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In the context of climate change, innovative financing solutions and the rapid development of financial technology (fintech) offer great potential for the growth of renewable energy. Based on panel data from 30 provinces in China, this paper explores the impact of fintech on renewable energy growth by employing the instrumental variable-generalized method of moments (IV-GMM). We also pay attention to the nexus between fintech and renewable energy growth at different quantiles. This paper also explores the moderating role of the digital economy and the mediating role of green technological innovation. The main results indicate that (1) fintech positively affects renewable energy growth in China; (2) the positive effect between fintech and renewable energy is stronger in provinces with lower levels of renewable energy growth; (3) the digital economy, on the one hand, can significantly accelerate renewable energy growth; on the other hand, under the help of the digital economy, fintech can play a more effective role in increasing renewable energy growth; and (4) fintech indirectly promotes renewable energy growth by increasing the level of green technology innovation. The findings provide meaningful references for governments and policymakers and encourage the accelerated adoption of fintech in the sustainable energy sectors. • The role of financial technologies "fintech" on renewable energy growth is explored. • Fintech successfully stimulates the development of renewable energy. • The impact of fintech on renewable energy growth is asymmetric. • Digital economy facilitates the positive role of fintech in increasing renewable energy growth. • Green technology innovation is the path through which fintech affects renewable energy growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions and climate change risk have become constraints on global economic sustainable development. Environmental regulation (ER) is a key method for achieving synergy in CO 2 and pollution reduction in China. This paper is the first study to explore the effects of ER on CO 2 emissions by exploiting the National Environmental Protection 11th Five-Year Plan (NEP11-FYP). The implementation of the NEP11-FYP significantly decreases CO 2 emissions by 19.73% in key environmental cities relative to other cities. Heterogeneity analyses suggest that this negative impact is larger in western cities and cities with more pressure to reduce CO 2 emissions. Scale effects, structural effects, and technical effects might be three potential influencing channels through which ER contributes to the CO 2 reduction effect. In addition, the results of the spatial externality of the NEP11-FYP demonstrate a positive spillover effect in neighboring cities within a distance of 300 km and a negative spillover effect in cities more than 500 km away. Our empirical findings provide policy implications for implementing low-carbon transition strategies and reducing CO 2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of extreme precipitation on Chinese industrial output and its total factor productivity (TFP) using data from the annual survey of industrial firms (ASIF) and daily weather data. The findings demonstrate a significant reduction in industrial firm output as a result of precipitation, with extreme daily precipitation decreasing output by approximately 1.22%. We provide an explanation for this precipitation-industrial output relationship from four perspectives: per capita wages, labor productivity, inventory, and depreciation. The effects of extreme precipitation are more pronounced in high-income and high-precipitation regions, as well as among foreign firms and low-technology firms. Our research suggests that extreme daily precipitation poses a serious obstacle to the development of the manufacturing industry. These results are crucial for understanding the economic impact and concealed costs of climate change, highlighting that extreme precipitation should be recognized as one of the primary sources of damage associated with climate change in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking China's provincial panel data from 2010 to 2020 as an example, this paper verifies that climate change, especially extreme climate change, can destabilize China's financial stability and explores the transmission path of climate risks with meteorological disaster losses as the channel variable. Our empirical results demonstrate that: (a) only after the extreme climate change breaks through a certain threshold, thus causing a significant impact on the financial system; (b) we cannot ignore the improvement of disaster prevention and reduction ability brought by the improvement of social and economic development level; (c) the impact of extreme climate change will spread to the financial system through the economic losses caused by meteorological disasters; (d) there is obvious regional heterogeneity in the spread of meteorological disaster losses to the financial system. Our results are robust to a wider battery of checks and have important policy implications. • This paper empirically tests the impact of climate change on financial stability. • Extreme climate change will damage China's financial stability. • The economic losses caused by climate disasters will spread to the finance. • The transmission of such losses has obvious regional heterogeneity. • This paper provides policy implication for coping with climate risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is currently facing a critical challenge in completing its second radical energy transition from fossil to zero-carbon energy amidst the impacts of climate change and the international landscape. In order to clarify the concept of energy transition and the challenges facing China's energy transition, this paper adopts a research framework with Multi-Level Perspective to sort out China's energy history. Drawing on China's energy transition experience, this paper derives four key conclusions. Firstly, the energy transition is a comprehensive transformation of the energy system, which is influenced by the macro landscape, socio-technical regime and innovation niche. Secondly, based on the intensity of the transition, the historical energy transitions can be divided into two categories: incremental energy transitions and radical energy transitions. Thirdly, China's past energy transitions are mainly incremental energy transitions. Influenced by the macro environment and socio-technical regime, the transition process is mostly iterative and tortuous. Fourthly, China's energy transition is facing significant challenges in the current stage, with a tight schedule and heavy tasks, and a lack of basic scientific and technological theories and niche innovations. Building on these findings, specific recommendations to policy makers are provided. • The energy transition is a comprehensive transformation of the energy system. • China's past energy transitions are mainly incremental energy transitions. • China's energy transition faces great difficulties at this stage. • China must champion robust institutional reforms and expedite niche innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Minimizing the detrimental effects of road transport greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on climate change and global warming requires accurate emission forecasting. To forecast greenhouse gas emissions from industrial and civilian transportation on roads in China, we present new approaches that use data extraction and managed machine learning methods for regression and identification. Four methods are examined: decision tree, multinomial logistic regression, multivariate linear regression, and artificial neural network (ANN) multiple-layer perceptron. The findings suggest that the multiple-layer perceptron approach of ANN has superior prediction accuracy compared to other models. Ensemble modelling techniques, such as Bagging and Boosting, significantly improved the predictive performance of the developed multilayer perceptron system. The paper's conclusions are significant for transport policymakers, regulators, and international organizations in mitigating GHG emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Most existing studies on environmental regulations and the location dynamics of pollution-intensive industries regard new environmental procedures as an incremental development process, and neglect the influence of sudden changes in environmental regulations triggered by a pollution crisis. Using the drinking water crisis in the Taihu Lake Watershed (TLW) in 2007 as an example, this paper examines the spatial behavior of pollution-intensive firms across the TLW, and pays special attention to the regional differences in the effectiveness of enforcing environmental regulations. We find that the pollution haven hypothesis works efficiently in the short term after an unexpected pollution crisis because of the immediate strengthening of environmental regulations by local governments under pressure from the central government and the public. However, the effect of strict environmental policies was compromised by differences in the effectiveness of policy enforcement across the watershed. Specifically, when other regions (for example, Huzhou) were compared with Wuxi (the site of the crisis in the present study), these regions were found to be relatively insensitive to the effects of the pollution incidents and the environmental regulations that were triggered. Highlights • This paper examines spatial behaviors of pollution-intensive firms across the Taihu Lake watershed in response to the water crisis. • The paper pays special attention to the regional difference in enforcement effectiveness of environmental regulations. • Pollution haven hypothesis works efficiently in the short run. • The effect of stringent environmental policies was compromised by differences in policy enforcement effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A number of empirical methods have been developed to study