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Abstract In order to further reduce the impact of climate fluctuations on the typical meteorological year (TMY) database, this paper introduces an ensemble empirical model decomposition method to extract the periodic fluctuation and random fluctuation data from outdoor climate data separately, and to construct a comprehensive description parameter that eliminates the influence of random fluctuation data. An innovative TMY based on the comprehensive description parameter was developed in six selected cities of different climate zones in China. Compared with the existing Chinese TMY development method and outdoor design parameters, it is found that the typical meteorological months (TMMs) of each city and the outdoor design parameters from the improved TMY database have changed to a certain extent. Through the correlation analysis between improved TMY database and the cumulative long-average meteorological data, it reveals that the improved TMY can better describe the local average climatic characteristics. Finally, this paper discusses the impact of the improved TMY on the building heat loss index and outdoor thermal comfort in different building shapes. The results demonstrate that the energy demand and outdoor thermal comfort analysis based on the improved TMY are closer to long-term averaged outdoor climate, and the calculation deviations compared with conventional method are reduced by 1.18%–21.08% and 53.42%–76.82% respectively. This research will refine outdoor climate data for building design and analysis.

Abstract Solid fuels such as firewood and coal are widely used for cooking and heating in the developing countries, which result in serious indoor air pollutions and health effects. Governments and international organizations have been devoted to addressing this issue for a long time. Based on the micro survey data from 1989–2011, this paper quantitatively investigate the situations and evolutions of cooking fuel using and its health effects in rural China. We have four findings: (i) most rural households still rely on solid fuels for cooking in modern China. (ii) the cooking fuels are slowly diversifying in the last two decades, (iii) there are considerably geographical differences in cooking fuel using across China, and (iv) those resident usually using solid fuel have lower levels of self-assessed health and higher prevalence of respiratory diseases. We then draw some policy implications to reduce cooking fuel use.

Voluntary purchase of environmentally friendly products is crucial to alleviating ecological degradation caused by human activities that revealing residents' payment decision-making mechanism is indispensable. Most current studies do not distinguish residents' payment decision-making behavior as a two-stage process of willingness to pay (WTP) and expected payment (EP), and research on negative factors needs to be deepened. To make up for the shortcomings, this study decomposes residents' environmentally friendly express packaging payment decision-making behavior into WTP and EP, and selects positive and negative antecedent variables. Then, the Double-Hurdle Model is used to explore the effects of variables. The results show that residents' EP is 2.68-3.89 RMB per item. Performance expectancy has a positive effect, and risk perception has a negative effect on WTP and EP. Additionally, influencing factors of WTP and EP differ, with facilitating conditions enhancing WTP, while social influence and green advertising acceptance promoting EP. Interestingly, effort expectancy has a positive impact on WTP but a negative effect on EP. Female residents with higher education and family monthly income have higher WTP and EP. The research shed light on residents' payment and recommendations on the promotion of environmentally friendly products are further proposed.

Prefabricated building, as a representative of modern architecture, has been vigorously promoted, and the traditional problems of large on-site labor and long construction period have been well solved. At present, the development focus of prefabricated building has shifted to the stage of low-carbon, environmental protection, green and energy-saving sustainable development. Whether green and low-carbon design is considered in the planning and design stage has the greatest impact on the whole life cycle of the building. Therefore, this paper mainly summarizes the concept and importance of green and low-carbon building design; The paper points out the embodiment of green and low-carbon concept in prefabricated building design; And how to calculate the carbon emission in the design stage; In view of the prefabricated building design stage to achieve a better green low-carbon state of optimization countermeasures.

