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Highlights • The impact of the ETS on social equity is assessed. • A dynamic CGE model with disaggregated labor and household sectors is developed. • Employment in China's coal industry will decline by 75% in 2030 in the ETS scenario. • ETS revenue will peak at 2278 billion yuan in 2042 in our scenario. • ETS revenue redistribution can reduce the Gini coefficient by 10% compared to BAU. Abstract Carbon dioxide emissions trading systems (ETS) are an important market-based mitigation strategy and have been applied in many regions. This study evaluates the potential for a national ETS in China. Using a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model with detailed representations of economic activity, emissions, and income distribution, we examine alternative mitigation policies from now until 2050. Based on statistical and survey data, we disaggregate the labor and household sectors and simulate the impacts of ETS policies on the incomes of different household groups. We find that ETS has the potential to reconcile China's goals for sustained, inclusive, and low-carbon economic growth. Results show some key findings. First, the number of unemployed people in energy-intensive industries such as coal and construction will continue to increase; by 2050, employment in the coal industry will decline by 75%. Second, if the scope of the carbon market extends to all industries in China, carbon market revenues will continue to increase, reaching a maximum of 2278 billion yuan ($336 billion) in 2042 to become the world's largest carbon market. Third, the distribution of benefits from the national ETS can help achieve greater social equity. By comparing different distribution policies, we find that the combination of targeted subsidies for unemployed coal workers and direct household subsidies based on proportional per capita will reduce the social income gap to the greatest extent compared with other scenarios. By 2050, this distribution policy will reduce the Gini coefficient in China by 10% compared to the Business as Usual (BAU) scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Rinderpest is just one of two diseases that has been eradicated globally. [•] However, little has been documented on the socio-economic impacts of control. [•] A new methodological approach was developed to measure various disease impacts. [•] Applications to Chad and India highlight benefits to rinderpest eradication. [•] Local context is a critical element of disease control and impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As China reaffirms its commitments to limit the climate change risk and improve air quality, a combination of new policy and technology opportunities is presenting itself. A national emission trading scheme (ETS) begun in 2017 and is showing great promise, creating decentralized incentives for cost effective pollution mitigation. At the same time, sustained energy sector innovation is driving the costs of renewable electric power generation below those of fossil fuel substitutes. Early economic evidence of ETS measured pollution reductions, but has not addressed important economy-wide net benefits. This paper focuses on technology and energy cost savings and is the first to account for three multiplier effects—shifting consumption patterns, job growth, and the benefits of induced productivity growth—that would result from accelerated renewable electricity deployment in China. Results from a dynamic recursive computable general equilibrium model for 2017 to 2030 show that expanding renewable deployment can interact with the ETS to slash GHG emissions, as well as energy costs, stimulating significant long-term economic growth. These results suggest that China should accelerate its clean energy transition, not only for the air-quality and climate benefits, but to fulfill the energy sector's potential to promote innovation, employment, and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: China has been the world''s most vibrant economy and its largest source of energy demand growth over the past two decades, accounting for more than one-quarter of net growth in global primary energy consumption from 1980 to 2005. To sustain economic growth and rising living standards, China needs effective policies that anticipate and shape the country''s future energy requirements. In this paper, we examine China''s national economic and energy accounts over the past decade for insights into changing energy use patterns and their relationship to economic structure. Our results indicate that incipient structural changes in the Chinese energy economy and sustained economic and energy demand growth in China will pose important, and different, challenges for policymakers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: While biotechnology innovation is concentrated in high income, “Tier I” countries, international diffusion of innovations to improve the diet, health, and incomes of the poorest will be largely driven by “Tier II” innovators such as China and Brazil. Adoption of beneficial biotechnologies in “Tier II” and “Tier III” countries will increase as more transgenic versions of conventionally grown varieties become available and as costs decline, which in turn will depend upon regulatory approvals being needed only once for each transformation event and transaction costs for accessing technologies being minimized. Investments in higher education and intellectual property clearinghouse institutions can greatly facilitate technology transfer. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