China's sectoral carbon emissions (CSCE). Measuring these emissions is important for climate change mitigation. While several articles have reviewed specific methods, few attempts conduct a systematic analysis of all the major research methods. In total 807 papers were published on CSCE research between 1997 and 2017. The primary source of literature for this analysis was taken from the Web of Science database. Based on a bibliometric analysis using knowledge mapping with the software CiteSpace, the review identified five common families of methods: 1) environmentally-extended input-output analysis (EE-IOA), 2) index decomposition analysis (IDA), 3) econometrics, 4) carbon emission control efficiency evaluation and 5) simulation. The research revealed the main trends in each family of methods and has visualized this research into ten research clusters. In addition, the paper provides a direct comparison of all methods. The research results can help scholars quickly identify and compare different methods for addressing specific research questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a participatory framework for Sustainability Assessment (SA) for urban Integrated Watershed Management (IWM). The framework is applied to the Lihu Lake Basin (Wuxi City), where between 2002 and 2012 an IWM program was implemented, coordinating water environmental management measures with urban planning. The framework for SA introduced in this paper is based on a Multi-Criteria-Decision-Analysis (MCDA) approach integrating criteria of environmental, economic, and social sustainability. Local stakeholders were engaged in focus group discussions (FGDs) to validate and weigh criteria and attributes employed in the SA framework. Results of the model application indicate that the programme implemented in the Lihu Basin yielded positive results in enhancing environmental conditions, providing more sustainable avenues of environmental management funding, and fostering economic growth. Despite efforts put forward by local authorities, performance of social indicators was comparatively worse, due to relocation policies, increase in housing prices, and scarce public participation. Results show that decision makers pursued viability, rather than comprehensive sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dengue Fever (DF) has become one of the most serious infectious diseases in China. Dengue virus and its vector ( Aedes mosquito) are known to be sensitive to climate condition. Climate impacts DF through affecting three essential bioecological aspects: DF virus, vector (mosquito) and DF transmission environment. Weather-based DF model, mosquito model and climate model are the three pillars to help the prediction of DF distribution. Through a systematic review of literature between 1980 and 2017, this paper summarizes empirical evidences in China on the impact of climate change on DF; it further reviews the related DF incidence models and their findings on how changes in weather factors may impact DF occurrences in China. Compared with some well-known research projects in the western countries, there is a lack of knowledge in China regarding how the spatiotemporal distribution of DF will respond to climate change. However, being able to predict DF distribution is key to China's efforts to prevent and control DF transmission. We conclude this paper by recommending four focused areas for China: promoting more advanced research on the relationship between extreme weather events and DF, developing regional-specific models for the high risk regions of DF in south China, encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration between climate studies and health services, and enhancing public health education and management at national, regional and local levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Partnerships emerge as part of an environmental governance paradigm shift towards less hierarchical, more collaborative, and non-regulative steering arrangements. This paper examines the prevalence of partnerships in environmental governance on an urban level in a semi-authoritarian setting, by exploring climate initiatives in cities in China. The paper presents exploratory qualitative analysis of governance in urban China through analysis of a database of 150 climate initiatives in 15 cities, which are seen at the forefront of climate protection. The analysis suggests that climate partnerships are used as a governance strategy in China. Moreover, partnerships perform a range of essential governance functions, from rule-setting and provision of public infrastructure and services, to supporting technology development and low carbon demonstration projects. The results indicate that partnerships can facilitate local climate action by creating access to resources, such as information, technology, and funding, as well as contribute to introduction of emission reduction technology and new policy approaches. However, the inclusion of non-state actors in the formulation and delivery of climate mitigation projects redefines the lines of authority over public issues. This draws attention to two key governance challenges in the context of a comparatively state-controlled, top-down political system: skewed participation and lack of deliberative opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terrestrial vegetation plays pivotal roles on land-atmosphere interactions, and even global climate change. However, limited attempts have been taken to elucidate the responses of vegetation activity to weather-related drivers (e.g., droughts, floods). This is especially in China with vast area and changeable meteorological conditions. In this paper, the performance of two satellite-based indices, namely vegetation condition index (VCI) and vegetation health index (VHI) were analyzed to detect the vegetation responses to weather-related variations. The dynamics of vegetation activity in China were further examined for the period 1982–2013. We found widely-distributed vegetation stresses in the entire country for a long period (about an average of two months per year) from the VCI and the VHI. In addition, both the two indices indicated increasing vegetation activities over most parts of China during 1982–2013. However, there is no consensus between the two indices at spatial pattern and regional totals. This discrepancy can be due to the negative-correlation assumption of the VHI between the VCI and bright temperature. However, we found that the relationship between the VCI and temperature could be changeable in different regions, especially in China with complex topography, diverse climate conditions and different vegetation types. The findings of this paper highlight the necessity to account for dominant controls on vegetation growth when using the VCI and the VHI to analyze vegetation activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-carbon industrial upgrading is a central means to achieve long-term climate change mitigation and sustainable industrial development. Yet the empirical evidence on the effects of environmental policies on low-carbon industrial upgrading remains relatively rare, and the analysis of channels is unexamined. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2000 to 2016, this paper has contributed to the literature by testing the impacts of four distinct environmental policies on low-carbon upgrading and their possible channels. We found that energy-saving goals (ESGs) and new energy subsidies (NESs) promoted low-carbon upgrading, while pollution discharge fees (PDFs) restrained low-carbon upgrading and emission trading schemes (ETSs) had no impact. These conclusions were still tenable after a series of robustness tests. Channel analysis reveals that ESGs realized both low-carbon innovation and high-carbon industry restructuring (especially reflected in manufacturing), NESs were effective, but only in directing innovation. PDFs did not improve low-carbon upgrading, possibly due to their negative effects in low-carbon fields (including two sub-fields: energy efficiency and renewable energy). The restructuring and innovative effects of ETSs were insignificant. Finally, this paper put forward several policy implementations, including the promotion of market mechanisms, more strict law enforcement, and low-carbon industry development. • The impact of four distinct environmental policies on low-carbon industrial upgrading is examined. • The unique data of low-carbon patents and newly formed enterprises enable channel analysis. • Energy-saving goals (ESGs) promote industrial upgrading through restructuring and innovation effects. • New energy subsidies (NESs) advance industrial upgrading through the channel of inducing innovation only. • Emission trading schemes (ETSs) have no impact while pollution discharge fees (PDFs) restrain industrial upgrading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses pork as a lens on China's rural transformations. Taking the industrialization of pig farming in the reform era as a trace on broader processes of social and environmental change, it advances three arguments. First, the massive increase in pork production and consumption since 1978 has been propelled by an industrial meat regime. A party-state led and agribusiness-operated regime, it articulates modernist notions of meat-as-progress with the relentless drive for capital accumulation. Second, using Marx's concept of metabolic rift, the paper examines how processes of concentration in the industrial meat regime are at the same time processes of separation. This dialectical approach highlights the contradictions inherent in ongoing attempts to disembed capitalist production from biological and social relations. Finally, while official party-state discourse conceptualizes "the rural" as a production base for surplus value, and/or as a site for preserving environmental integrity, the paper's analysis reveals a further unofficial recasting of the rural: in the process of agroindustrialization, the rural is also a sink for offloading capitalist crises. Between the