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Abstract To deal with climate change, clean energy is a necessity in the present world. Energy requirement is growing faster each decade. Over the long term some of the traditional sources (coal, gas and oil) have become inadequate to meet up the increasing demand. The current consumption rate of fossil fuel will make them extinct by the year 2050 to 2100. Based on these facts nuclear power plant is a strategic choice to develop a clean energy. This paper is an outcome of the review - Nuclear power as foundation of a clean energy future. Though nuclear energy can't be called as 'Carbon neutral' but it gives rise to much less emission of carbon dioxide than fossil fuels. Comparing with other energy structures, nuclear electricity chain emits a limited amount of greenhouse gas. Despite the uncertainty of building nuclear power plants in the future, this paper will further discuss climate changing issues have larger impact than the policies which are against the nuclear electricity production. The safety issue which is a public concern is also discussed here in short. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Capital formation has contributed the most towards Chinas' carbon emissions, but capital assets are ultimately used for production. This paper by using input-output model embeds carbon emissions from capital formation to rest of final demand categories and compares results with other two common methods. Our approach has led to embedding of more carbon emissions and increased intensity. The analysis is mainly based on China's 2012 input-output data and China Statistical Yearbook data. Under new approach, annual carbon consumption of rural households, urban households, government and foreign consumption significantly increased, urban households per capita annual carbon consumption is about 3.26 times of the rural households. Government's 94% carbon consumption is from other non-material production sector. China's total annual carbon export volume increased by48% under new approach. Some study limitations are also discussed in this paper. Our work is of certain reference value for understanding carbon emissions from the perspective of final consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the status quo of carbon emissions in USA and the international crude oil price fluctuations, this paper introduces control index and critical time of carbon emissions to find a new dynamic evolutionary model of carbon emissions of the States, deducing relative theories, such as Change Trends Theorem and Evolutionary Theorem. The critical time in the economic period is determined based on the evolutionary situation of the international crude oil price peaks, and it can be divided into four time intervals. Least-square method is used to analyze the dynamic evolutionary system of carbon emissions in the four time intervals with data provided by the international energy agency (IEA). Based on the nonlinear dynamic evolutionary model, the paper predicts carbon emissions by means of control index and control function, which facilitates carbon policy regulation and the system's external influence, and creates unique dynamic evolutionary factors of carbon emissions corresponding with the real situation of the United States. The financial crisis and shale gas large-scale mining have significantly changed America's energy supply structure. With the economy running upward, carbon emissions have a tendency to increase again. To achieve the goal of its reduction, different policies should be adopted by the US government. In this essay, the influence of the control index and the effect of critical time of carbon emissions to control function are analyzed. In addition, the dynamic evolutionary model is introduced and evolutionary scenario analysis is also conducted by modulating evolutionary coefficient and critical time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-carbon development has become a hot issue concerned by the whole world. Governments respectively introduced the country's low-carbon strategy and action. China has put forward a series of obligatory targets and has issued a provincial area “twelfth five-year” carbon intensity reduction target. How to coordinate the contradiction between economic growth and environmental constraints, and formulating corresponding low-carbon development path and the supporting measures, has become one of the problems to be solved. Considering the regional resource endowment, stage of economic development, energy structure, industrial structure, technical development level and other factors, this article constructs the model of regional carbon emission factors, the paper takes Chongqing of China as an example. The research results show that: The major contribution of elements, in turn, is the improvement of technology energy efficiency, the optimization of energy structure, and the adjustment of industrial structure. Based on this, this paper puts forward the corresponding low-carbon development policies according to the results of analysis, from the aspects such as energy structure, industrial structure, and technological progress and so on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is conducted during the midterm stage of a NSF-funded project based on a test case of urban neighborhood environment [1] . It explores how a geographic-based information system can be applied to designing an algae-powered housing environment at the level of an urban neighborhood, in which the algae system is taken as a design intervention to promote energy performance and carbon reduction of the urban system. A Geodesign model is suggested for managing the coupled system that integrates algae cultivation and urban systems as “design for change”. By extending the system boundary from a closed algae cultivation system to an open neighborhood-scale urban environment, the design of a new close-loop network configuration contributes to the increase of energy performance and biofuel production and the reduction of fossil fuel consumption, waste stream flow and the carbon emissions of the urban system. The proposed Geodesign framework informs six stages of process for the coupled system: the objective model to set the goal as the “Net-zero” neighborhood; the representational model to collect and organize data; the performance model to measure the energy, biomass, waste stream and water flows; the scenario model to propose possible future paths at different spatial scales; the evaluation model to reexamine the performance of the newly designed coupled system; and the decision making model to make choices. The six stages are then applied to a preliminary test case of four sites along an urban-rural gradient in Atlanta. This paper concludes with design and planning parameters for designing an ecological urban district in accordance with the scientific knowledge and technical criteria for algal biofuel production and sustainable urban living. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper analyzes the relevance between economic growth and carbon emission in China and finds that the two parts are highly related and, in the long run, they are in steady equilibrium and two-way cause-and-effect relationship. In this way, China should further shift its economic growth mode, develop low-carbon economy and realize sound and fast development for economy and society. There are various ways to develop low-carbon economy. This paper raises measures for pushing the development of low-carbon economy from financial perspective. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

