scholarly journals Do Fossil-Fuel Price Distortions Impact the Low-Carbon Transition in China’s Energy Intensive Industries?

2022 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaolei Wang ◽  
Shuang Liang ◽  
Hui Wang ◽  
Shaohua Huang ◽  
Binbin Liao

Energy intensive industries (EIIs) in China are predominantly reliant on fossil fuels. Consequently, such high fossil fuel dependency has amplified carbon emission levels and blocked the low-carbon transition. It is inappropriate to discuss the solution of the dependency before investigating fossil-fuel price distortion and its impact on the industrial energy consumption. Therefore, this paper built a dynamic trans-log cost function model based on provincial panel data of China’s Ells between 2004 and 2016, to investigate inter-fuel substitution effects caused by own price elasticities and cross price elasticities, and analyzed the impact of fossil-fuel price distortions on low-carbon transition. The level of price distortions in coal, gasoline and diesel was evaluated, based on which the CO2 mitigation potentials in China’s EIIs were estimated. Results show that: 1) in each EII sector, the own price elasticities of all fuels were negative while the cross price elasticities among coal, oil and electricity were positive, suggesting substitution effect exists; 2) the average level of price distortions in coal, gasoline and diesel is 7.48, 11.1 and 32.19%, respectively, which means the prices of coal tend to be more market- oriented than the other two fuels; 3) removing coal price distortions can potentially reduce CO2 emissions in China’s EIIs by 905.78 million tons, while the effects of removing oil price distortions were uncertain, unless the substitution of coal for oil was restrained. Therefore, there is still much room for improvement in China’s fossil-fuel market reform. Possible policies are required to improve the production in EIIs and the low-carbon transition by adopting cleaner energy resources to substitute fossil-fuels.

Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 1046
Author(s):  
Jenna Ruokonen ◽  
Harri Nieminen ◽  
Ahmed Rufai Dahiru ◽  
Arto Laari ◽  
Tuomas Koiranen ◽  
...  

The ambitious CO2 emission reduction targets for the transport sector set in the Paris Climate Agreement require low-carbon energy solutions that can be commissioned rapidly. The production of gasoline, kerosene, and diesel from renewable methanol using methanol-to-olefins (MTO) and Mobil’s Olefins to Gasoline and Distillate (MOGD) syntheses was investigated in this study via process simulation and economic analysis. The current work presents a process simulation model comprising liquid fuel production and heat integration. According to the economic analysis, the total cost of production was found to be 3409 €/tfuels (273 €/MWhLHV), corresponding to a renewable methanol price of 963 €/t (174 €/MWhLHV). The calculated fuel price is considerably higher than the current cost of fossil fuels and biofuel blending components. The price of renewable methanol, which is largely dictated by the cost of electrolytic hydrogen and renewable electricity, was found to be the most significant factor affecting the profitability of the MTO-MOGD plant. To reduce the price of renewable fuels and make them economically viable, it is recommended that the EU’s sustainable transport policies are enacted to allow flexible and practical solutions to reduce transport-related emissions within the member states.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alireza Aslani ◽  
Maryam Hamlehdar ◽  
Reza Saeedi

Energy has a strategic role in the social and economic development of the countries all over the world. Due to the high dependency on fossil fuels, fluctuations in prices and supply have macro/micro-economics effects for both energy exporters and importers. Therefore, understanding economic stability based on energy market changes is an important subject for policy makers and researchers. Norway, as a fossil fuel export country, is a good choice for the analysis of the relationships between the economics robustness and fossil fuel economics fluctuations. While the country is one of the pioneers in the field of sustainable energy utilization, they have tried to provide a robust economic situation for the oil exports revenues. In this article, the effects of energy changes on the economy are investigated in Norway. In this regard, first, the impact of oil price on macro-economic parameters is discussed. Afterwards, the main issues related to the energy economics including resilience of the energy sector, energy policies, economics analysis of the energy sector, and the electricity markets are discussed.