rivers of manure that flow from industrial livestock operations and contaminate rural waterways; the loss of soil nutrients and food calories in the inefficient conversion of grains and oilseeds into industrial meat; the erosion of agricultural knowledge and practice that accompanies the dispossession of China's farmers; and the shifting values of pigs, pork, and manure, this is a system that "wastes" the rural in service of capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With important implications for global climate change mitigation, the development of a cap-and-trade emission trading scheme (ETS) in China is embedded in distinctive political, economic, and institutional contexts and has been attracting increasing attention in recent years. To offer a clear perspective on current research progress, this paper systematically reviews the recent literature on China’s ETS from three main aspects: mechanism design, policy and regional linkages, as well as impact assessment. The current research consensuses are summarized based upon detailed literature analyses and commentaries, and together with observations of international experience and China’s actual condition, the paper provides policy proposals for the development of China’s national ETS during 2016–2020. Finally, several important controversies in the current literature are discussed with regard to the practical demands of China’s ETS development. Five pressing topics that need to be further studied in the coming years are highlighted, including cap setting, allowance allocation among sectors and enterprises, carbon pricing, policy package and unified carbon market construction, as well as ex-ante and ex-post impact assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has been facing increasingly severe water scarcity that seriously threatens the socio-economic development and its sustainability of this country. This paper is intended to analyze and assess the water security of China. It first attempts to characterize the current status of water security within a risk-based, integrated framework that encompasses five key aspects critical to water sustainability, including water availability, water use patterns, wastewater generation and pollution control, water institutions and management, and health of aquatic systems and societal vulnerability. Based on the above assessment, the paper then analyzes emerging challenges for water security brought by climate change, population growth and rapid urbanization, and the water-food-energy nexus. In the end, the paper discusses China's future prospects on water security, including current achievements, government actions and policy initiatives, and recommendations for management improvement aimed at increasing water security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's wide-ranging circular economy (CE) efforts have been studied multiple times from a range of perspectives. Synthesizing the relevant literature, this paper provides a critical reflection on the transition to a CE in China. Key factors for China's success in shifting towards a CE are seen in multi-level indicators and upscaling niches. This paper makes a novel contribution on limitations to progress, based on emerging evidence on CE projects that fail to sustain. Enriched by experts feedback, this paper critically addresses future challenges to a deep transition resulting from implementation gaps between early majorities and mass markets and coordination challenges arising through regional and sectoral differences. In light of China's commitments to climate neutrality by 2060, such challenges are considered serious. Based on feasible policy learning, the paper however proposes synergies between the CE and decarbonisation driven by efficiency improvements, comprehensive core indicators, upscaling and urban policies as trigger for deeper transformations. Finally the paper undertakes broader reflections and an outlook on evidence-orientated policy learning for a CE and decarbonisation in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because China has emerged as the largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter in total annual emissions, to accelerate the pace of GHG emission reduction in China is important to the success of global efforts in addressing climate change. Carbon trading is a market mechanism and key instrument in the mitigation of climate change. This paper explores the policy process and development state to date of China׳s carbon-trade market to understand the emergence and development of that market and to understand what barriers are hampering China׳s carbon-trade market development. To achieve this goal, this paper introduces and analyzes China׳s status in the international market, examines the factors driving carbon-market launching by the Chinese government, and traces the development of mandatory carbon-emission trading and voluntary emission trading. It is argued that China׳s carbon-trading market is confronted with challenges such as the absence of a functional carbon-trading market, inaccuracy of the quota allocation, an imperfect trading mechanism, and lagging legislation. At the present stage, shortcomings such as having no real-time carbon price and dominated spot transactions differentiate China׳s trade market substantially from a functional system. A quick market integration of China׳s carbon market appears remote. It is suggested that specific measures be taken to promote the development of the Chinese carbon-trading market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hangzhou is a rapidly growing Chinese coastal metropolis that is facing climate change impacts, including intense heat waves, flooding and increased severity of storms (e.g. typhoons and thunderstorms). This paper examines whether green infrastructure (GI), specifically increased tree planting, could help Hangzhou City adapt to some of these impacts. The paper reports the results of a survey of Hangzhou green-space users and their disposition toward tree planting in public and communal green-spaces as a climate change adaptive response. Results show that surveyed green-space users tended to favor tree planting as an adaptive strategy if they were older, believed that individual actions could reduce climate change impacts, and believed that future climate change impacts would be economically disruptive. Few respondents reported tree costs (disservices). While the perceived benefits of urban trees were unrelated to support for urban greening, results suggest that under some conditions, residents may be willing to support increased tree cover within urban public and communal open spaces. Findings suggest land use planners and environmental managers in China would do well to cultivate support for green infrastructure interventions among older green-space users and residents who perceive personal costs associated with climate change. Additional research across a range of Chinese cities, and internationally, could further assist in evaluating the efficacy of green infrastructure for climate change adaptation from a green-space user perspective. Particular attention will need to be given to the potential costs of large-scale tree planting (e.g. health impacts) and to the utility of GI for macro-scale climate change response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To mitigate climate change and achieve sustainable development, Chinese governments have introduced "1+N" "dual-carbon" policy system aimed at reducing CO 2 emissions, transforming energy structures and controlling pollution. An effective policy mix and synergy is crucial for achieving the emission reduction targets and for ensuring the effectiveness of the policies, and it is therefore of great practical importance to provide a pathway for policy synergy based on assessing policy effectiveness. This paper selects three policies, namely the carbon Emission Trading System (ETS), Coal Control and Clean Utilization (CCCU), and Green Financial Reform and Innovation Pilot Zone (GFPZ), sets up ten scenarios, adopts difference-in-differences (DID) models to evaluate the impact, and give a pathway for policy synergy. The results show that ETS, CCCU, and GFPZ policies have significant positive effects on carbon emission reduction, energy structure transformation, and industrial environmental pollution control, respectively; CCCU has synergistic effects with ETS and GFPZ policies in controlling coal consumption and increasing the completion of industrial pollution control investments, respectively; while GFPZ policies have conflicting effects with CCCU and ETS in reducing carbon emissions and coal consumption, the GFPZ policy has conflicting effects with CCCU and ETS in reducing carbon emissions and controlling coal consumption. Finally, the study proposes a phased policy support system around carbon emission reduction in the power generation industry, energy structure transformation, and industrial environmental pollution control before 2030 and from 2030 to 2060. