While it is generally recognized that the introduction of environmental policy can effectively control carbon emissions, the green paradox hypothesis puts forth a new warning about the validity of ...this policy's implementation. This study uses panel data on 29 Chinese provinces from 1995 to 2012 to investigate the impact of fiscal decentralization on the functional mechanisms of environmental policy while controlling for the spatial correlations of carbon emission. The empirical results indicate that environmental policy alone can achieve the objective of reducing carbon emissions. However, the Chinese style fiscal decentralization makes the environmental policy significantly promote carbon emissions, leading to a green paradox. Moreover, we find that the impact of fiscal decentralization on environmental policy varies greatly among different geographical regions and the direct-controlled municipalities. In addition, our study confirms the spatial correlations in China's carbon emissions by using a spatial integration term. Finally, we recommend that emission reduction efforts should be incorporated into the local government's performance evaluation system to improve the institutional environment. Further, differentiated environmental policies and measures should be considered for different provinces to maximize the emission reduction potential.
•We consider the spatial correlations of carbon emissions in neighboring provinces.•The impacts of environmental regulation on carbon emissions are examined.•Fiscal decentralization is not beneficial to environmental policy implementation.•The effects of fiscal decentralization vary greatly among different regions.
A strategy that informs on countries' potential losses due to lack of climate action may facilitate global climate governance. Here, we quantify a distribution of mitigation effort whereby each ...country is economically better off than under current climate pledges. This effort-sharing optimizing approach applied to a 1.5 °C and 2 °C global warming threshold suggests self-preservation emissions trajectories to inform NDCs enhancement and long-term strategies. Results show that following the current emissions reduction efforts, the whole world would experience a washout of benefit, amounting to almost 126.68-616.12 trillion dollars until 2100 compared to 1.5 °C or well below 2 °C commensurate action. If countries are even unable to implement their current NDCs, the whole world would lose more benefit, almost 149.78-791.98 trillion dollars until 2100. On the contrary, all countries will be able to have a significant positive cumulative net income before 2100 if they follow the self-preservation strategy.
Effective international cooperation is an important measure to mitigate climate change. The purpose of this study is to clarify the research progress in the field of cooperation on emission ...reduction, identify the influential authors and articles, and reveal the main research topics. Based on the bibliometric method and the Web of Science database, this study analyzes the literature in the field of cooperation on emission reduction. The results show that the publications in this field have increased significantly over the past decade, with the USA and China are the most influential countries. Keyword co-occurrence and frequency analysis show that the most important research topics are as follows: burden-sharing and equity, the stability of the climate coalition and international environmental agreements, technology transfer and climate finance, the linkage of carbon markets, and the response to noncooperation behavior. The main methods involved are game theory model, integrated assessment models, and computable general equilibrium model. Equitable distribution of mitigation responsibilities is the basis for cooperation on carbon reduction. Specific rulebooks for carbon market linkage is the key to its successful implementation. This study helps researchers to clarify the current research status in the field of cooperation on emission reduction and provide valuable information for future research.
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•A bibliometric review of cooperation on climate mitigation was conducted.•Highly cited articles and references are discussed to explore the research theme.•Collaboration networks between countries are shown with the visualization tools.•The research hotspots are discussed based on the keywords co-occurrence analysis.
The perceived inability of climate change mitigation goals alone to mobilize sufficient climate change mitigation efforts has, among other factors, led to growing research on the co-benefits of ...reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This study conducts a systematic review (SR) of the literature on the co-benefits of mitigating GHG emissions resulting in 1554 papers. We analyze these papers using bibliometric analysis, including a keyword co-occurrence analysis. We then iteratively develop and present a typology of co-benefits, mitigation sectors, geographic scope, and methods based on the manual double coding of the papers resulting from the SR. We find that the co-benefits from GHG mitigation that have received the largest attention of researchers are impacts on ecosystems, economic activity, health, air pollution, and resource efficiency. The co-benefits that have received the least attention include the impacts on conflict and disaster resilience, poverty alleviation (or exacerbation), energy security, technological spillovers and innovation, and food security. Most research has investigated co-benefits from GHG mitigation in the agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU), electricity, transport, and residential sectors, with the industrial sector being the subject of significantly less research. The largest number of co-benefits publications provide analysis at a global level, with relatively few studies providing local (city) level analysis or studying co-benefits in Oceanian or African contexts. Finally, science and engineering methods, in contrast to economic or social science methods, are the methods most commonly employed in co-benefits papers. We conclude that given the potential mobilizing power of understudied co-benefits (e.g. poverty alleviation) and local impacts, the magnitude of GHG emissions from the industrial sector, and the fact that Africa and South America are likely to be severely affected by climate change, there is an opportunity for the research community to fill these gaps.