2015 ◽  
Vol 06 (02) ◽  
pp. 1550008 ◽  
Author(s):  
CÉLINE GUIVARCH ◽  
STÉPHANIE MONJON ◽  
JULIE ROZENBERG ◽  
ADRIEN VOGT-SCHILB

Energy security improvement is often presented as a co-benefit of climate policies. This paper evaluates this claim. It investigates whether climate policy would improve energy security, while accounting for the difficulties entailed by the many-faceted nature of the concept and the large uncertainties on the determinants of future energy systems. A multi-dimension analysis grid is used to capture the energy security concept, and a database of scenarios allows us to explore the uncertainty space. The results, focusing on Europe, reveal there is no unequivocal effect of climate policy on all the perspectives of energy security. Moreover, time significantly matters: the impact of climate policies is mixed in the short term and globally good in the medium term. In the long term, there is a risk of degradation of the energy security. Lastly, we examine the robustness of our results to uncertainties on drivers of economic growth, availability of fossil fuels and the potentials and low-carbon technologies, and find that they are sensitive mainly to fossil fuels availability, low carbon technologies in the energy sector and improvements in energy efficiency.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qixiang Cai ◽  
Ning Zeng ◽  
Fang Zhao ◽  
Pengfei Han ◽  
Di Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract BackgroundThe CO2 released by humans and livestock through digestion and decomposition is an important part of the urban carbon cycle. But this part is reraly condidarded in the stuties of city carbon budget since its annual magnitude is lower than that of fossil fuel emissions within the boundaries of cities. However, human and livestock respiration may be substantial compared to fossil fuel emissions in areas with high population density such as Manhattan or Beijing. High-resolution datasets of CO2 release from respiration also have rarely been reported on a global scale or in cities globally. Here, we estimate the CO2 released by human and livestock respiration at global and large city scales and then compare it with the carbon emissions inventory from fossil fuels in 14 cities worldwide.ResultsThe results show that the total human and livestock respiration is up to 38.1% of fossil fuel emissions for Delhi among the studied cities. The proportion could be larger than 10% in cities of Sao Paulo, Cape Town and Tokyo. In other cities, it is raletivily small with a proportion around 5%, while Washington DC has the least proportion in 2.8%. In addition, almost 90% of respiratory carbon comes from urban areas in most cities, while up to one-third comes from suburban areas in Beijing on account of the siginificant livestock production.ConclusionThe results suggest that the respiration of humans and livestock represents a significant CO2 source in some cities and is nonnegligible for city carbon budget analysis and carbon monitoring.


Author(s):  
Coşkun Karaca ◽  
M. Mustafa Erdoğdu

Although energy is indispensable for the provision of basic human needs and economic growth, it simultaneously threatens the basic elements of life when its production and usage is based on fossil fuels. Scientific evidence proves that high carbon emission is the main reason behind climate change. Therefore, producing energy from more sustainable type of energies has great importance not only to ensure preservation of a clean and livable environment for future generations, but also to reduce high dependence on fossil fuels for the production of energy. The latter issue is particularly important for emerging nations such as Turkey, which do not possess large fossil fuel reserves. Currently, Turkey is in a position to meet less than one third of its energy need domestically. Increasing the share of energy produced from biomass would help to create a low-carbon economy and cleaner environment, and increase the security of the energy supply and reduce dependence on imported oil and gas. The present study focuses on the level of Turkey's biomass energy potential and the way in which to make efficient use of this potential. The chapter forwards two main questions: (1) To what extent can the quality of environment be improved via biomass energy? (2) What changes occur in economic variables such as foreign trade, employment, and balance of payments when fossil fuel is substituted with biomass energy?


2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 484-503 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul J. Burke

AbstractThis paper uses data for 134 countries for the period 1960–2010 to document an energy ladder that nations ascend as their economies develop. On average, economic development results in an overall substitution from the use of biomass to energy sourced from fossil fuels, and then increasingly towards nuclear power and certain low-carbon modern renewables such as wind power. The process results in the carbon intensity of energy evolving in an inverse-U manner as per capita incomes increase. Fossil fuel-poor countries climb more quickly to the low-carbon upper rungs of the national-level energy ladder and so typically experience larger reductions in the carbon intensity of energy as they develop. Leapfrogging to low-carbon energy sources on the upper rungs of the national-level energy ladder is one route via which developing countries can reduce the magnitudes of their expected upswings in carbon dioxide emissions.


