Sensitivity Analysis on Influence Factors of Comprehensive Energy Planning for Low Carbon City in China

The world is at a pivotal crossroad in energy choices. There is a strong sense that our use of energy must be more sustainable. Moreover, many also broadly agree that a way must be found to rely increasingly on lower carbon energy sources. However, no single or clear solution exists on the means to carry out such a shift at either a national or international level. Traditional energy planning (when done) has revolved around limited cost projections that often fail to take longer term evidence and interactions of a wider set of factors into account. The good news is that evidence does exist on such change in case studies of different nations shifting toward low-carbon energy approaches. In fact, such shifts can occur quite quickly at times, alongside industrial and societal advance, innovation, and policy learning. These types of insights will be important for informing energy debates and decision-making going forward. Low Carbon Energy Transitions: Turning Points in National Policy and Innovation takes an in-depth look at four energy transitions that have occurred since the global oil crisis of 1973: Brazilian biofuels, Danish wind power, French nuclear power, and Icelandic geothermal energy. With these cases, Dr. Araújo argues that significant nationwide shifts to low-carbon energy can occur in under fifteen years, and that technological complexity is not necessarily a major impediment to such shifts. Dr. Araújo draws on more than five years of research, and interviews with over 120 different scientists, government workers, academics, and members of civil society in completing this study. Low Carbon Energy Transitions is written for for professionals in energy, the environment and policy as well as for students and citizens who are interested in critical decisions about energy sustainability. Technology briefings are provided for each of the major technologies in this book, so that scientific and non-scientific readers can engage in more even discussions about the choices that are involved.

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Low-carbon city communication: Integrated strategies for urban and rural municipalities in Thailand

Chinese Journal of Population Resources and Environment ◽

10.1016/j.cjpre.2021.04.025 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sukanya Sereenonchai ◽

Noppol Arunrat ◽

Thomas Neal Stewart

Keyword(s):

Low Carbon ◽

Integrated Strategies ◽

Rural Municipalities ◽

Low Carbon City

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Assessing CO2 Emissions from Passenger Transport with the Mixed-Use Development Model in Shenzhen International Low-Carbon City

Land ◽

10.3390/land10020137 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 137

Author(s):

Xianchun Tan ◽

Tangqi Tu ◽

Baihe Gu ◽

Yuan Zeng ◽

Tianhang Huang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Co2 Emissions ◽

Travel Demand ◽

Development Model ◽

Low Carbon ◽

Passenger Transport ◽

Transport Accessibility ◽

Mixed Use ◽

Mixed Land Use ◽

Low Carbon City

Assessing transport CO2 emissions is important in the development of low-carbon strategies, but studies based on mixed land use are rare. This study assessed CO2 emissions from passenger transport in traffic analysis zones (TAZs) at the community level, based on a combination of the mixed-use development model and the vehicle emission calculation model. Based on mixed land use and transport accessibility, the mixed-use development model was adopted to estimate travel demand, including travel modes and distances. As a leading low-carbon city project of international cooperation in China, Shenzhen International Low-Carbon City Core Area was chosen as a case study. The results clearly illustrate travel demand and CO2 emissions of different travel modes between communities and show that car trips account for the vast majority of emissions in all types of travel modes in each community. Spatial emission differences are prominently associated with inadequately mixed land use layouts and unbalanced transport accessibility. The findings demonstrate the significance of the mixed land use and associated job-housing balance in reducing passenger CO2 emissions from passenger transport, especially in per capita emissions. Policy implications are given based on the results to facilitate sophisticated transport emission control at a finer spatial scale. This new framework can be used for assessing the impacts of urban planning on transport emissions to promote sustainable urbanization in developing countries.

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Does the Low-Carbon City Pilot Policy Promote Green Technology Innovation? Based on Green Patent Data of Chinese A-Share Listed Companies

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18073695 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (7) ◽

pp. 3695

Author(s):

Jintao Ma ◽

Qiuguang Hu ◽

Weiteng Shen ◽

Xinyi Wei

Keyword(s):

Technological Innovation ◽

Technology Innovation ◽

Objective Assessment ◽

Green Technology ◽

Low Carbon ◽

Corporate Financing ◽

Multiple Dimensions ◽

Low Carbon City ◽

The Impact ◽

A Share

To cope with climate change and achieve sustainable development, low-carbon city pilot policies have been implemented. An objective assessment of the performance of these policies facilitates not only the implementation of relevant work in pilot areas, but also the further promotion of these policies. This study uses A-share listed enterprises from 2005 to 2019 and creates a multi-period difference-in-differences model to explore the impact of low-carbon city pilot policies on corporate green technology innovation from multiple dimensions. Results show that (1) low-carbon city pilot policies stimulates the green technological innovation of enterprises as manifested in their application of green invention patents; (2) the introduction of pilot policies is highly conducive to green technological innovation in eastern cities and enterprises in high-carbon emission industries; and (3) tax incentives and government subsidies are important fiscal and taxation tools that play the role of pilot policies in low-carbon cities. By alleviating corporate financing constraints, these policies effectively promote the green technological innovation of enterprises. This study expands the research on the performance of low-carbon city pilot policies and provides data support for a follow-up implementation and promotion of policies from the micro perspective at the enterprise level.

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What Motivates Local Sustainability Policy Action in China? The Case of Low-Carbon City Pilot Program

Urban Affairs Review ◽

10.1177/1078087421995241 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 107808742199524

Author(s):

Zhilin Liu ◽

Jie Wang ◽

Craig W. Thomas

Keyword(s):

Urban Governance ◽

Empirical Studies ◽

Pilot Program ◽

Low Carbon ◽

Policy Action ◽

Industrial Growth ◽

Horizontal Competition ◽

Local Sustainability ◽

Low Carbon City ◽

Sustainability Policy

An increasing volume of literature has sought to identify factors that motivate cities to pursue sustainability and adopt climate policies. However, most empirical studies were done in Western countries, where relatively high local autonomy and low pressure on industrial growth create conditions for spontaneous policy innovations in sustainability. This paper uses China’s Low-Carbon City Pilot Program as a case to investigate motivations for local sustainability actions in an authoritarian context. Our event history analyses confirm the effects of multi-level governance on local sustainability initiatives in China, particularly horizontal competition across jurisdictions, priorities and preferences of upper-level authorities, as well as local determinants including leadership, capacity, politics, and environmental stress. The findings contribute to the comparative urban governance scholarship by highlighting the unique feature of “experimentation under hierarchy” in shaping urban sustainability policymaking in China.

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