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper matched the data for all non-financial listed firms in China from 1990 to 2017 with weather data and used temperature and precipitation to represent climate change. Using daily temperature and daily precipitation data, we constructed temperature bins and precipitation bins. This study presents a potential first empirical analysis that applies the risk perception theory to comprehensively examine the impacts of daily temperature and daily precipitation on firms' debt financing costs. Compared to a day with a suitable temperature, a day with temperatures above 30 °C increases firms' debt financing costs by 0.2411%. Compared to a sunny day, a day with torrential rain increases firms' financing costs by 0.2697%. Approximately $122.13 million and $20.49 million in extra costs were incurred across all firms in 2017. We conducted a series of heterogeneity tests. We found that the negative impacts of climate change on debt financing costs are greater for firms that investor considers more vulnerable. Finally, we found two possible mechanisms. First, from the firm's subjective initiative perspective, firms that respond proactively during seasons of high temperatures and heavy rains can reduce the negative impacts. Second, adverse weather caused by climate change may also increase firms' debt financing costs by blocking travel. These results enrich the literature on firms' debt financing costs and contribute to the understanding of climate change's impact on firms. [Display omitted] • An extra high-temperature day increases firms' debt financing cost by 0.2411%. • An extra heavy-rain day increases firms' debt financing costs by 0.2697%. • The negative impacts will be greater for those firms that investor considers more vulnerable. • Firms' response proactively can reduce the negative impacts. • Climate change also may increase firms' debt financing costs by blocking travel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Average start of the photosynthetic period in China was on the 123rd day of the year. • The average start of the photosynthetic period advances at a rate of 4.3 d (10 a)−1. • 64% of the region is temperature controlled, others are precipitation controlled. • Importance of temperature and precipitation determined by pre-season precipitation. • Climate change increases NPP by advancing the start of the photosynthetic period. In the context of global warming, the advancement of spring phenology in northern and temperate regions due to increased temperatures has been widely reported. Early and delayed start of the photosynthetic period (SOP) directly affects the vegetation net primary productivity (NPP). However, the interrelationship between climate change, the SOP, and the NPP is unclear. In this paper, we use the dynamics of decadal daily solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence data to calculate the response of Chinese vegetation photosynthetic phenology to climate change and its impact on the NPP over the last 20 years. The results found that over the last 20 years, the average SOP in China was on the 123rd day of the year, and the SOP has advanced at an average rate of 4.3 d (10 a)−1, with a faster trend of SOP advancement in highland and high-altitude areas. 64% of SOP in China is controlled by temperature; 36% of the SOP in China is controlled by precipitation, and the relative importance of temperature and precipitation was reversed as the precipitation gradient decreased, with SOP dominated by temperature when pre-season precipitation ≧300 mm, and SOP dominated by precipitation when pre-season precipitation ≦300 mm. Finally, we find that climate change indirectly increases vegetation NPP by advancing SOP. Our study emphasizes the importance of precipitation on phenology. It provides a scientific basis for understanding and predicting the response of spring photosynthetic phenology to climate change and the contribution of spring phenology to carbon estimation in terrestrial ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The unprecedented resources and energy needed to support the high growth of urbanization with the emerging issues of environmental degradation and GHG emissions is increasingly dramatic in China. A series of national and local policies have been implemented for achieving the co-benefits of reducing emissions of greenhouse gas (GHG) and air pollution for China's sustainable development. In this paper, the achievement of climate change mitigation and air pollution reduction in different sectors through implementing policies is reviewed. This paper reports on the types of policy measures that have been introduced in two cases (i.e. Tiexi District of Shenyang and Baoshan District of Shanghai) to affect air quality and energy efficiency improvements, which are then collectively examined in terms of their impacts on GHG and air pollutant emissions. Recommendations are made for achieving co-benefits effectively through the integrated approach by comprehensively concentrating on the short and long-term environmental protection and energy conservation at local and national levels based on the analysis made in the paper. The limited coordination and lack of capacity in different government bodies may be the main barriers to the implementation of a co-benefits approach. Enhancing the cooperation and capacity building could overcome these obstacles. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Debates about intergenerational fairness and resource-use are prominent in diverse international contexts, with a large number of social policy and environmental concerns characterised as having intergenerational dimensions. This includes concerns relating to synchronic equity (how resources are distributed between living generations) and diachronic equity (saving resources for future generations), with climate change being a high-profile example of an issue characterised in this way. In this paper we explore how urban residents perceive their responsibilities towards future generations in two cities based in countries that are major greenhouse gas emitters. Drawing on in-depth interviews with a cross-generational sample of 190 people living in Nanjing, China, and Sheffield, UK, we consider whose future and what aspects of the future people feel responsible for and at what scale. This discussion is situated within an emerging critique of generational discourses that conflate caring for the family and one's own children with caring for the wider society and for the future. We argue that this has far-reaching implications for how people think about intergenerational responsibility and imagine appropriate courses of action, shaping a particular 'timescape' that privileges living generations in close proximity. We find that people in Sheffield tend to be more concerned about social and economic aspects of sustainable development than environmental degradation. People in Nanjing more readily discuss responsibility for environmental stewardship, in the wider political context of state-led and nationalist discourses of collective responsibility, but still appear to struggle with thinking about the future beyond their lifetimes and immediate descendants. We discuss these findings and their implications through the analytical framework of geographies of responsibility, exploring possibilities for a more spatially and temporally extensive scope of care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-level governance (MLG) theory has become the main explanation for how climate action is realized in polycentric, multi-sector, multi-actor policy landscapes. In this paper, we examine processes of climate change governance in a given city in China, Rizhao, and evaluate how MLG arrangements operate. We do so by examining primary data collected through in-depth interviews with local stakeholders. Our results show that the focus on multi-level – and in particular transnational – interactions obscures the ways in which urban low carbon transitions happen in three ways. First, in spite of Rizhao being a well-known case in environmental politics, there is an absence of international actors and non-governmental organizations operating on the ground. Second, the emphasis on opportunities of local authorities to build political agendas through participation in global networks conceals how structures of power, political-economic coalitions, and technological practices are firmly fixed in a local context. Third, the case study illustrates the enduring authority of formal top-down channels of control in this political system. Based on these results, we caution against the uncritical application of MLG theory to environmental politics in settings where deliberative democracy is lacking and the full benefits of multi-level interactions are unlikely to be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • The increases of commuting CO 2 emissions are several times larger than the urban size, population, and economics' developments. • Metro services reducing commuting CO 2 emissions near the metro stations is not statistically significant, possibly because the proportions of car users near the metro stations are similar to the two cities' average levels, which is caused by their higher household income and the longer travel time using the metro. • In Beijing, there are the smallest commuting CO 2 emissions in the outer suburbs due to job-housing balances, short distance and large percentage of non-motorized mode uses while the largest commuting CO 2 emissions in the inner sprawl suburbs due to car trips with long distance. Abstract To understand the changing relationships between commuting CO 2 emissions (CCE), travel behavior and urban forms, this paper provides a comparative study between the typical Chinese cities of Beijing (more developed) and Xi'an (rapidly developing). Further, the effects of metro services on reducing CCE were explored, and comparative analysis on CCE between the inner sprawling suburbs and outer suburbs was conducted. It was found that: (i) the increases in CCE are several times larger than the increases in urban size, population, and economic developments; (ii) metro services reducing CCE near metro stations is not statistically significant, maybe because the proportions of car users near the metro stations are similar to the two cities' average levels, which is caused by their higher household income and the longer travel time using the metro; (iii) in Beijing, there are smallest CCE in the outer suburbs due to job-housing balances, short distance and large percentage of non-motorized mode uses while largest CCE in the inner sprawl suburbs due to car trips with long distance. These findings indicate that to cope with the rapidly increasing CCE, more attention should be paid to developing strong industry and real-estate simultaneously; the improvement in the feeder bus and public bicycle systems should also be reinforced to reduce the total travel time of metro users; and satellite cities with job-housing balance are greatly needed. The implications will benefit efforts to reduce CCE and mitigate global climate change, and