Resources ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoine Boubault ◽  
Nadia Maïzi

Achieving a “carbon neutral” world by 2100 or earlier in a context of economic growth implies a drastic and profound transformation of the way energy is supplied and consumed in our societies. In this paper, we use life-cycle inventories of electricity-generating technologies and an integrated assessment model (TIMES Integrated Assessment Model) to project the global raw material requirements in two scenarios: a second shared socioeconomic pathway baseline, and a 2 °C scenario by 2100. Material usage reported in the life-cycle inventories is distributed into three phases, namely construction, operation, and decommissioning. Material supply dynamics and the impact of the 2 °C warming limit are quantified for three raw fossil fuels and forty-eight metallic and nonmetallic mineral resources. Depending on the time horizon, graphite, sand, sulfur, borates, aluminum, chromium, nickel, silver, gold, rare earth elements or their substitutes could face a sharp increase in usage as a result of a massive installation of low-carbon technologies. Ignoring nonfuel resource availability and value in deep decarbonation, circular economy, or decoupling scenarios can potentially generate misleading, contradictory, or unachievable climate policies.


2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 292-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Torok ◽  
Arpad Torok ◽  
Florian Heinitz

Abstract This contribution aims to examine the relationship between the transport sector and the macroeconomy, particularly in fossil energy use, capital and labour relations. The authors have investigated the transport related fossil fuel consumption 2003 -2010 in a macroeconomic context in Hungary and Germany. The Cobb-Douglas type of production function could be justified empirically, while originating from the general CES (Constant Elasticity of Substitution) production function. Furthermore, as a policy implication, the results suggest that a solution for the for the reduction of anthropogenic CO2 driven by the combustion of fossil fuels presupposes technological innovation to reach emission reduction targets. Other measures, such as increasing the fossil fuel price by levying taxes, would consequently lead to an undesirable GDP decline.


Author(s):  
Shubham P ◽  
Shubham W ◽  
Chetan R ◽  
Rohit S

Rapid depletion of fossil fuels, increasing fossil-fuel price, carbon price, and the quest of low carbon fuel for cleaner environment – these are the reason researchers are looking for alternatives of fossil fuels. Biodiesel is a gifted substitute as an alternative fuel has gained significant attention due to the predicted littleness of conventional fuels and environmental concern. The utilization of liquid fuels such as biodiesel produced from Calophyllum inophyllum oil by transesterification process represents one of the most promising options for the use of conventional fossil fuels. The Calophyllum inophyllum oil is converted into Calophyllum inophyllum methyl ester known as biodiesel processed in the presence of homogeneous acid catalyst. The physical properties such as Kinematic viscosity, Density, Calorific Value, Cetane number, Fire point and Flash point were found out for Calophyllum inophyllum methyl ester at different blends.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-218
Author(s):  
Abdul Majeed Shar

Climate change is one of the most challenging issues in Pakistan and has affected humans in every sphere of life. Pakistan is ranked on 8th in the world among the countries emitting Greenhouse gases (GHG). Such an extensive emission of GHG is due to the growing number of industrial units and urban centres consuming fossil fuels that emit GHG at a large scale. Mitigating the GHG emission indeed is a challenge for Pakistan. This manuscript highlights the GHG emission status and provides recommendations with suitable alternatives to mitigate the emission. Simultaneously, the study explores the impact of switching over the fuels from conventional fossil fuels to unconventional natural gas as a source of energy for domestic use, transportations and industrial sectors to mitigate the GHG emission. Natural gas is considered as green fuel due to the low carbon emission ratio as other fuels e.g. coal and oil. If Pakistan becomes successful in exploring and exploiting the indigenous untapped natural gas resources, that will eventually support in reducing the GHG emissions. This is only possible by making new natural gas reservoir discoveries. Discovering new gas reservoirs from unconventional resources is also very challenging and requires investment and modification in existing energy policies. In addition, the government should encourage the Exploration Production (EP) companies to exploit the hidden natural gas potential that will assist in both alleviating the energy deficit and reducing the GHG emission. The findings of the present study analysis have substantial implications regarding GHG mitigation, energy transition, and economic development.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document