To achieve nationally determined contribution (NDC) targets, China has developed a series of low carbon development plans. Among them, the clean energy transformation is very crucial. This study evaluates the impact of a set of policies including the development of renewable energy, upgrading heavy industry, and energy efficiency improvement on China's income gap between 2012 and 2050. A dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model with detailed representations of economic activity, an upgraded labor market and disaggregated labor types based on statistical and survey data is used. Our research provides support for the necessity of low-carbon policies to achieve NDC targets. Results show some key findings. First, low-carbon policies have the greatest impact on employment across all energy industries, with negative impacts in most traditional energy sectors and positive impacts in most renewable power sectors. Second, labor will continue to migrate from rural to urban areas with the transformation of the economic structure and the urbanization rate will further increase, reaching a maximum of around 70%. The reduction of the rural population will bring new opportunities for the modernization of agriculture, increasing the income of rural residents and realizing the equitable development between urban and rural areas. Third, the income gap among urban residents will widen due to the different level of labor demand for employees with different education levels. • The impact of low carbon policies on employment and income is assessed. • A dynamic CGE model with disaggregated labor types is developed. • Policies have the positive employment impact in the renewable energy industries. • The income gap will decline between urban and rural residents. • The income gap will widen among urban residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 has been a global concern for almost 10 years since its epidemic emergence in South-east Asia in 2003/2004. Despite large investment of resources into the region, the infection has not been eradicated and continues to result in outbreaks in poultry and a small number of human fatalities. This review synthesizes the knowledge base generated by a vast number of research activities conducted in the region and beyond, and adopts an interdisciplinary perspective consistent with the one health paradigm towards analysing the problem and formulating possible policy solutions. A key outcome of the work has been the need to integrate socio-economic and anthropological dimensions with any disease control and prevention activities traditionally informed by primarily epidemiological, virological and pathological attributes of the infection in poultry and wild waterbirds. Recommendations at a broad conceptual level are presented that acknowledge the diversity in the region with respect to livestock production, as well as the changing nature of the risk landscape as a consequence of the rapid economic development which some of the countries in the Greater Mekong sub-region are currently undergoing, as well as their strong trade links with China as the major economic power in East Asia. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper analyses the publicly available data on the distribution and evolution of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) H5N1 clades, whilst acknowledging the biases resulting from the nonrandom selection of isolates for gene sequencing. The data indicate molecular heterogeneity in the global distribution of HPAIV H5NI, in particular in different parts of East and Southeast Asia. Analysis of the temporal pattern of haemagglutinin clade data shows a progression from clade 0 (the 'dominant' clade between 1996 and 2002) to clade 1 (2003-2005) and then to clade 2.3.4 (2005 onwards). This process continuously produces variants, depending on the frequency of virus multiplication in the host population, which is influenced by geographical variation in poultry density, poultry production systems and also HPAI risk management measures such as vaccination. Increased multilateral collaboration needs to focus on developing enhanced disease surveillance and control targeted at evolutionary 'hotspots'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • We analyze interaction between China's national ETS and economic transition. • Economic transition alone will reduce emissions by 16% below baseline by 2050. • Economic transition lowers the cost of mitigation for firms under an ETS. • Increased consumption in less emissions-intensive sectors boosts economic growth. Abstract China's leaders are increasingly committed to low-carbon economic development. Although China's economy has dramatically transformed since the initiation of economic reforms in 1978, it is still structurally different from post-industrial, high-income countries, and economic reform is ongoing. At the same time, China is taking major steps towards regulating its carbon dioxide emissions. China is currently preparing to implement a national carbon dioxide emissions trading system (ETS), which will be the largest ETS in the world. Our analysis demonstrates how these major economic and emissions policies are linked in China's economy. We use a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of China's economy to simulate the interaction between a structural transition policy and a national ETS. We demonstrate an important policy instrument – the household savings rate – for stimulating economic transition. We show that by increasing consumption in lower emissions-intensity sectors, China can sustain growth in its economy while reducing emissions and transitioning to a more OECD-like economic structure. In addition, emissions reductions from an ETS regulation can be achieved at a lower cost for regulated firms when taking into account the changing structure of the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employment impacts are one of the most important social impacts associated with the development of renewable energy, and are also one of the key concerns for policy makers designing renewable energy policies. Current studies tend to focus on the direct job changes in renewable sectors per se and on the indirect job changes along value chains of renewable energy, therefore depicting a picture of prosperity with large amounts of “green jobs”. However, the induced job changes in other sectors that are not directly in the value chains but are still influenced by electricity price changes and related financial resource transfers have usually been neglected, resulting in an incomplete