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China is facing the challenge of high building energy consumption, especially for rural housing, because of the backward construction technology. This issue could be solved by net-zero energy rural housing. Therefore, the passive energy-saving procedures and energy-efficient building service systems of rural housing are needed to be studied apart from renewable energy adoption. Older people with unique thermal acceptability and adaptability become the primary residents in Chinese rural buildings, which calls for the redefinition of the indoor environment. This paper firstly conducted an overall questionnaire about the indoor environment sensation and expectations of the rural elderly in Sichuan province. Field surveys and measurements were carried out in a typical self-built rural house to investigate the thermal comfort of the local order people and the indoor thermal environment variations. Furthermore, the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process was used to propose a three-layer assessment model for the rural elderly living environment to find retrofit strategies. Results showed that: (1) the thermal environment of rural buildings could not meet the thermal comfort range of older people in summer. (2) The adaptive coefficient (λ) in the adaptive Predicted Mean Vote model was 0.065 for the rural elderly, which was lower than the value of 0.21 in the Chinese standard, indicating their poor thermal adaptability. (3) The summer living environment evaluation was "A little bad", and the most effective optimization method was to decrease the indoor temperature. (4) Based on the thermal comfort of older people, architectural and construction optimizations were proposed, which could achieve an energy-saving of 52.15 %, contributing to net-zero energy rural housing. • Environment improvement and energy saving of rural housing were studied. • The age-based metabolic rate of the elderly was proposed in aPMV. • The adaptive coefficient for the rural elderly was 0.065. • The evaluation model of rural living environment satisfaction was built by FAHP. • Passive retrofit procedures were proposed to achieve NZERH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the completion of the poverty alleviation task in China, the Chinese economy has made great breakthroughs. Meanwhile, the implementation of Chinese "dual carbon" goal has entered an important window period of both strategic opportunities and difficulties. The emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) leads to the greenhouse effect, which affects the sustainable development of society. Therefore, this paper proposes an improved analytic hierarchy process (AHP) with Slacks-based measure integrating data envelopment analysis (SBMDEA) (AHP-SBMDEA) based efficiency evaluation model for different provincial-level administrative regions in China, which is used to analyze and optimize the Chinese energy structure of different provincial-level administrative regions. With coal, gasoline, petroleum, fuel oil, diesel, crude oil and natural gas as inputs, the per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the desired output and the CO2 as the undesired output, after linear weighted calculation of the results of the AHP-SP model and the SBMDEA model, the energy efficiency evaluation model of different provincial administrative regions in China is established. The results show that there is a large difference in efficiency between Chinese northern and southern regions, and the overall efficiency of southern regions is higher than that of northern regions. In addition, it is easier to find out the optimal energy efficiency benchmark, which can provide suggestions and help to guide the energy consumption input structure improvement of other inefficient provincial-level administrative regions. Furthermore, the energy structure can also be adjusted through the redundant variable calculated by the SBMDEA model. For example, Sichuan Province can reduce the consumption of the coal, the gasoline, the diesel, the fuel oil, the crude oil and the natural gas by 5269.95 × 10000 tons (WT), 513.01 WT, 59.05 WT, 34.37 WT, 4,73.33 WT and 130.37 billion cubic meters (BCM), respectively. Its CO2 emissions can be reduced by 1925.4 WT, and raise the efficiency of energy utilization in the province. [Display omitted] • Novel economy and CO 2 emissions evolution model based on a AHP-SBMDEA is proposed. • The proposed model can identify the optimal energy efficiency benchmark. • GDP per capita can be increased and CO 2 emissions can be decreased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an institutional innovation in the market-oriented reform of China's energy sector, the policy effect of energy consumption license transaction (ECPT) is still lack of research. The pilot provinces of energy market-oriented reform are relatively scattered. Therefore, this paper aims to evaluate the spillover effect and regional differences of ECPT, so as to make up for the lack of research on China's market-oriented energy reform. Results show that ECPT has inhibitory effects on energy consumption and energy intensity. In addition, ECPT can reduce energy consumption and energy intensity in neighboring areas. The policy effect of ECPT shows the characteristics of strengthening with the evolution of time. Foreign trade, industrial structure and technological progress are the paths for ECPT policies to promote energy transformation. The implementation effect of ECPT shows significant regional differences, which has a significant role in promoting the energy transformation of Henan and Sichuan. Therefore, the central government must ensure the continuity of energy market-oriented reforms to release long-term policy dividends. Pilot provinces should not only play the role of domestic regional energy-saving cooperation, but also strengthen foreign trade and technological innovation to promote energy transformation. • ECPT has an obvious inhibitory effect on energy consumption and energy intensity. • ECPT has the spillover effect of energy saving on neighboring provinces. • The long-term effects of ECPT are stronger than the short-term effects. • Foreign trade, industrial upgrading and technological progress are the mechanisms. • The effect of ECPT shows significant heterogeneity in different pilot provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy crisis is a major challenge to sustainable development. Governments therefore constantly seek ways to improve energy conservation. In this paper, our goal was to promote energy conservation and simultaneously increase employment. First, based on China's current regional energy conservation model, social energy costs and employment factors are comprehensively considered to construct an inter-provincial cooperative energy conservation model, the minimal core method is used to construct a cooperative interprovincial benefit-distribution model. Second, representative regions of China (Beijing, Shanghai, Shanxi, and Sichuan) were selected to demonstrate the model in an empirical analysis of cooperative provincial energy conservation. It was found that the total employment in Beijing, Shanghai, Shanxi, and Sichuan can be increased by 9.84 × 106 persons, and the total social energy cost can be decreased by US$59.22 × 106. The cooperative benefit distribution model can increase the total benefit by US$65.28 × 106. Finally, to verify the robustness and feasibility of the model, the sensitivity of the model to these changes is analyzed by changing the parameter values, and it was found that the model was both robust and feasible. The research results provide a new way to improve China's current energy conservation model. • The inter-provincial cooperation model for employment and social energy costs (i.e. bi-objective model). • Constructs a social energy cost function. • Considers energy structure factors. • Uses the minimal core method for benefit distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]