A power system dominated by renewable energy is one of the key measures for achieving carbon neutrality. Demand response (DR) is a promising flexible resource for alleviating the supply-demand ...matching of high-proportion renewable energy systems. With the application of modern technologies, the potential for residential DR is growing. Electricity price is the key to improving residential DR capacity. However, existing dynamic pricing programs may fail to motivate end-users to adjust demand based on fluctuations in wind and photovoltaic (PV) output. This study proposes a dynamic pricing model that combines the fluctuation characteristics of residential electricity demand and wind and PV output, and utilizes bi-level optimization to coordinately dispatch the flexible loads. A case study of smart residential community consisting of 200 households shows that dynamic pricing incentivizes residential consumers to shift flexible loads from morning and evening to noon or early morning, which effectively improves the degree of matching between wind and PV output and residential electricity demand. Moreover, bi-level optimization effectively alleviates the potential rebound peak caused by large-scale residential participation in DR and achieves a relatively flat net grid demand profile. Furthermore, the dynamic pricing can incentivize residential consumers to participate in DR by reducing electricity bills.
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•Building a dynamic pricing model for characterizing renewable energy fluctuation.•Proposing a bi-level optimization method for residential demand response.•Demand response reduces the supply-demand imbalances of renewable energy.•Electricity bills for residential customers are saved.
Regional trade not only promotes economic growth but also induces inter-regional transfer of carbon emissions. To realistically evaluate the effect of regional trade on carbon emissions, this study ...investigates the impact of carbon intensity heterogeneity in bilateral trade sectors on regional carbon emissions based on the emission responsibility allotment principle, establishing a credit and penalty mechanism. The key points for improvement in carbon efficiency are identified from regional and sectoral perspectives to promote carbon emission reduction through bilateral trade adjustment. The results demonstrate superior trade performance in developed regions than that in less developed regions, as the former has reduced emissions (44 Mt) and emissions by the latter have increased (54 Mt). From the perspective of emission reduction, Jiangsu should increase trade with Hubei and reduce trade with Guangdong. At the sectoral level, Jilin should increase trade in the scientific research sector (9 Mt), while Jiangsu should increase trade in the construction sector (8 Mt). Moreover, the key point of sectoral carbon efficiency improvement in each region are identified using sensitivity analysis. By analyzing the impact of bilateral trade on regional carbon emission from the heterogeneity of carbon intensity in China's inter-provincial trade sector, this study provides support for strategic policymaking and collaborative regional emissions reduction to promote the advancement of China's carbon neutralization goals.
•Considers the difference in sectoral carbon intensity between the trade partners.•Analyzes the impact of China's interprovincial trade on carbon emissions.•Trade performance of developed regions is better than the underdeveloped regions.•Identifies the key point of carbon efficiency improvement in different regions.
As one of the most cost-effective means of emission reduction, carbon tax has attracted considerable attention from economists and international organizations and has led to a large number of related ...research. Using the bibliometric method, this paper characterizes the carbon tax literature from 1989 to 2014 based on the Network Database Platform of Web of Science. The results indicate that the USA occupies a leading position in the carbon tax field. The Vrije University Amsterdam, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University were the most productive research institutes. Energy Policy (143) has been the most productive journal followed by Energy Economics (44) and Energy (38). In general, the cooperation of authors, institutes and nations are continuing to strengthen; however, the growth rate at the author level was significantly higher than the others. In addition, the current key research areas in the carbon tax field based on Co-Keyword Analysis are as follows: climate change and relevant policy, carbon emissions trading, socio-economic effects of carbon tax, renewable energy, endogenous technological change and carbon capture and storage. The results of this paper will help researchers grasp the current research in the carbon tax field but also provide a supporting role for future work.