and potentially biased understanding of this specific category of social impact. By using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of China that incorporates detailed renewable power generation technologies and considers labor market imperfections, our study tries to fill this gap and quantifies the full scope of job changes (direct, indirect and induced) brought by renewable energy development in China. Results show that per 1 TW h expansion of solar PV and wind power would create up to 45.1 thousand and 15.8 thousand, respectively, direct and indirect jobs in China. However, the scale of induced job changes is quite significant and may even lead to net job losses in the whole economy in some cases. We have further revealed the sectoral contributors to total job changes. In all, there are no assured conclusions on the occurrence of green jobs when developing renewable energy. The impacts are highly dependent on the species of renewable energy, the financing mechanisms for renewable subsidies, and the scopes of employment impacts. We suggest that full-scope employment impacts should be carefully considered and the detailed supporting policies should be carefully designed by decision makers when promoting renewable energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jurisdictions throughout the world are contemplating greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation strategies that will enable meeting long-term GHG targets. Many jurisdictions are now focusing on the 2020-2050 timeframe. We conduct an inter-model comparison of nine California statewide energy models with GHG mitigation scenarios to 2050 to better understand common insights across models, ranges of intermediate GHG targets (i.e., for 2030), necessary technology deployment rates, and future modeling needs for the state. The models are diverse in their representation of the California economy: across scenarios with deep reductions in GHGs, annual statewide GHG emissions are 8-46 % lower than 1990 levels by 2030 and 59-84 % lower by 2050 (not including the Wind-Water-Solar model); the largest cumulative reductions occur in scenarios that favor early mitigation; non-hydroelectric renewables account for 30-58 % of electricity generated for the state in 2030 and 30-89 % by 2050 (not including the Wind-Water-Solar model) ; the transportation sector is decarbonized using a mix of energy efficiency gains and alternative-fueled vehicles; and bioenergy is directed almost exclusively towards the transportation sector, accounting for a maximum of 40 % of transportation energy by 2050. Models suggest that without new policies, emissions from non-energy sectors and from high-global-warming-potential gases may alone exceed California's 2050 GHG goal. Finally, future modeling efforts should focus on the: economic impacts and logistical feasibility of given scenarios, interactive effects between two or more climate policies, role of uncertainty in the state's long-term energy planning, and identification of pathways that achieve the dual goals of criteria pollutant and GHG emission reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Balancing the need to increase crop yields with the need to reduce the environmental impacts of fertilizers will pose major policy, regulatory, and extension challenges for China. A growing number of studies have demonstrated the potential for improving fertilizer use efficiency in China, but it is not clear how to achieve these efficiency improvements on a larger scale. The empirical foundation for fertilizer policy in China is still weak, particularly in inland provinces. This paper examines fertilizer use patterns in Yunnan Province, an inland and ecologically important province in Southwest China, drawing on two household surveys. We find that fertilizer application rates in the survey areas are highly heterogeneous, among crops, households, and regions. Managing this diversity poses the largest challenge to fertilizer policy in Yunnan and, by extension, in China. None of the factors that we examine in this study are robust predictors of fertilizer intensity (kgha−1) in the survey regions, though in one survey there is a strong inverse relationship between farm size and fertilizer intensity. The lack of clearer signals in the survey data, a consequence of heterogeneity in cropping patterns, agroecosystems, and local economies, underscores the importance of locally tailored approaches to fertilizer regulation in China, and of a strong, service-oriented agricultural extension system oriented around sustainable agriculture. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The biofuel industry has received billions of dollars in support from governments around the world, as political leaders respond to new environmental and energy-security imperatives. However, a growing body of research highlights nontrivial costs associated with biofuel production, including environmental destruction and diminished food security, and questions the magnitude of perceived benefits. We discuss the ability of biofuels to accomplish climate change, rural development and energy-security objectives, and consider possible impacts on food production and environmental conservation. We also review methods for judging biofuels, consider how well they contribute to policy objectives, and compare policies that support biofuels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biofuels have been criticized for raising food prices and reducing food production. While biofuels have rightly been blamed for contributing to reduced food security at a time of record-high food prices in 2008, they have not been credited with reducing the cost of gasoline, also at a time of record-high prices. We discuss the food-versus-biofuel trade-off associated with biofuel production and model the effects of biofuel production in markets for key crops and gasoline, showing that food consumers lose from biofuels but gasoline consumers enjoy substantial benefits. We also suggest ways to address the food-versus-biofuel debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]