•Production-based CO2 emissions are estimated for eleven cities in China in 2012.•Consumption-based CO2 emissions are estimated using input-output theory.•Emissions embodied in imports account for ...over 50% of consumption-based emissions.•Interregional cooperation is critical at the city level for tackling climate change.
Carbon emission inventories are the foundations of climate change mitigation and adaptation in cities. In this study, we estimated production-based CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes in eleven cities in Hebei Province of China in 2012 and used input-output theory to measure their consumption-based CO2 emissions. By comprehensively comparing production- and consumption-based emissions, we found that six developed cities were consumers with import-depended trade patterns, while the five other cities were producers, mostly medium in size, with the potential to transform into consumer cities with socioeconomic development. Emissions embodied in imports accounted for more than half of the consumption-based emissions in most cities, which shows the significance of interregional cooperation in tackling climate change. International cooperation is also important at the city level, as international imports also impact consumption-based emissions. From the perspective of final use, emissions caused by fixed capital formation predominated in most cities and were determined by their economic development models.
China announced at the Paris Climate Change Conference in 2015 that the country would reach peak carbon emissions around 2030. Since then, widespread attention has been devoted to determining when ...and how this goal will be achieved. This study aims to explore the role of China's changing regional development patterns in the achievement of this goal. This study uses the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) to estimate seven socioeconomic drivers of the changes in CO2 emissions in China since 2000. The results show that China's carbon emissions have plateaued since 2012 mainly because of energy efficiency gains and structural upgrades (i.e., industrial structure, energy mix and regional structure). Regional structure, measured by provincial economic growth shares, has drastically reduced CO2 emissions since 2012. The effects of these drivers on emissions changes varied across regions due to their different regional development patterns. Industrial structure and energy mix resulted in emissions growth in some regions, but these two drivers led to emissions reduction at the national level. For example, industrial structure reduced China's CO2 emissions by 1.0% from 2013 to 2016; however, it increased CO2 emissions in the Northeast and Northwest regions by 1.7% and 0.9%, respectively. Studying China's plateauing CO2 emissions in the new normal stage at the regional level yields a strong recommendation that China's regions cooperate to improve development patterns.
•We explore the role of China's changing regional development patterns in reducing carbon emissions.•Seven socioeconomic drivers of the changes in CO2 emissions in China for 2000–2016 are estimated.•China's carbon emissions have plateaued because of energy efficiency gains and structural upgrading.•The effects of these drivers on emissions changes varied across regions.•Regional structure has drastically reduced CO2 emissions since 2012.
To improve the air quality in winter, clean heating policy was implemented in “2 + 26” cities of China in 2016, which mainly included replacing coal with gas or electricity. Tremendous financial ...subsidies have been provided by city and central governments. This new heating mode changed the heating fee-cost to residents. This paper estimates the economic costs to both governments and residents, and evaluates the environmental and public health benefits by combining a difference-in-differences model with an exposure-response function. Results show that the total costs of clean heating were up to 43.1 billion yuan. Governments and residents account for 44% and 56% of the total costs, respectively. In terms of benefits, the clean heating project is effective for air pollution control and brings health economic benefits of about 109.85 billion yuan (95% CI: 22.40–159.83). The clean heating policy was identified as a net-positive benefit program with environmental and public health improvements. However, the inequality in subsidies from different cities governments increases the heating burden on low-income households and leads to heating poverty for households in the less developed regions. We provide suggestions for implementation in future clean heating campaigns and in subsidy mechanism design in China and for other developing countries.
•Existing situation and problems of clean heating and its subsidy in China.•Economic costs of clean heating were up to 43.1 billion yuan.•Governments and residents account for 44% and 56% of the total costs.•Clean heating program brings health economic co-benefits of about 109.85 billion yuan.•Clean heating was a net positive benefit program.