For the accurate calculation of CO 2 emission in utility boilers, the calculation model of CO 2 emission suitable for most coal-fired boilers is built. In this model, BP neural networks were adopted to predict the carbon content of burning coal. This model took the proximate analysis data and fuel consumption flow / coal consumption as inputs, and output the CO 2 emission. Under the BP network prediction model, the average difference of carbon content of burning coal was about 1.80%, while that of CO 2 emission were 3.92% and 0.96%. Compared with emission factor method and capacity standard method, the method in this paper is more suitable to count the CO 2 emission of utility boilers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the historical data in Beijing from 1980 to 2013, this paper uses the ARDL approach to examine the impact of urbanization on carbon emission. The results show that, first, the urbanization level plays a positive role in promoting carbon emission no matter in the long or short term during the sample period. Second, the impact of per capita energy consumption on carbon emission does not seem significant no matter in the long or short term, which is due to the energy efficiency improvement and energy consumption structure adjustment in the past decades. Third, the growth of per capita GDP may curb carbon emission growth in the long term although its impact in the short term does not appear statistically significant, and we find significant inverted U-shaped relationship between per capita GDP and per capita carbon emission in Beijing during the sample period. Finally, there exists significant negative adjusting mechanism from the short term towards the long term among these variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is confronting severe challenges to meet its rapidly increasing demand for energy and maintain its environments. It is well-known that China has become the world largest carbon emission country. However, there are huge different among different studies. As the accurate estimation of Carbon emission is critical and fundamental information for China's domestic policy and international negotiation. Based on the broaden and intensive literature reviews, the paper adopts a Meta-analysis method and the multi-factor variance analysis (ANOVA) to analyze the key factors that lead to the remarkable variations of estimations. Our results indicate the sources of researches and the choice of carbon emission coefficient affect the estimation significantly. The sources of researches, choice of carbon emission coefficient, energies classification and calculation based on national or provincial data are the four key determinants, accounting for 30.42%, 20.38%, 27.56% and 10.37% of variances of carbon emission estimations respectively. Interestingly, it is found that there is no significant difference among estimations based on industrial classification. According to our findings, it is proposed that the future studies to estimate China's carbon emission should pay extreme attentions on the detail classifications of energies and accuracy of carbon emission coefficient by different energies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the possibility to develop the simple micro-grid model in optimizing the utilization of local renewable energy for on-grid area. The proposed micro-grid model integrates the power plants driven by renewable energy sources employing micro hydro (MHP) and photovoltaic system (PV) which is connected to grid system. This model is analyzed using HOMER and MATLAB software. Based on the load profiles and the availability of water resources, the HOMER simulates the proposed micro-grid model with three options of MHP capacity. The simulation results show that the micro-grid model with the largest capacity MHP produced the lowest energy cost, greatest reduction of CO2 emission, and largest fraction of renewable energy. However, these result required the expensive initial capital cost. In addition, the PV power generation was always recommended with a minimum capacity. Hence, MATLAB results show the performances of the power plants with renewable energy sources were used maximally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: According to the energy consumption statistics of eighteen industrial branches in Jilin in recent years, this paper calculated carbon emissions and the association coefficient between carbon emissions and output values based on the method of grey relation degree. It also analyzed the close relationship between carbon emissions and the output values of industrial branches in Jilin. Finally it gave some suggestions on energy conversation and pollution reduction so as to serve for the development of the low carbon economy in Jilin. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A quantitative assessment of the environmental impact of manufacture activities and installation activities in HVAC industry can help decision-makers identify major environmental impact factors and make environmentally friendly construction plans in the early stages of building development project. Factors examined according to manufacture and construction stage includes parts: embodied energy of raw materials; energy consumption of product process and transportation of raw materials; embodied energy of HVAC construction materials; energy consumption of process and transportation of HVAC construction materials; carbon emissions from construction equipment. This paper investigates the activities involved in the manufacture and installation stages of HVAC systems, and also presents the carbon emissions calculation method associated with them. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Low carbon economy is the inevitable result of the capitalist production model, and is economic development model which mankind is forced to adopt. The measures to reduce carbon emissions mainly include laws and regulations, carbon taxes or carbon trading, subsidies or tax cuts on clean production, technological innovation and demand reduction. These measures have respective advantages and disadvantages. The paper believes that technological innovation and demand reduction are long-term solution of these measures. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]