrimp aquaculture industry has generally shifted southward; and (3) the level of development within the fishing industry, labor quantity, and per capita income are the main factors affecting the spatial distribution variability of shrimp aquaculture. The degree of influence of each different factor on spatial distribution of shrimp aquaculture varied temporally.

AbstractBecause of its low level of energy consumption and the small scale of its industrial development, the Tibet Autonomous Region has historically been excluded from China's reported energy statistics, including those regarding CO2 emissions. In this paper, we estimate Tibet's energy consumption using limited online documents, and we calculate the 2014 energy‐related and process‐related CO2 emissions of Tibet and its seven prefecture‐level administrative divisions for the first time. Our results show that 5.52 million tons of CO2 were emitted in Tibet in 2014; 33% of these emissions are associated with cement production. Tibet's emissions per capita amounted to 1.74 tons in 2014, which is substantially lower than the national average, although Tibet's emission intensity is relatively high at 0.60 tons per thousand yuan in 2014. Among Tibet's seven prefecture‐level administrative divisions, Lhasa City and Shannan Region are the two largest CO2 contributors and have the highest per capita emissions and emission intensities. The Nagqu and Nyingchi regions emit little CO2 due to their farming/pasturing‐dominated economies. This quantitative measure of Tibet's regional CO2 emissions provides solid data support for Tibet's actions on climate change and emission reductions.

The combination of car-sharing and electric vehicles can increase the acceptance of electric vehicles and facilitate car-sharing to be a more sustainable means of transport. However, this also poses more challenges for the good planning of electric car-sharing systems. To assist car-sharing companies in improving the planning decisions, this paper developed an evaluation framework from a comprehensive view. In the first step, four evaluation criteria were identified according to the planning process: construction of stations; routine inspection; vehicle usability and relocation management; and the maintenance and replacement of stations. Then, a combinatorial method based on analytic hierarchy process (AHP), cost-benefit analysis (CBA), and Voronoi diagram (VD) is developed to determine the relative weight of the four criteria and evaluate the alternative. Finally, the evaluation framework was applied in a realistic case of EVCARD, which is the most influential electric car-sharing company in China. The performance of two different operational districts of EVCARD—Jingan and Changning—were compared. The results showed that vehicle usability and relocation management is the greatest criterion influencing the planning performance of the electric car-sharing system in China, and that routine inspection is a negligible but important factor. According to the relative scores, Jiagan District performed better than Changning district.

With the increasing scale and scope of global trade, the magnitude of the CO2 flows embodied in goods and services through international trade has aroused great concern among researchers and governments. In this study, we established a global network model of these CO2 transfers from 2001 to 2010 using ecological network analysis and data from the World Input-Output Database for 40 selected countries whose GDP accounted for more than 85% of the total global GDP. Based on the utility analysis, we determined the ecological relationships among the countries involved in the global trade network and their changes during the study period. The analysis revealed that competition and exploitation/control relationships dominated the global network, with each accounting for more than 40% of the total relationships throughout the study period; mutualism accounted for the smallest proportion (less than 4%). More than 80% of the competition and 75% of the exploitation/control relationships were within Europe or involved flows from Europe to North America or Asia. Finland, France, Japan, Greece, and Spain had the largest proportions of competition relationships. In Denmark, Luxembourg, Malta, and Switzerland, exploitation was dominant, whereas in Russia, Indonesia, and India, control was dominant. Our analysis identifies the key nodes of the many adverse ecological relationships within the global CO2 network and those with more mutual relationships. Our work provides a scientific basis for developing more ecologically sustainable national and global CO2 flows through trade.