they also provide empirical evidence and reference values for other global cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Renewable energy, as an important part of the world's energy system, is conducive to the harmonious development of humanity and nature. China has been paying considerable attention to renewable energy given the growing pressure of energy shortages and environmental deterioration. The legal framework of renewable energy in China has greatly contributed to the achievements already made in this field; however, it is still insufficient to integrate renewable energy into the national energy system. This paper, in light of the comparisons of various state practices, critically reviews the problems of China's renewable energy law and policy such as problems with fragmentation, obsolescence, and lack of operability. In addition to identifying the consequent disadvantages, this review also presents improvement recommendations. Highlights • The world is facing serious problems of energy shortage, environmental pollution and climate change. • China has established a relatively complete renewable energy law and policy system to promote renewable energy development. • Smooth development of renewable energy is inseparable from supportive legal framework. • Compared with other states, China's renewable energy laws and policies have some disadvantages to be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract With climate change and the over-exploitation of fossil fuels, the advantages of using bioenergy are becoming increasingly obvious and many countries and regions around the world are committed to building biogas plants to produce clean energy. This article examines Henan Province, which features agricultural production and biogas projects typical of China. The aim was to identify the problems associated with the use of current agricultural waste in biogas production and provide suggestions for future biogas developments via comparisons of the potential of agricultural wastes with biogas project construction. Straw and manure volumes were analyzed by using crop yields and livestock production to calculate the biogas potential and the status quo was reflected through biogas project data. Subsequently, biogas potential and projects were analyzed from quantitative and spatial perspectives and a benefit evaluation was conducted. The results indicate that Henan Province has abundant straw and manure resources with large biogas potential, and that making good use of these wastes would have a good emission reduction effect and economic advantages, but there are presently large differences between the actual production and biogas potential. This paper analyzes the possible causes of this discrepancy, including resource utilization and biogas project operations. Lastly, countermeasures were proposed, such as developing matching technologies, improving relevant policies, and improving ecological-economic benefits to enhance future biogas project development. Graphical abstract fx1 Highlights • We choose Henan Province which is typical of agriculture and biogas industries. • Straw and manure volume are used to calculate biogas potential. • There is a significant difference between biogas potential and actual production. • Resource use and biogas project management issues cause these inconsistencies. • Technology, policy, and ecological-economic countermeasures are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With rapid economic development, higher income levels, urbanization and other socio-economic drivers, people's lifestyles in China have changed remarkably over the last 50 years. This paper uses the IPAT model (where I =Impact representing CO2 emissions, P =Population, A =Affluence, and T =emission intensity) to analyze how these main drivers contributed to the growth of CO2 emissions over this time period. Affluence or lifestyle change has been variously recognized as one of the key factors contributing to CO2 emissions. Through comparative analysis of the development of five regions in China, we trace lifestyle changes since the foundation of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 until 2002. We find that household consumption across the five regions follows similar trajectories, driven by changes in income and the increasing availability of goods and services, although significant differences still exist between and within regions due to differential policies in China and different possibilities for social mobility. There are considerable differences between the southeast and northwest and between urban and rural areas. We also found that technological improvements have not been able to fully compensate for the increase of emissions due to population growth and increasing wealth, which is also in line with results from other studies. Finally, this paper emphasizes that developing countries such as China, which is home to 22% of the world population and a growing middle class, and which is on a fast track to modernization, need to ensure that people's lifestyles are changing towards more sustainable ways of living. China has been investing heavily in infrastructure and thus creating the emissions of tomorrow. Thus investing, for example, in public transport and low energy building today will help reduce emissions in the future and will support more sustainable lifestyles. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• The innovative effects of three types of carbon-abatement policies (energy-saving goals (ESGs), new energy subsidies (NESs), and carbon emission trading schemes (ETSs)) were examined. • The contributions of both ESGs and NESs policies were relatively stable in the 11th five-year period (2006–2010), but weakened in the 12th five-year period (2010–2015) that followed. • In terms of synergies between policies, no significant estimates for policy coordination were discovered. • Only administrative regulation had a positive effect on the tendency to pursue technology investment. • With an improvement in enforcement strength, the innovation influences from TIPs were not static, but changed differently, even oppositely, on each side of the threshold. Low-carbon technology innovation is considered to be one of the most effective remedial measures for reducing climate change. Based on panel data from 30 provinces in China which were collected firms in operation between 1999 and 2016, this paper used a difference-in-differences (DID) approach to assess whether China's current carbon-abatement policies (i.e. energy-saving goals (ESGs), new energy subsidies (NESs), and carbon emission trading schemes (ETSs)) can direct innovation activities towards low-carbon technologies; then, this paper analyzed the channels involved from the perspective of investment preferences. In terms of policy-induced effects, the contributions of both ESGs and NESs policies were discovered to be relatively stable in the 11th five-year period (FYP) (2006–2010), but weaker in the following 12th FYP, and the ETSs' effect on innovation was found to be not significant. In particular, the estimates for policy coordination were not significant, and the innovation-inducing effects of NESs were moderated by market performance. For the analysis of channels, only administrative regulation had a reinforcing effect on the propensity to pursue technological investment. As enforcement increases, the innovation influence from technology investment preferences (TIPs) has also changed: it is distinct, and even opposite, on each side of the threshold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Arid and semiarid China have experienced multiple arid phases throughout the Quaternary, and over the past five decades, there have been several periods with relatively high or low rates of desertification and rehabilitation. The causes of these changes and their historical trends have been debated by scientists because of their potentially huge significance for China, as well as for the global ecology and food supply. This paper reviews recent studies of desertification in different regions of arid and semiarid China. In general, the results of systematic monitoring, and analyses of the causes of desertification and the contemporaneous human impacts, suggest that desertification in China has been primarily caused by climate change, and particularly by strong wind regimes (with high sand transport potential) accompanied by decreased spring precipitation. Unfortunately, although numerous scientists have claimed that desertification in China is primarily due to human impacts; there is surprisingly little unassailable evidence to support this claim. The review presented in this paper show that desertification in China is likely to be controlled by climate change and geomorphological processes, even though human impacts have undeniably exacerbated their effects. Our arguments for both climate change and human activity as factors responsible for the observed changes in desertification rely primarily on inferences based on correlations between trends, thus future research must seek stronger and more direct evidence for the causal relationships that we have proposed as possibilities. This improved information is essential to provide a firm basis for future policy decisions on how best to combat desertification. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In view of the climate emergency, it is necessary to model and forecast road transport emissions for implementing more effective climate policy. This paper fills an important research gap by quantifying the challenges, barriers and remedies of achieving road transport emission reduction and air quality improvement in developing countries. It contributes to the debate on top-down and bottom-up approaches to reconcile carbon and other transport related emissions. China and India are chosen as case studies. Using various official statistics and proxy variables, we estimate and compare the road transport carbon emissions of the two countries systematically from 2009 to 2020. Insights from detailed mode-specific estimations of the bottom-up approach are valuable for targeted policies and measures. An analysis of the major components of road transport carbon emissions points to strategies of promoting electric vehicles, reducing transport demand, accelerating modal shift to low-carbon modes, and cleaner electricity to achieve climate policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Energy/emission intensity indicators measure the relationship between economic development and climate change. These intensity indicators are preferentially used in assessment criteria for mitigation goals in places such as China. This paper investigates the driving factors of changes in the national CO 2 emission intensity and their contributions to reductions at the sector level in China from 2002 to 2012 using multiplicative structural decomposition analysis (SDA) and attribution analysis. Both Leontief and Ghosh input-output models are used in the study. The empirical results indicate: 1) the energy intensity effect is the main driver that decreases the aggregate emission intensity from both the demand and supply sides; 2) structural effects, such as the energy structure effect and domestic Ghosh structure effect, promote the increase in aggregate emission intensity principally; and 3) to a large extent, sector "smelting and pressing of metals", "manufacture of non-metallic mineral products" and "chemical industry" are the top three sectors that contribute to the negative energy intensity effect. Ultimately, several discussions and conclusions associated with the empirical results, result stability and research extensibility are presented. Highlights • Both Leontief and Ghosh models were adopted to study China's CO 2 intensity. • Multiplicative decomposition was applied to study the intensity changes in 2002–2012. • Energy intensity effect was the major drivers to reduce China's emission intensity. • The structural effects as a whole contributed to the increase of emission intensity. • The domestic allocation structure can be adjusted and optimized preferentially. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract In order to reveal the environmental performance of China’s generation sector under the competitive power market, this paper first uses the Game cross-efficiency to evaluate the environmental efficiency. Furthermore, it employs the system generalized method of moments to explore the determinants of environmental efficiency. The result indicate that the east perform the best almost all over the study period while the northeast perform the worst over the period. Highlights • Game cross-efficiency approach is first used in generation sector analysis. • We investigate the environmental efficiency of China’s generation industry. • Generalized method of moments is used to study driving factors of efficiency. • Demand-supply situation is a main factor affecting environmental efficiency. Abstract China’s unbundling reform in 2002 aimed to introduce competitiveness into the power industry. With the increasing concern about the environmental issue and climate change, the ability to balance the reduction of carbon emissions with economic benefits may to a great extent determine the competitiveness of power generation sector. This study first adopts the game cross-efficiency approach to evaluate the environmental efficiencies of the generation sector in China’s 30 provinces. The results indicate that significant efficiency gap does exist among regions. It then employs a system generalized method of moments model to explore the determinants of their performance while eliminating the associated endogeneity issue. Considering the negative correlation between environmental efficiency and the thermal power ratio, the power mix should be adjusted gradually. The per capita regional GDP and capacity utilization rate are positive factors boosting the environmental efficiency. Accordingly, the incentive policies for clean energy development should be differentiated across regions according to their power mix, self-sufficiency ratio, and economic development situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are a major battlefield in humanity's struggle to save energy and combat climate change. In China, the cities have surpassed the industrial sector and become the largest consumers of energy. This paper explores how the process of urbanisation affected energy use in China 1980–2010. The results of the analyses show that for every 1% increase in the urban population relative to the total population, national energy consumption rose 1.4%, while industrialisation was not significantly associated with the growth of energy use during this period. Urbanisation has increased energy consumption along three main pathways: urban spatial expansion, where urban sprawl has increased energy consumption in new buildings and the transport sector; urban motorisation, which induces energy-intensive transportation; and the rising quality of energy-intensive lifestyles. Urban households consume 50% more energy than rural households per capita, which indicates that continued urbanisation in China will promote the growth of national energy consumption. Urban policies designed to encourage compact urban growth, green buildings and new energy vehicles could thus play a vital role in saving energy. Undoubtedly, the changes in lifestyle and growth of a consumption society and e-Society will bring new challenges to energy-saving policies and climate change mitigation initiatives in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional precipitation patterns may change in a warmer climate, thereby increasing flood and drought risks. In this paper, annual, annual maximum, intense, heavy, moderate, light, and trace precipitation are employed as indicators to assess changes in precipitation patterns under two scenarios in which the global mean temperature increases by 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C relative to pre-industrial levels using the regional climate model COSMO-CLM (CCLM). The results show that annual precipitation in China will be approximately 2.5% higher under 1.5 °C warming relative to the present-day baseline (1980–2009), although it will decrease by approximately 4.0% under an additional 0.5 °C increase in global mean temperature. This trend is spatially consistent for regions with annual precipitation of 400–800 mm, which has experienced a drying trend during the past half century; thus, limiting global warming to 1.5 °C may mitigate these drying conditions. The annual maximum precipitation continues to increase from present day levels to the 2.0 °C warming scenario. Relative to the baseline period, the frequency of trace and light precipitation days exhibits a negative trend, while that of moderate, heavy, and intense precipitation days has a positive trend under the 1.5 °C warming scenario. For the 2.0 °C warming world, the frequency of days is projected to decrease for all precipitation categories, although the intensity of intense precipitation increases. Spatially, a decrease in the number of precipitation days is expected to continue in central and northern China, where a drying trend has persisted over the past half century. Southeastern China, which already suffers greatly from flooding, is expected to face more heavy and intense precipitation with an additional 0.5 °C increase in global mean temperature. Meanwhile, the intensity of intense precipitation is expected to increase in northern China, and the contribution of light and moderate precipitation to the annual precipitation is expected to decrease in southeastern China. Therefore, flood risk in northern China and drought risk in southern China should draw more attention for a global air temperature increase from 1.5 °C to 2.0 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central states of the United Kingdom and China are committed to finding effective ways to govern normative sustainability programmes. A more sustainable waste policy solution than landfill is energy-from-waste (EfW). The governmentality perspective suggests that, to achieve such policy ends, compliance is required from a range of actors who operate at a distance from central states. This paper is the first to draw together theoretical comparisons of Western neoliberal and Chinese governmentality in the context of waste governance. We find that long-standing liberal approaches to power and policymaking witnessed in the UK have parallels with a hybrid mix of socialist governance and Chinese governmentality. Beijing seeks to govern not via neoliberal tactics of ‘freedom and liberty’, but rather through a distinct planning and administrative rationality. Our comparative case study approach allows us to illustrate the dual facilitative and authoritarian dimensions to ‘top-down’ compliance given ‘bottom-up’ counter claims of expertise by citizen scientists and other activists in local communities. This analysis in turn reveals how power plays out between state actors, corporations and local communities in these two different political and planning systems. We suggest that the progressive development of lay expertise in environmental health risks is a dynamic marker of the limits to the top-down imposition of waste policy in both countries. Our approach to comparative analysis draws attention to the need to revisit approaches to neoliberal Western governmentality and to extend empirical investigations using illiberal Chinese governmentality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is the country with the most population in the world, and its climate is extremely diverse due to tremendous differences in latitude, longitude, and altitude, ranging from tropical in the far south to subarctic in the far north and alpine in the higher elevations of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Accurate assessment of its modern climate change is conductive to addressing global warming threat. Along with the development of Past Global Changes (PAGES) research, the focus has changed from paleo-climate reconstructions to using paleo-data