Search

The iron and steel industry plays an important role in mitigating global climate change. As the largest steel producer and consumer, China bears the primary responsibility for energy savings and CO 2 emission reduction in the iron and steel industry. In this study, taking China as the empirical context, we analyze the effectiveness of the following four strategies on the potential of energy savings and emission reduction: phasing out backward production capacity in accordance with the current major policies, adjusting the production structure to increase electric arc furnace steelmaking, promoting low-carbon technologies, and switching to clean fuels. Under the principle of cost minimization, the mitigation potential of different strategies until 2030 and the technological development paths for reducing energy and CO 2 emissions in China’s iron and steel industry are identified via an established National Energy Technology model. The results show that promoting low-carbon technologies is the most effective strategy for energy savings and emission reduction alongside cost minimization. Compared with existing policies, these strategies could lead to a cumulative reduction of 818.3 MtCO 2 (4.1%) during the period 2015–2030. Therefore, policy makers should provide financial or administrative support to promote the development of specific production and low-carbon technologies such as non-blast furnace iron-making and endless strip production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK has been one of the few countries that has successfully decoupled final energy consumption from economic growth over the past 15 years. This study investigates the drivers of final energy consumption in the UK productive sectors between 1997 and 2013 using a decomposition analysis that incorporates two novel features. Firstly, it investigates to what extent changes in thermodynamic efficiency have contributed to overall changes in sectoral energy intensities. Secondly, it analyses how much of the structural change in the UK economy is driven by the offshoring of energy-intensive production overseas. The results show that energy intensity reductions are the strongest factor reducing energy consumption. However, only a third of the energy savings from energy intensity reductions can be attributed to reductions in thermodynamic efficiency with reductions in the exergy intensity of production making up the reminder. In addition the majority of energy savings from structural change are a result of offshoring, which constitutes the second biggest factor reducing energy consumption. In recent years the contributions of all decomposition factors have been declining with very little change in energy consumption after 2009. This suggests that a return to the strong reductions in energy consumption observed between 2001 and 2009 in the UK productive sectors should not be taken for granted. Given that further reductions in UK final energy consumption are needed to achieve global targets for climate change mitigation, additional policy interventions are needed. Such policies should adopt a holistic approach, taking into account all sectors in the UK economy as well as the relationship between the structural change in the UK and in the global supply chains delivering the goods and service for consumption and investment in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Greenhouse gas mitigation strategies are generally considered costly with world leaders often engaging in debate concerning the costs of mitigation and the distribution of these costs between different countries. In this paper, the analyses and results of the design of a 100% renewable energy system by the year 2050 are presented for a complete energy system including transport. Two short-term transition target years in the process towards this goal are analysed for 2015 and 2030. The energy systems are analysed and designed with hour-by-hour energy system analyses. The analyses reveal that implementing energy savings, renewable energy and more efficient conversion technologies can have positive socio-economic effects, create employment and potentially lead to large earnings on exports. If externalities such as health effects are included, even more benefits can be expected. 100% Renewable energy systems will be technically possible in the future, and may even be economically beneficial compared to the business-as-usual energy system. Hence, the current debate between leaders should reflect a combination of these two main challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]