Although demand response (DR) is an important means for solving the stability and reliability challenges of renewable energy (RE) power systems, it remains unclear how DR can be widely applied in ...industrial enterprises, particularly in areas with a high proportional RE system and industrial energy consumption that do not apply any DR programs. The objective of this study is to understand the influencing factors of industrial enterprises' willingness to participate (WTP) in DR in these areas, including one economic factor and three noneconomic factors. This study performs a questionnaire survey in Qinghai, and a total of 556 industrial enterprises completed valid questionnaires, these data are empirically analyzed through Structural Equation Model. The results demonstrate enterprises' DR awareness degree is the most significant predictors of the WTP in DR. Meanwhile, enterprises' electricity consumption level also had a significant impact on the WTP in DR rather than enterprises' potential DR capabilities and the expected minimum compensation. Finally, the study suggests feasible recommendations, such as increasing enterprises' ability of analyzing potential DR, directly encouraging enterprises to participate in DR, designing compensation standards and adopting differentiated DR according to enterprises’ actual DR potential.
•Distributional effects of carbon tax within both household and economic sectors are examined.•The effects of ex-ante and ex-post preferential measures are categorized and compared.•We analyze the ...progress and shortcomings of existing studies.•We put forward implications for policy-making and future research.
The carbon tax is a frequently discussed economic instrument for carbon emissions mitigation and prevention of global climate change. However, a range of issues may emerge when introducing a carbon tax; among these issues, the distributional impact has been frequently highlighted as an obstacle to the public acceptance of such a mitigation policy. This literature review focuses specifically on the distributional effects of carbon taxes and contributes to existing studies by providing a classification and discussion on how to comprehensively assess distributional impacts and what measures can be taken to mitigate the potential adverse distributional impact. We confirm that a pure carbon tax without revenue recycling in developed economies tends to be regressive, i.e. lower income households being more affected, while our research does not support the perception that it reveals progressivity in developing countries. In terms of its effects on economic sectors, we find that sectors with higher energy intensity are more affected by a uniform carbon tax, while preferential measures to protect these industries face a trade-off between environmental effectiveness and economic growth. We also stress that different designs for carbon tax mechanisms play a key role in affecting the distributional impacts and impacts in other policy arenas, indicating that trade-offs between efficiency and equity always exist when designing a carbon tax. This study may help to identify the shortcomings of existing designs and puts forward practical implications for future research; moreover, it offers valuable information to help policy-makers to understand the trade-off between equity and efficiency when designing a carbon tax.
This study focuses on the international competitiveness effects of levying a carbon tax in China. Based on a computable general equilibrium model, this study analysed the impacts of a carbon tax on ...different sectors from the aspect of changes in market shares of domestic producers in the domestic markets and changes in exports. The effects of different measures, including domestic tax cuts and border tax adjustments, in alleviating the unfavourable competitiveness impacts were also analysed and compared, as were the impacts of different tax schemes on the macro-economy, sectoral profits and carbon emissions. The results show that without any complementary measures, a carbon tax would negatively shock the domestic market shares and exports of almost all tradable sectors and the profits of almost all sectors. As for cushioning the unfavourable effects, the domestic tax cuts are able to ease the negative impacts on the domestic market shares and exports of almost all tradable sectors. Moreover, the unfavourable impacts of domestic tax cuts on both the macro-economy and the sectoral profits are obviously smaller than those of the other schemes, regardless of the use of the same tax rate or emission reduction amount. Among the border tax adjustment measures, the best performance in general corresponds to the measure purely implementing adjustments on exports.
•The competitiveness effects of levying a carbon tax in China are analyzed.•Effects of domestic tax cuts and border tax adjustments (BTAs) are compared.•Domestic tax cuts better protect the overall economy and sectoral profits.•The best BTA measure is the one purely implemented on the export-side.
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