Growing concerns over the use of limited fossil fuels and their negative impacts on the ecological niches have facilitated the exploration of alternative routes. The use of conventional plastic material also negatively impacts the environment. One such green alternative is polyhydroxyalkanoates, which are biodegradable, biocompatible, and environmentally friendly. Recently, researchers have focused on the utilization of waste gases particularly those belonging to C1 sources derived directly from industries and anthropogenic activities, such as carbon dioxide, methane, and methanol as the substrate for polyhydroxyalkanoates production. Consequently, several microorganisms have been exploited to utilize waste gases for their growth and biopolymer accumulation. Methylotrophs such as Methylobacterium organophilum produced highest amount of PHA up to 88% using CH4 as the sole carbon source and 52–56% with CH3OH. On the other hand Cupriavidus necator, produced 71–81% of PHA by utilizing CO and CO2 as a substrate. The present review shows the potential of waste gas valorization as a promising solution for the sustainable production of polyhydroxyalkanoates. Key bottlenecks towards the usage of gaseous substrates obstructing their realization on a large scale and the possible technological solutions were also highlighted. Several strategies for PHA production using C1 gases through fermentation and metabolic engineering approaches are discussed. Microbes such as autotrophs, acetogens, and methanotrophs can produce PHA from CO2, CO, and CH4. Therefore, this article presents a vision of C1 gas into bioplastics are prospective strategies with promising potential application, and aspects related to the sustainability of the system.

Zhejiang’s population capacity and urbanization are restricted by economy, society, energy resources and environment. Possibility-Satisfiability model is used to analyze the “population-energy- environment” system. Optimum population, urban and rural population can be calculated with the Possibility-Satisfiability model. The result shows Zhejiang’s population has reached the optimum population.

Abstract The global steel production has been growing for the last 50 years, from 200 Mt in 1950s to 1 240 Mt in 2006. Iron and steel making industry is one of the most energy-intensive industries, with an annual energy consumption of about 24 EJ, 5% of the world's total energy consumption. The steel industry accounts for 3%–4% of total world greenhouse gas emissions. Enhancing energy efficiency and employing energy saving/recovering technologies such as coke dry quechning (CDQ) and top pressure recovery turbine (TRT) can be short-term approaches to the steel industry to reduce greenhouse gas emission. The long-term approaches to achieving a significant reduction in CO2 emissions from the steel industry would be through developing and applying CO2 breakthrough technologies for iron and steel making, and through increasing use of renewable energy for iron and steel making. Thus, an overview of new CO2 breakthrough technologies for iron and steel making was made.

Rapid urban expansion has significantly altered the regional landscape pattern, posing a serious threat to the sustainable development of natural and social ecosystems. By using landscape patterns indices and an area transfer matrix, this study analyzed the spatial-temporal changes of landscape patterns in the karst mountainous cities of southwest China from 2000 to 2020, by taking the central urban area of Guiyang City (CUAG) as the study area. This study explored the spatial and temporal driving factors of landscape pattern changes by using stepwise multiple linear regression and geographic detector methods. The results show: (1) CUAG’s landscape types altered changed drastically, with the area of forestland and construction land rapid increment and cultivated land decrement significantly. (2) The patches of construction land and forestland tended to be aggregated, the degree of fragmentation was reduced, and the shape was complex; cultivated land fragmentation was intensified. The connectivity of the landscape was improved, while the level of landscape diversity declined, the trend of landscape homogenization was obvious. (3) Socioeconomic and geographical endowment drivers have determined landscape pattern changes. The findings of this study may be used to interpret other similar landscapes worldwide and may imply the protection of urban ecosystem and sustainable development.

AbstractMany developing countries are facing the difficulty of choosing between economic growth and energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER). China has strengthened the implementation of ECER by setting environmental accountability as the development goal of local governments, hoping to have better governance effects. To evaluate the actual intervention effect of this approach, this paper constructs panel data covering 46 countries from 1995 to 2014 and uses the difference-in-differences (DID) method and the composite control method to quantitatively analyse the policy effect. The results show that China can effectively curb energy consumption and carbon emission intensity per unit of GDP by adding ECER targets to the government’s five-year plan, which has significant effects on ECER. Furthermore, we use an intermediary mechanism to test and identify low-carbon alternatives and an ECER promotion mechanism for technological advancement. The conclusion shows that economic development is compatible with low carbon and energy consumption. Combined with China’s long-term goals for ECER, it can be considered that on the road to achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality in the future, the economy and tertiary industry should be rationally developed, the degree of urbanization should receive more attention, and the proportion of thermal power generation should be reduced.