scholarly journals Major Economies: Black Energy Intensity and Policy Implications

Author(s):  
Peter Yang
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 4591 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongyun Han ◽  
Shu Wu

China’s agricultural structure has undergone significant changes for the past four decades, mainly presenting as the fall of sown proportion of grain crops and the rise of vegetables, as has its energy consumption. Employing the panel data on 30 provinces during 1991–2016, this paper empirically explores the impact of agricultural structure changes (ASC) on the energy intensity of agricultural production (EIAP), direct energy intensity of agricultural production (DEIAP) and indirect energy intensity of agricultural production (IEIAP) in China. Besides, the regional heterogeneity of such impact is examined. The results show that: (1) ASC increases EIAP and IEIAP significantly, while ASC decreases DEIAP, which is explained by the structural effect and different planting modes of different crops; (2) the impact in the three administrative regions is similar to national situation, except the impact of ASC on DEIAP in the West Region, which is explained by regional differences of vegetable mechanization; (3) the result of the six vegetable production regions reveals greater regional heterogeneity, and this is attributed to the scale economy effect and the incremental effect of vegetable mechanization; and (4) fuel price, income, agricultural labor, old dependency ratio, and fiscal expenditure have different but significant impacts on EIAP, DEIAP, and IEIAP. Finally, some policy implications are given.


Author(s):  
Amanda D. Cuellar ◽  
Michael E. Webber

In this work we estimate the amount of energy required to produce the food consumed in the United States in 2002 and 2007. Data from government sources and the scientific literature were used to calculate the energy intensity of food production from agriculture, transportation, manufacturing, food sales, storage and preparation. Most data were from 2002; consequently we scaled all data from other years to 2002 by using ratios of total energy consumption in 2002 to total energy consumption in the year data were reported. We concluded that food production required at least 7,880±733 trillion BTU in 2002 and 8,080±752 trillion BTU of energy in 2007, over a third of which came from food handling in homes, restaurants and grocery stores. The energy used to produce food represents approximately 8% of energy consumption. Our estimate is for the energy required to produce the food consumed in the United States and takes into account food imports and exports. To account for net food exports in the agriculture sector we calculated values for the energy intensity of ten food categories and then used the mass of domestic food consumption in each category to calculate the energy embedded in the food consumed in the United States. The amount of energy required to produce the food consumed in the United States has policy implications because it is a substantial fraction of total energy consumption and is responsible for a commensurate amount of greenhouse gas emissions. There are many opportunities for decreasing the energy intensity of food production at all steps of the food system. Education of the public and policy measures that promote energy efficiency in the food sector have the potential for decreasing food waste and the energy intensity of the food system.


2014 ◽  
Vol 962-965 ◽  
pp. 1293-1302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Ouyang ◽  
Zhen Hua Feng ◽  
Qing Hua Bi

The calculation methodology of transport carbon emissions, based on the methodology recommended by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the energy consumption statistics of provincial transport industry in China, is proposed. By using the methodology, the energy consumption and carbon emissions of highway, waterway and urban passenger transport from 2005 to 2012 of Jiangsu Province are calculated and evaluated. And the developing trends and main features from the perspectives of the total amount of transport energy consumption and carbon emissions, the proportional of both various energy types and various transport modes in the energy consumption, the energy intensity and carbon dioxide intensity, are systematically analyzed. Finally, some policy implications of low-carbon transport development were conclusively put forward, including reducing energy intensity and carbon intensity as the core focus, the highway transport as the breakthrough point, optimizing the integrated transport system structure and developing of public transport in priority as the strategic orientation, developing clean and low-carbon energy as an important way, etc. The research methodology and results can provide references for decision-making and management of the relevant provinces and cities on low-carbon transport development.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1943003 ◽  
Author(s):  
HUAPING SUN ◽  
MUHAMMAD IKRAM ◽  
MUHAMMAD MOHSIN ◽  
QAISER ABBAS

Assessment of energy and environmental issues has received a special focus due to global warming and climate vulnerabilities. Energy, environment and economic development simultaneously yielded a combined effect, which is favorable from the economic point of view while unfavorable for environmental aspects. It is necessary to measure the energy, economic and environmental performance with appropriate methods. Therefore, this study measures the energy security and environmental efficiency. Data used in this study were collected from the official website of International Energy Agency (IEA), British Petroleum (BP) and World Bank. We employ a non-radial DEA technology for assessing energy and environmental efficiency for OECD countries. Results reveal that the values of energy intensity range from 0.93 to 0.30, while GHG emission per capita values range from 24.61 to 5.28. As far as energy efficiency is concerned, Iceland and Greece have the highest value (0.99) of energy efficiency, whereas Ireland has the lowest value (0.34) of energy efficiency. Further analysis shows that Austria, Australia, Portugal and Spain have values between 0.70 and 0.80 for energy intensity, whereas UK, Sweden, Germany and the USA have values of energy intensity, between 0.40 and 0.50. The study proposes some valuable policy implications for policy and decision-makers to make the environment more sustainable.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (17) ◽  
pp. 4753 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neagu

The aim of the paper is to apply the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) model in order to explore the link between economic complexity index (ECI) and carbon emissions, in 25 selected European Union (EU) countries from 1995–2017. The study examines a cointegrating polynomial regression (CPR) for a panel data framework as well as for simple time series of individual countries. In the model is also included the variable ‘energy intensity’ as main determinant of carbon emissions. Depending on economic complexity, the CO2 emissions pattern was found to exhibit an inverted U-shaped curve: in the initial phase, pollution increases when countries augment the complexity of the products they export using and after a turning point the rise of economic complexity suppress the pollutant emissions. The panel cointegration test indicates a long-run relationship between economic complexity, energy intensity and carbon emissions. It was also found that a rise of 10% of energy intensity would lead to a 3.9% increase in CO2 emissions. The quadratic model incorporating ECI is validated for the whole panel as well as for six countries (Belgium, France, Italy, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom). The graphical representation of the EKC in these countries is discussed. Policy implications are also included.


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