E-scooters globally have proven an increasingly popular form of dockless micro-mobility, while also contributing to sustainable urban transportation forms. However, some safety issues arise with ...e-scooter use in the cities. This study aims to propose a decision-making model based on q-rung orthopair fuzzy sets for prioritizing the safe e-scooter operation alternative. The proposed model consists of two stages: weighting the criteria and ranking the alternatives. First, a fuzzy logarithmic additive assessment of the weight coefficients methodology and fuzzy Einstein weighted averaging operator were applied to define the reference relationships between the criteria and determine their weights. Second, a q-rung orthopair fuzzy sets based decision-making model integrating q-rung orthopair fuzzy Einstein average and q-rung orthopair fuzzy Hamacher geometric mean operator was used to rank the alternatives. A fictional case study is presented to show the practicality of the proposed model. The contribution of the work is as a decision-support system for evaluating safe e-scooter strategies, including infrastructure placement, user behavior and how e-scooters interact with other transportation means, showing that applicability of the proposed model to real-world problems.
•We present q-ROFSs based decision-making model, including integrating q-ROFEA, and q-ROFHGM.•Four safe e-scooter operation alternatives are prioritized based on the MCDM model.•14 different criteria grouped under 4 main criteria aspects were determined.•A detailed stability analysis is performed on the changes in parameter values of the proposed model.
Continued urban population expansion will be a defining challenge for climate change mitigation, and global sustainability more generally, over the coming decades. In this context, an important but ...underexplored issue concerns the relationship between the scale of urban areas and their carbon emissions. This paper employs the urban Kaya relation and Reduced Major Axis regression to look at urban emission patterns in China from 2000 to 2016. Our results reveal that larger cities tend to have lower per capita emissions. Thus, population agglomeration may be able to contribute to climate change mitigation and a wider transition to sustainability. The inverse-U shape between carbon emissions and population size is found. In addition, we observe unique scaling patterns in different regions, revealing how the relationship between emissions and population can be influenced by economic geography. City consumption weakens the role of population agglomeration in reducing carbon emissions in the East region, therefore it should be placed top priority in carbon emissions mitigation. These findings are important for China which looks to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 against the backdrop of intertwined interplay between population agglomeration and city consumption.
•An urban Kaya relation is used to investigate emissions scaling and their drivers.•Population agglomeration may be able to contribute to climate change mitigation.•The scaling of emissions with population scale depends on regional economic geography.•City consumption weakens the role of population agglomeration in reducing emissions.
Reducing fossil fuel consumption is a top priority option for climate change mitigation, which requires collaborations of partners along the supply chain, such as energy suppliers, energy consumers ...and final consumers of goods and services. A comprehensive analysis of fossil fuel consumption is useful for policymakers to reduce demand but still absent. This study explores the national contribution to global energy consumption from different perspectives in the global supply chain and is designed to complement current energy reduction policies. For the developed countries, energy consumptions are stable from 2000 to 2014, while that of emerging countries almost doubled (e.g., China and India). Most of the developing countries are producers whose production-based and final production-based energy consumptions are higher than their consumption-based ones, except India after the global financial crisis. In contrast, the developed countries are consumers, whose consumption-based energy consumptions are higher. At the sectoral level, the service sector is the largest contributor to consumption- and income-based energy consumption. The analysis in this study can create opportunities for all the parties alongside the supply chain in reducing fossil fuel consumption.
•Different frameworks of energy consumption are proposed and discussed.•National energy consumptions at different production stages are identified.•Sectoral contributions to energy consumption are identified.•China accounts for the majority of global energy consumption.•Energy consumptions of emerging countries increased faster than the developed.
The nonferrous metals industry (NMI) consumes a great amount of energy, and is a typical high CO2 emission sector. The NMI is one of the eight most concerning industries in the Intergovernmental ...Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report. In this study, we summarized policies that impact Chinese NMI's development and grouped them into three types: energy structure policies, energy efficiency improving policies and production-scale policies. Based on those quantitative policy goals, a bottom-up model has been developed to study the CO2 emissions of five NMI's major sub-sectors from 2010 to 2030. The results showed that if China's central government could stick to the CO2 reduction policy strength of 13th Five-Year Plan (2016–2020), then the copper, lead and zinc industries can reach their emissions peak before 2030. Furthermore, if the Chinese government restricts the production of primary aluminum of 46.2 million tons in 2025, then the CO2 emissions of China's non-ferrous industry could reach the peak in that year, when the CO2 emissions peak is 297 million tons. Having benefited from the effective CO2 reduction policies of NMI, China may reach its ambitious CO2 peaking goals more easily.