for assessing the present and predicting the future. Previous studies have been devoted to climate change assessment using modern climate observations and simulations. This paper presents a new assessment approach based on the mid-Holocene, which provides a naturally oriented warming that can be compared to modern human-made global warming. A variety of climatic data, including modern observations, paleo-climate records, CMIP5 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5) and PMIP3 (Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project 3) simulations, as well as lake level models, were applied in this synthesis. Numerical climate classification was introduced to evaluate climate change impacts to Chinese climate zones on various time scales. The results show that winter and summer seasons have different response to the naturally oriented mid-Holocene warming but human-made global warming makes the warming trend appear in all seasons. Temperate and continental dry winter climates expand dramatically during the mid-Holocene warm period; however, the future global warming could have few impacts to Chinese climate zones. Furthermore, the East Asian summer monsoon was strengthened obviously by the mid-Holocene warm climate and strong low-latitude insolation. There is no consistent trend both for the winter and summer monsoon on the background of human-made global warming. In this study, a new benchmark was established based on paleo-climate to evaluate the impacts of human-made global warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crop phenology is co-determined by climate change and crop management. Over recent decades, climate change-related alterations in crop phenology have been observed and reported for various global crops. However, attributing changes in crop phenology to climate change is difficult, because there have been concurrent changes in crop management. In this paper, we isolated and quantified the impacts of climate change and crop management on the changes of wheat phenology in China, during the period 1981–2010, using a first-difference multiple regression model. Our results shows: (1) based on observed phenological data, in spring/winter wheat, the mean sowing and emergence date were delayed by 0.91/2.29 and 0.39/0.73 days decade −1 ; mean anthesis and maturity date advanced by 1.05/2.28 and 0.01/1.42 days decade −1 ; mean length of vegetative growth period (VGP) and whole growth period (WGP) were shortened by 1.09/2.86 and 0.89/3.69 days decade −1 ; mean length of reproductive growth period (RGP) was prolonged by 0.55/0.61 days decade −1 . (2) At most stations, changing direction of wheat phenology affected by isolated impacts of climate change or crop management was consistent with that affected by combined impacts of climate change and crop management. (3) For observed trends of most phenological stages and growth periods, relative contribution from climate change was smaller than from crop management, and average temperature contributed the most among the three contributors (average temperature, cumulative precipitation, and cumulative sunshine hours) to isolated impacts of climate change on wheat phenology. (4) Crop management over the three decades was shown to have helped reduce the lengths of VGP and WGP, but increase the length of RGP for both spring and winter wheat, implying that shorter-duration varieties with a higher yield or better yield stability in changing climate might have been introduced by farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently the expansion of urban-rural income inequality and the rapid growth of fossil-energy consumption have become two significant challenges China should address to achieve its ambitious goals. For the first time, this study uses the Chinese provincial panel data during the period of 1996–2013 to perform a quantitative analysis on the relationship between the urban-rural income gap and the per capita electricity consumption. Fully considering the potential endogeneity problem, this paper uses the orthogonal-difference Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) as the benchmark estimation method. To ensure the robustness of the estimations, the Theil index and per capita urban-rural income are utilized to measure the urban-rural income gap. The estimation results indicate that the influences of urban-rural income inequality on electricity depend on the income level. At the current stage of economic development, the income disparity has significantly negative impacts on provincial per capita electricity consumption. Moreover, there is also strong evidence for the existence of the inverted U-shaped relationship between per capita electricity consumption and GDP per capita. Furthermore, other economic and social factors, including the enhancement of urbanization and industrialization levels, the adjustment of the population structure, and the development of import-export trade may also promote electricity consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population change is a key variable that influences climate change, ecological construction, soil and water use, and economic growth. Census data are always point data, whereas planar data are often required in scientific research. By using nighttime light (NTL) images and land use data, combined with the fifth and sixth census data of China at the county level, we carried out spatial matching on the population of each county, respectively, and established population density diagrams of China for 2000 and 2010, which had a spatial resolution of 1 × 1 km. The method proposed in this paper is relatively simple and has a high simulation precision. The results showed that during the first ten years of the 21st century, there are some remarkable characteristics in Chinese population spatial pattern change: 1) the “disappearance” of intermediate-density regions; namely, areas with a population density between 500 and 1500 persons/km 2 have decreased by 41% during the ten years; 2) continuous growth of high-density regions; namely, areas with a population density of more than 1500 persons/km 2 have increased by 76%; 3) an expansion tendency of low-density regions similar to high-density regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese Government just released its Energy Revolution Strategy (2016–2030) as an official policy response to President Xi Jinping’s urge. Withdraw of the US from Paris Climate Agreement has turned the global focus on if China can comply with its climate change commitments. The purpose of this paper is to conduct a comprehensive assessment on this utterly important question. We find that the 2030 Strategy is consistent with the GDP CO 2 intensity target but cannot deliver CO 2 peak earlier than 2030. We also explore the possibility for China to realize leapfrog in energy efficiency and contribute more to global society in CO 2 emissions abatement. Given China’s economic restructuring potential, continuous efforts in energy efficiency could lead to much lower primary energy demand than the Strategy proposed and thus peak energy-related CO 2 emissions around 2020. It can also make China a new champion in the world with highest energy efficiency level at comparable income level during the economic development process. A much lower primary energy demand can also facilitate China’s non-fossil primary energy share target and the low-carbon power system transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting urban transition is critical, particularly for China’s rapid urbanization. Circular economy strategy is widely recognized as an effective way to achieve a low-carbon transition of cities through improved waste recycling and industrial symbiosis. However, the evidence of low-carbon benefit is less reported. While the carbon footprint (CFP) represents a mature tool responding to climate change concerns, limited studies have made use of CFP as a proxy for the performance of urban circular economy promotion. The aim of this paper is to investigate the CFP with a ten years span (2002–2012) of Guiyang, so as to understand how its circular economy practices have led to low-carbon benefits. Guiyang, one of China’s national pilots of the Circular Economy (CE) City, the Low-Carbon City, as well as the Ecological Civilization City, has offered an ideal laboratory where the opportunities and challenges for a low-carbon urban transition can be explicitly discussed. A hybrid model that integrates an input-output (IO) approach and process-based inventory analysis is developed to distinguish between direct carbon emissions of sectors from energy consumption, and indirect carbon emissions related to upstream and downstream flows both from production and consumption perspectives. The CFP of Guiyang in 2002, 2007 (after becoming the circular economy pilot) and 2012 (with implementation of urban industrial symbiosis) are analyzed by taking the 2002 as year of business as usual (BAU) scenario. Particularly, we identify scenarios related to proposed urban industrial symbiosis. Results imply that dramatic resource saving and CFP reductions could be achieved simultaneously. Changes to the CFP in 2002, 2007 and 2012 provide critical insights into the role of circular economy in speeding up urban transition towards a low-carbon society. Finally, policy recommendations to tackle the barriers to regional low-carbon transition are proposed. We believe that this study is informative for policy makers of urban planning by shedding a light on innovative eco-industrial development and urban transition in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite rapid economic development, the transport industry has been claimed to account for a major part of climate change. This paper investigates total factor carbon-sensitive productivity growth in the regional transport sector in China and decomposes its dynamic changes over time taking account of the regional heterogeneity of different provinces. Thus, the contemporaneous metafrontier Malmquist-Luenberger approach that combined with non-radial directional distance functions is proposed and define a new indicator called the contemporaneous metafrontier Malmquist-Luenberger carbon emission performance index (CMML). This total factor indicator includes the metafrontier efficiency-change index (MEC), the metafrontier technology-change index (MTC), and the metafrontier technology-gap-change index (TGC). Results show an about 4% increase in overall total factor carbon emission productivity during the period of 2000–2012. Different growth patterns are also observed in the transport sector across different area of China. In the eastern region, the growth of carbon productivity is driven mainly by pure efficiency changes, whereas the central region is driven mainly by innovations in the low-carbon transport technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme weather events and anthropogenic activity have severely impacted the Minjiang estuary (MJE) with evolution patterns in recent decades. Determining the estuarine alluvial evolution pattern is crucial for the sustainable development of densely populated coastal areas. Using chart data, this paper analyzed how the MJE's flushing and siltation changed over time (1950–2019). The findings indicate that, in the past 70 years, the MJE has evolved through seven stages of flushing and siltation under the condition of decreasing incoming sediment: "significant siltation - siltation - minor siltation - significant erosion - significant siltation - minor siltation - significant erosion". Despite decreased incoming material, the estuary underwent substantial siltation from 1998 to 2005. Extreme meteorological conditions were the cause of this anomaly. The "severe flushing" phenomenon occurred in the study area from 2011 to 2019, and the comparison of pre-dam and post-dam at the estuary revealed that extreme weather can only adjust in stages and cannot change the overall state of the estuary flushing due to the reduction of incoming sediment in the basin. According to the EOF (Empirical Orthogonal/Eigen Function) study of four sections of the estuary, it is most impacted by incoming sediment from the watershed, followed by severe weather conditions. Our research is crucial for comprehending how human behavior and harsh weather might affect the development of MJE, and it offers sound advice for the long-term management of MJE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agricultural sector is extremely vulnerable to climate change and also plays a very important role in the operation of the entire economic system, leading many studies to evaluate the possible agricultural direct economic damage (ADED) of climate change. However, this damage may have an amplification impact through the intricate industrial linkages that exist among sectors, and this impact may be even greater than the original damage. Therefore, to elucidate the economic cascading effect (ECE) in China caused by ADED and industrial linkage, this paper used the ARIO model to evaluate the total ECE and analyse the differences in the 19 sectors by taking the ADED under future annual mean temperature (AMT) increases of 1–5 °C as the input condition and adjusting the exogenous parameters to enhance the adaptability of the model; the goal was to assess the economic impact of climate change in China. The results show that (i) there is a significant amplifying impact of ECE due to industrial linkage under the influence of warming, ECE will be 4.24–5.25 times that of ADED, and the total economic impact (ADED + ECE) will exceed the GDP of the Chinese capital of Beijing in 2012 when the AMT increases by 1.5 °C, while it will exceed one tenth of China's GDP when it increases by 4 °C. (ii) Manufacturing will be the sector most affected by the industrial linkage under ADED, which accounts for 26.58% of total ECE, followed by agriculture (10.39%) and construction (8.5%). (iii) The decrease in cultivated land area will have a significant impact on the economy; when it is reduced to the minimum demand (1.41% less than 2012), ADED increases by 1.65 times and ECE increases by 2.35 times. This paper aims to provide a new perspective from which to evaluate the economic impact of climate change by studying ECEs behind sectoral interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electric vehicles (EVs) have been regarded as one of the most prominent green technologies, touted to help reduce global energy consumption and carbon emissions. China advocates the development of EVs to address the increasing challenges of climate change, urban air pollution and energy security, but consumers’ enthusiasm for adopting EVs remains low. In this paper, we present a concept model that hypothesizes Chinese cultural values as a key to understanding Chinese consumers’ intention to adopt EVs. Based on a nationwide online survey in China, this study explores Chinese consumers’ attitudes toward two types of EVs—battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles—by identifying the influence of the human–nature relationship, long-term orientation, face consciousness, and risk attitude, as well as the mediating effect of deontological ethical evaluation in decision-making. The results suggest that public policy and social marketing efforts should pay more attention to the role of cultural values when promoting environmentally sustainable technologies, and importantly, that the promotion efforts should differ for different cultural elements and products with different levels of innovativeness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comprehensive GHG inventory provides an overview and the information of sources of emissions, and can serve as a sound scientific basis for mitigation actions. This study was the first initiative to develop a complete and transparent GHG inventory of Beijing, to document the current situation and to help governmental officials to clarify their priorities for reducing GHG emissions. The authors investigated and calculated the emission sources defined by the GPC, and assessed data accuracy. The contents of the detailed inventory were documented and are open for research verification and for methodological references for other cities. The results showed that three emission sources, i.e. CO 2 emissions from fossil fuel consumption, CO 2 emissions from industrial production and CH 4 emissions from landfills, contributed 97% of Beijing's GHGs. Considering the problem of missing data and low data quality, the authors suggested that instead of seeking to compile a complete inventory, Chinese cities should first report their GHG emissions from these sources, while improving the data quality for the long run. The authors anticipate that the findings reported in this paper will help to strengthen city-level GHG inventory research in China and throughout the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What drives the development of climate policy? Brazil, China, and India have all changed their climate policies since 2000, and single-case analyses of climate policymaking have found that all three countries have had climate coalitions working to promote climate policies. To what extent have such advocacy coalitions been able to influence national policies for climate-change mitigation, and what can explain this? Employing a new approach that combines the advocacy coalition framework (ACF) with insights from comparative environmental politics and the literature on policy windows, this paper identifies why external parameters like political economy and institutional structures are crucial for explaining the climate advocacy coalitions’ ability to seize policy windows and influence policy development. We find that the coalitions adjust their policy strategies to the influence-opportunity structures in each political context—resulting in confrontation in Brazil, cooperation in China, and a complementary role in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurately understanding the real situation of China’s carbon emissions at the provincial level is not only crucial for realizing carbon mitigation in China, but also of great importance for tackling climate change on a global scale. This paper uses detailed energy consumption data subdivided within each fuel type and sector-specific emission factors, to calculate both direct and indirect energy-related CO 2 emissions for China’s provinces, and offers provincially-targeted policy proposals on emission reductions. The results uncover large divergences in calculation of provincial CO 2 emissions between production-based and consumption-based accounting approaches. Considering the large amount of interprovincial CO 2 emission transfers embodied in secondary energy deployment, the consumption-based accounting performs better in reflecting the actual features and responsibilities of carbon emissions in the provinces of China. From the consumption perspective, Shandong, Hebei, Jiangsu, Inner Mongolia, Guangdong, Henan, Liaoning and Shanxi contributed to the majority of China’s carbon emission growth during the period of 1996–2013, while Xinjiang, Sichuan, Anhui, Tianjin and Hunan were playing an increasingly important role. These two groups of provinces should be regarded as the key regions for national emissions abatement. Meanwhile, the energy industry was the top sectoral contributor to CO 2 emissions growth in most provinces, while service and household sectors made increasingly significant impacts on driving up provincial emissions. Together with ongoing efforts in the energy sector, the mitigation of CO 2 emissions in service and household sectors deserves much more attention, especially in the transportation and urban household sectors. Furthermore, the temporal trends of carbon emissions in various provinces, as well as their factor and sectoral driving forces, varied greatly with each other. Therefore, each of the provinces should formulate emission reduction policies according to their own situation, and target the key driving factors and sectors of carbon emissions at the current stage or in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]