•We model the policy impacts on non-ferrous metals industry (NMI) ’s CO2 reduction based on decomposition method.•Direct and indirect CO2 emission are considered in the study.•CO2 emission of Chinese NMI is very likely to peak before 2030 under current policies.•Chinese energy efficiency policies of NMI should be updated.
In the past few years, shared bicycles have become a major form of green transport. There are two types of shared bicycle systems: pile-based and pile-less. These two types of systems have different ...carbon emission profiles when it comes to manufacture, operation and maintenance, and disposal. This research explicates these trade-offs through a thorough life cycle assessment of Capital Bikes' shared bikes in Washington D.C., USA. Our research indicates that while the installation of platforms and docks is the primary source of carbon emissions for dockless bikes, fleet management and maintenance are the primary sources of emissions for these vehicles. This is significant because the literature has shown that both dockless bikes and piling systems boost the resilience of transportation networks during pandemics or transport outages, albeit in different ways, when consumers may choose to utilize dockless bikes for exercise or to avoid using public transport. Planners should encourage proactive maintenance and fleet management to boost environmental advantages, as manufacturing operations generate five times as much carbon emissions as disposal activities. This study contrasted the Total Normal Environmental Impact (TNEI) of a dockless system with that of a piling system in our case study. The manufacturing process of a shared bicycle produces the largest amount of carbon emissions. The carbon dioxide emissions saved by a bicycle are about 0.07 kg per day. We also demonstrate that a net decrease in emissions in the Capital Bikes case study requires that each bike be utilized for a minimum of 591 days. In order to guarantee that the carbon emissions produced by shared bicycles are optimised, travelers should be incentivized to ride for longer and firms should strive to extend the usable life of their equipment.
•Original and comprehensive bike sharing data set is used.•Assessment of carbon dioxide emissions for the dockless and station–based bike sharing systems.•Estimation of the time shared bikes will take to balance the emissions through replacing vehicles
Digital transformation has been regarded as a primary styrategy to promote transitions in diverse fields, but industry pioneers believe that the existing barriers may hamper the speed of digital ...transformation. Hence, this paper presents a synthetical decision model integrating the weighted Heronian mean aggregation (WHMA) operator, the Level-Based Weight Assessment (LBWA) model, the CRITIC (criteria importance through intercriteria correlation) method, and the Ranking of Alternatives through Functional mapping of criterion sub-intervals into a Single Interval (RAFSI) model with Fermatean cubic fuzzy sets to evaluate the barriers to digital transformation implementation in energy transitions with unknown weights of experts and criteria. In this framework, an extended WHMA operator with the deviation-based method is established to fuse experts' preference information. The LBWA model and CRITIC method with FCF setting are combined to derive the weights of barriers. Next, these methods are incorporated into the RAFSI model to analyze these barriers. A numerical example of evaluating barriers to digital transformation implementation in the power sector displays the application of the RAFSI model-based decision method. The result reveals that a3 “Equipment manufacturer” (0.7063) has the highest barrier level, and a4 “Consumers of smart power electronic” (0.4391) have the lowest barrier level. After that, sensitivity and comparative explorations are applied to examine the feasibility and reliability of the synthetical model. The results show that the proposed model can provide a more practical and stable evaluation result for supporting the decision of stakeholders associated with ET.
•This study identifies a structure of barriers to the implication of the digital economy in achieving energy transition.•A synthetical decision model integrating the weighted Heronian mean aggregation operator is presented.•The RAFSI model with FCF is proposed to evaluate the barriers of digital transformation implementation in energy transition.
•Original and comprehensive bike sharing data set is used.•Assesses the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on shared bicycle user behaviour.•Illustrates how bike sharing offers supports resilience in ...transport networks.
Globally most governments implemented a ‘Working from Home’ (home office) strategy to contain the spread of the coronavirus in 2020 in order to ensure public safety and minimize the transmission of the virus. Unsurprisingly studies have found that COVID-19 has had a detrimental impact on urban transportation systems; however, the number of shared bicycle riders is progressively growing compared to other modes of public transit. The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of COVID-19 on the usage of shared bicycle systems in order to identify passenger travel patterns and habits. In addition, bicycle rentals are becoming more popular in some locations. This demonstrates that bike sharing as a transport option has a high level of social adaptability and is progressively being adopted by the general population in a fashion that promotes the resilience of transport systems.
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